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?

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.

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 :)