2_girls_mommy
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Posts posted by 2_girls_mommy
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We have the Allowance Game from Lakeshore Learning. It is probably on sale right now w/their back to school sales. You might check their website.
We also have a math Bingo game that I got for $1 at Target last year. Don't know if they have it this year. But you could make one easily. The person calls out a math problem. You look for the answer on your card.
For my 5 year old, things like Candyland and Chutes and Ladders are still good. She also likes Uno.
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I hadn't read the part about leaving the room. That could be a fun game. I would have the 6 yr old go first, so he/she is not copying the older child. Like PP, I have a very sensitive younger child who tends to "feel dumb" because she thinks that she should be able to do as much as older sis. So this idea might be a good idea for mine next year!
I just finished SOTW w/my 6 yr old, and I had to do a lot of leading questions. I am going to try to wean her from that this year for 2nd grade.
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I just put mine together for tomorrow! I used the WTM suggestions for grammar stage. 1 for Science w/dividers for our 2 subjects of the year, one for SOTW vol. 2. (I do a separate 1 for each year. She may suggest one huge one for all 4 volumes, but that would be too big for me.) Then one for L.A. My dividers in it are: reading (reading list and narration pages), writing, (copywork, dictation, any creative writing, and English assignments), spelling.
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We start when our local school does, which is a year round school. We generally finish when they do and do fun learning in the summer. They have shorter summer breaks than most schools too. This past year we finished 2 weeks before them, because they had a ton of snow days.. We don't line up our breaks w/them or anything though. It is just nice to start back when they neighbor girl is. It just seems natural.
All of that to say, we start on MONDAY! I am not ready.
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I would like to try Artistic Pursuits one of these days too.
But what we did last year for preK and 1st was follow the Art section of What Your first Grader Needs to Know. We read a little section, did any projects listed (and I checked their online lesson plans too, sometimes they have printouts or other ideas..) This teaches some art concepts and also some picture study. This along w/doing lots of SOTW projects and free arts and crafts was just enough for our art. We actually made it last all year. It was successful too. My dd even recognized a painting in an exhibit that our museum had on loan that we had studied in the book.
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Our neighborhood elem. is a pure phonics school. They teach ONLY the letter sound in K. The kids are not allowed to call it the letter, even if their parents have taught them the letter names before school.
(Not that this makes one bit of difference either way to you or any of us who do it differently.. but it might to her, if she hears that some "real" schools do it this way too.)
Yay for your new reader!!
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I put 2-4, but in reality it is closer to 4 most days. Some days it is less on actual sit down work with me. But it is hard to say, because if you count read aloud time at bedtime, and out of the house activities, which I am driving them to and which are educational (and most of which I am teaching at or assisting with) we spend a lot more time. So it is pretty much a full time job.
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Todd Wilson is encouraging and hilarious!! Dh and I loved him.
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We also did not get any books on them w/SOTW 1. I personally read some of Plato's Republic to myself. I think one of the chapters mentions about the great Greek teachers, so we discussed them. Also, in a book we had about Alexander the Great it was mentioned that Aristotle was his teacher. Then we just talked about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle without any specific books.
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We are using, Rod and Staff 2nd grade music for learning to read music, and What Your 2nd grader Needs to Know for the fun stuff. We read a section from it, do any activities that are listed, check out C.Ds and videos that pertain, and learn the songs. We use a lot of Wee Sings C.Ds and the library. We recently had the "Story of Classical Music" set from the library that a P.P mentioned, and loved it too.
For Art, we follow, What Your 2nd grader needs to know also, and do any projects and activities in it. We also do art projects from SOTW, and try to see as many exhibits as we can a year, especially ones that pertain to our history period. Plus tons of crafts and free time w/the supplies.
My YDD follows along, although I will supplement w/things from What Your Ker needs to know this year too. But for the most part, she will follow the older level.
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horse ranches or farms
pumpkin patches in fall
parks with ponds for feeding ducks and fish
all types of museums. I watch a local paper for free days.
library classes. Ours has stuff all year from stuff for just kids to soapmaking for all ages.
