Being Overprotective

Sometimes people think that I am being overprotective by homeschooling my kids. I've always felt that while a child is developing his/her identity, that he should be in a nurturing enviroment. Once he has a solid identity, let him be tested. I saw too many times as a counselor at the elementary school one leader and a group of followers, who did whatever the leader did or said. They had no identity, so they looked for a leader. When my kids are young, I want Todd and I to be the major influences in their life so they can have a strong foundation.

P.S. More on this, and being TOO overprotective click here.

Geography guessing game

The kids thought of a fun game we can play in the car or waiting for our food at a restaurant: the geography guessing game. The "it" person says the name of the letter it starts with, and if it's a city, state, country or continent, and then everyone asks questions and makes guesses.

fun math game

We did a fun game for math today, mostly because I wanted to lay down. The boys came in my bed next to me, and I asked them a math question. If he got it right, I tickled his brother; if he got it wrong, I tickled him. I asked a few "what is the mathematical equation for the theory of relativity", and there was some chasing involved. math+bonding=great math lesson!

Our schedule

Someone asked me how long I spend on school each day. It's usually about 4 hours, but we end with the projects, so I let the boys do the projects as long as they want. We have scriptures, math, spelling, writing and grammar (though writing and grammar aren't strictly every day); then we have lunch, and then after lunch we have the fun projects: on Mon. and Wed. we do art and science and Tues. and Thurs. we do music and history. I'm starting to add Spanish (Rosetta Stone) and piano. My plan is to have one doing Spanish on the computer while I give the other one a piano lesson. On Fridays we go with the homeschool group to Park Day or field trips or Friday Fun Classes (the moms take turn teaching) and doing PE at the public school. We do the reading aloud and the boys reading to me at night, so it doesn't make "school" too long, and they want to read at night anyway. Alex reads for 30 min. and Nathan 15-30 min.

P.S. I use Susan Wise Bauer's Grammar book and each lesson takes 60 seconds or less-- it's great.

accomplished

Today has been a good day! It's 2:20 and we've done:
scriptures and scripture pictures,
math,
spelling,
wrote a book report,
ate lunch,
spanish,
piano lesson,
history and
music.

Read-a-thon

We decided to have a read-a-thon. They decided to do it today (Sat.) so Todd could do it with us. We got junk food, stayed in our jammies and read-- I read to them, and they read to us. It was a better idea in theory than acutality with a 5, 7 and grumpy one year old. Alex did it at school with his kindergarten class. I'll have to ask his teacher how she did it. The boys thought it was a junk-food-a-thon.

American history

This is so I can remember what we're doing in American history and I'll add to this post during the year:
-The History of US
Native Americans: we got a book on each tribe and we read one each class, then I got a lot of Native American legends in picture books and we read a couple, I have "More Than Moccassins" from the library and we do a project out of there at the end or do "History Pockets: Native Americans"; we read aloud "The Sign of the Beaver" by Elizabeth George Speare and "The Courage of Sarah Noble"; watched "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush" Reading Rainbow

Explorers: projects I think of or find online, read lots of kids books, Norse myths with Vikings, read aloud "Pedro's Journal"; map voyages using a relief map we make, biography paper dolls on timeline; make homemade compass; sail on Salem Pond; make map (house or street) and have someone else find point on map

first settlements: History Pockets for the pilgrims, First feast, read about first settlements in non fiction kids books, colonial days crafts and activities and recipes

the kids' binders

First, I want to highly recommend a book I got on Amazon.com called "history pockets." They have many different topics, and I chose 3 of the American history ones and the boys really love it!

We had a busy day in school today! For art, we made Halloween paper chain countdowns, and made fall leaves for our wall tree:

Notice how there are none down low? (Baby) And Nathan's cute mickey mouse looking apple right in the middle:)

Here's how I do the kids' notebooks:

(The pics are in random order)

It's divided into: scriptures, writing, spelling, history, science, art, music and book reports.

