I decided that I'm going to try to refocus this blog back to its original purpose, our homeschool adventure. So to this I'm going to try, emphasis on try, to do a weekly preview of our upcoming activities. Then I hope to do a refection on the week at the end. This way I hope to see what works, what doesn't and how lazy I am, lol.
So what will happen this week? Well, Poogie will continue her study of pronouns in English, supplemented with writing activities in her history unit. She will also continue with Teaching Textbooks 4 three days a week and Saxon 3 daily. I did this because she loves the TT but needs the Saxon. Math skills will focus on subtraction of larger numbers, finding the square root, making predictions by collecting and analyzing data and adding larger numbers.
In science she will be learning about he life cycle of a frog and the characteristics of amphibians, fish and reptiles. I have supplemented this will some fun activities with the frog life cycle.
Geography will focus on cardinal directions and using a map scale to measure distance between two points.
History will include reading Meet Felicity and doing reading comprehension activities. Reading and doing a famous person activity on George Washington. This unit also includes activities for our newspaper, writing an editorial and friendly letter. The fun part will be writing using our berry ink, which we will make and write using a quill. The week will end with a day of cooking Queen Cakes and sipping some tea!
Poogie's week at the dance studio will be exciting. It's Parents Watch Week!!
T will continue working through his new math Saxon Algebra 1/2. So far it has been challenging but well worth the stress. In literature we are taking a break before we tackle Tom Sawyer. I am letting him read some novels for fun. In language he will be learning about and diagramming gerunds.
In science T will be reading and doing a report on biomes. And finally, in history he will continue reading about the Revolutionary War and watching John Adams.
Extracurricular for T will include dance and voice lessons. His dance will also include parents watch week, and continue rehearsal for the spring production coming up in 3 short weeks.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
American Girl History Unit
The Abeka history is gone. We just couldn't take one more minute of it. We also stopped using Bob Jones reading. BORING! Both of these made us dread these subject each day. The solution was found in a unit study called Portraits of American Girlhood by Cindy Sotelo. It is a seven unit study using the American Girl books. Perfect!
We were so excited to find that the first girl we read and study is Felicity! Poogie received Felicity and Elizabeth for Christmas. Since we only have the first book in her series I called my local library and found that they had the next two in the series so that will keep us busy. The study also calls for the use of Felicity's cookbook and craft book which I got from my library also. After looking through those two books I know those are books to put on my purchase list, they are wonderful.
The unit study is laid out for us Monday-Friday with reading and/or activities daily. Mrs., Sotelo recommends that you supplement the unit with a math and phonics program. You may choose to also use a separate spelling program if you wish. Most of the activities are grammar and language based so that is not needed. I however, will still use all of these programs we are currently using. The only thing I am changing is to use this unit study for history and reading. I am also replacing the writing portion of my current curriculum with the writing activities in the unit study. These just make more sense to me.
I also purchased a very inexpensive lapbook on the Felicity reading series from Curric Click. It has comprehension exercises, vocabulary, writing prompts, handwriting, sequencing, and the list goes on. Poogie is really looking forward to the newspaper activities in the lapbook. She works on pieces as we go and when completed with have a full newspaper layout.
So what have we done so far in the unit. We started by doing a book activity, naming the author, illustrator, copyright, etc. This is in the lapbook. I made vocabulary cards to go with each chapter, also from the lapbook. Today we will be doing a lesson from the unit study. We will be visiting a website about colonial Williamsburg and design a sign for a business of our choice found there. I hope to take photos and keep a log on my blog of the unit study. ttfn
We were so excited to find that the first girl we read and study is Felicity! Poogie received Felicity and Elizabeth for Christmas. Since we only have the first book in her series I called my local library and found that they had the next two in the series so that will keep us busy. The study also calls for the use of Felicity's cookbook and craft book which I got from my library also. After looking through those two books I know those are books to put on my purchase list, they are wonderful.