Musical concerts of all kinds.
nature things: camping, hiking, nature centers
a membership to the zoo or a science museum is great, because you can really go through it during the year, instead of trying to squeeze everything in one or two visits. You can revisit their favorite parts over and over.
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I used Letter of the Week dot com for ideas. Here is roughly how we did it.
Sun. I printed out the week's lesson plan from the website. I also printed a Sesame Street coloring page of the letter and a sign language coloring sheet showing the letter and how to do the ASL. (If you want these links let me know.) I would also print out any poems or songs she had listed that I liked and look through our children's C.D.s to see if we had the song. The week before, I would reserve and pick up books from the library from the reading list. Sometimes I was able to substitute books from home for a letter. I made the flashcards of the theme words.
Mon. We learned our letter and sound of the week, looked at the letter flashcards and the theme word flashcards together. I read one or two of the books or the poems or songs while she colored one of her letter coloring sheets. We learned the sign language for the letter (and went over the ASL alphabet we had learned up until then.)
Tues. She colored or painted or crafted on the other coloring sheet, and we practiced the flashcards and ASL.
Wed. Thurs Fri, practice the flaschcards, ASL, and the songs or poems we learned, and finish any other books we had.
We put the coloring sheets into a binder so she has an alphabet notebook she made over the year. We did a craft some weeks from the Art section, but not always. She also had the Rod and Staff ABC workbooks. She would do a page or two a week in those too.
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We are going with Rod and Staff grade 2 English and handwriting and phonics. For reading we will follow WTM suggestions which will mean narrating and notebooking on our SOTW2 reading lists. I haven't decided on spelling yet. My dd is strong in reading too, but I decided to finish the phonics program, since she did R&S grade 1 phonics.
WTM doesn't suggest R&S English until 3rd grade, but we like everything we have used from them and love the looks of this program.
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In skills areas, yes. Not always in content subjects. I did follow SOTW all of the way through, but not always 1 chapter a week. We took weeks off and did some history out of order when I wanted to cover some American stuff. We did a lapbook once and put away all of our regular curric except math that week, since it covered all other areas. In Science I am currently pulling chapters and info from several different books.
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I have done lots of parties for both of my girls. They all usually have some type of theme like that. But I usually buy generic colorful plates, napkins, and hats in the matching colors. Then I have one or two things of the "theme." Usually for us, it is the cake or cupcake. Or I have made posters. I have also bought stickers to put on the plain party hats and napkins, instead of purchasing the fancy ones.
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I ended up w/42 weeks before we finished our math and L.A. and stopped recording. We are still actually working on Science & History over the summer. I guess that makes us a year round school too. Although we are taking an 8 wk summer break (from the math and L.A. anyway.)
3 of those weeks were holiday weeks where we only did a day or two of official school too.
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We did biology via the WTM mostly. Animals, human body, and plants. For animals, we started w/the Kingfisher Animal Encyclopedia and classification. Then we read about different animals. DD did a little report page on different animals for her notebook... We did not do a lot of hands on with this, except we got a pet hamster:)
For Human Body, we used the Usborne First Human Body Encyclopedia as the spine. We read a section, and read a couple of library books on it. We followed the online links for games and printouts. She diagrammed the body system she was learning (either drew it herself, or labeled one I printed out,) then wrote a few key sentences or definitions. All of this went into her notebook. She was doing more work at this time, as she was able to focus longer and write longer as the year wore on. We did tons of hands on experiments and games as they came up in our library books.
For Plants, we used library books, started a garden, and then did the section on seeds, wildflowers, and trees in R&S's Patterns of Nature.
Over the summer, we are doing the Insects chapter from Patterns of Nature. We supplement them all with lots of library books.
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What about just asking the boy right in front of her, "So what's the deal with you and cigarrette butts?" I would say it friendly and smiling, and see what he says. Then take the conversation from there. I would just ask him directly, and say well, I just heard you were playing with them, and I told my son I don't want him touching them 'cause they are nasty, etc. And then move on and have a good time.
