2012-2013 School Year is a GO!

We have settled in to our new school year, and all is going smashingly!  I have a 6th grader, a 5th grader, and a pre-kindergartener this year.  I had some initial reservations because we are charging full speed ahead into the 'logic stage', and with that comes a greater work load along with some added subjects.  As always, my kiddos continue to amaze me with their dedication and perserverence. 

All of my curriculum choices seem to be spot on, with the exception of one. But what would school be in our home without a  curriculum change or two?   Here is what we have planned for this school year:

6th Grade
Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra- LOVE this curriculum!  J-Straco finishes most lessons with comments like, "I am really smart!". 
Logic of English Essentials- The best intensive phonogram study I have found for trying to get a child with dyslexia up to speed.

5th Grade
Math Mammoth- This is one of our favorite 'tried and true' curriculums.  A perfect blend of asian math, mental math, and logical problem solving. 
Natural Speller- Farm Boy is most definitely a natural speller, and this curriculum gives me the assurance that he can spell words at and above his grade level, with the flexibility to add vocabulary exercises into the mix. 

Combined 5th and 6th Grade
Oh how I love having students close in age! I am able to combine the boys for the majority of our courses, which saves me an insane amount of planning and instruction time.
Lively Latin- I have slowed the pace down a bit on our Latin Study, because we have almost finished Big Book One, and I am still undecided on where we will go next.
Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding-  May I just say that the multitude of science curriculum we have tried in the past, is to BFSU like an acorn is to a mighty oak tree?  Seriously though, I am amazed at the brilliance of this curriculum.  I am able to combine all three kids, with minimal adjustments.  All the different disciplines of science are interwoven, so the children see how all branches of science are connected. It's pure and simple genius, I tell you!
Veritas Press Self Paced Online Course (Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation)- The boys and I were all leary of this curriculum after previewing a sample.  Farm Boy, ever a realist, rolled his eyes and said, "Really mom?  A talking sphynx?" However, once we finished the first week we could all see what an amazing curriculum this is.  The boys learned so much about St. Augustine and we read excerpts from his 'Confessions' and 'City of God'.  I really like how there is a lot of geography and literature tied into this history curriculum.  Our coordinating literature choices for the semester will be "Beowulf",  "King Arthur" and "The Hobbit", along with selections from "The Canterbury Tales", and many other books on the history of Christianity and the Bible.
The Art of Argument (Logic)- We just started this, haven't made it past the intro and background info, but the boys are excited about learning the different fallacies and how to 'argue like a philosopher'.
Elementary Koine Greek- This is our first year learning Greek, and we really like this curriculum.  Very quick, yet straight forward. 
Rod & Staff Grammer- We have used this for the last couple years with splendid results.  It does get some criticism for being 'dry', but does grammar need to be exciting?  It is another one that is quick and straight to the point, so no complaints from anyone here.
Music- Both boys are still moving forward with their respective instruments.  Farm Boy is doing great on the piano, and has just learned how to play his favorite song, 'Fur Elise' by Beethoven. 
J-Straco is still commited to his guitar and violin lessons.  He enjoys giving concerts to anyone who will listen.  Both boys are singing in the Junior Choir at church, and J-Straco started playing his guitar with our Praise Band.  He looks so little up there, next to the adults, but loves it!
All three may be joining a drum group as well, so stay tuned....
Physical Education- All three kids spend a lot of time outside, climbing trees, swinging and running through the woods and cornfields.  They also started swimming lessons this year, so we all spend a couple hours a week in the pool.  The princess enjoys a pre-school story time, and I am trying to get us all more active in our local homeschool group.  We enjoyed playtime at the park this week, and next week starts an art class which I think all three will enjoy. 
Geography- I decided to focus on United States geography this year.  We are using Veritas Press geography which has been well received.  The boys get quite bit of world geography through our history curriculum.
Writing- We started the year with IEW Narnia based writing, but that died a quick death three weeks into the year.  The boys were not happy with the idea of copying paragraphs written by others.  Farm Boy, my very logical child, decided he wanted to work on writing something 'real' Something original.  He decided to start with a book report on 'The Hobbit' and I forsee him doing more research based writing this year.  J-Straco is my creative writer, and decided he wanted to make up some stories of his own.  My goal for the year in writing is to steer them toward clear, engaging paragraphs, and editing skills.