In the front, there are checklists (there are 6 days per sheet) for me or the boys to check off as we do our subjects:

For spelling I write a silly story with their spelling words, and they fill in the blanks. The other days they make up sentences and I print them out and they fill in the blanks. Baby wanted to do spelling, too:)

This is their writing. I have them tell me something they learned, or write a journal, and I write it and they copy it:

For scriptures, I read the scriptures and they draw a picture about what we read. I write the verse numbers and the date and the title of their drawing:

For their book reports, I either have them write their favorite part and draw a picture:

...or I write it down for them. We keep a record of all our read aloud books this way:

For science we read a book, and then do an "experiment" (just a hands-on lesson really) and then they can write about it and make a drawing:

For history, here is a writing about what we learned that day. We are also doing "history pockets" but I am not going to keep them in this binder until we store it away at the end of the year. We also will have a time line (book of centuries) in the history section.

For art, they have a seperate sketchbook for drawings, but when we do the projects from "Discovering Great Artists" we'll have a copy of the master's art original and their reproduction on the other side of the layout. We've only done one project from that book so far, and it didn't really work out so I didn't put it in the binder.

I'm not sure what we'll do for music. Maybe I could have them write about the music they like, but I don't know. Maybe I'll wait for a stroke of inspiration. For music, I play them different types of music and talk about it, and we also learn songs from Wee Sing America (because we're doing American history this year) and Wee Sing Halloween (because we love holidays).

The first week of school

The boys' teepee villages we made in history:

The first week of school has gone really well! So much better than last year! We now do our writing as part of science or history-- I have them write 4 sentences about what they learned or something like that. I'm pretty much only using the K12 language arts, and only a little bit. I take what they say to do for Alex and Nathan and mix it together and use it to create my own so they can still do it together. I'll use the K12 science for a general outline.

For science, I am using Apologia Flying Creatures, and science experiment books, and Discovery Channel Science series books and other books from the library. The only book I am using that wasn't at the library was the Apologia-- I love the Provo library! I will use the topics from K12 science for that grade. I will either read from the book (they are interesting books we get at the library, not like a textbook) or I read it and say it in my own words or make an activity or something out of it. Then we do a science "experiment" that has to do with what we learned about. On Wed. we read one page about states of matter in the Discovery Channel Science book "Matter" and then we did a couple of experiments I saw in the experiment books: we took matches and put different objects in the fire to see if they melted, burned or stayed the same-- of course the boys really enjoyed that. Then we put different things like oil, syrup, lotion, water, salt water, enchilada sauce into plastic cups and put them in the freezer to see which ones froze. We also put ice cubes in different places to see which ones melted first. The one on the black grill in the sun melted in about 10 seconds! The last thing we did was to put in a muffin tin with muffin liners: bread, salt, sugar, water, butter and put it in the oven on 400 degrees for about 20 min. and see what happened. They really loved science!

For history, I have the "History of US" series from the library that I read to myself and some other books on the subjects we are learning. Then I'll tell it in my own words to the boys, showing some pictures, and then we read books from the library on that subject, do projects (for Native Americans I got "More than Moccassins" book from the library) and go on field trips. Tues. I told them that the Native American Indians were here first in North America, and told them what the book "Trail of Tears" (Landmark Events in American History) said in my own words. Then we made teepees. I started reading for our read aloud book "The Sign of the Beaver" by Elizabeth George Speare. I got library books on different Indian tribes, and lots of picture books of Indian legends. So on Thurs. we read about the Cherokees, and read an Indian legend book, and went to the BYU museum of peoples and cultures (it had just closed, so we're going right now, as soon as Baby Katie wakes up from her nap).

Fridays are going to be the homeschool group get togethers, and PE at the public school.

One thing I had a hard time with was getting everything in. This last week has been a breeze. I think part of it is that we are not reading off the computer so I have the kids attention longer, and they are older. Another thing is that I start with math and language arts, have lunch, and then we do the fun things: art, history, music and science. But we do art and science on Mon. and Wed. and music and history on Tues. and Thurs. I make the 30 min. of reading to me "homework" and not part of the school day, and the read aloud is either in the car on CDs or at bedtime- CDs or me reading. I just need to add piano lessons and foreign language! Maybe next week.

2 book recommendations

We recently found two picture books at the library that we really love and recommend them to you highly!

books on cd

We haven't done school the past 2 weeks because we went to AR, and then spent a week putting things back together and having our "summer break" before our start of second grade. We went and got the boys new pants and we'll get them a new shirt and a lunchbox. Then we'll have a "first day of school" and go to the park or something and eat our lunch. Maybe I'll think of some other fun first day of school activities.

