love to paint

When I was student teaching in first grade over fifteen years ago, I remember being in awe of how a child learns to read.  I felt this enormous amazement at how a child's brain connects symbols to sounds, sounds together to make words, and then words together to make sentences and to make meaning!  In the school where I student taught, there was no set curriculum.  Teachers always wrote their own.  Fast forward to when my oldest daughter was 4.  It was time to start teaching the letters!  And then we'd be on to reading. I wasn't sure how to teach the letters and their sounds.  I couldn't find a curriculum with my oldest daughter that would teach me how.  So, my oldest daughter, at age 4, and my middle daughter, at age 2, learned their letters and sounds by watching Leapfrog's Letter Factory DVD.  Then, they both went through the Explode the Code books A, B, and C.  These books are wonderful!  They focus on developing a child's vis...

For the past year, my kids have been learning to type using the BBC's free internet site: Dance Mat Typing.  I like it a lot.  It covers the basics at a speed that's very appropriate for grade K-5.  It includes practice and fun songs that engage the kids.  All three of my kids have enjoyed it. I felt like it wasn't quite enough, though.  I wanted them to get more practice and be able to increase their speed.  So, I started looking for a program to use.  I asked around and the recommendations all pointed to Mavis Beacon and Typing Instructor . In the end, I purchased Typing Instructor for Kids.  It takes a bit to navigate the program honestly.  I had to sit down with it first and understand what my kids needed to do.  My first daughter went through the first level and completed it, but the program wouldn't let her move on.  She didn't understand why.  So, I went through the level and it passed me.  I am assuming that t...

My big project that needs to be done this week is to compile the worksheets for Autumn's American History this year.  I've found several great sites along the way and today I found this one: http://www.stonesouphomeschool.com/unit-study-database.html#C It's a database of lots of unit studies on the web. Yay!  I love anything that makes my searching simpler.  Some of the links aren't active, but many are.  1 of the 3 I tried didn't work.  But, it is a place to start!

When my kids were younger, I sat down to put together a curriculum plan.  When I came to Language Arts, I found that it was easier to break down the subject for me.  I didn't gravitate towards all in one curriculums like Sonlight or Abeka.  So, I identified the components I needed for my children:  Reading, Reading Comprehension, Spelling, Writing, and Vocabulary.  As my kids have grown, this breakdown has remained the same with a few minor tweaks.  For my fifth grader, reading instruction now focuses on reading strategies and fluency.  Vocabulary in younger grades came in the form of Explode the Code --connecting words with their spellings and meanings through sentences and pictures.  My kids finish Explode the Code at the end of 4th grade.  I have them complete both the whole numbered and half numbered books.  This year, I knew it was time for me to tweak Autumn's vocabulary component of her curriculum as she started 5th grade.  S...

I haven't written much on this blog in the past month.  It has felt like a whirlwind, one thing to cope with after another.  Nothing major.  Just life stuff.  Last week was VBS and we were gone every morning.  I just have to say, Yuk!  My kids loved it and I loved it, too. I got my haircut and saw friends I hadn't seen all year.  But, Yuk!  I was gone every morning of the week and by Friday I had begun to feel frantic about getting my house clean and back in order.  People always talk about homeschooling in terms of whether it is best for the child.  I always say that homeschooling is the best choice for our family !  We are out less at night.  Our days involve less running around and we focus on schooling. Thankfully, VBS is just one week of the year and so next week we will be at home...except for soccer practice that starts and will be every night of the week!.  Can you hear my anxiety?  I've avoided the every ni...

I understood a little more, but I was still faced with the question of how does one help a child who is struggling to learn to read? I found this document online:   http://www.carlscorner.us.com/intervention/interventions.pdf   that gives all sorts of ideas for different reading struggles.  The strategies there are for struggling readers that don't have diagnosed learning disabilities. My suspicion is that reading disabilities run a wide gamut--from very mild to profound.  Students with very mild disabilities would likely be able to "get by" in class and find strategies to cover up or cope with their difficulties.  I'm learning that it is difficult to get a child tested early.  One mom told me last week that she had to pay independently to have her first grader tested.  I know that if you are a homeschooler where I live, the county will test your child, but you have to go through a ton (!) of red tape to get it done.  This mom's story agreed w...

My last post was about critical thinking and I realized that I forgot to mention why I began integrating logic into our curriculum.  What prompted me? I have three children who are extremely creative.  My oldest is compliant and my second and third are extremely strong willed.  Yet, I realized early on with all three that one of the most difficult skills for children to acquire is the desire to not give up!  To try, try again, and then try again.  They need to learn to keep trying. I remember watching my oldest daughter learn to ride a bike.   I went about it all wrong.  I didn't recognize the disadvantage she was at.  We lived in a neighborhood with sidewalks and because of how cars drove down the streets, she had to learn on the sidewalks--narrow sidewalks.  It was hard.  My second daughter and son learned in a wide driveway and then a large parking lot.  They learned more quickly and easily.  But, for all three, they str...

