Wordless Wednesday

Getting Shivers

A friend came over the other day and I showed her all my new BJU stuff (knowing full well that it wasn't her cup of tea, but wanting to show it anyway). And she remarked that she got that school textbook shiver feeling as she flipped through the pages. You know the feeling...you're looking at curriculum, and suddenly one book triggers a "painful school textbook memory" feeling. Oddly enough, I don't get that feeling when I look at BJU, but I do get that feeling looking at Horizons. I remember when Horizons arrived on my doorstep, and my first initial reaction as I flipped through the book. Painful school textbook memory shivers went down my spine. Oddly enough, she is using Horizons and does not get painful school textbook memory shivers when she looks at it. So...different curriculum can trigger that reaction from different people.

Let's call "school textbook memory shivers" STMS, and let's make it an official syndrome, OK?

Some people suffer from STMS and yet still purchase that triggering curriculum anyway. Because for some reason or another, using all reason, it is a perfectly good curriculum, and it should work. But I would bet that an STMS sufferer with that very curriculum will quickly be unhappy with the curriculum, and will promptly shelve it. Listen to your instincts, moms! If you look at a perfectly good, gets great reviews, should be everything you need curriculum but get STMS...RUN AWAY, and don't look back!

Here is a list of my own STMS triggers (for whatever reason)...

• Horizons Math (as already mentioned)
• Rod and Staff. Oh R&S...all I can think of is my fiesty little 8th grade Advanced Language Arts teacher that gave me poor grades, and assigned 80 sentences to be written and analyzed per week, and who set me back 2 years in Language Arts because she didn't like me (I really should've been in advanced LA after that, but ended up in average LA, and then had to fight my way back up to the top, while the bullies teased and did everything possible to pull me back down). Yeah...Rod and Staff...not going there!
• My Father's World. I don't know why. Its a really good curriculum. I look at the product created by MFW users (cute crafts, jello "cells" in a bag for science, etc.) and I think - that looks sooo good! But then I look at the teacher's manual, and the book lists. There was only one or two year's booklists that looked enticing to me, the rest gave me STMS.
• First Language Lessons and Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I think its the scripted lessons and verbal "drill" approach.
• Saxon Math. Again, scripted lessons and drill approach.
• Textbooks for history. Any textbook for history. I immediately think of all the wonderful history books I checked out of the library for fun and read during my (yawn) boring public school history classes. And then getting mean notes sent home from the teacher saying that I read my own books in class. (shiver).

Oddly enough (I keep saying that...), BJU has scripted lessons and somewhat of a drill approach, but I don't get STMS. I think it is the bright pictures, the simple immediate visual presentation, and all the white space around the workbook page. And I also think it is the fun activities and manipulatives throughout every lesson. I don't think the teacher's manual is perfect - it does have a scary amount of words in each lesson (shiver), but I've sort of caught on to how to use it. I have a strong draw to anything that is bright and colorful, has a simple immediate visual presentation (something that you look at right away and say "aha!"), and lots of white space around the page. I guess I'm rather visual, eh?

And if you post your own list of STMS triggers on your blog, leave me a comment with a link to your blog so I can check it out!

Weekly Review

All of our winter activities are ending this week! My physical therapy ended. Awana ended. Homeschool co-op classes are ending today. What will we do with our time?

Math: both kids tried their new math out this week (BJU 1 & 2). The 5yo reviewed shapes, ordinal position, writing and reading numbers. The 7yo reviewed addition strategies, graphs, and ordinal position.

Phonics: The 5yo finished the review section in Explode the Code 2 and began word ending blends (a little bit tricky, but she caught on).

Spelling: The 7yo finished up Week 17 of Spelling Workout B (words that end in -le), and then completed the review section.

Grammar: The 7yo learned about commas in a list. She had to do quite a bit of sentence writing, and even though she complained, she tackled it beautifully.

Handwriting: The 5yo ended this week by writing a sentence. The 7yo reviewed her cursive writing and learned how to write a cursive "x".

Reading: The 5yo reviewed her 2 books from last week, and started book 17 this week "Cowboy Jim and Clip" (which is about a horse and she loves horses). The 7yo read Nate the Great throughout this week. She protested this, but by the end, she was eager to find out the solution to the mystery (even though she won't admit it).

