2012: A look back on the first semester of homeschool

I can't believe that we have been officially homeschooling for 5 months! It has been the biggest learning experience for my kids and I, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. However, I do think that some things worked and others didn't. I will be making a few changes in the new year, but first a look at how far we have come:

Monster

Reading: Monster is now reading words like "yardstick" and "cobweb" with only minor fluency issues. I am so proud of the progress that he has made. Reading is still not his favorite subject, but now he is picking out words he can read everywhere. He needed a real confidence boost when we started out in August and now he proudly proclaims (many times a day now!!) that he can read. We have about two weeks left in AAR1 and then will progress on to AAR2.

Spelling: Monster is still working through AAS1, but enjoys spelling. His fine motor skills still need a lot of work, but we should still finish AAS1 by the end of Spring. I don't mind taking spelling slow in order to get Monster's reading skills going.

Math: Math has been a real learning experience for me this year. Monster despises worksheets, but I love the structure of them. Monster needs short quick lessons and I felt a lot of pressure to have school for more time. I'm finally starting to recognize that I need to cater the learning to my son. That's the whole reason to homeschool in the first place! I think I have found a new love in RightStart Math. I am going to order Level B next week and start working through it with Monster. It has an odd scope and sequence, but I love that it is very hands-on with little worksheets. Drill is practiced through games instead of a ton of worksheets. Although, Monster will be in public school next year and needs to have experience with worksheets, I would rather take this year and focus on the concepts and his fine motor skills. If he improves his stamina and fine motor skills, I'm sure he could tackle and worksheet :)

Everything else: We loved the first few rows we did with FIAR, but then all the planning and organizing became overwhelming for me. I dropped it and focused on reading and math while just reading the kids good books and doing occasional crafts. However, it was the most fun school time we had and I am going to pick it up again in the new year. Katy and the Big Snow is up first next week. We haven't had much formal handwriting practice as this is a tough area for monster. However, I am ordering a D'Nealian Handwriting book for him next week. After looking at the schools I like for him, this seems to be the most popular form of handwriting taught. We will start slowly with simply learning the strokes and I hope to have him forming all his lowercase letters properly by the end of Spring. Capital letters are used much less when writing and I'm sure he will pick those up in school.

The Tank

Reading: She is a reading machine!! I should have known that she would be an early reader. She has been taking books to bed before she could talk. She would spend all day listening to me read books if I had the time. For Christmas I picked up the LeapFrog Tag Reader and it has been a big hit. Right now she just clicks all over the page and isn't really using it to read, but she enjoys it and picks up new words. I can't wait to start the new year with her first formal reading instruction (still only when she asks for school time).

Everything else: Tank still asks for math time on occasion and can count up to 20 with a little help remembering  14 and 15. For some reason she skips them (even when she counts objects out). I think it is adorable and still beyond what I expected so I just gently add them in when she is counting. I doubt any formal math with be added in for her until the fall of next year. Tank will be picking up D'Nealian handwriting along with Monster. I am not expecting her to master anything yet, but will start working on the strokes with dry erase markers and her salt box.

Now for the New Year Changes:

Math: We are parting ways with Singapore (although I think it is a great program) and moving on to RightStart Math. Monster needs hands-on math and that is the whole basis of RightStart. There are limited worksheets and games to play. I also think the abacus will help him to see numbers rather than counting everything out. Most programs I looked at encourage counting pictures. There is nothing wrong with this approach, but I would prefer to encourage seeing numbers more. Monster can put 10 and another number together easily after working on this on our own for a bit. I can't wait to get the program here! There is a level A, but I don't think Tank will be ready for it until the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014.

FIAR: We are going back to using this as our main program. I have several books planned out for the year, starting with Katy and the Big Snow. Monster enjoyed school much more and retained a ton when we spent a week focusing on one book.

Science: Monster constantly asks for more science. However, I am not a science person at all. I love Language Arts and Math and feel confident in my skills in those subject areas. Science is something that leaves me feeling lost and overwhelmed because there is just so much to learn and so many ways to approach it. I stumbled upon a program by Nancy Larson a couple weeks ago and am going to give it a shot. It is a scripted program (I love having a plan already made for me!) and it comes with a kit of supplies needed. I can't wait to start this with Monster!

