Hkpiano
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Posts posted by Hkpiano
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Charles Walter, Yamaha, or Kawai are all great pianos. Yamahas have the brightest sound, so it kind of depends on what you like.
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My husband's family uses the phrase: "dry as a bone" as in:
"Were the roads icy?"
"No, they were dry as a bone!"
Such an awful mental image, makes me shudder!
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If you are than I am too, lol.
We are 2/3 of the way through SOTW1 and we haven't done anything but read the book and do the map work. Science and art provide enough messes for me for the week. Oh well, my kids haven't complained.
We've only done a handful of the activities, and I've been feeling guilty. We do always do the map work and read some of the recommended books...
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More helpfully, mine typically do gentle math, phonics, and penmanship in K, and start a formal WTM-ish load in first grade. I don't really consider them formal students until first grade by age.
)
This is what we do, too.
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I can't give any input really but am looking forward to seeing the responses because we are in the process of relocating from the Raleigh, NC area to Portland (well, probably Vancouver, WA since that's where SIL lives).
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Yes, try YouTube. I especially enjoy Yoga With Adriene. She has lots of great videos, several the are specifically geared to beginners. I'm doing her 30 days of yoga series right now.
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Haha! That's great!
We've been doing lots of read-alouds and audiobooks lately, most of which have happened to be British. My 5 year old DD has started to develop British-sounding vocabulary and inflections. For example, she'll say that someone is "cross" or that the "cookies will be done shortly."
We had recently finished Part 1 of Tales of the Odyssey and my DS7 made up this joke:
Odysseus had been sailing for a year by himself. He said, "I have good news and bad news. The good news is: I've been sailing back to Ithaca with no obstacles in my way. The bad news is: ROCK BOULDER!!!!"
The other day, I was doing math with DD5 on our white board which happens to be on the floor because we haven't hung it yet. She ended up sitting in my lap for most of the lesson, and later informed DS7 that she sat in my lap during her math lesson. He gave her a sad look and said, "I'm so jealous!" Perks of homeschooling! :)
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I realized a few years ago that offering free bill pay is an excellent way for a bank to retain customers. No way I'm going through all that set up for each biller again at another bank's website, LOL.
Haha, so true!!
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I was homeschooled. I remember writing sentences using my spelling words and i think I occasionally had to answer essay-type questions for history and science (my parents used Abeka for those subjects). I definitely remember diagramming sentences, also with Abeka. I also remember doing copywork, although my mom didn't call it that and it seemed fairly random ("Wow, Dickens really liked long sentences!") and mostly done for penmanship practice. There were occasional book reports. And of course, we wrote the obligatory thank you notes and other letters. I think I wrote a letter to a newly elected President Clinton when I was 8...
Once I was in high school, they really started working with me on my writing skills. My dad took over at that point. I had to write a rough draft paper every day and fine-tune one into a 250 word polished essay each week. My dad was tough, too. At first they came back, as a previous poster put it, "bloody." But I eventually improved (or at least learned not to make the mistakes that were my dad's pet peeves)!
Probably more detail than you were looking for, but yes, I definitely remember being taught how to write! :)
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We are really enjoying The Reading Lesson with our 5 year old DD who was at a similar starting point as your daughter when we started it this summer. You can download the first 3 "lessons" for free on their website. Each lesson is meant to take 1-2 weeks, so that gives you a good chance to try it out to see if it is a good fit. She loves to read the page then color the picture. I supplement with Bob Books, Handwriting without Tears, and Explode The Code.
Eta: here is the website for the free sample downloads: http://readinglesson.com
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I agree with the Right Start math recommendation. It doesn't take a ton of prep and feels much more like playing. Very few worksheets involved and tons of fun manipulatives!
We're doing a combo of The Reading Lesson, Bob Books, Explode the Code, and Handwriting Without Tears for my K DD. We keep it short but her reading is progressing and she is enjoying herself, so I'd say it's working so far! :)
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Right Start Math A
The Reading Lesson
Explode The Code
Handwriting without Tears
We also do some CM-type activities: composer and artist studies, nature walks, poetry tea times, and lots and lots of read-alouds of course.
ETA more detail...
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I just purchased and read through Jot It Down last week. It has 10 projects (that are intended to be completed at a pace of 1 per month). They look really fun, and I am excited to do them with my kids ages 5 and 7. It also has lots of great ideas on how to enrich your children's language via little things that affect the culture of the home.
However, it does not have the daily/weekly assignments like copywork or narration/dictation. That is what The Arrow is for. Or you could use WWE or simply pull your own copywork passages from your reading (which is what I'm doing because DS hates WWE).
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That's good to know, Lexi! I was wondering if the amount of time would increase each year.
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We shoot for read-aloud time twice a day (in addition to our history and science read-alkyds which happen in the morning for school). We read after lunch before "quiet time" and after dinner before bed. Sometimes we have an afternoon outing or my eldest has an evening basketball practice so story time only happens once, which is why I like to have it scheduled twice.
I have a 3 year old boy, a 5 year old girl, and a 7 year old boy. I let them each choose a book (or a chapter from a book for my oldest who likes chapter books now). And I often choose a chapter from a classic book. We read youngest to oldest. The older two will sometimes still be picking their books out while I read to the youngest, and often after I finish his book, he will listen to the 5 year old's choice then wander off to play. It's been working really well.