He he he...  When I Autumn was in first grade, I switched math curriculum half way through the year.  I searched and searched.   In the process, I looked at Abeka and noticed that they required daily practice of math facts.  I felt like I was already trying to do so much in a day and I pushed it off.  I pushed it off for two years, actually until spring of last year. I realized that we needed to invest time in the memory of the facts.  Without the mastery of the math facts, I knew my children were not going to be able to complete their math assignments in a timely way.  They would end up spending more time on the facts than on the concept of the problem they were working on.  This hadn't happened yet, but I could imagine it happening down the road.  So, I began searching for how to work on their facts with them. I went through the addition deck with Autumn last spring.  When she didn't know a fact, I set it aside in a pile and she was ...

My son is 4 1/2.  He has been left handed since he was 1 1/2 years old.  I was surprised to see this because no one in my family or my husband's immediate family is left handed.  I realized very quickly that he wasn't switching back and forth.  If I gave something to him in his right hand, he switched it right over to his left.  He also held his pencil correctly at that early age of 1 1/2 years old.  It has been very interesting for me to watch.   When he began to work on cutting, I bought two pairs of "left handed" scissors from Lakeshore Learning.  I just learned this week that they weren't true "left handed" scissors.  No wonder he had such a difficult time cutting straight lines.  This week I discovered that he had started to cut with his right hand to compensate (even though this is harder for him).   I have known that I need to learn more about what it means to be left handed and how I can best help my son.  My search...

Last summer, I read a textbook about Reading Assessment.  It was extremely dry and treated children like robots rather than children.  It made me consider the state of education and testing in schools today.  In putting so much emphasis on the results of testing, we are turning our children into statistics--instead of what they are--human beings.  It was very interesting because one point the author made is that the break for a child can be at multiple points in the reading process.  It was amazing to realize how the reading process can be broken down.   The simple view was where theorists started in the 1980s by stating that reading comprehension (R) down into the product of decoding (D) and linguistic comprehension (C).  Now, there are more complex models. Hollis S. Scarborough's rope model used breaks down the process into language comprehension and word recognition. Language comprehension includes: Background knowledge, vocabulary, langua...

We just back last weekend from a week's vacation in Maine.  We had a great time!  My husband and I are learning how to take vacations as a family--coping with expectations, stress, planning, the unexpected, and still relaxing.  It was a long drive for us, which gave me plenty of time to read several books. The first one I picked up was Son by Lois Lowry.  I had picked it up for a moment while we were packing and read a few pages before we left.  It was hard to put it down, but I had to.  Packing had to be done first. So, I was glad to get into the car and start riding. Son is the conclusion to Lois Lowry's The Giver .  There are two other books that are a part of this series The Messenger and Gathering Blue.  The Giver  was first published in 1993 and the other two were published in 2000 and 2004.  It was a fun surprise to find out that she'd written a conclusion. The book is divided into three shorter stories which link togeth...

Preschool is a fun, informal time for me and my kids in their schooling.  I was like a lot of parents when Autumn was little.  I was so anxious to get started with her education.  My husband was anxious that I would be consistent with her schooling.  So, of course I did far more than I needed and pushed too hard.  But, I learned my lessons and Sami and Eli have had an easier time of it. I started with two questions. 1) What does my child need to learn? 2) What curriculum should I use? To answer #1, I found several assessment tools and a scope and sequence that really helped me know what my children needed to learn.  I like the World Book Scope and Sequence's preschool list.   World Book Preschool Scope and Sequence . Assessments Twice a year, I go through the list and put a date by the skills my child has learned. By   the end of preschool, they should be able to do all of the things on the list and be ready  for kindergarten. ...

It was an interesting week for me.  I walked into it apprehensive with certain ideas about testing.  I walked out of it with very different ideas and comfortable administering standardized tests. I have not had an overly positive perspective of testing because of my public school teaching background. In the public schools, such huge importance is placed on the results of standardized tests.  Teachers are judged by them.  Students are judged by them.  Teachers can lose their jobs by them.  The problem though is that we are not all created the same.  God didn't make us all equals.   Our strengths are not identical!  So, how can all children be judged by the same measure?  Okay, now I'll get off my soap box.  Knowing that I'll feel this way, you'll probably be surprised to hear how my adventure in testing turned out this week. As this year was beginning, I thought about what I could contribute to the homeschool umbrella (oversight...