Art: The kids love art time, but it is also my weak point. I usually do not like to do crafts and the mess left after can drive me bonkers. FIAR doesn't (IMO) include a lot of art either. It is mostly left to the teacher to include hands-on projects. I decided to get a formal art program from Home Art Studio. We will work on one lesson each Friday.

I am also hoping to get a designated start time for us. Mornings are hard to get going around here, but I don't like to spend the afternoons doing schoolwork. I'm hoping to start after breakfast before the kids are too distracted by toys.

Any new year changes for you?

The Decision Not to Homeschool

For many parents, the decision of where your children will obtain their education is a tough decision. I agonized over the decision and looked at a ton of schools in my area. However, I didn’t feel overly comfortable about any of them. Although my son was enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten, I wasn’t set to move on to Kindergarten the next year. My son’s birthday lies just weeks before the cut-off and I worried about his ability to cope with the requirements of a Kindergarten class. Mainly the focus on listening, sitting still, and writing. Then I stumbled upon the idea of homeschooling. Everything changed for me at that point. I fell in love with learning at home and the classical sequence of education. Monster could work at his own pace and still spend majority of his day playing. However, I did not have the only deciding vote in my son’s education. His father stood firm on his belief in public education. I did not blame him for questioning homeschooling. Homeschool was a foreign and very stereotypical topic for him. We decided that I would homeschool for a gap year between Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten, but my son would move on to Kindergarten at a public school in the Fall of 2013.

Fast forward several months and this decision weighs heavy on my heart. Homeschooling has not been easy and my son tends to balk at completing his school work. However, my son is now reading compound words and understanding addition and place value. I couldn’t be more proud of the progress we have made over the past several months and am sad that I won’t have this same experience next year. I still disagree with many methods of education in the public school and would probably advance my son to 1st Grade if he continued at home. However, his father still stands his position: kids should be in school with other kids.

Today, a tragedy happened at an elementary school in Connecticut. A situation no parent ever dreams of being in became a reality for many. I cannot imagine what I would do if my son was a victim in a school shooting. I can only imagine my grief with the thought that I didn’t want him there in the first place. I know that I will struggle with this for many years to come even if my son truly enjoys school and thrives. I wish I could homeschool him, but at this time I have to make the decision not to homeschool.

On a lighter note, my wonderful daughter will be homeschooled as long as possible .

Two emerging readers and The Polar Express

I really need to get back to doing a weekly update, but my blog keeps getting pushed to the side when other things come up. I do have some big news to share…… Tank started to read CVC words!!!! I am so proud of her. She was memorizing the BOB Books and although it appeared that she could read, she couldn’t sound out any new words or recognize words from the book on their own. However, the past two weeks have blown me away. I put AAR Pre-1 aside because I didn’t think she was getting it and wanted to slow down and start doing a full week per letter beginning in January. I now plan to start AAR Pre-1 in January and work on it daily. When she finishes that, we will move straight in to AAR 1. I am such an excited parent!!!

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year and we dived right in this past week with The Polar Express. We had a hot chocolate party while watching the movie, played with snow (Yuck samples), and made a Santa Claus face

Math: Monster is working through Singapore KB and has almost finished the second unit on Number Bonds. Next up is Addition. These are easy problems for Monster to do with the aid of c-rods, but I really want him to work through everything to be prepared for 1A. Tank is working through Singapore KA and still plows through it. However, the writing is slowing her down and I’ve decided to hold off on it until I can get her some number stamps to make it easier. We still have math time with the c-rods, but she doesn’t think of it as “school” work.

Reading: Monster is almost done with AAR 1!! We should finish it up this month! We will take a little break to work on fluency with the stories he can already read and then move right along to AAR 2. He is building confidence everyday even though the words are becoming much more challenging for him.

Spelling: We dropped AAS 1 for a bit, but Monster has been asking to start it back up. We worked through Step 10 last week, but probably won’t start Step 11 until the new year.

Handwriting: Monster needs to work on his letter formation a bit more so I am looking for something to give him a short refresher. The Tank will also move forward with handwriting when I find something I like. She breezed through the Handwriting Without Tears Preschool I already had on the shelf in 2 days but I despise the look of the letters and numbers. I love A Reason for Handwriting, but I would prefer a secular handwriting program.

