homemommy83
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Posts posted by homemommy83
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This year our two youngest are newly two and four. We will be doing MFW All Aboard the Animal Train and they each have a special Walmart workbook for fun seatwork.
We are reading aloud tons, doing park days, library days, special outings to explore the world, and MFW makes for a fun base of activities for them.
Our four year old is learning her letters and may begin reading lessons this year...we will see😁. Second semester I may add Rod and Staff workbooks for her as well.
Hope everyone is enjoying their little ones!
Brenda
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I second Phonics Pathways with the Abeka readers. Both are excellent. You could always do the workbook as easy seatwork time.
Brenda
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Our sixth born will be first grade this fall😁.
We are doing Alphaphonics/MFW 1st grade for phonics. McGuffy reader 1, Sonlight levels 1 and 2 readers, and Pathway for independent reading time. He is picking up reading well now, which is so exciting.
MCP Math B with Singapore textbooks starting at 1A for our tutoring time. MCP is mostly independent after the daily warmup. He finds math super easy.
Pentime 1
Second semester we plan to do Adventures in MFW with the second grade suggestions. He is an older 1st grader with a late summer birthday.
Have fun ladies!
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On 2/21/2023 at 12:25 PM, Malam said:
Do you mean using the end of chapter tests as "do you need this" tests?
Yes
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On 2/17/2023 at 5:47 PM, freesia said:
I never finished it with any of mine. We switched to Explode the Code at some point with books like the Bob books.
We often just came back to finish it after Bob books, but most of my children wanted a break near the end of the book as well.
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My children have loved these and I have found it was worth the time we allowed invested.
Brenda
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I prefer Phonics Pathways with adding my own personalized reader list as they go through it. It can be done fast or slowed down by doing dictation every other lesson. This has worked so well in my home.
Blessings,
Brenda
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On 1/30/2023 at 9:18 PM, AnneGG said:
PreK-K faves:
Pete the Cat and the missing cupcakes
Busytown Airport game
Go Fish/Old Maid
Gathering a Garden
Kids on Stage
1-3 faves:
Rummy (my kids are obsessed with rummy right now.)
Out Foxed
Farkle
Pictionary/ Pictionary jr
doodle dice
Wild Craft
Show Me the Monet (modified in a Monopoly style) probably more 2-3rd grade level or younger art enthusiasts
Ice Cream Empire
Rummy was one of my favorites as well growing up!
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23 hours ago, Lovinglife123 said:
Would you be able to share a picture of a bin? I’m interested in this!!
I will try! My phone camera has not worked in weeks, but my daughter's phone does and when she gets home I will take pictures. I am excited about our new storage/ rotation plan!
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22 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:
. DS got our own little stories, like the Sneaky Bishop who slinked around, the skittish horses (knights), the towers that made straight, invisible walls, soldiers, and the queen who didn't own a horse.
That is the sweetest memories 🥰. It made me think of checkers and chess. I used to have them, got pregnant and children did not value putting them away well and mama didn't have the energy to babysit toys😉. I think I could look for one of those 10 in one game sets made of wood. It also made me think bout Yahtzee...it was one of my favorites. Thank you for good ideas. I will look into the Animal stacking game. If it is a board game or in a small box it may fit with the above, or could go in my preschool bin if it is more independently done.
I am considering getting MFW discovery blocks and putting the Mighty/ Super Mind into a box of their own. I have been organizing bins by day, but in each bin is varying ages of similar skills.
The bins are 28 qt Sterlite bins and the baskets inside are white from Dollar tree. 2 baskets fit snug and perfect in each bin. This helped me organize them well. The bins are about 6 at Walmart and the baskets 2.50 total at dollar tree for anyone looking for an economical way to rotate and organize toys and puzzles.
Bin 1 has two baskets...one is wedgits for the youngest ones and Magna tiles for the bigger kiddos.
Bin 2 has puzzles. I cut out the picture and put them in zipper bags and organize by age. So a basket for toddlers/preschoolers..this has 2 to 6 piece puzzles for toddlers and several dollar store 24 piece puzzles. In the same bin I have a basket for bigger littles with 100 piece puzzles and a couple 200 and 500 piece puzzles.
Bin 3 is Lauri toys...Alphabet puzzles, Number puzzles with pegs, Lacing and tracing, Locktagons, tall stacker pegs, a sorting game, and got a space puzzles. I took the fit a space and separated them into 3 bags...with a few empty puzzles to use for tracing, one using the laces and pieces from the empty ones for lacing shapes bag, and half for actual puzzles. We love Lauri here.
Bin 4 is for about 2 to 4 years to keep them busy when mama is teaching older children. I have a small shape sorter, a piggie with coins, stamps by Melissa and Douga toddler Montessori skill book that has so many skills in one toy..it is awesome, and I have a little room in this bin still if I find treasures at Goodwill 🤣.
Bin 5 ...thinking of MFW discovery blocks/ and putting Mighty Mind.
