Just a quick thumbs up

After trying a few different "learn to read" programs with no real winners, I finally found one that works for us!  Ashlyn LOVES it, it is easy on me, and it is fairly affordable.  Another plus is that it works well with the Happy Phonics games we already enjoy.  What is this great program you may ask? 

READING MADE EASY
By: Valerie Bendt


If you are in the market for a reading instruction program, this one is worth a look.

Back to School

Yesterday we officially started our 2010-2011 school year.  Ashlyn is joining us now full-time as a kindergartner for family work time.  This adds some new, but welcome, distractions.

I have kept most things as they are posted on the "Our Curriculum" page, but I did make a switch for Allie's science.  She will be using Apologia Physical Science this year.  I think it will be enjoyable.

Sharing

It has been too beautiful to blog for the past several days.  We have spent many hours in the out-of-doors playing and gardening. 

However, I do have a goodie to share with you.  I made this Book of Centuries template for my oldest daughter and thought some of you might like it as well.  I had mine printed and spiral bound at the local office supply store.  It cost around $30, but it is for all 4 high school years (and I used really high quality paper and color ink).  You could always print it at home and put it in a three-ring binder.  I found this layout to be more easily organized than a general year A to year B page.  Enjoy!

Book of Centuries Generic

Fun FREE Phonics Website

Did I mention FREE?  You can check it out for yourself here.

School on the farm

Some days are just too nice to be indoors.  We did all of our family work outdoors this morning.  Allie and Caleb did their personal readings among the animals.  Allie seems to have found the new piglets more interesting than her books :O)

A List of Attainments

This is the list of homemaking skills I decided upon for Allie's high school "Domestic Science" course. We will cover these topics over four years. They are not necessarily in order, although the last two will be reserved for her senior year :O)

Most skills will be taught in the realm of real life. There will of course be special projects to show mastery. I'm sure we will blog these as they come along.

Just in case you are assuming that I have mastered all of these skills (HAH!), I assure you I have not and will be learning more than a thing or two.

A List of Homemaking Skills

Caleb's Pirate Story

For language arts this week, Caleb has been using Karen Andreola's book, Story Starters, to do some creative writing. He had so much fun and really wowed me with his abilities. All of the writing is his. I merely typed it, fixed spelling and punctuation errors, and corrected some "tense" issues.



Caleb age 8
A Continuation of The Prince and the Pirates
March 17, 2010

It had been ten days since Prince Roy had been captured by the pirates and taken aboard their ship. Prince Roy worked in the burning sun along with the other men. One man glanced across at him and then stopped and began to stare. At first the prince ignored him, but then recognized him as one of his father’s servants. Later that day, Piers, who was struggling to free himself, heard wood crackling. “Wildfire!”, he shouted. As Piers got untangled , wood and fire fell through the roof. He ran outside and grabbed his sword and ran towards the palace.

Prince Roy heard a cannon go off and saw another pirate ship in the distance. From his side, a pirate came with an ax, and cut all of the captives free of the oars, chained them together, and led them down below the deck to shoot the cannons. Three pirates showed them how to fire the cannons and gave them swords, but they watched keenly with eagle eyes to make sure the captives wouldn’t try to escape. Through a crack in the side of the ship, Prince Roy saw that it wasn’t a pirate ship that they were firing upon, but one of his father’s ships. The prince told all of the other captives his findings and said, “We will all soon be free!“. They grabbed their swords and began to fight the pirates. They made their way to deck and began to signal the other ship with the enemy flag. The king’s ship ceased fire. When the king saw that his son was safe, he scolded him and begged him to never go out of the palace without at least two guards.

Ashlyn Loves Her New Math

We are going to slowly move into Miquon. Right now we are just familiarizing ourselves with the Cuisenaire rods. Ashlyn thinks they are SUPER!

She built the stairs.


This is Daddy's work building :O)

A New Favorite Poetry Anthology

Maybe it's because it has so many beloved classics, or maybe it's the logical topical organization, or perhaps it is simply the lovely cover. Whatever it is, we fell in love with this book at our library, and now have one on the way. Allie is very excited!