The Princess is not technically old enough for kindergarten, but we are doing some kindergarten work at her own pace.  We are beta-testing a new kindergarten curriculum from 'Logic of English', which I really like and recommend.  We have been taking it slow, and she has been learning the six basic cursive strokes, and practicing hearing the different sounds in a word. 
We have also been doing some pre-math work with cuisenaire rods, and she has gone through half of MEP math, reception year.  My goal for the year is to develop a strong number sense, and work on number bonds up to ten.  She also loves our weekly visits to the library, and finds a big stack of books at every visit. 

My Goals for the year include learning Latin and Greek alongside the boys.  I work through the same workbooks they do, so I can help them with any problems that may arise.  I am also thinking a lot about going back to school for my Masters Degree in something education related.  Either continuing with special education, or educational psychology.  I am not sure when and if this will take shape, but it is fun to think about! 

That is our year at a glance, I hope to update bi-monthly this year. We'll see.....

Summer School is in Session!

Summer, this year, finds us tucked away in our air-conditioned house, as temps climb into the hundreds.  We are in the midst of a drought, and spend much of our mornings and evenings trying to keep our gardens watered.  Keeping the field of sweet corn growing has proved a challenge, and Farm Boy, who has been lately excited by all things pioneer, especially pioneer farms, has felt like he has gone back in time.  As they haul buckets of water up to the field, he can pretend that he is Almonzo Wilder, or Ralph Moody trying to save the family from a devastating drought.  Out of desperation one day, and taking pity on our poor, panting chickens, The Princess and I rigged a 'fan air-conditioner' for the coop using copper and plastic tubes, and an aquarium pump.  We succeeded in lowering the temp in the coop by 15 degrees.  A friend called me 'Mama MacGyver'!  Too bad the boys were away that day, and missed this demonstration of their old mom's genius!
On cooler days, we enjoy park hopping, trips to the zoo and bike trips out to grandma's house. The boys went to an amusement park last week with their dad, and are going to a Milwaukee Baseball game tomorrow with Daddy and Grandma.  We also spend a lot of time at the library, enjoying their many summer programs.  J-Straco took third place in a Lego building contest.  He built a flying ambulance of the future, complete with healing crystals.  The judges were very impressed with his detailed explanation of how his futuristic vehicle could travel the solar system and heal people. 
After one of our family meetings, the boys decided they were wasting too much time playing games, so they decided to take the month of June off.  They stayed very busy with their Lego's, blocks, books and puzzles.  They have been very busy with their Playmobil knights and spent one whole day building a Roman Castle out of blocks.
We also had a talk about summer school, and came to an agreement. We would do a block schedule of three weeks on, one week off.  So far this is working fantastically.  We feel very relaxed only tackling 2-3 subjects a day.  This will keep their brains fresh, yet give them a little break before we start in again with a much more rigorous curriculum line-up come fall. 
We have coined Monday, "fun-day", and play games such as Latin flash-card war, Bananagrams, Go-Fish for elements of the Periodic Table, and math and logic games.  The rest of the week we work on our normal curriculum with the exception of one new addition requested by the boys, a Chemistry unit.  The boys are loving the Chemistry curriculum from Ellen McHenry.  I, also, am finding excitement in learning Chemistry in a way I never have before.  I highly recommend her courses.  They are very inexpensive, and the lessons are interesting and hands on.  Link here.