We started getting books on cd at the library. I like it because I'm horrible at reading aloud, so it's better when a professional is reading the book. On our long drive to AR we listened to Charlotte's Web and Henry Huggins on CD and we listened to Greek myths by Jim Weiss. They really liked the Greek myths so I looked up Jim Weiss and he has done a lot of other stories on CD so I think I will start a collection of his.

black holes

Nathan got a book at the library about space and has been interested in black holes because of it, so yesterday we went to the Planetarium and watched a show about black holes in the dome theater. It was very interesting. The show talked about Albert Einstein and Nathan said, "I like math and I'm learning about black holes, so maybe I could be like him (Albert Einstein)."

my thoughts on art and music appreciation

I was thinking about music and art appreciation and I realized that it is:
1. a way for a person to express feelings and creativity; to find music and art that speaks to your mood and helps you express what you are feeling-- either making it or appreciating it from others
2. help others
3. praise God
4. to enjoy -- to expose them to a wide variety of music and art so they can find what they like

I don't want to limit my kids' art and music appreciation to Mozart and Monet, because that is only part of the spectrum. I want to teach them about all sorts of genres of art and music so they can find what they like that is uplifting. I want to include contemporary music in music appreciation because there is a lot of uplifting music (and obviously not uplifting) that there is to choose from. I want to expose them to jazz, the Beatles and Elvis, classical, soundtracks, contemporary, and all sorts. I also want to use music to teach. I used to play "I am Not My Hair" by India Arie for the kids at Sage Creek. Here are some of the lyrics:

I am not my hair, I am not this skin, I am not your expectations, I am the soul that lives within. Does the way I wear my hair make me a better person? Does the way I wear my hair make me a better friend? Does the way I wear my hair determine my integrity? No- I'm expressing my creativity. It's not what's on your head it's what underneath.

I think I'll play the Superman song by Five for Fighting and have them listen to the words and see if they can figure out who they are talking about so they can learn to pay attention to lyrics. I'll play Apologize by One Republic and have them listen to the different instruments and melodies that play at the same time, and how he is expressive in his singing, and have them clap to the beat to learn to keep time. I'll play Permanent by David Cook and tell them that his brother died of cancer that week that he sang that and how he is expressing his feelings through the song. Those are some of the ways to use contemporary music to teach and find uplifting music among the smuck of contemporary music. I want to teach them how to select good music. I'd be stupid to think they'd only listen to classical music as teenagers.

While I was listening to Kris Allen's song, Falling slowly, and the lyrics "Take this sinking boat and point it home; Raise your hopeful voice; you have a choice; Sing your melody and I'll sing along" made me think of my kids and what I'm trying to teach them: I want to teach them that when they world is the sinking boat, to raise their hopeful voice and speak out for good and truth-- sing their melody (and I'll sing along).

Art doesn't have to just be Monet and Manet. Here is one my favorite artist: http://www.beckykellystudio.com/ . (I also love James Christiansen) We can start by studying good illustrations in books. We'll study the classics, too, but we won't limit ourselves to just that.

July 20, 2009

Today we decided to use Karen Andreola's book "Story Starters" for writing. We made up the stories and I wrote it down and the boys copied it. We made some silly stories that had us all laughing. Then, the boys wouldn't stop being goofy and do their writing.

I made binders for them with divider tabs for writing, scripture pictures, art, music, spelling, book reports, science and music; and checklists at the front, one page containing all the checklists for the week so they can see what needs to be done (and me) and they have fun putting an "X" in the box when it's finished. Then we have everything in one binder and they'll have one for each year for us to look back on.

For science today we read "Discovering Nature's Alphabet" by Krystina Castella and then went on a walk to look for letters in nature. We found there are lots of "O's" and lower case "l's" and lots of "Y's".

Nathan's "O":

Alex's "P":

Katie Cutie:

library trips

Today we checked out 68 books from the library:
One of the best things I've done in homeschooling is to start going to the library! We had bad luck with the Spanish Fork library, so my brother let us have his library card to the Provo library. We go with the stroller (I put baby in a snuggli pack) and the boys choose readers for their reading time, picture books and nonfiction books; I choose read aloud books and books I want to use for their school. We can also get music cd's, books on cd, dvd's, etc. Provo has NO limit for books!

