lillybell
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Posts posted by lillybell
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I was just looking into this same subject myself. The inaccuracies that I was concerned about was the dates. We are going to make a timeline and I wanted it to be accurate. The first problem I noticed when I started looking at it today was that Volume 1, talks about the nomads 7 thousand years ago in the Fertile Crescent. According to Usborne and other world history text that I was comparing it to, the nomads date back to around 10,000 BC. Another part that jumped out at me was when I read in that same chapter, it said "If the hunters don't shoot any deer today, the whole group of nomads will pick up their tents..." The term "shoot" gives me a picture of gun use, more than likely the author meant to use it in terms of bow and arrow shooting but to a child, they might picture hunters with guns. That is minor but the dates are the only thing that I am concerned about. I will probably still use it but will probably have to use dates from Usborne which will be more work for me.
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I decided to forgo the lapbook for the unit because I had my 2 youngest daughters complete different parts of it since they had other history and this was just supplement. They shared in working on profile cards and maps together. What I ended up doing is setting up a bulletin cork board and we would staple the items as we went on the bulletin board. My youngest loves lapbooks but since this was a team effort, I wanted them both to have access to the information and see it.
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I can't really input on how to get him to change his mind because I am agnostic. However, I can give you some advise. I do not teach my girls to be agnostic but I do teach them to be open minded about all religion in general. I will be requiring them to learn about different world religions and probably read the bible. I read it from cover to cover when I was in college taking a theology course. That is where my search for the answers began. The co-op we attend is Christian and I have told my girls that although, I don't believe in the same thing, I don't expect them to sit there and share in my beliefs. I expect them to draw their own conclusions once they have become educated about all of world religion. You may want to take this type of an approach with him, maybe tell him that before he makes that decision and comes to that conclusion of being an atheist, he needs to become better educated in Christianity as well as have him learn about world religions. Show him that you are open to him learning about all of religion in general and not just your religion. No need to be upset over the belief system he chooses. As long as he is a good kid, contributes to the world, is good and considerate of others, then I think you are a winner.
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Just had a strawberry pie we put together and going to make pizza for diner, already defrosting some dough.
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Here's the parallel post over on the Chat Board. There are several fun Pi-related pictures.
Cool, I hadn't seen that post. Going to go check out more ideas. Already had a strawberry pie we made and making pizza for diner. Thanks Beth for posting, will check out the posting at chat board.
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Today is the unofficial holiday of Pi day. Since Pi is 3.14159... Today being March 14 matches up and going a step further at 1:59 pm today is a perfect celebration time. Off to go buy a pie. Going to have fun with this today.
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My dh is supportive with homeschooling. He wouldn't have it any other way, however, he does at some times make comments to me about what I am teaching. He doesn't always agree with certain aspects but lets me be, for the most part. He has said to me that a certain concept is useless to learn but then the debate is on and I leave no stone unturned in my argument so he has learned to just leave it alone. I am in charge of the homeschooling, although, he has been helping with small projects here and there lately. I have him crafting at times putting curriculum together and laminating card stock papers or other small stuff. We also ask him for help on some of the Science experiments, for some reason he is a know it all when it comes to science concepts. I could use a little more help from him and am trying to slowly introduce him to our world. I would say it is starting to work and soon enough, I will be sitting pretty, while he is pulling his hair out homeschooling. J/K No just hoping to unload a class on him. :laugh:
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My dd is 6th grade and we are doing the following:
Science-MR Q Physical Science
History- Story of the USA & Time Travelers History units
Math-Teaching Textbooks
Spelling-Spelling Power
Writing-Winning with writing
Literature-Lapbook Lit study
Geography- Trail Guides US coupled with many games
Art- Once a week Atelier Art
PE-Family Time Fitness
Co-op once a week-only takes courses for fun, these don't count towards our academics (taking dangerous boys science class, they let girls take it, Drama Games, and a Crafty class)
We will also be adding AAS soon because she needs more spelling help.
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I do the same with my kids and mine are teens. Constantly pushing them to finish. I do find that they go through subjects they like and enjoy easily, without nagging from me but some of the stuff that they find boring or that they don't like, they take forever to do. I am not sure about grammar suggestions, at the moment we are are finishing up Easy Grammar and that is kind of boring but maybe someone else can suggest a good grammar that might keep them motivated. Another suggestion is just to add some fun supplements a few times a week. For math, we are using teaching textbooks and so far they have worked wonders. I hardly ever have to push them on that and they hardly ever need help on it. You can try adding manipulatives or some fun hands on games to math. As others have suggested, a break will also do the trick.