Halloween and a weekly update

Halloween was last week and the kids loved it!! They have enough candy to last the whole year (if I wasn’t eating several pieces a day )!!! Monster decided to be Wolverine this year and The Tank followed his lead and decided to be a pink BatGirl.

                       

                                               

I am hoping to convince them to be either Thing 1 and Thing 2 next year or Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. (Hey I can dream ).

Monster watched Sid The Science Kid play with slime, so we decided to make some! You can tell from the pictures who liked it and who wasn’t so interested

               

Math: Horizons was driving me crazy and moving too quickly so we have been working through Singapore K B. Monster couldn’t stand this book before due to the black and white pages, but a few months has made a big difference. He is now zooming through and has finished the first unit on Comparing Numbers. How many more/less was a little tricky for him, but I think subtraction will now be a breeze . The Tank is now working through Singapore K A and is loving it. I actually have to tell her to take a break! We still zoomed through the first 36 pages this week. I have no idea where she will go after she finishes the book as K B is a bit of a jump that I don’t think she will be ready for. Miquon will probably become her main program.

Reading: Monster is reading!!! His fluency is increasing every day and he is sounding out words like “mulch” and “lost” without much help! I am such a proud Mama!! We are halfway through AAR 1 and I suspect he will be ready for Level 2 in January . I also decided to purchase the Beta program of LOE Foundations. We just started it, but I am loving the kinesthetic activities included. Monster was sick of the letter tiles in AAR after a few weeks and I have been trying to come up with ideas to “play” with words. LOE does just that!! This is also a program that The Tank can actively participate in and will most likely be her main learning to read program as I don’t think she will need the step-by-step pace of AAR.

Writing: Monster loathes handwriting. Well anything with a pencil and paper is a struggle for him. He has never been my draw and color child. Until now! I wanted a way to work on handwriting that also caught his attention. Introducing Draw Write Now .

          

He was soooo proud of his picture!! There are a few sentences he has to write on another page. As he is still working on forming his letters correctly, I wrote out the sentences with highlighter and he had to trace over them. It took him two days to finish them, but he did it!

The Tank: Tank amazes me every day with her love of learning. She wants to do “school” work all day! Her attention span (as long as she can be active) is incredible considering she is only 3. She is flying through her Brainquest workbook and will likely finish it by Christmas. Then I will move her in to a few Kumon workbooks to work on forming her numbers and letters. Her fine motor skills are coming along nicely and this is a very different experience than with Monster, but I going to follow her lead and keep giving her opportunities to learn.

Mini-update

Sorry I have not posted an update in two weeks, but we have been enjoying the weather and only doing small morning lessons.

Reading – Monster is now on lesson 22 of AAR 1 (almost halfway!) and Step 9 of AAS. He still finds spelling easier than reading, but is gaining confidence is his reading skills. I am still very much in love with AAR. Monster has such a wonderful grasp on the phonograms and can sound out a ton of words already! The Tank has taken a break from AAR Pre-1. Rhyming turned out to be very difficult for her (this is a developmental problem and even Monster struggles with rhyming). We are working on learning all of the letter sounds and will start Confessions of a Homeschooler’s Letter of the Week curriculum in January. I would start it now, but I need time to print, cut, and laminate all the pieces and prep everything for an open-and-go use of the program.

Math – Monster still enjoys Horizons K and I am adding in some Miquon and number bond work on our whiteboard. Monster loves writing on the whiteboard.

  Yes, we usually do school in our pajamas

We enjoyed a lot of Halloween activities

        

  

Other – I picked up a BrainQuest workbook for Tank this past week for pre-kindergarteners and she loves it! We already finished the chapter on numbers. She is my school lover and I can’t wait to see what the years will bring her homeschool journey! She also spends plenty of time playing with water (the only thing that seems to keep her interest for more than a few minutes without mommy) and Monster usually joins in.

 

We haven’t rowed a book lately as I needed a break to plan out several books. Although some people use FIAR as an open-and-go program, it was not working that way for us. I need to have activities already prepped and ready or the kids lose interest before we even start. It also means I get to spend more nights relaxing instead of planning and printing (like I spend them now lol).