Other:
Finished up Week 23 of our Sonlight books. Except I've been skipping all of the hands-on science experiments (maybe we'll hit those sometime this summer?). We read about Esther in the Bible, and then watched the movie called "One Night With the King". We read about rainforests in Wild Places. We read about butterflies and moths in Usborne First Book of Nature. We went on a nature walk and noticed all the butterflies fluttering around and bird songs. From co-op last week, we brought home a baby bull-frog tadpole (which is absolutely huge!) We have been caring for it and hoping it stays alive (unlike our 3 goldfish, which we managed to kill off with our icky water). We bought water especially for this tadpole in the hopes that we can watch him grow into a frog. Apparently it can take 14 months for it to change. That's a long time to try to keep something alive!

Today is our last day of homeschool co-op classes, and then the kids will get to show off what they've learned at Presentation Night.

Wordless Wednesday (yes, it is a real tree frog clinging to my window)

BJU Math

We're on Day 2 of our new BJU Math. Just like the K book, 1st & 2nd grades are written like unit studies. It really is too much to do, so I'm going to have to pick and choose. Here is the 7yo playing with the beaver manipulatives on the beaver lodge workmat. The 5yo is playing with the seal manipulatives on the water park workmat. You can tell that the beavers and seals are beginning to play with each other (not included in the teacher's manual). One of the activities in 1st gr was to practice Ordinal Position with cups while hiding an object underneath one of them. We loved this activity. You had to guess which cup hid the item by saying whether you thought it was the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth cup.
(GASP!) How'd that picture get in there? Remarkably, the background looks relatively clean. I'm wearing my husband's junk t-shirt, which I've been wearing for the past 2 days. And the kids are wearing bathrobes. But other than that, it all pretty much looks like what homeschooling is *supposed* to look like. Stick us on the cover of Perfect Homeschooling Magazine!
Yes, the kids are in bathrobes. It's our new school uniform.

Passover

One of the benefits of going to a small house-church is that we can do cool things, like celebrate Passover. We had a Passover dinner together this weekend. It was interesting to see the symbolism in the odd things around each of our plates. The kids seemed to think it was rather strange. I warned them beforehand not to get upset by the plateful of icky stuff set before them. They did a good job when they had to ask questions (it is part of the dinner), like - "why is this night different from any other?" They also had to search for the matzo wrapped in white cloth, and then the "priest" had to buy it back from the child that found it. The kids seemed a bit confused when we had them do things like stick their finger into the cup of grape juice and splatter it onto their plate as the plagues of Egypt were read. Afterwards, I asked the kids what they thought of the whole Passover thing, and the answer was, "can we go out and play now?" Obviously, it left a lasting impression! But it was neat for the grown-ups.

Weekly Review

Here's our weekly report:

Me: I have 1 more week of therapy left (next week), then a 1 week vacation. But we may not need to continue therapy after that. I'm improving every day now!!

5yo:
FINISHED HER K MATH BOOK!!! I'm always a little sad when we finish K math, for some reason. Now we are working on writing numbers (legibly!!), place value, counting, and any other odd things I skipped because I wasn't as diligent about using the teacher's guide.

About half way through Explode the Code 2 & doing great! She is able to read some words without sounding out & it makes sentence reading go faster.

Read 2 of the BJU K readers: A Noisy Duck, and On the Trail (books 16 & 17)

Doing better with Handwriting Without Tears - paying attention to making nicer letters.

7yo:
Finished Unit B of Developmental Math Book 5 (example: 75 + 23=). Got all but 1 problem right on her test. Starting subtraction of tens and ones.

Learned about using IS and ARE in Grammar.

Got all of her spelling words right half way through the week. Started next week's words early. Last week was words that end in -y (bunny, penny, many, etc.). The new words are words that end in -le (apple, able, table, purple).

Doing wonderful in cursive. Learned m and n, and tow truck connections to these letters.

Writing - did 1 small writing assignment in spelling: she described someone's goldfish.

Both kids:
Bible: Queen Esther
History: Jungles (Usborne book called Wild Places)
Science: Finished Insects, started Butterflies and Moths
We weren't very diligent in these subjects - I caught up on my laundry, which has been sitting around for months, and I cleaned a few rooms. Next week is busy, as our Winter activities draw to an end, so we'll stretch this week's readings across next week, as well.

Ye Olde Math Decision

I didn't make it quite clear in the story, so here are the footnotes from the math storybook...

1. The princess had pretty good success with BJU, therefore the mother decided she'd try it again, 2 years later (after the kingdom had woken up from a long sleep)

2. The theme for BJU's 2nd grade is a construction worker and a beaver. The princess is most unhappy that the main characters for this math are all BOYS for the next 2-3 years. It is like being imprisoned in a BOY dungeon with a bunch of BOYS. How vile!