Here is what we did this week:

Math:  Played 'Rush Hour' and 'River Crossing' games. No formal work this week.
Lang. Arts: The boys worked in their spelling books 2 days this week.
Latin:  Worked on memorizing our newest vocab list, and two days with the workbooks.
Science:  Learned about Mendeleev and how he organized the periodic table.  The boys were amazed at his genius for the elements, and saddened by how his work was not recognized by his home country of Russia (during his lifetime).
History:  Listened to two chapters from MOH on Jesus.  Read a book about Pompeii, and watched a movie on netflix about the last days of Pompeii.
Reading:  Farm Boy finished 'Farmer Boy' by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and started the first book in the 'Little Britches' series by Ralph Moody.  J-Straco is still reading 'Wonderstruck' by Brian Selznick.  He has also been reading 'Cheaper by the Dozen' by  Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.
We finished 'The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe', and will move on to 'The Horse and his Boy' soon. 
After a trip to the book store this week, J-Straco has been working through his new book, "101 Things to do Before You Grow Up.'  He has learned some magic tricks, and created an air-cannon.
Music:  Farm Boy is working on 'F-Position' on the piano, and really enjoys practicing and performing for us.  J-Straco is perfecting his hand positioning and form on the violin, and learning new scales and songs.  On the guitar, he has been working on speeding up his pentatonic scale, memorizing his music theory, and transposing.  He loves to make up his own songs on the guitar, and his even taught his old mama how to play four chords. He tells me he wants to start piano lessons soon. I think The Principal will have to pick up another job to keep this kid in instruments and lessons!
Bible: The boys and Daddy have been reading and discussing, "Good to Great in God's Eyes: 10 Practices Great Christians Have in Common" by Chip Ingram.

The Princess has been spending her time playing with her Playmobil animals, especially her new animal hospital set.  She has also really started to enjoy coloring, and spends a lot of time with coloring books and her markers.  I think she will really enjoy starting a formal K4 curriculum in the fall.
As much as I love how relaxing the summer has been, I can honestly say I am looking forward to fall, and the cooler temperatures it will bring.  Did I mention how much fun I am having choosing our new curriculum and organizing everyone's schedule?  I live for the first day of school!!

Week of May 28

We started the week with a Memorial Day/Birthday party for my dad at our home.  The kids enjoyed running around with their cousins, while the women chatted and prepared food, and the men took turns holding the umbrella, grilling, and keeping an eye out for funnel clouds.  None spotted, luckily. 
I made this strawberry pie for my dad, which was a huge hit.  We make quite a few strawberry pies throughout the summer, along with jam as our strawberry plants expand every year. 

Our school books are finding some tough competition in the climbing tree and tire swing.  As the weather warms, we are cutting some subjects short to get outside and play. 

While the kidlets run and play, I keep busy hoeing and weeding my gardens.  My wonderful husband tilled a second garden for me which is already full of yummy vegetables.  We have a couple dozen kale plants, tomatoes, peppers, onions, pie pumpkins, cantaloupe and watermelon.  Our smaller garden is sprouting carrots, peas, lettuce, spinach and broccoli.  Check out our favorite recipe for kale here.  Yum!  In another month or two, our berries will start to ripen and we will have (in addition to our plethora of strawberries) raspberries, mulberries, black raspberries, blackberries, cherries and hopefully some blueberries from our new bush. 

We attended a memorial service yesterday for a relative of my husbands who had passed away.  He was 91 years old, and was born, farmed, raised his family, and died all within a 3 mile radius.  His oldest son gave a touching tribute to his dad including this little gem:

"Farms today are about making money, they are businesses.  When I was growing up a farm meant taking care of your family- providing food and being together, working along side each other."

I love this quote.  I am sure not all modern day farms are about making money, but I do agree that times are a 'changin.  I love that we can give our kids a flavor of 'living off the land' and working together to eat fresh and healthy foods we have grown. 

This is what we learned this week:

Math: J-Straco is working with fractions, converting improper fractions and Farm Boy has been working on area, perimeter and volume.

Grammar:  Only one grammar lesson this week, as we are almost to the end of the book.  We reviewed capitalization.

Spelling:  The boys completed the week's lesson in their workbooks. Farm Boy kept up with the Scripps National Spelling Bee.  He and I took this qualifying test to see if we could enter.  I won't tell you our scores- but I can guarantee you won't see our names in next year's Bee!  On the plus side, Farm Boy has been balking about taking Greek in the fall, so I was able to point out that a lot of the Spelling Bee words had Greek origins.

Latin:  We have been working with future tense verbs, and have been walking around the house chanting, "bo, bis, bit, bimus, bitis, bunt". 