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70's..
Brady Bunch
80's...
Cosby
Family Ties
Facts of Life
Saved by the Bell (am I the only one who will admit that one? :))
90's...
Mad About You
Friends
SEINFELD!!!!
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Starting at 9 is early around here (and is my goal for the coming year!) Last year for 1st grade we rarely started sit down work before 10:30. We usually worked until lunch around 12:30 or 12:45. Then playtime outside or free time inside. Then there was usually rest time, or a movie time. Then we usually did our last subject of the day in the very late afternoon. We have been known to do history from 5:00 to 6:00 as dinner is cooking after having a laid back afternoon. So don't be afraid to spread the work out. Nothing says you have to do it all at once.
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We have only done the 1st grade, and we are not Mennonite either :) But we loved them. We did the full phonics/reading program over K & 1st. It was a very enjoyable time for dd and I to sit together and do these lessons.
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Daybreaking, the former math teacher, thanks for sharing your opinion. That is so good to know that you like it to prepare for the upper grades. I have not used anything else, and just have a good feeling about sticking w/it.
And to the OP, I just wanted to add, that my dd is very capable in math too. She was figuring out math in real life as a 3 yr. old. She knew how to multiply and divide to figure out how many packs of party supplies she would need if each pack had 4 hats and she had 12 friends coming to her party. She could count w/1 to 1 recognition before she was 2. In preK she was adding double digit #s, and making math homework for me :)
I just wanted to say, that even though the program seems to move a little slow it has never been too slow for her. Even though she was doing much higher math, I started her on grade 1 in K to learn how to write her #s well and to master her facts, etc. It has never been not challenging enough. For her, she challenges herself with trying to beat her speed drill scores, and saying her triplets quickly, etc.
And I love the themes. This past year, my dds both loved the little stories about bees. And I always make the teaching posters too, for manipulatives to match the themes.
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I had the opposite problem. I bought them for preK, and dd did not like/want to do workbook pages. So I ended up doing Letter of the Week with her and she only did a couple of ABC pages a week. By the end of the year, when she was closer to 5, she finally took off with them, and would do 1 or 2 a day. She finished the first 3, except the Bible pictures one.
We are left w/3 books to do for K, before I start her on the R&S 1st grade phonics 2nd semester. I figured out and wrote down that she would need to do 3 pages a day to finish by Christmas. That is with a 4 day week. On avg. 16 days of school a mo.
So, if you are doing 5 day weeks, w/ 2or 3 pgs a day, you should be able to do them in a school year.
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We will be using our 3rd yr. of R&S math this fall. I would not call it challenging for my dd. The work is easy, but requires a lot of memorization, lots of writing, and really drills in the material.
The writing is easily taken care of by not requiring all of the problems to be completed if there is no issue w/the content. The memorization is amazing. Just by reciting her "triplets" and facts daily she is able to do double digit math so quickly because she has those facts memorized. It includes a lot of things, like time and some measurement, but there are some things that are not covered in the lower years that are in other programs.. like graphs. This will be covered eventually, so I just plan on sticking with the program since it works so well. I do introduce some things like graphs from other sources once in awhile. I love the program and will not switch from it. You can get a copy of the scope & sequence from R&S for free to compare when things are taught. I haven't used Saxon so I can't compare.
Does your child enjoy homeschooling?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Yes mine do. My oldest (6 also) is very social and outgoing. I do keep her active in activities. That helps. But we have months between activities (like August) where we have nothing going on but church on the weekend and the occasional playdate, and she does fine with that too.
We treat screen time the same as it would be if she was in school outside of the house. It is not allowed until all schoolwork is complete. She cannot argue about getting off or just a few more min if she knows it is not allowed on. I am the only one allowed on the computer before school is complete.
My 6 yr. old played online for about 30 min. after school this afternoon. Then we ran errands. Now she is watching a Disney cartoon w/her sis. That is all she gets today.
It is too hot for outside time until later in the evening right now. So they will get even less screen time come fall when I send them outside until dinnertime.