This quarter update is a little late because it appears I quit blogging in September.....
Drum roll please.....
Speech therapy is behind us! It was a long hard road but Sam is done and we couldn't be prouder of him.
As far a school there isn't much to talk about. We have a nice rhythm to our day. Big Sis' leaves for collegeat 9am and we head upstairs to do school work. Sam just sits at the table and gets to work.
Currently for Sam....
Math- Lesson 13 of MUS Beta. Math remains easy for Sam.
MFW 1--currently on lesson 111. This has been such a huge hit! Sam enjoys reading the Bible Reader. He does very well with all the lessons. He calls the writing portion the "hardest part of school" but he is doing well. A bonus for me is that it is completely open and go so very little planning for me.
Poetry/Memorization- IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry is another huge hit. Sam has memorized ten poems.
We did drop All About Spelling again but only because we were covering spelling with the phonics instruction in MFW 1. We will pick it back up when we complete the phonics with MFW 1 in the next few weeks.
The only minor change is that we are no longer reading a different selection on each day instead we pick a title and read it until it is complete.
We did organize our material using a modified workbox. I'm using these Sterilite drawers to organize our materials. Using the workbox system has completely eliminated all the "how much more" comments from Sam.
Currently for Charlotte...
In addition to all the activities that we do during the preschool years, we spend each day working with MFW Preschool materials and reading a selection from AO Year 0. She also participates in the books I'm reading aloud with Sam and listens in on his phonics lessons.
She has picked up quite a bit of phonics doing our very informal preschool. She knows many of the phonograms and can read .....a little. She is not going to need to work quite as hard as Sam with learning to read.
Plan for Winter Quarter...
---- Get ready to start MFW Adventures!
-----Do a quick review of All About Spelling book 1 and then start book 2.
-----Resist the urge to start MFW K with Charlotte before her 5th birthday. It does help that I lent it too a friend and do not anticipate having it returned until next fall!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Sam the Recruiter
Every once in a while you get a glance of the person that your child is becoming. I got such a glance last week during a Cub Scout Rally. I really didn't have a clue what I signed us up for but we headed to the school. Sam was the only Scout that showed up to help recruit 30 boys and entertain their siblings. He was amazing. Sam is strong in interpersonal skills there is little doubt about that- he can make a friend in any setting with ease. I just didn't realize how intuitive he was to other's needs. He automatically changed his emphasis on scouting to meet the desires of the different age and abilities of the boys that he spoke with. While talking to older boys he spoke of camping during the winter, shooting off rockets, and bb guns. When talking with the younger boys he emphasized the family aspect of scouting and how much fun it was do things with your dad. There were several special needs boys and he intuitively knew that they wanted to know that they were going to get to participate just like everybody else. Is is going to be such a joy to watch this young person grow to a man!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Summer 2009
Wow! Where has the summer gone?
Big Sis graduated and starts college .....gulp.....tomorrow. Big Brother has moved out and is ready to join the Navy. We painted and re-arranged rooms so the Big Sis has her own study/sitting room adjacent to her bedroom. This means that we once again have a dedicated schoolroom/playroom. Since we didn't have enough going on this summer we also decided to rip up the old floor and lay down the new. I guess it is not a surprise that we only got about 6 weeks of school done this season!.
Our basic schedule hasn't changed much. Charlotte went through a phrase this summer where she did not want to participate in the morning activities so instead we did lots of informal activities throughout the day.
Starting around 9am with Sam we did MFW 1 , MUS, IEW Poetry, Nature Reader, Speech work, Song School Latin and our alternated readings
M- Geography ( Seabird)
T- History(D'Auliare Selection)
Th- Burgess( Birds)
Sam is reading his Bible reader. He has a selection of books that he can read all by himself and he spends about 30min each day reading all by himself. I have been so impressed with MFW 1 reading instructions. It is everything that I have been trying to put together on my own with our CM reading instructions. It is so awesome to just open the book and have the lesson planned out for us.....not too long....not too short...not too many manipulative......just perfect.
Sam has memorized 4 poems from IEW Poetry. The poems are interesting enough that he is motivated to learn them. He enjoys impressing friends and family with his poems and it is also good speech practice.
We've been doing SSL just for fun. If I find a Song School Spanish or its equivalent we are going to try it. We would have more use for Spanish but it never made it into our schedule this past year.
It's been an interesting summer but we are looking for a cooler, less hectic Autumn!
Big Sis graduated and starts college .....gulp.....tomorrow. Big Brother has moved out and is ready to join the Navy. We painted and re-arranged rooms so the Big Sis has her own study/sitting room adjacent to her bedroom. This means that we once again have a dedicated schoolroom/playroom. Since we didn't have enough going on this summer we also decided to rip up the old floor and lay down the new. I guess it is not a surprise that we only got about 6 weeks of school done this season!.
Our basic schedule hasn't changed much. Charlotte went through a phrase this summer where she did not want to participate in the morning activities so instead we did lots of informal activities throughout the day.