3. The princess's sister is thrilled with the idea that BJU 1st grade has a circus seal in it. She happens to like seals right now. Of course, if it had a bat, snake, horse, pegasus, unicorn, mermaid, frog, electric eel, moth, butterfly, or anything that flies in the book, then she'd be pretty happy. And if it has the color blue or rainbow in the book, then she'll be happy.

4. The mother is inviting 12 fairies from the kingdom to come over and sprinkle pixie dust on the math books, in hopes that the princess might fall under its magic spell. The 13th fairy wasn't invited, because she never has anything good to say about anything. She's the anti-homeschooling fairy.

5. If you have no idea what I'm talking about here, see my post below called Math...A Story. And then you can be even more confused.

Math...a story

Cuddle up with a blanket, sit back, and listen to...A Math Story.
(ahem). Once upon a time, there was a mom. That mom had a 4 1/2yo princess, and she knew from the beginning of Time that one day she would use Singapore Math. It was destiny.
The day came, Singapore Math Earlybird 1a & 1b arrived. The princess did wonderfully well, as the mom knew she would. Because this was destiny.
Then came Earlybird 2a, and it was full of treacherous pitfalls. It asked young students to do amazing feats, like count backwards, read and write number words, and fill in ordinal positions (uh, first, second, third...) The princess floundered and the mother seethed. There was no instructions written anywhere in the kingdom that explained how to practice such feats. The mother left Singapore Earlybird 2a sitting on the shelf, where it shall collect dust for 1,000 years until maybe a young prince comes along and discovers it. It's destiny did not belong to the little princess.

When the princess was nearing the age of 5, the mother found in the kingdom a package called BJU. In it was a math full of stories about local peasants and their livestock. The princess counted, added and subtracted the sheep, ducks, pigs, and other farm animals. The princess learned place value, ordinal positions, and could count to 100. The princess finished the book, and the tired but somewhat happy mother tucked it away for others to find years and years later. After a short time, the mother knew her daughter would need to begin the next level of math. But lo! and behold! the 3rd edition of BJU 1st grade would not be published for another two months. And hark! the mother had also known since the princess was 2 years old that Destiny had chosen Sonlight for this little girl. Sonlight had a different plan in mind: Horizons Math.

Upon seeing Horizons, the mother fell into despair. It looked evil. The princess handled it alright, but over time, many frustrations came upon the mother and princess. And there had come reports from other kingdoms that other princesses were growing fairer and wiser under the tutelage of Math U See. The mother saw that the other kingdoms had greener grass, and so she hastened to find the books and blocks of Math U See. Within a short time, the princess withered under Math U See, as she did with Horizons. The mother rode out to other kingdoms in search of better math programs. She did not decide to find BJU, because by now, she had seen the greener grass, and she desired it.

Many math programs entered the kingdom and were tried by the mother, to no avail. Finally, the mother brought in Developmental Math. She had concerns that her daughter would not have a complete math education, but she dismissed her fears, and strove ahead. Homeschool Math wizards from around the world had praised this math for its great wisdom. The princess liked Developmental Math, mainly because she felt that she was doing less work than any other program. The mother had also noticed that her daughter had learned so much from BJU K math, that the knowledge gained had carried her over and allowed some experimentation, without ill effect. Eventually, however, the ill effect began to become apparent. The princess did not show a whole lot of improvement and seemed to be lacking skills.

And so, the mother decided to go back to the first working Math, in hopes that it would impart its numerical wisdom to her daughter. The mother has turned her eyes away from the lawns of other kingdoms. How will this story end? Will it have been a wise choice? Will the princess accept this math instruction over the instruction of ye olde math? Or shall the princess sigh and remain troubled while waiting for her math prince to rescue her? Only destiny knows (and its been wrong before).
We shall find out if there is a "happily ever after" at the end of this trilogy (which seems to end upon graduating from high school).
The End.

Weekly Review

This review is going to be strange. Its April (year's end), its Spring, and consequentially, I'm feeling tired of "school". I'm sure I'm the only one, right (wink)? I'm also thinking about next "year" (whenever that starts), and thinking back about our ending year (even though its not really ending, since we don't finish all of our books at the same time). In other words, I'm assessing things to see what is working /what is not. So this is more of a progress report, a curriculum assessment, and a parent-teacher conference, rolled all into one.

7 yo: is reading independently and able to tell in great detail what she has read. She is reading books typical of 2nd graders (short, easy, picture-chapter-books). These books are coming pretty easy to her. She shows no interest in reading longer chapter books (ex: magic treehouse series), but maybe next year...