We also dropped everything besides math and reading. Even handwriting has taken a backseat unless he decides to write during reading and spelling. I felt like Monster was unhappy with the amount of work I required. I want him to love learning and enjoy being 5 and spend his days playing rather than sitting at a desk. Homeschool gives us the flexibility to work at his pace and at an amount that he can handle and we have plenty of  time to fill in the extras.

Another week gone 10/1–10/5

Halloween is Monster’s favorite holiday so we have already started the celebration. Instead of “rowing” books this month, we will read all the library books we can find on Halloween or Halloween related stories.

This week:

         

We made witch hat cookies and decorated our foam pumpkins.

       

  

We also visited the zoo for homeschool day and Monster touched a snake (again!).

       

Math: Monster keeps plugging through Horizons K and doesn’t complain about math time at all. We also finished another chapter in Life of Fred: Apples. The Tank is now working through MEP Reception and a pre-miquon book. She loves this and has already zoomed through the first 4 lessons in two days.

Reading: Monster continues to dislike reading so we have switched our gears to spelling. All About Spelling will focus on phonics just as All About Reading does, but it will progress at a faster pace and work on encoding rather than decoding. He has zoomed through the first six steps this week and didn’t even mind writing his spelling words!! Step 6 is the first step with dictation and he wrote every spelling work perfectly!! He was so proud of himself . The Tank is still working through All About Reading Pre-level 1 and loves her school time.

Other: The Tank has almost finished her cutting and coloring Kumon books. I am constantly looking for new things to occupy her. Next up is the cutting and pasting book. She hasn’t used glue much so I’m sure it will be a little more challenging for her. Monster is still working through Developing the Early Learner and a Kumon Mazes book.

2 Week Update

Sorry I have not blogged an update for 2 weeks. We have a few new additions to our curriculum. The Tank is now working through AAR Pre-1. Ziggy the Zebra puppet is a huge hit and even Monster begs to join in on her lessons (giving her all the answers ). I don’t mind, though. Next year the Tank will be home alone and we will probably run through AAR Pre-1 again at an accelerated pace before moving on to AAR 1.

Last week we rowed Mirette on the High Wire to continue our study of France. However, Monster was done with France about halfway through the week so we didn’t focus too much on it. He also started Karate at a nearby gym last week and the excitement pretty much took over the week.

This past week we rowed Harold and the Purple Crayon. This is a book the kids already love. We mainly focused on the purple factor and spent the week talking about colors. We watched two videos on the production of crayons that Monster loved (Tank not so much) and we colored the crayons we had previously made from old ones melted down. I decided to make this a science heavy week as we spent the past two weeks focused on History/Social Studies.

We worked with vinegar and baking soda and food coloring (can you tell how much Monster loved this!):

 

Another day we worked with magnets to mix red and blue paint:

         

This is the most focused I have seen either of them during paint time!

Math: Monster has made the permanent switch to Horizons K. He loves the colorful worksheets and that he isn’t focusing on one concept for several sheets or even from one problem to the next. This would drive me crazy, but he loves it. He has now completed 16 lessons in just 2 weeks! We also worked through 3 chapters in Life of Fred: Apples. We played a few addition games and he is starting to memorize his addition facts. Math is Monster’s easy subject just like his Mom .

Reading: Reading however is not. This is a tough one for Monster, but AAR makes it easier and is taking him step by step. Monster is now on Lesson 16 in AAR 1 and Tank had completed the first 6 lessons in Pre-1. Tank is starting to understand rhyming and Monster is perfecting his rhyming skills with Ziggy. We started reading My Father’s Dragon this week as our read-aloud. Monster is loving in, but Tank usually wanders off half-way through the chapter which is ok as she is only 3.

Handwriting: I am so impressed with the progress Monster is making in handwriting. A few months ago he was beginning every letter at the bottom and reversing almost every letter. He is not starting most of his letters from the top and writing them to scale. I love Explode the Code for this purpose. I knew Monster would balk at direct handwriting instruction, but doesn’t mind (at least not as much) the daily writing in ETC. He is still using it with dry erase markers. I think we will stick with that through the first book and then move to a pencil when we reach book 2.

Other: Monster is still working through Developing the Early Learner Book 2. He  still enjoys it, but we are skipping over some parts that I think he has mastered until it gets a little harder. I bought him a cutting book and a maze book from Kumon and he is finally working on his cutting skills. Anything that requires fine motor skills is very difficult for him so even a page of cutting for him is progress . He enjoys mazes and I think I will need to get a more difficult book soon.