Starting around 9am with Sam we did MFW 1 , MUS, IEW Poetry, Nature Reader, Speech work, Song School Latin and our alternated readings
M- Geography ( Seabird)
T- History(D'Auliare Selection)
Th- Burgess( Birds)
Sam is reading his Bible reader. He has a selection of books that he can read all by himself and he spends about 30min each day reading all by himself. I have been so impressed with MFW 1 reading instructions. It is everything that I have been trying to put together on my own with our CM reading instructions. It is so awesome to just open the book and have the lesson planned out for us.....not too long....not too short...not too many manipulative......just perfect.
Sam has memorized 4 poems from IEW Poetry. The poems are interesting enough that he is motivated to learn them. He enjoys impressing friends and family with his poems and it is also good speech practice.
We've been doing SSL just for fun. If I find a Song School Spanish or its equivalent we are going to try it. We would have more use for Spanish but it never made it into our schedule this past year.
It's been an interesting summer but we are looking for a cooler, less hectic Autumn!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Spring Quarter Update 2009
My feeble attempt of a weekly report failed after week 1!
We made quite a few changes this quarter. In March I evaluated our resources and thought I made a decision to stick with them but a month later I made a complete switch-a-roo!
Sam-
Reading/Language Arts- still coming along nicely. We are working with MFW 1 for phonics drill. I like that his writing is directly related to his reading and it is great reinforcement. We have dropped FLL/WWE. He is getting enough writing with MFW 1. MFW 1 is a resource that I wished I had found last year! Currently on day 23 with MFW 1.
Math- completed MUS alpha!
History- We are still reading SOTW 1. Currently on Chapter 22.
Geography- We started Seabird. We look up unfamiliar terms in Geography A-Z.
Science/Natural History-We continue a weekly nature study but I still haven't restarted the nature study blog. We are using MFW 1s science book/experiments with extra books from the library. Did I mention that MFW 1 is a great resource?? Love, love, love the science book list! We started CLNR book 2 this quarter and I really like the list of questions after each section.
Poetry- Random House Book of Poetry for Children is a huge hit around here. We read a couple a day and discuss which is our favorite and why. I finally purchased IEW's poetry book and will use it for an ongoing poetry memorization. We will start this in the summer quarter.
Literature/American History- Leif Erickson was a big hit! We read parts of Lang's Blue Fairy book. Sam says, "Fairy tales are lame- I prefer stories about real people!"
Art- Co-op fell apart and I've been trying to use MFW 1 suggestion of Drawing with Children with little success. I will restart Artistic Pursuits in the summer quarter.
Speech Therapy- Done? We will see our Speech Therapist in 3 months to see if he is doing well enough on his own or would benefit from a bit more intervention.
Charlotte is loving HOD's Little Hands to Heaven program. We will continue doing this program with her this year. LHTH + AO year 1 read aloud + our ongoing painting/wedgits/pattern block time = Happy Charlotte. Everyone likes a Happy Charlotte!
I plan to start our Summer Quarter June 15. We will continue MFW 1 for reading/writing/science/Music appreciation/handicrafts, start MUS beta and our weekly reading list. I will continue using HOD'S LHTH program with AO reading and our usual projects with Charlotte.
We will start working through IEW's Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization with a goal of completing level 1 in the next year. This is the resource I want to help him continue with his speech development after ST is complete.
No major changes! I promise!
We made quite a few changes this quarter. In March I evaluated our resources and thought I made a decision to stick with them but a month later I made a complete switch-a-roo!
Sam-
Reading/Language Arts- still coming along nicely. We are working with MFW 1 for phonics drill. I like that his writing is directly related to his reading and it is great reinforcement. We have dropped FLL/WWE. He is getting enough writing with MFW 1. MFW 1 is a resource that I wished I had found last year! Currently on day 23 with MFW 1.
Math- completed MUS alpha!
History- We are still reading SOTW 1. Currently on Chapter 22.
Geography- We started Seabird. We look up unfamiliar terms in Geography A-Z.
Science/Natural History-We continue a weekly nature study but I still haven't restarted the nature study blog. We are using MFW 1s science book/experiments with extra books from the library. Did I mention that MFW 1 is a great resource?? Love, love, love the science book list! We started CLNR book 2 this quarter and I really like the list of questions after each section.
Poetry- Random House Book of Poetry for Children is a huge hit around here. We read a couple a day and discuss which is our favorite and why. I finally purchased IEW's poetry book and will use it for an ongoing poetry memorization. We will start this in the summer quarter.
Literature/American History- Leif Erickson was a big hit! We read parts of Lang's Blue Fairy book. Sam says, "Fairy tales are lame- I prefer stories about real people!"
Art- Co-op fell apart and I've been trying to use MFW 1 suggestion of Drawing with Children with little success. I will restart Artistic Pursuits in the summer quarter.
Speech Therapy- Done? We will see our Speech Therapist in 3 months to see if he is doing well enough on his own or would benefit from a bit more intervention.