She struggled with writing informative and creative works at the beginning of the year, and could typically produce a 4 word sentence (with much prodding). Now she writes for enjoyment: she journals on car trips, she writes grocery lists for us, writes 1-2 sentences for assignments, and took notes on a book she was reading. Her writing skills have shown a large improvement.

Cursive handwriting is coming along nicely. The words come slow, and she needs reminders, but her penmanship looks nice for her age and ability. Her manuscript writing still has quite a few letter and number reversals (which is why I switched to cursive!) The reversals are a slight concern to me, but I've heard that these often straighten themselves out by age 8 or 9.

She has had a sudden leap of improvement in spelling. She has an interest in the correct spellings of words, makes a good guess based upon spelling rules, and is beginning to develop a memory for spelling lists. I'm seeing some of her spelling words carry over into her compositions, although not all (which I don't really expect at this age, anyway).

Math - needs some work, here. She tends to get bogged down in adding numbers within 9, and lacks concentration (like most 7 1/2 yos, I assume). We spent a good deal of time this year reviewing math facts within 9, and working on mental math skills. She is currently working on adding tens and ones (45 + 34). Lately, however, I am beginning to feel that we're missing some big things in our math. We have taken a "relaxed" approach over the last 2 years; I have taught several concepts informally and conversationally. I'm seeing some big gaps that will be easily filled; however, I feel strongly that I should fill some of these gaps now rather than later on. I am currently trying to make a decision regarding our next direction in math. I have enjoyed the Developmental Math series and like its focus on mental math. I also have liked the mastery approach and working at our own pace. My daughter has liked its simple, easy to understand pages. I am uncertain whether I will keep Developmental Math as my primary program, supplement it, or supplement with it. I am in prayerful consideration right now.

5yo:
Math: she has come a long way. She began this year counting 1 thru 10, and then saying 11, 32. She can count (with a little help) to 100. She has enjoyed BJU and looks forward to moving into BJU 1st gr. We did not use the teacher's guide activities as much as we should've, and so there are a few things we will work on before moving into the 1st gr book. BJU has been very thorough & has laid a very good foundation for later math.

Reading: Explode the Code has been an enjoyable series and I plan to continue it. Dd is getting better at reading the sentences and choosing the correct match. She laughs at the strange word combinations ETC puts together. We have also used BJU's easy readers, and this has been a good match (I've liked these stories & progression much better than SL's, Bob Books, & Hooked On Phonics - can you tell we've tried many?)

Handwriting: I've liked Handwriting Without Tears for both kids, however, my 5yo's handwriting is still much shakier and incorrect formation. This is something that is a.) developmental, and b.) parental (i.e., parent should probably work on this more!) Dd knows her letters, but has incorrect formation (this takes another year or two to master anyway), and lacks a bit of the coordination it takes to make good letters. Even so, she has improved greatly, and I expect that she will continue.

I have left Science, Bible, & History out of the assessment. Maybe some other time!

Wordless Wednesday

Mentoring

I remember starting "school" - officially - with my 5yo daughter. We started off at a little desk, just her size. We played the music on the CD when the teacher's guide called for a song. We read the little story, re-enacted the little play, drew the little picture, read another little story...before finally getting to the nitty-gritty: handwriting, phonics, and math. Two to three hours later, we were falling apart. The 3yo interrupted, the 5yo interrupted, we lost interest, we left the table, we came back to the table. The house fell apart. Bills sat on the counter, waiting to be payed.

When my daughter was 4, I was long awaiting the day that we could "school" officially. I read every homeschool book. When an experienced homeschool mom of 3 opened her heart to me by saying she couldn't get her 8 yo son to write, I had every answer from every book I had read. Bless that woman's heart, because she answered with, "oh thanks, I'll try that!" I thought I was so helpful.

Then we schooled officially. I knew all the answers, but it didn't make our school run any better, the house stay any cleaner, the bills get paid any sooner, or the kids behave any better. I kept thinking that if I just tried the right schedule, the right curriculum, adopted the right educational philosophy, then it would all run like clockwork.

Then I started to wish...wish down to my very toes...that I could be the fly on the wall in another homeschool mom's household. But that was too nosy, I didn't want to ask! Can you imagine? "Hi, I met you at a homeschool support group meeting, and I was wondering if I could sit quietly in the corner and watch you teach your children?" Afterall, maybe these experienced women had the answer and I could see how a professional does it! But I could never know that secret.

