Story Time Art

The twins went to Story Time at the library and the theme of course was Thanksgiving so they got to make turkeys with construction paper and colored feathers. They were very proud.

Last Birthday for months! WooHoo!

We just celebrated our oldest's 11th birthday. Hers is the last kids' birthday until March! I can hardly believe the birthday rush is over! We celebrated the 10 kids' birthdays in our house (plus added a birth-day for next year's list) plus another 3 with other friends. I'm exhausted! Now we're on to the holiday rush...it never ends.

Veronica helped make her own cake because she wanted a dolphin jumping out of a blue "ocean" cake. The dolphin was made out of rice crispy treats...it was really easy to make compared to all the cakes I've made with just cake and frosting. The hampster's already spinning the wheel for next year's cake ideas! Her cake turned out really well except the head kept slowly falling down so we propped it up with a blue frosted cookie. Then...of course, the dolphin's nose started falling...so we ate it!

Earlier in the day we celebrated by the whole household going roller skating and just the girls later getting Veronica's ears pierced. The kids loved roller skating and want to do it again next week...but the parents aren't as enthusiastic!

Getting Ready for Mayhem!

Here's my daughter trying on a children's gas mask. Can't prepare them too early! We have one adult mask and 3 children's masks.

Mummies in the Pyramid!

During our Egypt unit we mummified Barbies and built and decorated a pyramid. The kids drew hieroglyphs on the pyramid and colored it. They salted and pretended to prep the Barbies for mummification before wrapping them with gauze...yes, the same gauze they used for their Halloween mummy costumes. It's much faster mummifying dolls than it is to mummify children! After making the doll mummies they drew stories with heiroglyphs about them. Their pictures included Anubis, building of a pyramid, a queen with her servants, and the funeral of a pharaoh.

Also, as part of our Egyptian unit we watched shows about the building of the pyramids, King Tut, and about life in ancient Egypt. They also learned about the geography, building methods, and worship in ancient Egypt.

My Language Arts Plan

This is my rough plan for Language Arts for the Grammar Stage (1st-4th grade). Many include curriculum I'm looking into and will chose from when the time comes. We don't/won't use all of these for all subjects in each grade. I plan the year for what the child needs and often drop and add things through the year. Some things can be covered in unit-type lessons and are not covered daily or even weekly. This is also goals for the entire year and work builds up to most difficult assignments. I'm very flexible and like having a buffet of options to teach from.

First Grade
Phonics – Explode the Code A, B, C, and possibly D.
Spelling – Reading Rod letters to practice ETC words. Spell to Write and Read.
Writing – Copy work of phonics words in sentences then paragraphs from early readers.
Grammar – Nouns and Verbs. Punctuation and Capitalization through copy work. Discuss quotation, when to capitalize, apostrophes.
Handwriting – Pages from Zaner-Bloser and copy work.
Reading – Explode the Code, Bob Books, early reader set, and then Step into Reading. Being read to.

Second Grade
Phonics – Plaid Phonics 2 (and 3)
Spelling – Reading Rods and Word Searches.
Writing – Copy Work from books, Dictation, Sentence building with Reading Rod word blocks then writing sentences. Story development: Beginning, middle, end. Simple book reviews. Alphabetizing through second letter of a word. Letter writing and addressing an envelope. Poetry writing and reading.
Grammar/Language - Primary Language Lessons. Adverbs and Adjectives. Subject and Predicate. Proper quoting, use apostrophes. Discuss comas. Primary Language Lessons. Homonyms, synonyms, antonyms.
Reading – Early Reader set, Step into Reading, beginning chapter books and free reading.

