Suzannah
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Posts posted by Suzannah
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http://www.preschoolersandpeace.com
Kendra (who posts here sometimes) has fantastic ideas for school organization and including preschoolers. She has a large family with kids ranging in age from 1-16. I put my own spin on her "planning weekend" last summer and this year sailed by so much easier than the previous one.
Planning Weekend
http://www.preschoolersandpeace.com/?p=300
School Planning
http://www.preschoolersandpeace.com/?p=593
Blessings!
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We are using Draw to Learn: Proverbs by Notgrass. I've bought and not used so many family devotionals it's not even funny. The years we've been the most consistent about any sort of Bible study where the ones when I just read the Bible aloud, a chapter or so at a time. This year I wanted to do something different so DS read some of the Soul Gear books (Weird & Gross Bible Stuff, Bible Wars and Weapons) and also did his own Bible reading. I bought yet another devotional book to read with DD but it just never really happened.
Draw to Learn is short enough that we will do it even when I think we're running late. It's simple enough for the toddler to participate, yet interesting for both of the older ones. And it's reading directly from the Bible, anywhere from 1 to 10 verses or so at a time. We read the passage, then draw a picture related to the passage, often how it relates to our daily life. We are all enjoying this much more than I thought we would when I first heard about it. Highly recommended.
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When we did modern history a few years ago we watched an animated movie of George Orwell's Animal Farm. DS was in 4th grade and it helped make sense of the abstract ideas we had been reading about.
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I assume you are asking about those who do literature studies according to TWTM. With a new family business and a toddler this year, I wasn't sure that I could manage the layout in WTM. So we tried Omnibus 2 with DS. It's VP's 8th grade text, but the reading suggestions line up very nicely with WTM's recommendations for 6th. There's an introduction discussing the author, setting, time period in which it was written, etc. And there are discussion questions and writing assignments (as well as a few other activities) after each assigned reading. This worked very well for us. I didn't want to overwhelm DS so after each reading, he and I would discuss the reading, using the discussion questions as a guide. IOW I didn't make him answer them all on paper. He usually read the writing assignments because there was good information in them. But we only did one or two since we're also doing CW:Homer this year. He had to read every primary reading with an actual book, but I did allow him to listen to audio books of some of the secondary readings (The Hobbit, Winning His Spurs, the Lord of the Rings and Henry V.) This was due to the fact that we owned some of those recordings already and sometimes we were just very busy so I wanted to give him a little bit of a break. He also added them to our timeline and had to write a short summary of each book.
I think we'll do this again next year, but the following year I'm not sure since I dont' care for Omnibus 3's Modern selections.
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So, are they telling parents to dumb down their children's education?:001_huh:
Well if they didn't, what would the teachers do with them in class? How can they keep everyone together if some students are ahead? :001_rolleyes:
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Hadn't considered Saxon or MFW. Could anyone tell me about them with a 4 yr old?
Do you mean Saxon math? I know they have a K program but I'm too cheap to spring for it so my kids start with 1. When DD turned 5 I checked the placement test for Saxon 1 and she could already do all of it. So I went ahead and ordered the student text and for her to start right away in level 1.
What did I do to prepare her? We worked on counting to 100, evens and odds and skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. We also printed free worksheets off of http://www.learningpage.com for her to do as many or as few of them as she wanted to while her older brother did his school work. She wanted to be included, so I humored her. My own mental checklist was that she did something with numbers and something with letters every day.
I do highly recommend Five in a Row for preschool/kindergarten. So many wonderful books! And I think it has helped my kids to be active readers. We spent time studying those wonderful books. But it was so much fun!
Blessings!
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I was warned the kids couldn't get into PreK if they knew too much, so we stuck to fairy tales (the kids still knew too much). :)
Wow! :confused:
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This isn't a program per se, but Lakeshore Learning has some magnetic words which are different colors for the different parts of speech.
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca|searchResults~~p|2534374302096036~~.jsp
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Here's my plan:
Drawing to Learn Proverbs from Notgrass (the older two are doing it this year and DS diligently scribbles on his own paper with crayons and adds it to his folder)
"face time with Mama" (when he needs my attention I try to find a time to give it to him fully for 5 or 10 minutes. We sing ABC's, 10 Little Indians and do finger play)
Before Five in a Row (I totally loved this and FIAR with older DS. DD didn't get to do it quite as extensively but I'm putting it on the schedule so that younger DS gets his chance.)
Blessings.
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Oh, has anyone mentioned the Chronicles of Narnia yet? I don't normally think of them as animal books, but there are tons of animal characters.
Blessings!
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Well it does look like there are a lot of options out there, doesn't it. I just wanted to throw Pimsleur French in there. We've been using it this year after having to ditch Power Glide because the reading/spelling was so difficult. The stories in Power Glide are great though.
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WTM recommends the Mindbenders and Case of Red Herrings as an intro to Logic. If you feel your DC needs something first, go with one or both of these. But we are planning to use Fallacy Detective for 7th next year.
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I'm not sure what you mean by "classical" but some animal books DS still loves are:
Black Beauty
Rascal
Beautiful Joe (though he says it was sad)
King of the Wind
Misty of Chincoteague
...and Hank the Cowdog. :) They are really funny dogs-eye-view of life on a cattle ranch. The malappropisms make them a difficult read for younger kiddos, but all ages will enjoy them in audio format. Probably not "classical" but well worth your time.
