We chose All About Spelling - Level 1 for our spelling/phonics curriculum for first grade. I am so glad we found this curriculum right off the bat! Jujubee and I both loved it, and she thrived! For this set, you need the Teacher's Manual, the Student packet, and you can buy the letter tiles, a box to keep everything in, and some other items. (I do suggest the phonogram CD, sometimes it is hard to say the phonograms without an accent). I got lucky and they offered a free CD with purchase! (Adding, they now offer a free phonogram app on iTunes!)
One thing I suggest is either making your own letter tiles (super easy!) or - if you have an iPad - getting a letter tile spelling app. I made my own tiles, THEN found the app, of course. The "I speak word wizard" app was $2.99 and the AAS letter tiles were $11.95 on their site. To make my own with magnetic paper it probably would have cost me $5-8.00 if I hadn't gotten the magnetic sheets free from a friend. The nice thing about the app is that you can input the spelling words in there and it will read them to your child, letting them practice whenever, wherever! Sometimes the accent is a bit hard to understand, but I am always nearby so I was able to tell her what the word was (since I put it in). We also just used a regular index card holder for our review cards. The box they offer is nice, and $9.95, which really isn't bad considering you'd pay about the same or more at an office supply store for that size box, but we already had an index card holder.
There are 24 steps in the first level. It is designed to do each step over the course of a week (approximately), but Juju went through each step in just one lesson, occasionally two. The phonogram cards were fantastic to practice with, and the rules were easy for her to understand. The child is able to check off each step on a little chart as they finish them, and they also check off their "mastered" phonograms. Jujubee, being very much like her mommy, loved this. Oh, how we love checklists in this family...
We will definitely be getting level 2 for second grade. I am placing my order through sonlight.com and getting free shipping! I haven't been able to find it cheaper anywhere else.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Outdoor Secrets Review
For first grade science, we decided to go with a Charlotte Mason style curriculum - Outdoor Secrets, along with the Outdoor Secrets companion. The plan was to finish this, then move on to the body on our own.
At first, we did okay. We'd get the recommended library books, read them as scheduled along with the stories from Outdoor Secrets, and do the experiments. But after a while, we got really, really bored. It seemed like we really weren't learning anything that was new, or important. A lesson on the century plant - a plant which will grow in the desert, blooms once per century, and dies. Yes, it is important to know there are different plants in different parts of the world. However, I feel this book was poorly laid out, and the stories were a little hard to follow the way they were written.
The stories are written from the plants (or animals) point of view, but it takes a minute to catch on to what they are saying. It also personifies pretty much everything in the story. The sun, the wind, the leaves, etc. This all would sound lovely, except it just doesn't make much sense, and like I said, is hard to follow what exactly they are talking about. You don't really get the point until the end, and even then it is not really clear.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this for our Science Curriculum. I could have (and will next year) done a better job just by looking at my "what your first grader needs to know" guide and getting living books that went along with it. I don't feel like we learned even half of what we should have been covering this year, which is frustrating. For second grade, we will either do as I suggested above with the "what your second grader needs to know", or find another guide to go by since it seems to be a bit different than what we were planning.
At first, we did okay. We'd get the recommended library books, read them as scheduled along with the stories from Outdoor Secrets, and do the experiments. But after a while, we got really, really bored. It seemed like we really weren't learning anything that was new, or important. A lesson on the century plant - a plant which will grow in the desert, blooms once per century, and dies. Yes, it is important to know there are different plants in different parts of the world. However, I feel this book was poorly laid out, and the stories were a little hard to follow the way they were written.
The stories are written from the plants (or animals) point of view, but it takes a minute to catch on to what they are saying. It also personifies pretty much everything in the story. The sun, the wind, the leaves, etc. This all would sound lovely, except it just doesn't make much sense, and like I said, is hard to follow what exactly they are talking about. You don't really get the point until the end, and even then it is not really clear.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this for our Science Curriculum. I could have (and will next year) done a better job just by looking at my "what your first grader needs to know" guide and getting living books that went along with it. I don't feel like we learned even half of what we should have been covering this year, which is frustrating. For second grade, we will either do as I suggested above with the "what your second grader needs to know", or find another guide to go by since it seems to be a bit different than what we were planning.
Things will *always* come up...
Just when you think you have everything under control...
Things were going fantastic with our homeschooling venture. The girls were doing great, I was having a ball and really had things going well.