Science:  Our gardening has been our science for the week.  The boys have been helping their dad test corn seed to find the germination rate.  Also, we spotted a hummingbird outside at the bird feeding station, so we did some research on what they like to eat.  We found a recipe for hummingbird food and made a batch to hang out in our hummingbird feeder.

History:  We have been reading about Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and the first and second triumvirates of Rome.  Books we used for our research include: Famous Men of Rome, Augustus Caesar's World by Foster, The Life of Julius Casear by Dr. Nicholas Saunders, and Cleopatra by Diane Stanley.

Reading:  J-Straco finished 'Hugo Cabret' and started 'Wonderstruck', also by Brian Selznick.
Farm Boy is reading 'Farmer Boy' by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Bible:  We didn't do anything in our 'Names of God' book this week.  However, the boys do a nightly 'men's bible study' with their dad before bed each night.  We heard a shocking statistic on the radio- People who read the bible less than 4 times a week, exhibit behavior identical to athiests. That is a huge motivating factor for us to keep up with our bible studies!
*disclaimer: we have nothing against athiests, we know some very nice non-believers and enjoy spending time with them.  However, as Christians we feel it is our responsibility to be an example to those around us, by spreading the word of God, and living a life so that others can see Christ in us.

The Princess has been busy at the school table as well.  She does a page or two from her Rod & Staff preschool book each day, and is working through the phonogram cards.  She has about half of the phonograms memorized.  I also showed her a cursive writing app on my iPad, and she practiced making cursive, lowercase letters 'a', 'b', and 'c'.  I ordered another set of cuisenaire rods and some base ten blocks and have been trying to get her familiar with those so we can start Miquon Math in the fall. 

Rounding the Home Stretch

The last month has seen me busily scurrying to choose our curriculum for next school year.  I think I have it pretty well nailed down, and have ordered 99% of what we will need.  We will 'stay the course' for the most part- using the next level of what we are currently using.  A few exceptions are:
History:  We will be on the Middle Ages cycle and have decided to try Veritas Press online course.  I let the boys try a sample on their website and they both loved it.  We will also be doing our read aloud literature largely based on this history cycle.  As it stands, our read alouds will be; King Arthur (Once and Future King?) Pilgrims Progress, The Hobbit, some of Martin Luther's works, and whatever else I decide to throw in.
The last few months I have been assigning the boys some reading from 'Famous Men of Greece and Rome', which I really like, so we'll probably continue their assigned reading of 'Famous Men of the Middle Ages'. 
Spelling: J-Straco has recently started a new curriculum called 'Logic of English'.  I really like this because it is phonogram based and The Princess can join us learning the phonogram and spelling rules, and play the games along with us.
Greek:  I have not committed to starting Greek next year, but I am leaning in that direction.  I purchased Elementary Koine Greek which looks pretty slow moving and painless. 
Writing: I have been debating whether or not the boys will be ready for Susan Wise Bauer's next writing curriculum, Writing With Skill, and have decided to hold off one more year due to the comments I hear from people currently using it.  I don't think the boys will be able to work independently for 45 minutes a day on writing.  Instead we'll use IEW's Narnia based writing.  This looks so good, I'm excited to start!
Latin:   We will finish Lively Latin toward the end of the summer, and I have a few options I am trying to work through.  First, we could work through LL again, to really solidify the conjugations and vocab, or move on to another curriculum.  If we move on I need to decide between Latin Prep or Henle Latin.  I have both already and am leaning toward Latin Prep.  We'll see.....
Bible:  Still undecided.  I really love the Names of God book we are currently using, and am contemplating working through it again in greater depth.  Of course, our History will cover the Reformation, so we'll have a lot of Bible History there, and The Principal is looking for a new bible study to do with the boys.

Now that i have an idea where we are going, I can schedule the rest of our current year so we end up without any gaps.  Our goal is to hit the books hard through May and the first week in June, then take a couple weeks off before commencing summer school. 

Since i have been so neglectful of my blog the past month, here is our last month or so in pictures.

The Princess turned 4!

She developed a renewed interest in her Rod &Staff Workbooks.  She does her workbook every day now, when the boys are doing their work. 