The "Freshman" Year Plan is Done

Grade 9 Overview

Well, it's official......

Allie will be starting highschool level work in the fall. This means she will be skipping 8th grade. It is a bit scarry, but she is clearly ready for upper level work. Now, the fun of laying out the plan begins.

Copywork with a sense of humor

Allie *LOVES* Jane Austen's Pride and Predjudice. I think she's closer to obsessed! She even uses passages for copywork.

Allie's CW

just sharing......

This was Caleb's history narration today. I thought it was well done, so I'm sharing it here. It makes him feel extra good to be "published".

Buffalo Bill Narration by Caleb

Our Weekly Schedule

I created our spring term schedule using the concept of time blocks. This prevents me from keeping my eye on the clock too closely. It is working out well; a nice balance of work and play keeps everyone happy. FYI - A=Allie, C=Caleb, and F=family work
Time Blocks Week Plan

Simple Pleasures

We have eased back into school the last couple of days and I must admit, I missed it. It is good to be learning together again. Schooling at home is truly a joy.

It is only 19 degrees here today, but on the sunny south side of the house it is toasty.
This is where Allie chose to enjoy her literature selection, Little Women, with her cat Henry. She had been feeding the little sparrows and juncos as well, but Henry took care of that.

What a blessing from the Lord to be able to let our children grow in wisdom and grace in an environment that nutures their very souls. Praise be to God!

Spelling Bliss

I am a phonics geek and I'm not afraid to admit it. I firmly believe that learning to read and spell well involves good old fashioned phonics. I recently
learned about All About Spelling and am using it with my 3rd grade son. I LOVE IT!!! Wish I had found it sooner. Download some sample lessons at the website.

Rethinking

We used Tapestry of Grace at the beginning of our homeschooling journey and felt quite overwhelmed, but I have just recently been rethinking. I received a link to the new Tapestry of Grace DE (digital edition) and I felt a renewed excitement.
The first time around, I tried to read and do EVERYTHING. I was so worried the kids would "miss something" if I skipped a reading. Now that I am more relaxed and confident in my teaching abilities, I think it may be a good fit for us.

Things I like about TOG are:
- Very organized lessons and readings - I don't have to plan this :O)
- Assignments that correlate perfectly if you choose to use them
- Covers all aspects of the Humanities
- GREAT thinking and accountability questions for older students
- Amazing teacher notes and student discussion guide

We are going to be trying out Y3U2 beginning September 21st.

I still plan on using many CM methods with the material, especially narrations, but I want a little more "rigor" for my oldest and I feel this will fit the bill.

We are LOVING this!

We got our Happy Phonics set in the mail from the nice folks over at Love to Learn and what a hit! My Ashlyn (3 1/2) couldn't wait to get started. I wasn't even halfway done cutting out the first game (muffin match) before she was begging to play. I can see why this program works. I feel like I must mention that it is worth every penny of the $49.99 price tag - the games are printed on very high quality cardstock and the instructions are clear as a bell. If you have a young one at your house that is ready to learn to read, give Happy Phonics a look.

Back to the Books!

We started our new school year today and it was AWESOME! Everyone is so excited to be learning new things again.

I can tell that our history period is going to be a huge hit. We are covering American History, beginning at about 1800. Today we started a book about Daniel Boone together and Caleb is reading on his own about Davy Crockett. Tonight we will begin Little House in the Big Woods as our read-aloud.

Caleb is doing Apologia Science Zoology 1 and already "made me" read more than I had scheduled. He is a HUGE lover of science.

Allie will be reading several books this term, but she really loved the first couple of chapters in Ruth Beechick's Adam and His Kin . She is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her Spanish program. We chose The Easy Spanish. It looks like great fun and is CM friendly!

We were finished with our studies by noon and now the day is ours to enjoy as we wish (okay, the kids will *enjoy* and I will do laundry).


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