Then, I realized I have been really tired lately. And gosh, it has been a while since I had my last... Mmmhmmm... three dollar store tests later (I have a problem) my suspicions were confirmed! We would be expecting our third little one in approximately 7-8 months.
That sent my entire world into a flurry! All of a sudden, I could barely get off the couch or move without being extremely nauseous or sick, and I was beyond tired. Needless to say, not much got done for the next couple weeks. (okay, okay, more like a month... possibly two...)
It took several months before I felt like "me" again, which really made homeschooling difficult. I second guessed myself, felt guilty, thought about sending Juju bee to regular school. Then, I realized that just isn't an option for us. Not with everything she went through in kindergarten. So, I made sure we got the basics done every day. Math, reading, writing. If nothing else, those got done. Thankfully we had finished our handwriting early, but we still did copy work. Juju excels at spelling, so we flew through that. However, science and history along with the arts got thrown to the backseat. I was in survival mode.
Now, it is the end of April and I am feeling good. I'm 34 weeks along, so hopefully we will be able to complete everything before baby arrives (girl #3!). We have completed our science curriculum (Outdoor secrets, review on that later), our spelling curriculum (All about spelling, level 1 - loved it) and are nearing the end of our math curriculum (Saxon 1). History still has gotten pushed to the back burner, we are about halfway through and I plan on just letting her go through the ancient time periods leisurely through the summer by reading living books.
So, even with our little "setback", we have been doing pretty good! It really made me realize just how much easier it is to get through the work at home versus at a regular school. They are there for 6-8 hours a day, and do less than we do in our 2-3 hours a day. I am still a little nervous about next year, being as our little one will only be 2-3 months old when we start back, but I think I have realized we will be okay. I am definitely going to be looking for more independent curriculums for Juju, just to keep my sanity for the next few months.
We will see where life takes us from here!
Things were going fantastic with our homeschooling venture. The girls were doing great, I was having a ball and really had things going well.
Then, I realized I have been really tired lately. And gosh, it has been a while since I had my last... Mmmhmmm... three dollar store tests later (I have a problem) my suspicions were confirmed! We would be expecting our third little one in approximately 7-8 months.
That sent my entire world into a flurry! All of a sudden, I could barely get off the couch or move without being extremely nauseous or sick, and I was beyond tired. Needless to say, not much got done for the next couple weeks. (okay, okay, more like a month... possibly two...)
It took several months before I felt like "me" again, which really made homeschooling difficult. I second guessed myself, felt guilty, thought about sending Juju bee to regular school. Then, I realized that just isn't an option for us. Not with everything she went through in kindergarten. So, I made sure we got the basics done every day. Math, reading, writing. If nothing else, those got done. Thankfully we had finished our handwriting early, but we still did copy work. Juju excels at spelling, so we flew through that. However, science and history along with the arts got thrown to the backseat. I was in survival mode.
Now, it is the end of April and I am feeling good. I'm 34 weeks along, so hopefully we will be able to complete everything before baby arrives (girl #3!). We have completed our science curriculum (Outdoor secrets, review on that later), our spelling curriculum (All about spelling, level 1 - loved it) and are nearing the end of our math curriculum (Saxon 1). History still has gotten pushed to the back burner, we are about halfway through and I plan on just letting her go through the ancient time periods leisurely through the summer by reading living books.
So, even with our little "setback", we have been doing pretty good! It really made me realize just how much easier it is to get through the work at home versus at a regular school. They are there for 6-8 hours a day, and do less than we do in our 2-3 hours a day. I am still a little nervous about next year, being as our little one will only be 2-3 months old when we start back, but I think I have realized we will be okay. I am definitely going to be looking for more independent curriculums for Juju, just to keep my sanity for the next few months.
We will see where life takes us from here!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
My homeschool planner
I searched, searched, and searched some more to find that "perfect" planner. The one that would make this homeschool journey easier, keep us on track, organized and ready to go....
It didn't exist. Well, at least I never found it. I did like the organizer over at www.wellplannedday.com, but wasn't willing to pay that much for an organizer that I couldn't edit, and they had some subjects listed that didn't fit our day. I do use www.homeschoolskedtrack.com which is a free online planner. It does it's job, but I'm a paper kind of girl on certain things, this being one of them.
So, what do you do when you can't find your perfect planner? You make your own! I looked through the free forms, taking advice from so many seasoned homeschoolers. I hated the forms. They were generic, plain, and didn't fit me.
