Making the Circle...

I decided to keep this blog open to hopefully encourage others homeschooling mamas?!  :)

After 5 weeks of using Sonlight (which is a really good curriculum) we're making the full circle and going back to HOD.  These past four months have been like a Merry-go-Round, but I keep telling myself, I didn't know it would/wouldn't work for us unless we tried it.  Thankfully everything resells very well, so I don't lose any $.  :)  And, the kids have still LEARNED...math, LA, reading, writing have stayed the same...geog, science & history have been what's changed - but they don't really know - they just know we've been reading lots of books...and will keep reading lots of books.  :)

I learned while using FIAR - it was too simple for D - he needed to be challenged more.  I learned while using Sonlight, D was challenged somewhat, but K was in over her head!  Because there was quite a bit of reading, she would often get bored and want to go play which meant she wouldn't be listening to what I was reading (yes, we tried playing with quiet things while reading - it worked sometimes, but not often).

So my top 3 reasons for the change back to HOD...

1. HOD really trains my kid's hearts.  I have GREATLY missed the spiritual discussions these past four months that we had while using HOD the past two years.  Yes, I realize we can have great devos on our own, but there's just something about it being laid out in the guide book, written at their level with passages they understand, questions to make them really think about what we've read in the Bible.

2. HOD's open & go plans...they cover everything without a lot of work for me, so if I'm brain-dead, tired or really busy things still get done!

3. HOD allows great one-on-one time with my kiddos.  I also know D will be challenged in his guide (Bigger)  because he's right in the middle age range and K will good in her guide (LHFHG).  AND...something I just discovered that while working with one kiddo, it frees up the other to play/entertain busy, little C (instead of always popping in a DVD, yes major mommy-guilt here over all the DVDs she's watched the past few weeks so we could get our reading done!)

geography & dances

We finally put up the large markable wall map that came with our Sonlight materials!  Yesterday, the kids had fun adding countries we've already read/learned about the past few weeks.  They "argue" over who gets to star/mark the next country.  :)

This picture only shows the countries in Africa we've read about...

• Togo - country where the Abeku tribe resides and doesn't have a Bible in their own language (yet)
• Congo (K's writing)- country where last week's missionary story took place
• Egypt - country where this week's missionary story took place

Today we read about celebrations, festivals and dancing in other religions/countries and watched online videos about Flamenco (Spain), Cossack (Russia), Hindu (India), Kabuki (Japan) dances and other instruments played around the world (bagpipes, sitar, etc).

As the first video played (a Flamenco dancer), K told me the dancer's dress was inappropriate (most of her back was showing).  I smiled and assured her she was right.  When the bottom of the dress was shown a few seconds later (it was very long), K said, "The front is appropriate."  :)

Snap Circuits Science

Just found this link online for a lapbook using Snap Circuits.  I printed the entire thing and will begin it with D for science next week.  I'm excited.  I LOVE using toys for learning.  I'm looking forward to learning more about electricity, too!  :)

Change

This year has been characterized by change.  After talking with a friend (also a certified teacher like me), learning it took her 3 years of homeschooling to realize what really worked for her kids, I realize I'm not alone in switching/changing things up to best suite my kids, learning styles & life.  :o)

I sold a lot of extra things we had sitting on our school shelves and was able to find an awesome deal online for Sonlight Core B.   It's Year 1 of World History. I had looked into it at the very beginning of researching h/s curriculum years ago but didn't consider it because of the price.  I realized that I can combine D&K easily...it's all reading (what we LOVE to do all the time anyway) and there's not a lot of extra hands-on things, but we can always add them when we have time/want to do them.

We're in week 2 and really LOVING it.  We're learning lots of things about other countries (languages, money, clothes, food, etc.)  I'm amazed at what K has remembered.  D loves that we're not reading the same book over and over (like FIAR at the beginning of the school year).  We're memorizing Psalm 1 right now and reading the book of Mark.  We're also reading the book, Leading Little Ones to God.  Once a week we're reading a story from Missionary Stories with the Millers.  For a fun read-aloud, we're reading Charlotte's Web right now.  We saw a pig (just like Wilbur) today on our field trip!

K finished up her EarlyBird Math last week and began Singapore 1A.  She is enjoying it, even though it's all b/w pages.  She decides to color most of her pages each day.   I'm sure it'll stop once it takes her more than a few second to complete a page. :)

D is close to finishing up his 2B math book.  This morning at breakfast he told me that 2/3 of the kids wanted shredded wheat and 1/3 wanted Cheerios.  Glad to know his work with fractions a few weeks ago is stuck in his brain!  Ha!

He is reading LOTS of books.  I love it!  He found LarryBoy chapter books and a book series about a kid who's family is a spy.  He had no problems earning his Book-It certificate this month!