When we get home, I sort the books into piles and keep them in laundry baskets and cardboard boxes (Alex's readers, Nathan's readers, math books, storybooks, nonfiction books, etc.). When I notice they aren't using the books as much, I have them go through the books and put them in "keep" and "take back piles". I can renew them online.

art appreciation

For art appreciation yesterday, we decided to go to the BYU art museum. We walked around and I told the boys at the end to choose their favorite ones to draw sketches of. See pictures here: http://toddandkristiecarlson.blogspot.com/2009/07/art-appreciation.html

july 14, 2009

We are doing a new thing for scriptures: after we read, I have the boys draw a picture about what we read. Charlotte Mason says that to help the kids learn what you read, they should tell it back, or narrate what you read to them. One way of doing that is by drawing a picture of it. I've noticed that I remember it better doing it.

We did writing on paper with smaller lines- copywork; spelling list 2; math addition drill of 2's flashcards and computer games; read some more "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch"--kinda boring really but Alex wants me to keep reading it; and then we did reading with Daddy one on one.

I think for science I'm going to use the Kingfisher hands on science series of science experiment books with the Discovery Channel School Science series books. They're also free at the library. We got the Matter book and Matter and Materials Science experiment book to go along with it. I am also pretty excited about this: I found a website about nature education and on it, it had info about making a nature trail. So, I thought it would be fun to put signs up on the nature trail in our neighborhood as we learn about it. It would be a fun project, we'd learn stuff and then we'd have something to show for it in the end!

art and music appreciation

I never knew a good way to study art appreciation, but this is a very very good article on it, (written in 1901). I think I'll use this "method" along with the book: Discovering Great Artists. The article is 6 pages and well worth the read!http://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR12p501PictureTalks.shtml

Here is another book (free e-book you download) on music appreciation which is fantabulous, also found on the amblesideonline website: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14339

Tues. July 7

The boys are doing copywork. They drew "ink" spots and are pretending they are using quils and ink, and need to redip in their ink when it runs out:
Copywork is working really well right now-easier on me, and no backwards letters. Alex still sometimes forgets his spaces, so today I had him use a yellow highlighter to color in between the spaces he did right, and a pink highlighter (he told me it was RED, and not to ever call it pink) to color in the spots he should have used a space. I told him to try and get more yellow than "red" tomorrow.

I made addition flashcards on cardstock and we are working on memorizing the "2's". We started reading "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch." Nathan is not really interested, but Alex is.

Today Nathan said he liked reading to me. I was surprised. He wants to choose harder books above his level to be like Alex. I always worry about teaching reading to Nathan. I hope I'm doing it right. We are trying to balance sight reading books with decoding books.

In Grammar, we are memorizing a poem about a caterpillar:
Brown and furry,
caterpillar (pronounced "calapitter") in a hurry.
Take your walk
to a shady leaf or stalk.
Let no toad spy you
May the little birds pass by you
Spin and die
To live again a butterfly.

Notebooking

I decided I want to have a notebook/binder for each subject the kids do, so they can save their work. I like the idea here http://www.notebookingpages.com/index.php?page=Notebooking-Information
It will also help them do more writing to help their handwriting and remember what they've learned. They can write what they've learned, their thoughts, and then draw a picture if they want.
I'll have to go get some notebooks, a printer (arggggg), and figure out how to make this work with their manuscript paper.

This week

This week both boys did copywork
lessons 1 and 2 in their Grammar book
reading to me
I've been reading to them short picture books- I got "George Washington's Breakfast" by Jean Fritz and other stories about George Washington for the Fourth of July. We made George Washington's breakfast and it was gross.
Math games on the computer at http://www.fun4thebrain.com/
On Wed. we had Boy's club at my house and learned about the dairy group. We tasted cottage cheese, cheese, and made homemade ice cream in bags; we decorated cups and I read "The Milk Makers."
Nathan is still learning to ride a 2 wheeler- he's getting closer. Today Katherine took her first step at the homeschool group!
Today Todd has off from work but he is working on our million dollar website. I went to park day for 3 hours-- the kids have fun playing with the other kids and I have fun talking with the other moms.
We're reading in Alma and are reviewing the first 12 scripture masteries in the Book of Mormon before we go on to number 13.

Tues. June 30

Right now we are starting the grammar book by Jessie Wise "First Language Lessons". It has short, easy lessons.

For writing, I'm going to let the boys choose if they want to do copywork or original work. Yesterday Alex chose to copy and Nathan chose a journal. He wrote, "I love candy. Candy is nummy. Vegetables are dumb. I like birthday cake and ice cream the most." Then when he was done he put "fancy" dots all over his letters. Crazy kid! I'll start dictation a little later and start small.