Third Grade
Writing – The Complete Writing Program (3-12), Story Writing program 1st yr of 2. Copy work from books 2x week, Sentence Building blocks then writing sentences, Dictation 3x week (tests Spelling, Punctuation, and Capitalization). Sentence Composing for Elementary School: A Worktext to Build Better Sentences, IEW?? Beginning cursive writing, Concept of paragraph, Using period, comma, question mark, apostrophe, quotation marks, Writing short, original stories and poems, Postwriting skills: editing and proofreading
Reading – Reading Detective by the Critical Thinking Co (3-4grade)
Grammar – Intermediate Language Lessons. Looks boring. ??? Start Language Mechanics a year early?
Spelling – Work from list of misspelled words from child’s writing (sentence writing, writing 10 times, word searches, blocks). Spelling Power, Spelling Workout, Sequential Spelling, or Spell to Write and Read. Simply Spelling gr3-12. Five simple activities per week of one topic; based on America and classical writings.
Vocabulary – Thesaurus word swapping. Prefixes and Suffixes. Word Roots by the Critical Thinking Co.

Fourth Grade
Writing – Story Writing program 2nd yr, Sentence Building blocks then writing sentences, copy work, dictation.

I Love Logic!

I've become a firm believer in teaching children logic. Haven't we all met someone who sounds like a complete moron by saying things that are so far from making sense you wonder what drug they're on? Seriously though, some kids won't outgrow that stage of making stupid comments without being actively taught how to think things through.

I want my kids to be able to see a problem and devise a logical solution. Or to have a thought they want to verbalize and be able to articulate it so that others can follow. Sounds simple but it doesn't come naturally for all kids and I won't accept that any of my kids will grow up to be one of those moronic adults!

My 7yo son started the Building Thinking Skills book 1 in September and there is already a noticeable difference in his thinking abilities. He's learned how to manipulate objects in his mind and 'see' the reversed, rotated, or mirrored version. It's also helped him in being able to describe things by their properties and we're using that new skill to help with creative writing. He's describing nouns to make more interesting sentences. For example, yesterday he worked on making two simple sentences with word blocks and wrote them down. One was: An elephant was at the zoo. Today he listed attributes of his nouns and made that sentence into: A big gray adult elephant was sleeping in a cage at the zoo. Hey, I just realized his lesson from last week on a/an usage stuck...he knew it was AN elephant! Considering last year he was still saying 'him's car'...I feel really proud.

Rant about BAD Homeschoolers

Yes, there are bad homeschoolers who's children would be better off in school. Sadly I've met a few. My first qualm...which I admit is just an opinion, but I do think it's detrimental for the children. Parents who never let their kids play with other kids. Never. I've known 4 kids since moving here who aren't allowed to play with other kids besides mine. We're no longer friends with either family. One family has an only child and he only plays with his dad even when they go to a McDonald's playplace. I feel bad about those children and wonder how lonely their childhoods are.

Second issue, parents who spend all day on the computer for "me time" and expect their children to teach themselves or at least to stay out of their hair. Mind you, I say this while sitting at the computer...during school hours...but my kids have finished their lessons for the day and they're all playing educational games together. They don't need me right now...but there really are women out there doing this all day long claiming to homeschool.

Last and worst issue, which is completely abusive, is parents who medicate their children without a doctors' consent. You can buy anything online...including Prozac and Ritilin. I know a mother who gives these to her child WHO IS COMPLETELY NORMAL so he will stay out of her hair while she spends all day online because he's too much of a typical boy to teach himself! She has not only herself convinced, but her husband and most sadly, her son thinking he has a problem. She even tried to convince me he has mild autism!!! An example of proof from her husband, he jumps on the couch. He literally said this to my husband - father of FIVE boys. Meanwhile because she homeschools, the poor boy has no help. She's also one of the families whose children never play with other children.

So there, I've said my peace. If you're not guilty of these, give yourself some slack as a homeschooling mom. There are far worse ways to harm your child than skipping math for a few days.

Vaccinations

My oldest non-vaccinated son just got a tetanus vaccine! *GASP* I've always figured one day they'd need it and now that time came for my 7yo. He wore his shoes to the chicken coop and then took them off when he got there. Silly kid. He cut a huge gash in his foot on a rusty screw.

He's a constant surprise when it comes to things most kids find scary. He gets his shot and says it didn't hurt a bit. He's not hesitant at all about getting his second shot in 4 weeks. He was the same when he went to the dentist at 4 1/2yo and got two cavities filled. He came home thinking the dentist was fun!