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Hi everyone! I have went through organizing toys, puzzles, and games and realized I have enough room on my cart for 2 more games. I am looking for ideas for adding a couple games to my cart for the littles. In our house littles are preschool to 3rd grade.
Below is what I have so far.
Chutes and Ladders
Sneaky Snacky Squirrel
Hi Ho Cheerio
I Spy Match game
Mighty/Super Mind
The original Memory Game
Catch the Match
These have been tried and true favorites here.
Thank you everyone ahead of time for some fun ideas!
Blessings,
Brenda
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My upcoming 7th grader is my 4th born so I took life a bit gentler on her than my oldest. She will officially have to follow a mama made weekly checklist to practice keeping to a schedule a bit better. She is a hard worker and will do great.
Math- She is loving LOF Elementary books right now, so I will encourage her to go as far as she is able in them. I expect through at least Decimals and Percents. I tutor her in math and my focus will be Fractions, Decimals/ Percentages, and PreAlgebra topics. She has been working on Teaching Textbooks independently and really likes it, but my plan in the fall is Saxon wherever she tests into it...probably PreAlgebra at that point.
English- Rod and Staff level 6 1st semester and Intermediate Language Lessons 2nd semester. Pentime Handwriting in the summer.
Essay writing for a 6 week focus at some point when I am bored with other curriculum 😂.
Reading- McGuffys 5th reader, Robinson/ Sonlight/MFW book basket books. Possibly CLE reading program to work on certain skills.
Spelling- Rod and Staff 7, Spelling Power when she finishes.
Geography- Memoria Press Geography 1 and 2 plus as a family we may do MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures. I am heavily leaning on a Geography year for all of my children. Littles BF Around the World with Picture books in my nursery hour, Middles-MFW ECC, and olders HOD geography program.
History- Biographies through time...using All Through the Ages as my book finder😁.
Schoolaid Health
Science- I will allow her to choose science topics to focus on and let her study whatever fancies her in addition to our ECC studies. My children have read Apologia, Rod and Staff, and Abeka science text for fun, so I do not push formal science until 8th grade when they do General Science which seems like review to them at that point😉.
She loves to draw and paint, so I will probably find her something exciting to learn more of that well from. I also want to have her learn chess.
Planning is so fun. I love seeing how far our sweet babes have come.
Blessings,
Brenda
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On 1/9/2023 at 7:53 AM, ScoutTN said:
Well, we started with Phonics Pathways, but we blended in Bob books towards the end, then real books with a few leveled readers (Pathway? Hardback, Mennonite books).
Ds took more practice on the reading pyramids in the back of PP and more nonsense words to prevent guessing.
I was also going to say Phonics Pathways or Alphaphonics as well😁. I do a pattern reading- day 1, copy and mark-day 2, and dictation-day 3. I first test to where they are learning something new by quizzing spelling ability and reading ability. Once I know where they are we go quickly through the above for quick review, followed by the 3 steps for teaching new patterns for them.
I also start with Bob books, then Sonlight, McGuffy, and Pathway readers....reading aloud is the most important part of the day at that stage imho.
Blessings,
Brenda
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10 hours ago, lmrich said:
Materials the others have mentioned - base ten blocks, unifix cube.. but the one that was so helpful was the Judy clock for learning how to tell time. But the most helpful - big white board with fresh expo markers.
I have used several curriculums mentioned here and have combined many to do math in the morning in one and math in the afternoon in another one.
I love doing multiple maths as well. All of my children's favorite toys have been math manipulatives😁 and Legos.
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13 hours ago, alysee said:
1. Fix It Grammar
2. HWT
3. Phonics Pathways
4. Growing Brave Writers
Those are all excellent choices and together cover all basic aspects of LA.
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15 hours ago, lulalu said:
Phonics Pathways for phonics and early spelling.
Rod and Staff 4th or 5th for grammar.
We have the same love for the same books. We are officially curriculum forum buddies😁. If you could pick readers what would you choose? It looks like All about reading has made an appearance, giving me something I need to research😁. I already owned too much (who has too much😂) curriculum from my older children when All About Reading came on the scene. Dash into Reading has been calling my name to....they are soooo cute! I have two little girls who "need them😁". The CLE, Pathway, McGuffy, and Sonlight choices are just not enough😂.
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11 hours ago, countrymum said:
A set of phonogram cards and my Language toolkit booklet
Rod and staff English 5
The All About Reading readers
The Old Treasury of Literature readers (at least the last 4 or 5) or a set of Alice and Jerry books
I can come up with a pretty good spelling progression from the language toolkit with all the phonograms and rules listed and I think the readers are necessary. Kids need something to read! If allowed another book I would take either Natural Speller or The ABCs and All Their Tricks for word lists.
My reasons for Rod and Staff 5 are the same as above;) no teacher book required.
I agree on needing something to read. Children's minds need to be kept engaged during stressful times. It seems Rod and Staff 5 is loved here😁. Phonogram cards are compact and an awesome choice!
