Get set...

Okay, since last time, I've been doing some more work. The Dollar Store had those tri-fold project boards, so I bought 2 for the boys to put their timelines on, and then 3 more for our annual geography fair. A dollar each is cheap for those. I went to a local teacher supply store and found one of those weather dials so we can track the weather each day and 2 math game books that were half price. I used Excel to make a weather chart that the boys can fill in each day, with the columns matching the dial. I already had charts up for Days of the Week and Months of the year from last year. I also have a wipe-off calendar that I bought last year for K. So, we have this closet door in our entry way and the wall next to it that now have all our 1st grade stuff. The blank white page at the top is for me to write the number of the day on. The three white papers in the middle have the boys names and our phone number.

Today I cleaned the house, printed out a paper calendar for each (from Donna Young), and printed out a few mazes and dot-to-dot things.

The toughest thing that I've noticed this summer is that Pooh is not at the same place in his reading as Tigger. After posting on the MFW message board and talking to some MFW employees, I'm going to teach them reading and math separately. I'm okay with that, except what do I have the other one do while I'm working with the other one?! Some ideas I've come up with (and I'd gladly take more):

• starfall.com (anyone know of an equivalent math site?)
• mazes
• dot-to-dot puzzles
• the MFW Lauri Pre-K toys
• math games
• looking at picture books
• working on their AWANA books
• have Rabbit read them

The other thing I'm not sure about is the MFW 1st grade manual doesn't really talk about how much time to spend on each subject, or how long each subject should generally take. I've got to remember to set a timer for 15 minutes so I don't wear them out. I may have Rabbit time us on how long each subject is taking.

We will start MFW 1st grade on Monday. Rabbit will only do math, math drill, typing and spelling this next week. Then, the next week she is going to spend a week with the grandparents. So, she'll be back August 16th, and hopefully by then I'll have figured out a real schedule for teaching everyone. I need her light days to fall on Wednesday too, so she might not start full school until Wednesday of that week.

One subject I want to add for the boys is Spanish. I haven't decided if I should do them separately with my old copy of Power Glide that I have, or just have them listen in on Rabbit's The Easy Spanish! I really think Power Glide is geared toward the younger set. And having Rabbit join in on Power Glide, well, I don't think that's a good idea, either. Like I said, I'll just have to see how these first 2 weeks go.

On your mark...

I've been spending much of the last weeks getting ready. I have got my Rome to the Reformation (RTR) and 1st grade plans into Homeschool Tracker Plus. It was a lot of work, but worth it to be able to add math drill and AWANA verses to RTR and Spanish and AWANA verses to 1st grade. Also, with the first grade manual, it didn't remind you do do Art Appreciation or Music, so I was able to schedule those every week, and pick what pages to do and all that.

The prep work for 1st grade is quite a bit. I'm using my boys MegaBlocks for the colored blocks to use for exploring math facts. I made one egg-tray holder as described in the manual, and I'm waiting for another dozen eggs to be used up to make another. I'm using some pretty polished stones for "buttons" (I got them from Michael's for some project when we did ECC). I cut out the circles and glued them together and found some spare cloth to cut up for that.

My latest creation is a cup set for the daily counting and money activities. Knowing that each boy would want their own set, I needed to come up with a way to keep them together and keep the right set belonging to each boy. First I cut off the end flaps on a narrow box. Then I used a hot glue gun to glue 3 plastic cups onto the cardboard. I used a personal labeler to put a label in front of each cup. The cup on the left is for the money, and the middle cup is for tens sticks, and the right cup is for ones. Here's a picture of one:

Right now, with nothing in them, I can stack both up (though I doubt I'll be able to stack them once we start making tens sticks):

Another thing I've done is I made a script for doing Calendar Time. There is a short paragraph in the teacher's manual about what to do, but if I don't have it in front of me, I'm likely to forget. So, I typed up Calendar Activities:

1. Review the months of the year. Ask what month comes before [some month] and after [some month].
2. Review the days of the week. Ask what day comes before [some day] and after [some day].
3. Look at the calendar, and mark off the day. Teach how to read and write the date.
4. Ask, "What is tomorrow's date?" and "What was yesterday's date?"
   
5. Review address and phone number.
6. Review their birthday date.

Then I took the "Number of the Day and 100 Chart" page that came in the student materials and printed it up on the back side of that and laminated it. Now I have everything on one sheet that should last the whole year.

I've colored their timeline pieces and laminated those. I'm thinking of getting 2 of the tri-fold science boards for them to put their timeline pieces on. I also colored the reading chart (the little pictures) and laminated those.

I took the number of the day pages, and copied it onto the back of itself (easy when you have 2 copies), and then made 50 copies (25 for each boy, 4 number of the day's per page). I've hole punched those and filled in the numbers already and put them in a notebook. I think having them in one place will make it easier to do.

Now, doing all this has made the boys want to "start the new school" everyday. Which, I'm glad. I've already let them play with the Pattern Blocks. They know some of the fun Rabbit has with school, so they're really looking forward to it. Right now, however, we're just continuing through Abeka's 1st grade reading program (we're at about day 23), since I haven't been able to sell it yet. And we're also continuing through the Math-U-See Primer.

I found a 1st grade supply list over at the MFW message boards. However, it doesn't have the craft sticks (that you need for the number of the day activities), beans or cups listed. The only thing I haven't found yet is 3/4" dowels for the scroll project. I think I'll have to hit Lowe's or Home Depot for those.

For RTR, I let Rabbit color the timeline pieces, and I've laminated them. I've pre-read most of the lessons for the first two weeks. We still have our timeline up from last year, so we'll just keep adding to that. I've printed all the Latin roots onto the front of the 4x6 cards, and made a page for her to write the definition on, draw a picture and write extra words. I'm using the Latin and Greek Roots notebook pages thing I bought online from currclick (I think, or The Old Schoolhouse) for the pages to use to write sentences. She likes "fancy" things to do. I've also typed up all the verses into Photoshop Elements to hang on the wall. I still have a few copies from Augustus Ceasar's World to make.

One thing I'm still trying to decide is whether to copy the images from The Body Book onto cardstock or not. I've already copied some of the pages onto regular paper, but I'm thinking it will be sturdier to do it on cardstock. I don't know if the boys are going to want to join in on that activity or not. I really don't want to have to cut out all those body parts. Plus, I'll probably have to go buy another pack of cardstock if I use it.

I'm planning on starting the first week of August. So, I've got plenty of time to finish up and get everything together. The hard part is figuring out what day to start so our light days land on Wednesday for when P.E. class and dance classes start. We've got a camping weekend coming up and Labor Day, that will mess with my schedule.

I'm looking forward to a new school year.

Standardized Testing

Well, we spent the last 3 days doing IBTS testing with Rabbit. Not required to do it this year, but I wanted to see how she would do with it versus doing the CAT the year before. It pretty much wiped her out. I'm debating on whether or not to do the IBTS again, or stick with the CAT. The IBTS took quite a bit of time as compared to the CAT. I know where my kids are with regards to their skills - do I really need that detailed a test? I was thinking, actually, maybe just doing the IBTS in 7th, and then maybe again in 11th as it gives the more detailed pictures. Then just use the CAT for other years.

I will say I will never do the tests in the middle of summer after a 2.5 week break from school. I had been having Rabbit doing math fact drills on Quarter Mile Math until we started all our vacations. We finally wrapped all that up, and did her testing. I think that break may have hampered her a little. Consistent learning of those math facts will pay off in the long run. (We also hadn't done any math or me reading aloud to the kids.)

Oh well. We'll see what her scores are when they come in.