Our Homeschool Focus

When we first started homeschooling, I identified our homeschool with a particular method of homeschooling and by the curriculum we purchased. But now, the focus of our homeschool has become creating a lifestyle of learning and cultivating family togetherness and developing the children's interests. We use academic curriculum as a tool to develop skills, so I don't think of our homeschool in reference to what curriculum we use.

Curriculum is part of what we do for Table Time and I wanted to post about what we're using now because I haven't posted on academics in awhile.

I recently decided to go a different route with our history reading. We've done history chronologically and we've been at ZERO for awhile, studying the life of Jesus. It pained me to think about picking up another H.A. Guerber book. I realized how bored I was with going through "the Greeks". I decided we'd read something else. I'm really enjoying "A Child's History of the World" by V.M. Hillyer, reading just a part of a chapter per day. I started the book and we're working up to ZERO again. A good review. I like that the book has a visual of stairs steps...Dan seems to "get" this kind of timeline.

I also felt the need to work on spelling, so I purchased Sequential Spelling and didn't like it at all. We're now using "The Wise Guide to Spelling", which is part of a larger curriculum set called "Spell to Write and Read", which I've had on my shelf since the beginning. We never used it to teach the kids to read since they learned that in school. But I'm using the spelling book a la carte and using this book to just go through spelling words to identify weaknesses. Dan has improved his spelling and he has noticed several times that he knows how to spell something from the reading he's done. Sarah has some weak spots and using the spelling book has helped me help her. I like that it connects each word to a spelling rule and I've here and there used the grammar portions to discuss grammar. I'm considering purchasing Winston Grammar in the near future. It is a hands-on grammar curriculum and I think we could benefit, though I refuse to waste a whole lot of time diagramming sentences!

Math is going well as we're still using ALEKS. In addition, Sarah also does Math Rider. Dan finished his first pie! When we moved, I realized my kids really needed to log in every single day so they didn't have to do new assessments all the time. It has helped them since I started requiring every single day for math. I need to do this in other areas, too!

The kids work on their spelling, grammar and writing by working on their notebooks and blogs and forum posts in various places.

We enjoy Mythbusters and some science DVDs, though I've put our biology book on the shelf for now. I'd like to come back and finish that soon, but I don't want Table Time going too long for right now.

I've been reading "Where the Sidewalk Ends" to expose them to some fun poetry and we continue doing Your Story Hour's "Adventures in Bible Study".

When we started homeschooling, I thought of our school with regards to what certain curricula we used. I've tried a lot of different things and feel good about our days with regards to academics and play.

If you only think of your homeschool with regards to what curriculum you use, like I used to, you might find this site challenging some of your ideas about education:
http://homeschoolcurriculumoflife.com/

Gamestar Mechanic

Oh my. I think I found this fantastic educational tool on someone's blog...Gamestar Mechanic. It has opened a whole new area of education for our family.

My kids have gone crazy for it. It is an online game community designed to teach the guiding principles of game design and systems thinking and the kids both LOVE it!

The kids do not need an email to sign up. There's a free version allowing access to most everything except the paid "Addison's Quest", which was quite enough to get started for us. If you want to pay for a homeschool, you pay $2 per student with a minimum of $20 at this time (which is the price for one student to do the paid quest, so it is a bargain to sign up as a class or homeschool).

I really view the computer as a tool, a means to an end and I like to limit its use for "just playing games", but this is different. The skills needed to create a game and write the comments and earn different skill levels involves many different thinking processes. Both kids have been asking "Mom, how do you spell "blank" and have been doing LOTS of typing. I like that they enjoy completing a game creation and encouraging one another.

The timing of finding Gamestar Mechanic couldn't have been better, they've been playing a lot during our move. I'll be cutting back on the time spent on it next week as we get back to the academics and routine we set aside in order to pack, move and unpack. I think Dan has pretty much plumbed the depths of the quests. Both have entered their games in a contest that ends April 24th. A great find for our family and good timing as we've had less structured time during our move!

Homeschool History-H.A. Guerber The Story of the Greeks

I can't believe, we actually finally finished Ancient History! Now we're on to The Greeks! We've REALLY enjoyed the Book of Greek Myths, and have discussed a little about their influence on modern culture. I will not just read one chapter at a time...the kids enjoy it so I may read several chapters at breakfast time and then we'll be onto the Romans before we know it!