The kiddos performed in our church Variety Show.  They played and sang 'The Cartoon Song' by Chris Rice.  The were a huge hit!

 

Farm Boy turned 10!

 

Project from our Bible Study, "God's Names" by Sally Michael

We were talking about how God is our Strong Tower.

J-Straco decided to test out some of Archimedes' laws dealing with water buoyancy and displacement

He weighed a few objects, then put then in a full bowl of water and measured the water which was displaced.  The weight of the two was equal!

They also made a 6 foot long Archimedes Screw which really worked!

 

We read about Alexander the Great and later the Library at Alexandria. The boys made scrolls like what would have been found there.  They really enjoyed reading from them.  

 

Farm Boy during his oral spelling test. 

Week of April 9

We were on Spring Break last week, and spent this week easing back into our routine.  The boys had a sleepover Sunday night, and between that and our home school gym class and piano lessons, nothing got done on Monday.  Even though we didn't have a full week, I think we'll be ready to hit next week full-force. Here is what we did this week:

Math:  J-Straco has been working on graphing and Farm Boy has been working on multiplying/dividing fractions.

Latin:  We only cracked open our Latin book one day, and spent the other days with our flash cards trying to cement our latest batch of vocabulary words. 

Grammar:  Worked with prepositions and objects of the preposition. Did some parsing on the patio door with window markers.

History:  We read and discussed Alexander the Great- how he was a student of Aristotle, sought revenge on Persia, and conquered much of the 'known' world.  He named the city of Alexandria (Egypt) after himself. 

Lit:  Famous Men of Greece, chapters on Phillip and Alexander

Science: We are still working through a unit on nutrition and talked about healthy and unhealthy fats and how calories are measured.

Other:  We watched 'The Safe Side: Stranger Safety and discussed it. It is a VERY good movie which gives very usable advice without being too scary.

Reading:  The boys finished their audio book: 'Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal.  J-Straco started listening to a new audio book: Sign of the Beaver.  He started reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret this week, and is really enjoying it. Farm Boy is reading: The Worm Book For Beginners:  A Vermiculture Starter.  Grandma took him shopping for his birthday and he chose a portable worm farm.  We have been looking at larger worm compost bins and researching vermiculture. 
J-Straco has also been reading his herb books.  His favorite is: A Kids Herb Book.  I bought him a new herb book which arrived this week: Walking the World in Wonder: A Children's Herbal.  He planted a wide variety of herbs this week, and is planning which 'concoctions' he wants to make. 
He collected dandelion leaves last week and dried and ground them.  He made a dandelion sun tea. I would like to find a local herbalist to mentor him. 

Music:  The boys are really moving ahead with their violin lessons.  We are lucky to have found an amazing teacher who was also home schooled as a child.  Farm Boy, being so strongly left-brained, 'doesn't see the point' of violin lessons, as it takes away from his piano practice time.  I don't think he'll hang in there very long.  He really enjoys his piano though.  J-Straco is still rocking his guitar.  The boys have a concert tonight they will perform in.  J-Straco will play guitar, Farm Boy will sing, and the Princess is going to play the maracas.  Sounds like it will be a fun time!

Language Arts:  I bought 'The Logic of English' curriculum with the intention of using it for both the Princess and some remediation of J-Straco.  We have been going through the phonogram sounds using the nice flashcards included, and the Princess is doing amazing.  She knows all three sounds of 'A', 'B', two sounds of 'C' and 'D'.  I made a salt box and she has been practicing making her cursive letters in the salt.  I'm trying to find a good cursive app on my iPad for her.  Anyone know of a good one?

Even though we had a light week, I think we got a lot accomplished! We will hit the books hard for another 6 weeks or so, and then I need to figure out our summer school plans.

Week of March 12

Where, oh where has the time gone?  I can't believe it is almost spring!  We have been so busy this winter, with school, gym class and music lessons.  We have been in constant motion- always 'on task'.  Now that the weather is warming, we are finding enjoyment in taking things a little slower so as to enjoy the approach of spring here in Wisconsin. We have spent many hours a day outside, running, climbing and playing.  The boys have been on a hiking kick, and have gone on many 'expeditions' into the woods and over the fields.  They took their sister along on one hike which she enjoyed immensely.  They are starting to discover how much fun she is, and including her in a lot more of their play.
She turned 4 last week, and is growing up so quickly! 