Charlotte is loving HOD's Little Hands to Heaven program. We will continue doing this program with her this year. LHTH + AO year 1 read aloud + our ongoing painting/wedgits/pattern block time = Happy Charlotte. Everyone likes a Happy Charlotte!
I plan to start our Summer Quarter June 15. We will continue MFW 1 for reading/writing/science/Music appreciation/handicrafts, start MUS beta and our weekly reading list. I will continue using HOD'S LHTH program with AO reading and our usual projects with Charlotte.
We will start working through IEW's Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization with a goal of completing level 1 in the next year. This is the resource I want to help him continue with his speech development after ST is complete.
No major changes! I promise!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Weekly report- 1 or 31?
I've always prefered to do a quarter report because it give me a bigger picture but I'm going to try doing a weekly report for awhile for fun. I wasn't sure if I should call this post WR 1 since it is our first or WR 31 since it is the 31st week of our school year.
Charlotte-We did 4 days of Little Hands finishing with day 1 of week 2. Highlight of the week was doing A-A-Adam with Big Sis' joining in! Watching Charlotte and Big Sis' fly like an albatross and slither like an anaconda was hysterical. Charlotte really enjoyed making the A with cheerios and has been finding A's everywhere.
Sam- We finished Paddle-to-the-Sea last week. This week we read the first chapter of Seabird. He immediately found Greenland on the globe because it is where Leif the Lucky is growing up in our D'aulaire title that we are also reading! We started reading about Ancient Greek in SOTW and found an interesting picture of bull-jumping in our Usborne World History book. He really enjoys looking at Usborne's pictures and has spent part of every afternoon this week looking at these pictures. He has remembered far more that I expected with SOTW and was able to recognize the Hanging Garden of Babylon when he found that picture.
We did the first week of MFW 1. The phonics was review but working on the blending ladders was beneficial. I wish I had thought of doing that sooner. He would make a blend and try to think of as many words as possible that had that particular blend. It was such a confidence booster for him! We also worked on re-reading several of our 100 Easy lessons stories. Great week for reading skills.
This week in MFW 1 we also were doing science experiments with earthworms and ants. Unfortunately we killed off all the ant beds in the yard last weekend and not one ant decided to participate in our little experiment. We will retry that one in a few weeks. We had much more success with our earthworm experiment and they are participating as expected in their container! We will watch them over the weekend then let them work their magic in Sam's vegetable garden.
We attempted to make a clay pot with MFW 1 directions for salt dough but I must have added too much water because it would not hold a form. The kids did enjoy making handprints with it. Fortunately I did have some clay in a closet and we successfully made a clay pot. Sam had a lot of fun making his pot but thought that the clay pot craftmen of ancient times had a really hard job!
We have a collection of wildflowers growing in our backyard due to lack of fertilizer and mowing. We had wildflower scavenger hunts all week long. Charlotte thinks that the Fleabane Daisy is the most beautiful flower in the world and didn't want her older brother to mow the yard and destroy them! He kindly left her a section of the backyard so her flowers can continue to thrive. Her flower garden is finally starting to sprout so hopefully she will have lots of cut flowers this summer.
Spring Schedule
Our day has streamlined again!
Starting around 9am
Charlotte- We do the activities with Little Hands to Heaven, read a selection from AO Year 0 and start an activity.
M-Mighty Minds
T-Pattern Block
Th-Watercolors
F-Wedgits.
Sam joins us and participates with above activity as interested while we do
Poetry
Speechwork
Nature Science Reader
M-Geography , T- History , Th- Burgess , F-Fairy Tale
We do a quick tidy of our activity then:
MUS
MFW 1
reading
AAS
Read from our current Literature selection
Having their activities overlap a bit has helped our schoolday go faster and I have also noticed that Sam listens better when his hands are busy. By the time we finish all readings Charlotte is ready to play and Sam is excited that all he has left is math, writing and reading!
We listen to our composer while getting lunch ready.
After lunch we complete any projects/science experiments from MFW 1 then we head outside to play! I have been able to do a short focused nature study observation almost each afternoon. Weather permitting we go on a long hike at a local park at least weekly.
Starting around 9am
Charlotte- We do the activities with Little Hands to Heaven, read a selection from AO Year 0 and start an activity.
M-Mighty Minds
T-Pattern Block
Th-Watercolors
F-Wedgits.
Sam joins us and participates with above activity as interested while we do
Poetry
Speechwork
Nature Science Reader
M-Geography , T- History , Th- Burgess , F-Fairy Tale
We do a quick tidy of our activity then:
MUS
MFW 1
reading
AAS
Read from our current Literature selection
Having their activities overlap a bit has helped our schoolday go faster and I have also noticed that Sam listens better when his hands are busy. By the time we finish all readings Charlotte is ready to play and Sam is excited that all he has left is math, writing and reading!
We listen to our composer while getting lunch ready.
After lunch we complete any projects/science experiments from MFW 1 then we head outside to play! I have been able to do a short focused nature study observation almost each afternoon. Weather permitting we go on a long hike at a local park at least weekly.
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