Tank: The Tank is constantly asking for more school work. This week she worked on her sorting skills, pouring skills, and one-to-one correspondence skills. Unfortunately for Mommy, she has mastered all of these . She has 1-10 down cold, so we are now working on 10-20 which is a little more difficult for her. We are working mastering all the basic sounds of the alphabet (she still struggles with a few letters – which is perfectly normal, but unacceptable to her ). She spent a lot of time this week on learning how to form letters. She actually has wonderful fine motor skills, but is still learning how to form each letter. She mostly works in her salt box or with a dry erase marker in her Tot Book.

All in all this was a very busy two weeks. I hope to keep up with the weekly updates. It not only updates every one else, but keeps me accountable for keeping records.

Reading = Love :)

We are officially an All About Reading family! AAR 1 has been working great for Monster. I love that every other lesson is reading from a book included in the package. The stories are simple and don't have much to them, but Monster feels accomplished each time he reads one. The fluency sheets are a little difficult only because the amount of words on each page overwhelms him. This is the reason we tend to stay away from cluttered pages in every subject. If there is too much on the page, Monster just shuts down and it is like pulling teeth even if he knows all the answers.

And now, AAR Pre-1 has arrived!! The Tank has been begging for her own school and I found a deal that I simply could not pass up. It arrived in the mail yesterday and she hasn't stopped talking about it since. She loves Ziggy and was so excited to do her very own school work this morning. I let her sit in on all of Monsters lessons, but she wasn't satisfied and I wanted to catch the love of learning while its strong. Now Monster is begging to sit in on her lessons! He loves Ziggy too! Ziggy is now part of his reading lessons as well.

I can't wait to see what joy All About Spelling brings when we start it after Monster finishes AAR 1. Monster is really building up his fine motor skills and finally starting majority of his letters at the top. We are still working on correcting a few reversals, but his confidence is building which means he actually wants to write at times (stress the at times!! lol) Hopefully he will be ready to tackle spelling work after Christmas.

Overall, I feel like I made good choices on curriculum this year (besides math.....) and am happy to see my kids enjoying learning with mom :)

9/10 - 9/14 Rowing Madeline and visiting the Zoo

This week our focus was Madeline, but we strayed a bit as the weather was great (for Texas) and I was dying to get out and have some fun.

France was a big topic of the week. I picked up a Madeline movie from the library and Monster loved it. We located France on the globe and talked about ways we could get there. Monster thought a boat would be the best idea until I explained a plane would be much faster. He then stated that a jet was the only way to go :). We also built the Eiffel Tower with cookies (I am not at all good at these crafts so please don't judge):



Monster loved it and wanted to devour the entire thing, but Tank decided it was too sweet and only had a few bites before she moved on to apple slices :)

We read a few books about the human body and listened to Madeline on tape as well, but I didn't stress the book too much this week. Next up is We're Going on a Bear Hunt and the kids already love the book so I will center the week around it more.

Our Montessori-style letters and numbers finally arrived so we spent some time playing with them and writing in a salt box:



Monster finished some pages in Miquon Orange, Singapore 1A, MEP Reception, and two chapters in Life of Fred. Although I like each program, I am still searching for something that catches his interest for numbers and doesn't seem like such a drag for him. I picked up a Horizons K book to throw into the mix next week. Tank sits with us through all of this, but keeps asking for her own "school" work. Asking her to sort bears by colors or numbers, or making trains and stairs with c-rods is not working anymore. It isn't school work if it isn't a workbook. I am now on the hunt for a math book for her.

Monster completed another three lessons in AAR, read some BOB Books, and worked through ETC 1. CVC words are getting easier and easier for him to decode. He is also picking up spelling them very easily even though we haven't started lessons in AAS.

Monster finished up Developing the Early Learner 1 and is very excited to start the next book. This is the one activity he loves and it gives him so much confidence when he completes several pages at a time.

But the highlight of the week was definitely this



Our trip to the Zoo! The weather was great and it was half-price day!!! After over two hours we still hadn't covered the entire Zoo. I promised to take them again in a few weeks.

I love the perks of homeschooling :)