The unit study is laid out for us Monday-Friday with reading and/or activities daily. Mrs., Sotelo recommends that you supplement the unit with a math and phonics program. You may choose to also use a separate spelling program if you wish. Most of the activities are grammar and language based so that is not needed. I however, will still use all of these programs we are currently using. The only thing I am changing is to use this unit study for history and reading. I am also replacing the writing portion of my current curriculum with the writing activities in the unit study. These just make more sense to me.
I also purchased a very inexpensive lapbook on the Felicity reading series from Curric Click. It has comprehension exercises, vocabulary, writing prompts, handwriting, sequencing, and the list goes on. Poogie is really looking forward to the newspaper activities in the lapbook. She works on pieces as we go and when completed with have a full newspaper layout.
So what have we done so far in the unit. We started by doing a book activity, naming the author, illustrator, copyright, etc. This is in the lapbook. I made vocabulary cards to go with each chapter, also from the lapbook. Today we will be doing a lesson from the unit study. We will be visiting a website about colonial Williamsburg and design a sign for a business of our choice found there. I hope to take photos and keep a log on my blog of the unit study. ttfn
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Change is good...
We are well into the new year and looking forward to thawing out after a very cold and snowy few months. These months have been full of change and surprises. My hubby started a new job, which was a welcome change since it would mean more money and a chance to save a little money too. I continued my part-time job that began last fall. Also a good change, although it does bring some craziness to our daily lives.
The other changes have been small, some personal and some educational. I have found a little time to explore my spiritual path. Wish I had more time for it but alas I will have to make due with late nights and stolen moments.
Homeschooling has offered up its own group of surprises. I, as always, began to plan for next year early. I like to have plenty of time to research all options when it comes to curriculum. This year is even more important since I will be planning for a high schooler. The surprise came along when I began searching math programs. I always look at the scope and sequence of each program and was in shock to find that many of the hs programs were very advanced vs. his programs this year.
He is just now getting into doing some real algebra and it is very basic at that. I sat down and discussed the situation with him since it is he who will be faced with the Algebra 1 next year. T was not surprised but concerned. So we decided to order a stronger pre-algebra curriculum to work through the rest of the year. I will start by testing him through the easy chapters and hitting the new material hard. What was hard to recognize was that the curriculum we were using was failing him. We were using Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra. I did a lot of research before I ordered it because it was so expensive. But even the best research will not prepare you for the real deal.
What brought all this to my attention was when Poogie was given TT 4 to try out. We use Saxon 3, so this was new and interesting for her. She loved it of course, it was really easy. I waited and waited for her to be challenged and so far that hasn't happened. Needless to say we did not stop using our Saxon program. But I did begin to look closer at T's TT to see if it too as behind. Not surprising it was.
So here I am mid February ordering new curriculum. I have ordered a few other things and made some more changes but will post that another day. Enjoy this warm weather.
The other changes have been small, some personal and some educational. I have found a little time to explore my spiritual path. Wish I had more time for it but alas I will have to make due with late nights and stolen moments.
Homeschooling has offered up its own group of surprises. I, as always, began to plan for next year early. I like to have plenty of time to research all options when it comes to curriculum. This year is even more important since I will be planning for a high schooler. The surprise came along when I began searching math programs. I always look at the scope and sequence of each program and was in shock to find that many of the hs programs were very advanced vs. his programs this year.
He is just now getting into doing some real algebra and it is very basic at that. I sat down and discussed the situation with him since it is he who will be faced with the Algebra 1 next year. T was not surprised but concerned. So we decided to order a stronger pre-algebra curriculum to work through the rest of the year. I will start by testing him through the easy chapters and hitting the new material hard. What was hard to recognize was that the curriculum we were using was failing him. We were using Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra. I did a lot of research before I ordered it because it was so expensive. But even the best research will not prepare you for the real deal.
What brought all this to my attention was when Poogie was given TT 4 to try out. We use Saxon 3, so this was new and interesting for her. She loved it of course, it was really easy. I waited and waited for her to be challenged and so far that hasn't happened. Needless to say we did not stop using our Saxon program. But I did begin to look closer at T's TT to see if it too as behind. Not surprising it was.
So here I am mid February ordering new curriculum. I have ordered a few other things and made some more changes but will post that another day. Enjoy this warm weather.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)