For spelling, I'm still confused. Some say do dictation, some say create a list from their own writing, some say a workbook, some say a workbook is useless. I ordered a workbook to look at, that Susan Wise Bauer uses. If it's not worth the money (update-- it's not), I'll use the free spelling lists on the internet http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/spelling-levela.html, combined with dicatation and copywork, and their own writing. Todd and I decided that we both learned to spell with spelling lists, copying the words and other activities, and reading and writing and we can spell.

For math, we're going to try Singapore math (primarily) with K12 math. Singapore math has good reviews, has bright pictures, and moves fast. During the summer, I'm having the boys play add/subtracting games on the computer to drill the skill. Funner than flashcards and easier on me.

We're starting Rosetta Stone Spanish and German. We get this free from K12! I'm doing it, too. I don't know that it is great for kids as young as mine, especially Nathan, so I'm trying to think of ways I can do some supplemental teaching, and when I have the time to fit this in.

For reading, I have the boys read with me each 30 minutes a day. 30 mintues is sometimes long for Nathan, so I'm happy with 15 if we can't do 30. We get readers from the library, and Nathan also uses Bob books. I also read aloud to them every day. I read the books they choose at the library (nonfiction, fiction and historical novels) and what I find on great book lists (sonlight.com, Honey for a Child's Heart book, Provo library lists, and the list from amblesideonline.com). If we start it and the kids aren't in to it, we start another one. I want them to enjoy it.

We always start with scripture study. Right now we are reading the Book of Mormon. We have had success by starting with a prayer, and I'll read straight from the real Book of Mormon (no readers or anything). After I read a few verses, I paraphrase what is going on, and we talk about concepts and how to apply it, etc. I try to keep it short enough for them, so sometimes we only read a few verses and then talk about it. I try and end with a "cliff hanger" so it will get them excited for the next reading. Many times they beg us to read more (and we do:)). Then we memorize scripture verses. We are using the scripture mastery list. They use picture prompts that I made (see them here), and I tell them what the verse(s) mean, and we go over it a few times until they have it. We also review old ones. I have loved this a lot. I am learning to memorize along with them!

Alex started taking piano lessons, but we decided that I am teaching him starting this week. We're using Hal Leonard. I also decided to teach music appreciation on Sundays, listening to classical music and learning about composers. Last Sunday we listened to Carmen Suite No. 1: Les Toreadors, and the boys ran around wild and Nathan said, "run for your lives!!" They had a lot of fun. Then we listened to "Peter and the Wolf" downloaded from itunes, and it had a (child's version) biography of the composer beforehand. We liked that one, and I got out my flute after and played the bird part on my flute. We'll get more music from itunes, cd's from the library, and I want to buy the "Meet the Masters" CD collection and the "Classical Kids" collection, both with stories about the composers for kids. Update: and have these talks with the kids about music: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14339

Art- We are getting how to draw books at the library and the kids are loving it! Their drawing has greatly improved! This year I want to use the book "Discovering Great Artists", and maybe do art once a week as a "class"/art appreciation. Update: On Sundays we'll have art appreciation in this method: http://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR12p501PictureTalks.shtml

PE will be at the public school next year.

I want to get a typing program--Typing Instructor Deluxe the kids can do on the computer.

history- I think I've decided to go with the K12 history, which is the first part of world history, and add to it with Susan Bauer's "History of the World" and her activity books, and lots of activities and historical novels/picture books. We'll put up a timeline.

Science- I haven't decided between the Apologia series or the K12 science and adding activities and books to it, such as the Discovery Channel Science books series and lots of experiment books such as the "Hands on Science series" and "Science Activties" series.

Life skills- lessons I used as a counselor at Sage Creek, woodworking, cooking, typing, dressing, brushing teeth, cleaning

Daily: math, spelling, grammar, reading, writing, piano, scriptures
1-3 times a week: history, science, art, typing, music, spanish, pe, life skills

Our school time right now is a checklist instead of a schedule, but when public school starts, we'll have our school from 9-2. If we finish before 2, we can stop, but we won't go past 2. We'll have recess, snack and lunch breaks, and boys club and Friday Fun class breaks, and lots of field trips. And of course, lots of trips to the library!