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10 hours ago, Xahm said:
It's really hard for me to answer this because if there were a problem that limited what I had, LA would be one area where I really could teach with just whatever. Writing utensil, something to write on, and whatever books, though preferably she with decent sized print, would be enough.
If I were traveling and didn't have much space, I'd take a tablet to get library books through, blank notebook and pencils, and probably whatever All About Spelling levels the kids were on. I'd likely through in a small white board and markers as my kids are less resistant to making mistakes on a white board.
Tools are definitely a great addition. I keep contemplating between buying an old fashioned chalkboard and a lot of chalk for teaching the neighborhood if the very difficult times came. Keeping children's minds busy may help bring a little normalcy. My thoughts are my toddlers love taking lids off of dry erase, so I may be more wise to switch to chalk.
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8 hours ago, Zoo Keeper said:
1. Phonics Pathways (but I'd try to squeeze in Word Mastery and/or Alpha Phonics as well- some students just need to look at a different book sometimes).
2. FLL 1 & 2 ( I use the combined volume), followed by a season of copywork/dictation and diagramming to expand on parts of speech and basic sentence structure. I'd then go to R&S English book 4 or book 5 when ready.
3. CLE Language Reference Charts, to go with all that copywork/dictation/diagramming/discussion. And for spelling rules and lists, this handout from Susan C. Anthony (Spelling Plus).
4. For writing, I'd use the progression of skills outlined in SWB's writing talks (including the lit analysis one), and/or the progression given in this thread by 8Fills. Both are very adaptable to different ages/stages and to use with whatever books you have handy.
5. I have to include a "extra" thing, because I think this is so important to a student's overall language development, no matter what his gifts or challenges: read alouds. Ideally across genres, and at or slightly above a child's level. Especially for a struggling LA student, this helps build content and language patterns/vocab that is not dependent on what the student can decode in their own reading. It also helps a child learn to visualize, to remember, to anticipate, to empathize, and many other not-quite-so-easily-measured-on-a-test benefits. Just do it. 🙂
If I added an extra Grammar book, it would also be FLL 1/2. I LOVE this book. I love your minimalist approach by using references as an excellent way to cover more levels and topics in a small space. Smart!
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7 hours ago, mathmarm said:
Is the assumption/given that I have access to sufficient reading material? If so I will put my energy into teaching reading and writing. Since I now feel able to teach basic spelling from a phonics book, and handwriting with just a pen(cil), highlighter and paper, I would make my 4 items:
1) Open Court Foundation Program ( Blue Book + Gold Book ) which makes a powerful 1 year reading program for beginning students and can be used to teach spelling as well.
2) WISE OWL Polysyllables for extending the phonics skills to longer words in context and vocabulary development.
3) SRA Reasoning and Writing C
4) SRA Reasoning and Writing DIf I could have added a couple items more than 4 Wise Owl would totally be on my list😁.
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Thank you ladies! I have a couple new programs to look at😁.
Brenda
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I have used xtramath. Following this thread 😁. Hoping you find a new fun tool!
Blessings,
Brenda
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32 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:
I prefer programs that have explicit instruction in how numbers work. There's a lot of them out there, and usually the kids I work with end up with different ones that focus on their strengths/weaknesses.
My favorite tools for all of them, though are these:
- c-rods / MUS blocks
- Base 10 hundreds & thousands blocks
- number cards
- dry erase centimeter graph boards
- counters of some sort, preferably in more than 1 color
With these I can help them see the math in any program they use, and help them figure out how to prove their work.
I will say you and I have different opinions of Life of Fred. I found them weaker in the later years with poor explanations beyond procedure and not well set up (questions and answers on the same page). While I have them all from Apples to Geometry, I have never had a student that was satisfied when they compare the Fractions book and above to a working math program. The inconsistencies and lack of explanation are perfect for development in the logic stage, but I don't think that's what the author intended. 😄 Apples-Mineshaft are fun, but nobody is expecting them to be more than a supplement so that's what they are here.
Love your choices for tools! I love my abacus, cRods, and place value cards as well.😁. Life of Fred is just for fun here as well. We find the storyline of Coalback to be hilarious, we have a bit of onery humor😉.
Thanks for sharing!
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If you could pick only 4 items to teach basic language arts to young students what would you pick for your "go bag".
1. Phonics Pathways...it begins with 2 letter blends and moves all the way to multisyllable words in a gentle way.
2. McGuffy reader set. It would span all abilities and could be used orally, for copywork, and vocabulary growth.
3. Natural Speller as he list can be used to grow weak readers by working through patterns. It is also an excellent resource for spelling patterns and teachers the rules. It even goes into Greek and Latin roots.
4. Rod and Staff English 5. If I could only grab one of the text, it would be this one. It is written in an easy to understand way and would give a solid base in basic grammar and writing.
Blessings,
Brenda
P.S. This is similar to the threads Hunter did when I was on here years ago. I just love thinking simply and thinking of the what ifs.. Thanks for participating!
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Rod and Staff English
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I always thought five was a foundational year. You could also just start where you left off and skip anything too easy for her.
Blessings,
Brenda