Sooo, I went all out, and designed from scratch. I have to admit, I somewhat went off of that super snazzy planner over at Well Planned Day, and tweaked it to fit my family. I also should admit that I did all this in Pages, which is a Mac version of Microsoft Word. I'm quite impressed with myself. ;) Basically what I am saying is, if you can create a shape or text box in a Word-type program, you can do this too! And it took a lot less time than all the searching I did. Sheeesh! I'll never have that time back...
Anyway, here it is, in all it's glory. It's not professional, but it gets the job done. I used the ProClick binding machine to bind it myself. That thing has paid for itself already! (You can see my review on that in an earlier post).
It didn't exist. Well, at least I never found it. I did like the organizer over at www.wellplannedday.com, but wasn't willing to pay that much for an organizer that I couldn't edit, and they had some subjects listed that didn't fit our day. I do use www.homeschoolskedtrack.com which is a free online planner. It does it's job, but I'm a paper kind of girl on certain things, this being one of them.
So, what do you do when you can't find your perfect planner? You make your own! I looked through the free forms, taking advice from so many seasoned homeschoolers. I hated the forms. They were generic, plain, and didn't fit me.
Sooo, I went all out, and designed from scratch. I have to admit, I somewhat went off of that super snazzy planner over at Well Planned Day, and tweaked it to fit my family. I also should admit that I did all this in Pages, which is a Mac version of Microsoft Word. I'm quite impressed with myself. ;) Basically what I am saying is, if you can create a shape or text box in a Word-type program, you can do this too! And it took a lot less time than all the searching I did. Sheeesh! I'll never have that time back...
Anyway, here it is, in all it's glory. It's not professional, but it gets the job done. I used the ProClick binding machine to bind it myself. That thing has paid for itself already! (You can see my review on that in an earlier post).
Cover; I laminated scrapbook paper and kept the covers slightly larger than my pages.
Attendance page
Our year schedule, and our local schools schedule (so we can plan around her friends)
Weekly schedule, using a form from Simply Charlotte Mason
Daily schedule, form from Simply Charlotte Mason. (I later created my own in Pages)
Calendar and monthly notes. Books needed this month, field trips and activities, and monthly bills.
Close-up (I apologize, it did not want to rotate)
Our first week, almost filled in
A blank view
Close-up of Monday-Wednesday (left side)
Close-up of Thurs-Sun (right side). I made a box for weekly priorities, the dinner menu, and our weekend activities.
So far, the only thing I would change is that I wish I'd have made a larger notes section.
What kind of planner do you use? Are you a paper or electronic type of person? I would LOVE to see a good iPad planner app that would sync online (like my cozi app). For now, I use my paper planner and homeschoolskedtrack.com and it works for me!
Our education room
A few months ago, Coco Bear decided she wanted to room with Jujubee in the bunkbeds. So, I took full advantage of this (once they were settled, of course!) and we are using Coco's room as the education room. Some people prefer not to have a school-like room. I, however, need the organization and like being able to have everything in one place. We're on day 3, and while we do some subjects out in other area's of the house, we tend to start our day here, with our version of circle time, and seatwork like math, handwriting, etc.
It's not fancy, but it's ours. We actually spend a lot of time in here when it isn't school time as well.
Our desks
My area, and a closeup of my organizer. It keeps all my teacher manuals, pens, etc close at hand. It has a place for files (I put the materials for Monday-Friday in those ahead of time), and it spins so I can get to all four sides. I LOVE this thing. I think it is called "The Desk Apprentice". I got it at staples on sale, and used a coupon. :)
I also have a file cart under my desk where I keep important papers, like our intent to homeschool papers, extra forms, etc.
Lennon (dog) spends a lot of time in here with us. We all love our window seat! Our bookshelf is nearly filled and we have a huge one downstairs also filled.
Below is an earlier view of the closet portion of our room.
Workboxes with detachable (velcro) subject tags.
I keep our library books in the pink basket on top so we don't lose them.
I laminated a sheet of paper with the subject name to use as a dry erase "to do" list for each subject.
Our subject binders where completed work goes at the end of the week.
Right side of our closet houses different types of paper, supplies, binding and laminating machines and more.
Left side houses books we aren't using this year, math manipulatives, extra notebooks, paper, copy paper. That's my recorder from college hanging in the tan bag. ha! memories...
A few games we play often. (My wedding dress and the girls baptismal dress on the side. Nicely preserved, don't you think?!)