Fun at the park:

More park fun with cousins and friends.

The Princess enjoyed a birthday breakfast with Mom & Dad, brothers, Ima, Bompa, cousin & friend.

The boys and I have  been busy doing some volunteer work.  We sorted and hung clothes at  our Community Clothes Closet, and put together art activity bags for patients at the local Children's Hospital . 

I re-read "The Latin-Centered Curriculum' by Andrew Campbell and have taken a lot of his advice to heart.  He advises doing 'Multum non Multa' or 'not many things, but much'.  In other words, deeper study of fewer subjects.  Instead of vocab, grammar, spelling, writing, and Latin, one could get by with a strong study of Latin, thus omitting vocab and grammar.  Spelling and writing can be done through copy work, dictation and narration along with literature studies.  I have been trying to implement some of this this week.  We have been doing a lot more literature, and since our literature is taken from our history studies, we decided to forgo our history curriculum this week.  I love how this has really allowed us to enjoy some great books  by reading together, and reading separately and having some great discussions.  Why do I constantly feel the need to re-adjust our curriculum?  It seems the more I read, the more my philosophy of teaching and learning changes. Or maybe, I just want to try EVERYTHING, because WE CAN!  It does keep the boys from getting bored, or falling into the idea that there are only a few ways to learn......

  Here is a quick recap of what we have done this week:

Math: J-Straco has been multiplying and dividing decimals and changing fractions to decimals, and Farm Boy has been perfecting his long-division. 

Latin: More practice declining 2nd declension, neuter nouns, and using the irregular forms of sum (to be).

Grammar: We worked on abbreviations and proper use of commas. 

Lit/History:  We have jumped into the world of Ancient Rome, while lingering a bit on Ancient Greece because, well, we just love Ancient Greece!  The boys assigned reading is a chapter a day from Famous Men of Rome by Haaren.



We are all really enjoying this book. I have not heard one complaint when I tell the boys to go and read their chapter, and that is saying a lot!

We have been supplementing (not that it needs supplementing!) with The Children's Plutarch, just because it gives us another view.

We are also doing a more in-depth study of 'Horatius at the Bridge' along with the study guide from Memoria Press.  The boys really enjoyed when we read this poem in their Latin book, so we thought we'd go through it again and try to memorize more verses.

We are also very blessed to have an amazing library close by.  They have teaching kits for various subjects, one of which is 'Ancient Rome'!  We checked out the box this week and have been busy reading through many, many books on Ancient Rome.  There is also an audio book recorded by Jim Weiss, a Haba block kit of the Coliseum of Rome, and a Lego Minotaur game.  J-Straco was busy this morning putting the Coliseum together. 

We decided we need some little gladiator figures, so we will take a trip to the Learning Shop this weekend to find some. What good is a coliseum without a gladiator fight???

We also watched another segment of 'Drive-Through History', one about the Apostle Paul's Missionary journey around Greece and the Middle East.

A Gladiator and his cat.

Science:  We will finish the chapter on muscles this week, and do some notebooking. 

Music: Music lessons are going well.  The boys are preparing for a duet they will perform at our church Variety Show next weekend.  J-Straco will play 'The Cartoon Song' by Chris Rice on his guitar, and Farm Boy will sing.

We also doing some voice lessons using the book Singing Lessons for Little Singers by Gregory Blankenbehler. 

It can be found here.  This is a great book which takes you through proper posture, breathing, and finding your low voice and high voice.  All things recommended to me by a close relative who was a music teacher for many years.  The boys really enjoyed the lessons on posture and breathing.  It is presented in a fun way- for example, lay on your back and put a book on your tummy.  Watch it rising and falling to practice deep breathing. 
The Princess has enjoyed many art projects this week, mainly painting.  She has also been busy with her Beatrix Potter books, and her new BIKE!

My project for the weekend is to re-arrange the school room.  We are becoming over-run with books and supplies, and the school room must be tamed!