New Life Of Fred Math Books Available

Recently, I got out our Fractions Life of Fred book and decided to visit the website again. Hey, it looks like there's a whole new set of elementary math books available! Interesting! I've put the Apples book on hold at the library...some super fun reading in store for me! :)

FlashMaster

FlashMaster: I purchased this when we started homeschooling to help with math drills. The kids thought it was neat, then it ended up on the shelf...until today when Sarah asked for it.

Sarah ended up in multiplication tables today while doing ALEKS (she hasn't mastered addition and subraction) and wanted to use the FlashMaster. Today she realized that 2 times 3 is taking a group of 3 twice. That's awesome!

Learning Math With ALEKS

I keep this blog for me as a reminder of our days and weeks and months and years. It is such a delight to look back over the photos of my precious children and reminisce about their unique, creative learning processes.

I went to college to become a math teacher hoping to change the world for good by helping students ENJOY math and see it in all its' practicality. My husband has a BS in Math so you can see that we LIKE math in our house. I find that I'm attracted to crafts that involve lots of math...formulating recipes for soy candles and lip balm, crochet, sewing and quilting. It is a good day in my mind, if I have to use algebra to solve for an unknown in my measurements!

Basic life skills include communication and computation. At the core, communication requires reading and writing and computation involves basic mathematical functions. In the grand scheme of life, a person needs these tools to move their education forward. The how and when are debated feverishly throughout humanity. 

We started our homeschool journey under the heavy load of a lot of curriculum which included a math curriculum. Recently, I realized the repetitive worksheets were really just busy work and set them aside for a time.

Shortly thereafter, a friend mentioned ALEKS. I'd heard about it when some friends used ALEKS to pass required college level classes so I thought it was only for advanced math. I was so wrong! I just wanted to post about ALEKS because though I limit screen-based activities, this is really worthwhile in my opinion.

I signed up for the 60 day free trial. I told Daniel the only requirement for the 60 days was to visit ALEKS everyday and do a minimum of one problem. He has done that-and MORE. In a few short weeks, he's spent over six self-motivated hours of interactive, self-assessing math with a high level in enjoyment.

Here's what I like about ALEKS:
-FREE 60 day trial (thank you!)
-student decides what to work on
-knowledge base divided into "pies" (student selects topics to explore)
-no boring explanations or lessons (if the student misses a question, they click the HELP button to find out how to get the right answer, "reverse engineering" is a great way to learn!)
-no lifeless, repetitive drills

I expect to sign up for the paid subscription when the trial is over. ALEKS offers a way for homeschoolers to master math concepts in a student-directed way that I appreciate.

Just Do The Math Article

Since we started homeschooling, I've read a few books by David H. Albert. There was a chapter in “Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love” that fascinated me because it was about math.

An excerpt from the chapter:

"I had just explained how the Sudbury Valley School (www.sudval.org), a democratically managed, child-directed learning environment that has been around for almost 40 years, has demonstrated repeatedly that a child could learn math – all of it grades K through 12 – in eight weeks. Average (if there is such a thing), normal (never met one), healthy children, scores of them, learned it all, leading to admissions to some of the leading colleges and universities in the nation".

EIGHT WEEKS? Only 20 contact hours? I've never heard of such a thing. The article went on to describe how this was done.

Reading this gave me a huge sense of relief that there's not one exclusive formula for learning math. It also gave me "permission" to reconsider how and when my children will learn computation skills. This is very freeing! Thank you SO much David!

Spelling Books

There's debate (and scientific evidence to back up a particular theory) about whether a person becomes a good speller through:
-genes
-spelling tests
-silent reading
-reading aloud
-certain spelling curriculum
-spelling lists
-dictation
-spelling anthologies
-using spellchecker
-copywork
-textbook assignments about spelling
-listening to books being read aloud
-learning spelling rules

Personally, I think it is a combination of auditory, visual and linguistic skills and has a component of "natural aptitude" as well. I've always liked the idea of a personal spelling vault...a place to hold all the words that once were a mystery but now are familiar. I purchased index cards and a pouch but we found that difficult to use. ANSWER-these inexpensive lightweight, thin booklets!

Anytime the kids need to ask me how to spell a word they are expected to write it in their booklet for future reference. Over the past year, there's been complaining about this but as they've started to collect words, they are seeing the benefit! I've even seen them getting their booklet off the shelf to look something up! I like the connections they are making by using these booklets. You can find them here.