And that's it! I am not sure how I would manage this without our education room. I know plenty of people do, but just looking at what all we use daily makes me wonder how they do it!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Our first day
First day jitters... I think I was more excited last night than they were! Anticipation of how today would go, wondering if we'd throw in the towel before our second subject... ;) Thankfully, our first day went wonderfully!
The girls were dressed before I could even tell them to do their chores, and ate their oatmeal, blueberries and yogurt quickly. Jujubee was so excited she kept telling me she couldn't wait another hour until school started. However, mommy has more morning chores than they do, so we didn't start until 9:00.
The girls were dressed before I could even tell them to do their chores, and ate their oatmeal, blueberries and yogurt quickly. Jujubee was so excited she kept telling me she couldn't wait another hour until school started. However, mommy has more morning chores than they do, so we didn't start until 9:00.
We sang the morning song, said the pledge, and read a story at Coco Bear's level, and then the girls sat at their desks. They love having it set up as our education room. I'm sure we will gravitate toward other rooms too, but we are very fortunate to have a room where we can keep everything.
Jujubee worked hard, and we had a lot of fun getting through our morning classes. I have them set up as workboxes, where everything for a specific subject is in a box. That way she just has to pull the box out, we work on that subject, and when we're done with it, we put it away and pull a new box.
When she got to her science workbox, her to-do sheet said "get your shoes and backpack on." It also had her backpack in it, with her science materials in it. So we went to the park, did our science, drew in our nature journals, and waited for her surprise to come. I had called her Grandparents to come have lunch with us. Grandpa took them for a walk down the (currently dry) creek.
I also took this opportunity to have Grandma and Grandpa fill out some information for Jujubee's "My family history" project. :)
We couldn't have had better weather. The day was gorgeous! After lunch, everyone was tired, so we went home for a nap. Jujubee read to me, and wrote in her reading journal. Then we were done for the day until daddy read Stuart Little as part of literature before bed. I love that he gets to be a part of our "school day".
Friday, August 26, 2011
It's almost time!
Our "homeschool journey" will officially start on Monday. I have planned for this for months, agonizing over curriculum, purchasing curriculum, gathering books and supplies, organizing our supplies, our room, planning our days. Monday, it will all be put into action. We are all excited, Jujubee is antsy and wishes we could start (several days ago). I am also very worried.
What is there to be worried about? I've planned, prepared, planned some more. But what if I fail? This is their education, their future! I have to do it right... right?
Lately, I have met some amazing moms, both online and in my personal life. They have taught me many things, but most importantly, that there is no "right" way. That is the beauty of homeschool! The only "right way" is the way that works for us. So if something isn't working out, we have the opportunity to change it! Not so in public school, or private even. They have a curriculum, and that is it for the rest of the year. Wether it works for you, or not. No matter if you understand, or you click with your teacher, your class is moving on. But with homeschooling, you have choices! So many choices!
I've often had the thought cross my mind that the curriculum I have chosen or created will not work for us. Well, guess what? If it doesn't work, we will change it! We can buy a new one, sell our old one, or we will adjust it to fit our needs. It's that simple! And if that doesn't work, we can ask for help. There are so many wonderful resources available to homeschooling families. We do not need to feel alone in this journey.
To all my fellow homeschooling families, I wish you peace on your journey this year. Take heart in knowing you are doing what is right for you, and your family - no matter what choice you make.
What is there to be worried about? I've planned, prepared, planned some more. But what if I fail? This is their education, their future! I have to do it right... right?
Lately, I have met some amazing moms, both online and in my personal life. They have taught me many things, but most importantly, that there is no "right" way. That is the beauty of homeschool! The only "right way" is the way that works for us. So if something isn't working out, we have the opportunity to change it! Not so in public school, or private even. They have a curriculum, and that is it for the rest of the year. Wether it works for you, or not. No matter if you understand, or you click with your teacher, your class is moving on. But with homeschooling, you have choices! So many choices!
I've often had the thought cross my mind that the curriculum I have chosen or created will not work for us. Well, guess what? If it doesn't work, we will change it! We can buy a new one, sell our old one, or we will adjust it to fit our needs. It's that simple! And if that doesn't work, we can ask for help. There are so many wonderful resources available to homeschooling families. We do not need to feel alone in this journey.
To all my fellow homeschooling families, I wish you peace on your journey this year. Take heart in knowing you are doing what is right for you, and your family - no matter what choice you make.
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