Flashback, even earlier...I remember holding my first daughter as a tiny little infant. I had read every book on nursing babies, loving babies, diapering babies, getting babies to sleep at night. But none of the books helped me parent any better. None of the books gave me any more sleep at night. I was desperate for the support and mentoring of experienced moms, especially homeschool ones (because I knew that's what I wanted to do, five years from the day of my daughter's birth!) I called one mom of eight kids and asked if we could get our infants together. I must have sounded ridiculous! She politely declined and avoided me after that. What I was really saying was, "you are a Proverbs 31 woman, a great wife to your husband, a loving mom to your kids, and I really need a mentor to show me how I, too, can be that kind of woman."

There was, however, one mom...a non-church going, non-homeschooling mom...that invited me over when I was pregnant with my first child. She included me in on social events with her other mom-friends. She was honest, and invited me over for lunch with piles of laundry on the couch, and jam smudges on the table and walls. I think back to that when I see my own laundry piles and jam smudges. I was blessed by those times of mentoring (because, that is, in fact what it was). It was a small glimpse of reality - what a real mom's life looks like.

I understand, we homeschool moms are busy! We really don't have time to mentor another mom - perhaps an obnoxious one that knows all the answers from books (like I was!) But I have realized recently just how much I needed other moms to show me a glimpse of their very real lives. I'm a few years into this thing called homeschooling now, and if you want to know the real truth, it looks like utter chaos. I'm still waiting for the day that I pull it all together. I can't invite another mom to see all this, can I? But then I think back to the laundry piles and jam smudges at the other moms house, and I think how much that blessed me. I may not deem myself worthy of the title "experienced homeschooler", but some of the newbies might not see it that way.

So, I guess the whole point of this...if a mom to a 4 year old tells you she's "homeschooling" and asks, "can we get our preschoolers together for a playdate?" And...if you really thinks she's obnoxious because she knows every answer and already has her preschooler busily filling in workbook pages. Well...invite her over, anyway. Smile and nod when she has helpful suggestions. Let her see the jam smudges, the rugrats behaving poorly, and the discarded workbook that your 9 yo tantrums about. She needs to see it. It's called "mentoring". And its a great way to bless someone not as far along on their own homeschool journey.

Weekly Report

Here's our Week in Review!!!
Math:
5yo: we're on the last 2-3 weeks of BJU and its mostly review. This week we focused on The Calendar, which is topic that has proven to drive me crazy in the past.
7yo: learning to add tens with tens and ones with ones. This week we focused on adding tens with tens, and then ones (30 + 25). This included money, as well. Independent from our workbook, we've begun working on multiplication with counting bears. The 7yo now knows how to multiply 10s and 5s. Below (photo), the kids also practiced grouping bears. They had a good time drawing backgrounds on paper and then setting bears up onto the background. They came up with some interesting stories for these bears!
Reading: the 7yo read Beaky to her little sister, one of our science assignments, and we began the first 19 pages of Daniel's Duck.
5yo: read a BJU story called The Jet. The 7yo hated this book when she had to read it 2 years ago, but luckily, little sis really enjoyed this one.

Spelling: The 7yo worked on consonant blends for her spelling words. She took the final test on Wednesday and aced it. She wrote a beautiful poem for her spelling assignment (I was so impressed, writing was quite a struggle earlier this year). Here it is:
Trees are brown and leaves are green
and they make shade too.

Here she is pictured below, having wayyy too much fun with spelling...

Phonics: the 5yo has been working through consonant blends in Explode the Code 2. She was happy to read the word "trot" with a picture of a horse.

Handwriting: The 7yo was able to write most of her spelling words in cursive one day for practice. She learned letter "m" this week. The 5yo practiced the letter d and copying simple words.

Science: we are learning about invertebrates (insects and other nasty creatures). We used a ruler to find out exactly how big the biggest snail in Africa is (34 cm, approximately the same size as the kids' teddy bear).

History: We read about 2 missionaries this week in Hero Tales.

Read-aloud: reading In Grandma's Attic, which has been an absolutely wonderful story!!!

Writing: we did 1 writing assignment this week. The 7yo and I picked a mystery animal (a mammal), then we had to take turns writing a question about the animal so we could guess it. The 5yo thought this was fun and so we did a non-written version of the game with her. She surprised us with her mystery animal. It was a blue mammal that wasn't a pet, and didn't live in the dessert, or the forest, and couldn't be found in our backyard. (Can you guess what it was? It was a dolphin!!!)

Co-op: this week was a co-op week. The 7yo brought home a pet cricket for her Creatures, Creatures class. It is a female cricket that is now living in the aquarium with the hermit crab.