Books for Breakfast-McCall-Crabbs

McCall-Crabbs. I've been attracted to this book for almost a year now. I purchased it used and half price at HomeschoolClassifieds.com (a site I love because I've sold so much of my unused curriculum!) This book has short passages that are used to teach reading comprehension and thinking skills.

It is quite diagnostic oriented and organized by grade level but I'm ignoring that and starting at the beginning. Here's how we're using it...during our breakfast/morning history reading time we have a SANDWICH. The first piece of bread is a short fairy tale or story, the sandwich filling is the history and the top piece is another short story. This has been SO MUCH FUN and become part of our daily routine.

We continue to read H.A. Guerber's Story of Ancient World which is one page of Bible history per day, just the right amount for us right now.

For short stories I've read from:
3 Minute Stories/Fairy Tales by Publications International and The Lion Storyteller Book of Animal Tales by Bob Hartman as well as selected picture books at times and I'm waiting for Classics to Read Aloud to Your Children by William F. Russell but in the meantime I'm using the McCall Crabbs since the stories are so short and wonderfully varied, I've learned quite a lot already! The kids seem to enjoy answering the questions after I read the paragraph.

Daniel gets the even numbered questions since he was born on an even year and Sarah gets the odd ones for the same reason. Another way I "stay organized" is Daniel has an "L" in his name, so he's always on my LEFT. Sarah has an "R" in her name and she goes on the RIGHT. This is such a weird thing, but when I pour their milk glasses or make their dinner plates or walk across the street, they "know their place"! It is one less decision I have to make and I love that their names lend to this! I suppose this one fact makes me a geek!

Real Life Copywork #2

This is so great! I'm printing one photo per day with a blank sheet of lines for each child. The photos are different for each one and sometimes the same. They are ASKING to do their copywork each day, so awesome! Right now they are both only required to write 3 sentences as we are still just finishing our first year of homeschooling. I will increase this soon as this becomes habit. So fun!

These sheets will go into page protectors in a 3-ring binder which will have many benefits. One of which is to look back and see improvement in handwriting!

Real Life Copywork

I've been using Spelling Wisdom by Simply Charlotte Mason. I love this resource! It is designed to be dictated for spelling but I use it differently. I have the pdf version and print one page at a time and then run the page through again with special lines for each child. I use this as copywork. They simply have to do one page per day. The first lessons are very short and have been helpful in getting my children into the writing routine which is part of our bookwork that we do for table time.

But what I really want to do is have them write about their real life. Today we took one of their drawings and they wrote 3 sentences about that picture. They actually LIKED it! I intend to keep doing this! The idea is to get these into a binder with page protectors so we can look back on their progress. Barbie told me to take pictures of their 3D projects and print the photo on a piece of paper for them to write a story about. We just haven't been there...that will come. But taking the drawing and writing 3 sentences is a great transition for us into real life writing!

Weekend Science

Early yesterday morning my son used the bathroom when he woke up. I heard the toilet flush as I was snuggling, all cozy in my bed. Then I heard footsteps heading downstairs. Ummmm, did he not WASH HIS HANDS!? (he's 11)

I levitated out of bed, floated down the stairs to find his UNWASHED HANDS on the CLEAN dishes as he unloaded the dishwasher.

Gathering my loving composure (!) I asked why he didn't WASH HIS HANDS. He shrugged.

"Do you know why we wash our hands"?

"Not really", he said.

Ah. Have I failed as a parent!? Instead of hyperventilating, I told him, "well, let me show you"!

We looked on YouTube for GERM VIDEOS (this was is our favorite-can't find it!).

It was great! We had awesome discussion about bacteria and filth (fun!) and both kids were eager to tell dad about the day's discoveries.

This led to my purchasing a set of 5 experiments for us to do with dad on the weekends. We are starting with heating soap in the microwave, more on that later!

UPDATE: 08/01/2011 - We haven't done any "Weekend Science" yet! We took on visiting lighthouses in Washington and hiking for the summer instead. This might be a GREAT family activity for the dark and cold winter months.

Life Of Fred Math

I don't remember when this was purchased, but it is a GEM. Dan has looked at it a few times but I think he'll probably engage with it as he gets better with fractions. It is right up his alley as he loves kittens and this character (Fred) is a professor at Kittens University (even though he's only five)!

This math book has a wonderful way of explaining concepts and the writing is simply hilarious!

As a non-consumable math resource, this is a bargain at $19.