C will come to the couch/table most days with the kids and say, "I want to do my school."  The other day she was sorting fun erasers.  Yesterday, she was "helping" K with her math paper and as K was counting (filling in missing numbers) C was shouting out the answers.  What a little Smarty Pants!  She picks up EVERYTHING the kids say/I read.

 

A little of what we've done this week...

I've done a horrible job of taking pics this week of school things, but here's some of what we've done...

We've read a lot of books this week about random subjects including a science book today about seasons - why we have nighttime/daytime (God made it & designed it), how the earth spins, orbits the sun, etc.

We've also watched a few neat videos for science this week including Bill Nye (garbage) and Popular Mechanics Roller Coasters and Extreme Sports.  I love taking advantage of our library resources!

For math this week, D began learning about liquid measures and did an estimating activity today with liters of water.  He told me he really likes doing "interactive" math.  His vocabulary makes me laugh sometimes!

He wrote his first story this week after drawing 3 pictures (what happened first, second & last) - it was all about Chain-Chomp (Mario Brother's character).  I was amazed at how well he spelled all the words in his story - he asked me to spell only a few.  I saw capital letters and periods where they needed to be and only a few errors.  Guess all the copywork (with all the grumbles the past year) has paid off?! :o)

He's been reading a TON and this week it's been several of  The Cul-de-sac Kids books by Beverly Lewis.  He's really enjoyed the short mysteries.  Again, I'm thankful for the library!

K had more fun with the dry-erase crayons.  Her drawing abilities are really improving!

She was able to read a story to a dog this week and was VERY excited about it!  The library had therapy dogs for the kids to read stories to and it motivated her to practice reading an easy reader book EVERY school day the past few weeks.  She read to a really cute dog that looked similar to my parent's dog.

She's 3 pages away from finishing up her Earlybird Math book.  She's been flying through the $ unit and earlier this week we had a "store" for her to practice counting change.  She enjoyed it and would do it every day for math if I set it up. :o)

The other day I found a Tangrams workbook that was tucked on a school shelf and pulled it out for D.  He LOVED it.  Solved the first 5 puzzles after he other school work was done earlier one day this week. :o)

We've also played a lot of games including Sum Swamp, Whiz Kidz and Sum It Up.  The kids are always begging for more games!  I LOVE it!

Cowboys & the Wild West

Life gets busy & my blogs get neglected...we've had fun reading a lot of books about Cowboys, Buffalo, Prairie dogs, Prairies & the Wild West. :)  The kids have enjoyed it.  They made these cute little cowboys/girls early last week...K even chose pink "yarn" to be her lasso and colored her cowgirl's boots pink, too! :o)

The re-discovered the dry erase CRAYONS and had fun drawing pictures last week...

 They drew a picture of the 3 of them in their treehouse.  Not sure why there's a PacMan & Red Ghost cloud in the sky though?!  :o)

We've played Telling Time Bingo, Monopoly Jr. and Up-Words as parts of our school the past week, too.

It's hard to believe this week marks the halfway point in our fall semester of co-op!  The kids really enjoy it (after C's initial 5 minutes of crying in the nursery) and are planning play dates with their friends.

D is finishing up telling time in his math book - he is ready for a new challenge!  K is just a few pages away from finishing her Earlybird math book.  She has been counting by 5's!

K has been reading an easy reader book over and over each day.  She's practicing it in order to read it to a therapy dog at the library next week.  It's motivated her to "read" (along with coloring in a slice of pizza toward her October Book-It Pizza Hut award).  We've shelved 100 Easy Lessons again and are working on recognizing/sounding out words in REAL books.  She really likes it.  :o)

D just finished reading The Marvelous Inventions of Albert Fernald last night. It was the perfect book for him because the boy invented/designed all sorts of gadgets and was caught up in a mystery.  I picked it up for 10 cents at a garage sale this summer thinking I'd read it to him at bedtime and he ended up reading most of it himself!  One night after tucking him in I said, "Isn't it fun to take a trip with a book?"  He agreed and then told me to leave his room so he could begin reading.  I LOVE it!

This & That

We finished up Grandfather's Journey today.  The kids completed their lapbooks - reviewed the location of Japan & California, drew various land forms from the book, made a 4 generations booklet with family member pics, and reviewed/colored pics of the Japanese culture.

For some extra "art" K has been enjoying making potholders (I did this when I was little, too)!  She's made 2 potholders in the last three days (having my help to tape the loops to the edges of the loom and chain the loops to finish the edge).  She loves weaving & putting colors together...such a little creative-craft-chick after my own heart!  She wants to start/finish the project in the same sitting, too!  ;o)

To the right is our crate of library books from our trip to the library this morning...we're studying cowboys, the wild west, buffalo, horses and more the next two weeks or so!  The kids are excited!