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I have a homeschool room, well sort off. The loft is pretty much where I keep the bulk of our stuff but have run our of space, so also have a bookcase in the downstairs living room and some stuff we do on the dining room table. I wish, I had a huge room to keep everything in and we could do all the homeschooling in that room. The loft would probably be enough for us had it not been that my daughters also keep a Guinea pig and a bunny in there and they built them mansions for houses. So they take up a lot of our homeschool space. If I could have a homeschool room, I imagine a huge room with some nice lighting and plenty of wall space to hang up posters and kids projects. I would need an entire wall contributed to book shelves. The science area would need to be an island with a sink, this way if multiple children are learning together, they can view the experiment clearly from around any part of the island and tile the area around the island for spills. I would have space for individualized desk areas for each child with computers and a full spectrum light. I would need space for a table with chairs for hands on projects and games. A reading area with a nice view out a window would be great as well. A wall area with a large white board and a built in cabinet next to the while board and some comfy chairs to sit on facing the white board. I think that about sums up what my needs would be for a homeschool room. Oh also forgot one last thing, I would include a TV area with DVD player, so we can use it for netflix learning programs and curriculum that requires a DVD. Ok now, I think that is all I would need.
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We are doing the science fair next month and this is our first as well. I have 8 science fair books on ideas and guidelines so I handed them the books, told them that this week they need to brainstorm and come up with an idea. I, too, do not want to help them too much, just guide them. My youngest has done some lab ESP write ups on Mr Qs science so that is going to be a big help and they have seen some demonstrations of what a project board should contain. I told them to let me know what materials they will need and what they need for their project boards. Aside from that, I think, I will sit back and see what they can do on their own. My youngest loves to do lapbooks and has become a sort of expert on them so I am curious to see how she will handle her project board. I don't think I will get fancy things for the boards unless they can make them with the computer and printer on cardstock. We will see how it goes this year. At the very least, they will get a good learning experience on conducting experiments and organizing the data, a win will just be gravy. Just having them finishing the projects, will make me a proud Mom.
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I am using the lapbook that teenibeenie5 suggested. Alongside the lapbook, we were using the a comprehensive study guide that I purchased online by Nat Reed, but that turned out to be too much for her and for me. I was having trouble scheduling them together and with the corresponding chapters and my daughter was having trouble keeping up with both. So we both opted for the lapbook. The schedule is easy to follow and has a fun factor. At the rate, we were going, we would have been lucky to finish the book study in 4 months, it is going much smoother now and she will be done with it very soon so we can finally move on to another book. Anyhow, just wanted to add that there is a website for the book, it is http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/dolphin/home2.shtml . Kids can explore the parts of the Island and when they are done with their mission, they can take a quiz and get a certificate to print out.
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There are a few that I can suggest. I have used Scholaric in the past and it is reallly great and pretty much has everything you need but will take a little getting used to. It did save me tons of time. The other one that is also good and free is home-school-inc.com . The free one they have is pretty good and has the ability to bump days or weeks if you need a break. You will have to work with it a few days until you completely understand it but once you do, it works great. The most recent one that I am using at the moment is on my tablet and it is call Homeschool Helper. So far it is great because my daughter has a kindle and I bought her the app also so once I update it on my tablet, she just has to restore it on hers for an updated schedule. I email the lessons to my other daughter because she has an ipod touch and the planner is just too small for that screen. This one is great so far and has worked so far. I still have scholaric but will probably end the subscription, not because it wasn't a good planner, but because we tend to use our tablets a lot. I have most of our curriculum saved as pdfs on mine in a dropbox that I can also access on my computer so it is very handy, even on the go. But if you are looking for an online one, Scholaric works great and it is inexpensive. The home-school-inc planner is free and also works great. The kids can have their own access to their accounts and they have to mark their lessons complete then you can review it in your account. Hope this helps but am sure you will get many more great suggestions.
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I own it and didn't have to buy anything extra. Just got the student reader, the teacher's guide, and the student workbook. The maps and worksheets are all in the student workbook. You can buy extra stuff for reference or to add activities if you want but for the course itself, nothing more is needed than the books included in the curriculum.
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I wouldn't worry too much about it. I used to worry so much about this with my oldest daughter when she was young, worried that she wasn't retaining the information, worried that I was doing it all wrong. This to the point that I was constantly looking for different ways of teaching the same thing and spent much wasted time going over the same thing in different ways. Sure, they will pick up on some stuff but not everything is going to stay in their brain. I can't remember it all so I shouldn't expect them to either. Instead now what I do is just make sure that they grasp the bigger picture on history. History is hard because so many events, names, and dates are involved it is hard to piece it all together and keep it all straight. I try to teach it but then stand back and have them see the bigger picture without so many dates just general time periods and the main people that were involved. If they can give a brief summary and show an understanding then I am happy. Sometimes we tend to expect too much when instead we should really give them a pat on the back and give them some words of encouragement and praise for their efforts.