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I doubt that anyone buys ALL the books. But it can be a pain getting everything from the library, even if you have a good one with a great website like we do. I'd say to start with, get the books that you will use the most...the broad-topic spines and reference books. Then, if you still have money, check your library to see which items they carry. Buy the things you want but that the library doesn't have. Then if you still have money, go ahead and buy whatever else you just want to have on your shelf that will be used again...or not. :)
Blessings.
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... the ONLY reason we succeded with it at all this year was because last summer I completely planned it out. It took several hours during the summer, but the payback was exponential because it took no planning or thought at all during the school year.
yvonne
Me too! Somehow I came across Kendra's site www.preschoolersandpeace.com and read her description of her planning weekend. I couldn't get any of my friends to join me so I just did it throughout the summer. It was such a huge improvement to our daily schedule that I'm already in the process of doing it again.
Blessings!
Planning Weekend
http://www.preschoolersandpeace.com/?p=300
School Planning
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DS knew all the sounds of the alphabet when he was 2. We read aloud, we worked on phonics nearly every day, he had Bob Books and easy readers and I even wrote stories for him. But for us, it didn't "click" until he was 7. I walked past a room and did a double-take. He was reading a Star Wars chapter book! Up until then he could do the work of reading, but it was neither pleasurable nor something he would do without being specifically told to do. It was work. Ever since then, he reads well and enjoys it. Every kid is different.
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We've subscribed to different ones over the years, but at this point Boys' Life, the Boy Scouts' publication is the only one we get. DS LOVES this magazine. It's full of great stories about scouts doing neat things like scuba diving, hiking the Appalachian Trail, doing service projects, etc. Most magazines (kids and grown-up) just end up being clutter. But DS has a place for his in his room and re-reads the old issues over and over.
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I'd suggest lots of books, audiobooks and videos from the library. You could make a checklist and have them read/watch/listen to a certain number per day. I don't know if this will work for you, but DS enjoys math games at http://www.coolmath4kids.com/ and there are free worksheets for various subjects at http://www.learningpage.com/. You need to do the free registration to get to the neat "themed funsheets" on different subjects (math, language arts, science) for grades PK-3rd.
Congratulations on your new little blessing!
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I have to say, we zipped through the A-level Mindbenders like everyone else. But it's much slower going in level B.
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If I understand your question correctly, yes, you can enter the lesson for one student, then click "Copy" and select which student. You can do the same thing to make a recurring assignment for one or more students. You can also use the "copy" feature to set incremental assignments. For instance, if you enter an assignment for Math Lesson 1, use the copy feature and tell it to recur every day in one lesson increments until whatever end date you desire.
I've been using the basic version for a year now and plan to upgrade this spring/summer (just haven't gotten around to it yet.) I'm a little puzzled about the difficulties you mentioned though. The only real problems I've had are dealing with our wireless network and printer, not HST's fault. Are the features in the Plus version that complicated? I'm just hoping to be able to set times for assignments so I don't have to remind DS over and over to not do everything he likes first, saving all the stuff he doesn't like for the afternoon.
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Someone recently recommended Sentence Family for 4th/5th grade.
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Wow! Those "Pictures in Cursive" books look awesome! I hadn't bought any of Queen's things because I wanted my kiddos to have a cursive model to follow and I thought all of Queen's used a typed font. We may use the those picture studies in the future. For now we are very happy with Julie Shields' (Julie in GA) History Copywork. She has three volumes (one more to go) and they are available in different styles (Zaner-Bloser, Italics, etc.)
http://stores.lulu.com/julieshields
So far we've used the Ancients and Medieval Copybooks. DS' handwriting has improved tremendously and he really enjoys copying things related to the history we're studying.
Blessings!
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We've used Abeka for grammar since 3rd grade. Frankly, everything is covered every year and I kind of think this is the case with most grammar texts. The writing assignments (if any) and sentence structure become more complicated, but the concepts are constantly reviewed. If he has done well in the past I wouldn't worry too much about review. But as you move through whatever text you choose for this year, just make sure the concepts are solidified before you move on.
Perhaps rather than looking for a specific grammar program, you should think more in terms of a writing program. There are lots to choose from but I bet IEW would work well for you.
Blessings on your journey!
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I agree with the previous posters.
However if you find that there is serious stress or rivalry in this or any subject, some people have had success with using two different programs. So say, one uses Sequential Spelling while the other uses Spelling Workout. They may be in different levels, but they are different programs so it's not exactly the same as being ahead or behind. I haven't tried this, but it sounds reasonable.
Bible "curriculum"
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted · Edited by Suzannah
Good question. DD loves to draw. I'm considering buying a box of copier paper for her next year just for her "books" and "drawings" and "lists" and "cards".... DS detests coloring. He sometimes draws battles and military vehicles, but trying to force art instruction is very hit-or-miss. He really has to be in the mood.
This program is so low-key and the directions are so broad, that he is pretty good about drawing something. Some days it's very detailed and thoughtful. Often it's a quick little sketch that just meets the directions. :) The main goal though is to get into the Word.
We usually do Bible just after breakfast. I can start reading while the kids are still eating if necessary. DS does his own Bible reading later as part of his Boy Scouts' religious emblem program. And we also do memory verses, just different ones that I chose last summer.
Hope that helps.