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.

The Summer Time Craziness

When to get it all done...

We've been doing "school lite" in the morning. First, we read from the Bible or some other spiritual stories for the day. Then Rabbit goes off to do typing drill and Quarter Mile Math drill. The Quarter Mile Math drill is starting to pay off. Oh sure, she's been doing it a long time. But, she can now remember her nemesis 3 x 6 = 18. Her math facts are coming a lot faster. She also found a "letter practice" option somewhere in Quarter Mile Math, and has been alternating between that and Dance Mat Typing for her typing practice.

So, while Rabbit is off on the computer, I'm working with the boys. We're finishing up Math-U-See's Primer. This week we've started learning about telling time. The boys are very excited about that, as we do have a couple of analog clocks in the house. And then were going through Abeka's 1st grade reading schedule. So far, it is just review, so they're kind of bored with it. But Pooh definitely needs it. I'd say after about 10 minutes or so of reading, his brain kind of just shuts down. He can hardly remember how to put the sounds together. Tigger is doing good with it, though.

I hope to add in Handwriting Without Tears workbooks for the boys soon (they shipped last Thursday or Friday). Pooh is definitely left-handed, so I'm hoping that will help him improve his fine motor control.

Then I have Rabbit do math with me. She is doing well with Singapore now. She gets the ideas, and sometimes can even do a problem or two in her head. I do see her starting to think more about how to do a problem, and look at the whole problem more. We're enjoying 3B because it is more practical - weights and measures, time, and such. After that, we finish off with spelling and reading. Poor Rabbit... I've been going through our "mastered" words again for the summer, just to make sure they're really mastered and "cleaned" got her again. But, she did finally spell "direction" right after about 7 days of trying. We're pronouncing it "digh-rec-tion" for spelling instead of "der-ec-tion" and that seems to be helping her. Otherwise, she was missing that first "i" in the word.

I really need to get the kids doing some chores everyday. Just not sure how to work it in to the overall scheme of the day. I also want them to be able to play outside when it is cooler. I'll get it worked out soon. Probably just in time to start school in the fall. Ha!

Weeks 33 - 34 in CTG

Well, we finished up a couple of weeks ago, so I suppose I should update.

For Bible History, we went through Nehemiah. It was interesting to see his faith, and fun to tie some of it into Babylonian history. Rabbit did awesome memorizing the Isaiah 40 passage. I am so proud of her.

These two weeks focused mainly on Greece. We learned about drama and the Olympics. It was also interesting to find out about the start of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We finished up learning about Alexander the Great. It was too bad he died so young. But, I also felt like it was God's timing again.

In Science, we finished up Archimedes and the Door of Science. Rabbit got the concepts pretty well. I love the idea of just analyzing things and studying the universe and asking questions. It was neat to see how science got started.

There were two things recommended in the manual we didn't do. The first was to hold a mini-Olympics. I didn't tell the kids to do it, but I think Rabbit was reading about it in one of the book basket books, and after lunch one day I could hear them out in the yard having contests that were like Olympics. We didn't do the end of year Greek feast, but that was fine.

Rabbit did okay with the Vocabulary words. She missed 2 on her "final" test for vocabulary.

We didn't do all of the God and the History of Art the last two weeks. The Old Schoolhouse was having a sale, and I bought the Draw and Write Through History books and Rabbit did a couple of drawings from there, instead.

We enjoyed reading Aesop for Children. Some of the tales we've heard, but many were new. It was fun to discuss the truth of some of them, and amazing how many applied to current life.

Overall, Creation to the Greeks was a great year. Nothing took overly long (except maybe some of the art work and acting out the 10 Plagues). It is a different flavor than Exploring Countries and Cultures. Some weeks there wasn't much for the book basket. But toward the end there were some great books. The boys joined in for some of the Science. Science was, well, hit or miss. Sometimes the experiments wouldn't work, even after posting over on the message board. Sometimes we didn't do them. We don't have any South-facing windows, and window ledges or place to put things in front of a window are few and far between, so things requiring growing plants during the window months weren't done. But, I think it was good.

Rabbit's Worship Dance Recital

Okay, so Rabbit had her Worship Dance recital Monday night. Her class was the last to dance before the big "recessional." I missed the very beginning of the dance (hit the wrong button), but the rest of this should be lots of fun and put a smile on your face.

Weeks 30 - 32 in CTG

Okay, I'm behind... let's see if I can get us caught up.

History has been interesting. Bible history has covered from the fall of Judah, through Daniel, and the Esther. The stories of faith in Daniel are inspiring. And Esther's obedience to her cousin and her strength are encouraging. Other History has covered Athens and Sparta, and the cycle of Babylon being defeated yet again.

We've been enjoying Aesop's Fables. It is especially fun when they apply to some situation we are reading about in Bible or History, or some real life situation we are facing or have currently faced.

In science we started Archimedes and the Door of Science. We haven't been doing any of the experiments in the book (and some of them were done in Genesis for Kids), but Rabbit is picking up on the ideas and concepts pretty well. Chapters 4 and 5 we spread over two days, since they seemed rather long.

We finished off Writing Strands Level 3. For now, I'm just having Rabbit write letters. She just had her 10th birthday, so she'll be writing thank you notes. I think that is just as important as other forms of writing.

In Art, we've read the lessons, but not done many of them. Right now we've been pretty busy on the days they have fallen on, and we just didn't have the time to commit to them. The Old Schoolhouse was (or is) having a sale, so I bought the Draw and Write Through History series. I would highly recommend these as a way to help children have nice notebooking pages.

We finished up Singapore 3A last week and have started on 3B (which we'll continue through the summer). I'm pleased with how she is doing. She doesn't always do the math the way the book presents (she'd rather write the problems down and do the carrying or borrowing that way), but she is beginning to understand word problems better.

We also finished book 4 in All About Spelling. So, for the rest of the school year and the summer, we're basically just going to review the cards. I really want to get the phonographs, sounds and rules into her mind. She does really well with the rule cards, but not the sound cards.

Rabbit's birthday was last week - she turned 10! She and 4 friends went horseback riding for her birthday party. It was fun, though we probably wouldn't use this particular place again. I rode with the girls.

For the boys, I still have about 11 days worth of curriculum to work through. They're doing well. They really like learning new "special sounds," but we've learned all that's scheduled for the year. I'm trying to think about what to do with them for the summer. I think Pooh definitely needs handwriting work, Tigger too. And I'll do math with them. I'm just not sure what to do for reading. Finding "easy readers" at the library has been difficult.

Well, that's it. We have 5 more days of "official" school, and 9 days of curriculum. After we finish our "official" school, we'll do one week of just Bible, History, Vocabulary, Science, Art, Music and Spanish (taking a break from Math, Spelling, English, Writing and Reading). Then Rabbit will have Math, Spelling and Reading every day.