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Really cool, looks great. Definitely going to have my kids learn this. Thanks,
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How about All American History, we are using it at the moment and it is very open and go. It is very minimal on the religion. We are secular as well and haven't seen any issues with it thus far. The further study area includes some religious discussions but we usually skip the further study area anyways. It comes with a textbook reader and a workbook for the student. The teacher text has the answers and a schedule suggestion. Student reads the chapter then does the workbook questions and mapping. Would work nicely for a 5th grader.
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Timelines work well around here. I don't expect them to remember exact dates for everything only very special dates that everyone should know but I expect for them to tell me around what time period certain things occurred. I try to go over specific people and events in history and then at the end of the week, I summarize it in a more condensed story so it can continue flowing to the next time period we are going to cover. In the condensed story, I only include the most important events and people and what lead to what is going on. We were covering explorers recently and I try to emphasis that this occurred in the late 1400's and early 1500's and which were the major people. How America is slowly being formed and who is settling where. It is coming together and I am trying to give them a clear idea of the bigger picture in History. We have covered some of it before and they do recall some of the stories as we go so it does come back but as others have said, it comes back to them when the information triggers it. I too have asked them before questions, which I am baffled, they don't know. But don't worry, as they get older, you will see your hard work come together.
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I have a 12 yr old who learns hands on best and visually so we follow curriculum but along the way stop to incorporate lapbooks and projects. I use free lapbooks
we find online or I do buy some from Hands of a Child. For our history study right now we are using the Time Travelers Unit studies as supplements. I find she is
retaining what she is learning very well. We need structure when working on lapbooks otherwise she is all over the place so I choose to use created unit studies rather
than make my own. Maybe you can try some of the free lapbooks and have her choose what she wants to include from the instructions. We dont include all of the
suggested projects and we pick what we want out of them otherwise we would be working on them all day. Games are another fun way to help her retain information.
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I am a natural at math so I can teach it really easily. Sometimes though, I do admit, I have to look up different ways of teaching it because what makes sense to me doesn't make sense to my daughters. So need some inventive and different ways of working the problems that will stick in their brains. Science, I have no problems. Grammar is a different story. I do have to read over their lesson quickly if they have a question but I usually understand it as soon as I read it and can explain it to them. History, I am learning along side of them because I didn't have a good history background. So far haven't run into anything I can't tackle.
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This link shows a picture of a lapbook. You usually use a file folder as the base and just attach sheets or stock paper to add space, then you can make mini books, pockets with cards, whatever you can think of. You add information based on what you are studying. They work as great study guides once complete.
http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/HTTA/TTS/images/ColonialLifePhotos/LARGE-LapbookOpen.gif
You can look at some at the link below. They come with instructions and some to print.
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Count me in on the overhaul. Need to loose weight and get new hair altogether. I've got a frizz that can't be tamed.
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Mine has the entire program on PDF. I have the printed version that came with the CD's. I also have another CD that came with it that has the songs only. Those are audio files, maybe that is what she's got.
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I don't do it all. My husband, who is my biggest critic, will tell you that. He can make you a very thorough list of everything I don't do. To that I say, there are not enough hours in a day to get everything done. I get done what I remember to do and whatever is on the kids planner for school that day. If I remember, I will throw in a load of clothes to wash and pick up something around the house but it is impossible to keep up with everything. Projects like those on pinterest are things we do in the holidays, if time permits. Life always feels so rushed so just try to breath and know that you are doing what you can, not what everyone expects.
Opinions on secular grammar and writing curricula?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
We use Winning with Writing as well and it has been great. Very structured and they have really learned how to get from point A to Z with essay writing. We used Easy Grammar and it worked very well for my 14 year old but my younger daughter does struggle with it a bit. She does the work but has a hard time looking at the bigger picture. It is separated into sections in the parts of speech. She will work on adverbs for a whole section then later when she is working in another section forgets what an adverb is. So it will work for some kids and not for others. This next year, I am going to try Analytical Grammar. I did purchase it and also purchased Digging into Grammar to give that a try first. I am thinking of purchasing Hands on English linking blocks which teaches the parts of speech to help her better. Those are some of the the secular writing and grammar programs that we have used or are planning on using.