I also am a big fan of audio books and we almost always have one going as we drive around town. They are a captive audience then, but they love it. And their vocabulary has grown in leaps and bounds since we started doing this about 6 months ago.
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I'm doing Right Start B with my first grader and Right Start A with my Kindergartener. We start our school with Circle Time then I go right into math one on one with the Kindergartener, it takes about 20 minutes. Then I do math with the 1st grader, which takes about 30 minutes. Then we move on to other subjects. It's definitely not a curriculum where I can be doing anything else while they do math. But I love it, they love it, and they are learning so much and truly understanding it, so it is worth it!
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We start out with Circle Time into which I intersperse fun things for my 3 year old: nursery rhymes, weather, songs, etc. I also allow them all to have a snack during Circle Time which helps him to be willing to sit and be quiet during that time.
Then I move on to math. We are doing Right Start for both of my older two kids. It is very teacher intensive and they are on separate levels, so whoever is not doing math will play with their little brother during this time while the other child and I do math.
After that, we do Handwriting without Tears and the 3 year old sits at the table and colors or puts stickers in his sticker book. Then we do Story of the World or Science and he will sometimes listen to that or run off to play. Sometimes we'll bring toys out for him if he really wants to be with us but is not wanting to sit and listen. Often DD will go play with him. Since she's only in K, I leave it up to her whether or not to participate in History and Science each day.
Next is DD's reading lesson. It is DS7's job to entertain his brother during this time because it is only 10-15 minutes but she needs to be able to focus.
Usually after that I'll read aloud our literature selection and DS7 will read something aloud to all of us. Since he is on a second grade reading level, usually his book is very appealing to his brother and sister so we all listen in. :)
Then we'll do Spelling and Writing, and again everyone is back at the table so DS3 usually asks to color again. After that, it is lunch time!
DS3 is very rambunctious and can be pretty distracting but we've found a rhythm that works for us, I think mostly because we're not doing any one thing for very long. There is variety plus he gets one-on-one time with his siblings which he likes a lot!
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We are! And ready to get back into the routine of things!
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I've been using the book recommendations from Classical House of Learning. It follows along with SOTW and has a 36 week schedule to follow. We really like it so far. We're halfway through SOTW1. http://www.classicalhouseoflearning.com
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Right, WWE is copywork and narration, and FLL is grammar. I don't necessarily want to replace them yet, although honestly we're not really using WWE as written anyway. Since the excerpts are what bug DS, I've been finding copywork sentences from our own reading and having him do narrations within our other subjects.
I do plan on using The Wand for my daughter and Quiver of Arrows for my son starting in the fall, but I think in the meantime he will really enjoy supplementing our copywork and narrations with the writing projects in Jot It Down (from what I saw in the sample).
I just wanted to be sure that I wasn't putting the cart before the horse by not purchasing TWJ first. Sounds like it will be okay to get JID now, TWJ in a few months (maybe it would be a good summer read for me), then start The Wand/Quiver of Arrows in the fall instead of going on to WWE2. Thank you so much for all of your input, it's nice to hear the voices of experience!
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DS7 is not a fan of WWE1, mostly because he hates reading excerpts. I have been reading a lot on the Brave Writer blog and website, as well as all the rave reviews on here! I want to get started with the Brave Writer lifestyle, but due to budget restrictions, can only purchase one product right now. I'm wondering, which would be the best product for me to start with at this point? The Writer's Jungle or Jot It Down? I know the Writer's Jungle explains the basis of the whole philosophy and is usually recommended as the starting point. However, it says on the website that it is written for ages 8-18. My children are 5 and 7, and I would really like to get into the nitty gritty of how to implement her ideas. Should I just get Jot It Down first? Would that be the most practical?
Thanks for any suggestions and advice!!
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I log the books in DS7's 1st grade One Note notebook. I have 3 separate sections: one for family read-alouds, one for books he reads to himself, and a third for books he reads to me. I don't always remember to log every book, but I think it will be a fun tool to go back and see how his reading skills have progressed.
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Thank you! I am always looking for books my DS7 will enjoy. These look fun!
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I'd say that if you have a 6 year old reading Harry Potter, take 'Yes' for an answer. Let him read it as much as he wants. Eventually he'll burn himself out on the series and move on, and in the meantime you're encouraging a lifelong love of reading.
I should have clarified, he is welcome to read all the books himself and we already own the 4th and 5th books, but I have opted not to read those aloud to him yet. He read the first chapter of the 4th book himself, but stopped because he was having a hard time understanding it. He is closer to a second-grade reading level, so they really are too advanced for him to read himself, although he follows along well when I read them aloud.
Where did YEC begin??
in The Chat Board
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I was homeschooled from the beginning of my school years until graduating from high school in 2002. One of the major reasons my parents homeschooled me and my 3 sisters was so that we would not be taught evolution in public schools. We were taught Young Earth in our science curriculum (Abeka). My parents were North American Baptist, then Southern Baptist, now Foursquare (Pentecostal). My dad is a pastor. They are very much of the mindset that was talked about in a recent thread that most Catholics, Lutherans, Mormons, etc are not true "Christians." 2 of the 4 of us (including myself) no longer identify with their brand of Christianity or believe the Young Earth story, much to their disappointment.