Schooling two this year!

New school books are so much fun!  It's hard to believe I'll have Mattie and Jacob to school this year.  Mattie is very excited about being an official kindergartner, though Jacob wishes he could retire all together.  How much changes in a few years!  I am choosing several things to do just like I did them with Jacob and several things to do differently.  It's so nice to have experience!  We'll start our new year in the second week of August when my three summer two-day-a-week charges go back to public school.

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Mattie - Kindergarten

Mattie will be doing Five in a Row with me this year!  We'll just start back at the beginning.  She's certainly sat in on a lot of the reading with us, but I'm excited to get to do our favorites all over again with her.  I'll do it a bit differently than I did with Jacob, as Mattie is much more of a hands on learner.  I also want to do the FIAR notebook that I never did with Jacob.  (He was too young to do it at first and then it seemed awkward to start it in the middle.)

Mattie will also be continuing her reading progress with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Bob Books and other early readers, and Explode the Code workbooks.  (With 100 EZ Lessons, I don't do it as formally as they suggest.  I think it's a bit too scripted, but I had training on it when I was teaching so I can do it without having to read every word.  I used it with Jacob and I like the way it moves the kids through the skills, especially if they're ready to soak it up and move quickly.) She's doing well already and begs to practice "every day like when we do our chores, Mama."

For Math she'll be doing Critical Thinking Company's Mathematical Reasoning.  She already spends a lot of time playing math games on the iPod, so much of this won't be new material, but I really like the thinking this program includes as opposed to just concrete problem solving.

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 Jacob - Fifth Grade

Jacob and I are moving in a new direction this year.  He seems to have outgrown Five in a Row (earlier than I expected) and is needing a curriculum that has longer, more connected studies.  (They do offer this for the older ages, but I know I won't plan well for two kids that way, I can't keep them together anymore, and he wants to do something different.)  I'm finding a bit of a groove for Jacob... finally!  I'm learning he likes to know what to expect, he likes to have a list to check off, he likes to have tangible, measurable assignments, and as much as I hate to say it, he likes workbooks.  And if you notice those things, very little of those fit in with literature based weekly unit studies.  Soooo, we're switching it up for him.

For History we're doing American History from Truthquest.  I'm not sure how quickly we'll move through these guides, but I think I'm planning on doing three guides over two years.  These guides are set up so I read the commentary on a time period or person, then I choose whichever of the suggested titles we'd like to read.  There is no schedule and I can do it however it fits us best.  I'll probably choose several of the picture book titles and a more challenging book for Jacob to read on his own.  I have to say, I am very excited to do this!  I have a major fear of commitment to a curriculum that gives me a schedule b/c I can't handle not doing it the way they suggest. I also don't know what I don't know, so I'd never pick all the right stuff if I just checked out random books from the library.  Plus I don't want to pay for something I know I won't use!  With the Truthquest guides, they suggest that I do it however I'd like to, highlight the most important info in the conservative, Christian worldview commentary and I choose the books and printable activities I want to do.  Perfect.  :)

For Math we're continuing on with Teaching Textbooks 6 and adding some supplementary things from Critical Thinking Company.  I wasn't very happy with his progress with TT, but I've started requiring him to read the lecture for himself before he listens to the computer lecture and his memory of the concepts has greatly improved.  Basically I've learned I just have a boy who does not learn well through auditory channels!  I also feel like TT does not include enough critical thinking and spoon feeds the student a bit too much, so the supplementary things should help with that.  (The reason I'm sticking with it is because the lecture is written out word for word and I've learned Jacob has to have that to read.  The other curricula that require me to orally explain the concepts just won't work.)

For science we're doing Apologia's Astronomy!  I'm really excited about this one and Jacob got to pick it out himself!  I've heard great things about their products, and we're going to be doing the activities with two families we love.  The journal looks perfect for Jacob too... some - but not too many - lapbook components balanced with a good amount of review questions, crosswords and copywork too.  (Mattie will tag along with the Junior Journal too.)

 For writing he'll be doing Writing Tales.We've not done much formal language arts thus far, but he enjoys writing and I feel like it's time to focus on it.  It's actually written by a lady who goes to church with my sister!

Small tangent here... I've been trying to figure out what Jacob loves... what makes his heart beat, but I can't pick a subject.  He likes science stuff but isn't crazy about it.  He kind of likes history, but doesn't seek anything out to learn something new.  He's good at math but not motivated to do anything on his own.  He loves Legos, but I've already done that unit study!  So I've felt stuck as I've wanted to allow some delight directed learning but can't find that which brings him delight!  Kind of a problem.   I've been asking the Lord for wisdom and He showed me what's been staring me in the face for about nine years: words.  Jacob loves words!  He loves to read them, think about them, know where they come from, what they mean and how they're spelled.  He loves to use them in writing and (constant) speech.  So I finally think I have figured out what he will love this year! 

For enrichment for him he's going to do Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Unlocking Analogies, and Balance Math and More.  He won't do each of these every day, rather he'll work through one book, then do a unit of the other and then the other.  Each of these is based on thinking about words or processes and that is what he (and his mother) enjoys.  I've looked for the right vocabulary program for a while and this one is finally what I want.  It teaches English word families based on their Latin and Greek roots, so it's all applicable (where Prima Latina wasn't). They are all also workbooks, so Jacob will like them for their predictability and measurability.  I've had these for a week and am having to restrain myself from starting them with him... and doing them myself.  :)  What can I say?  He is his mother's child!

Finally, we'll all be casually going through La Clase Divertida and learning Spanish together.  :)

I'm really excited about this year and what I have for the kids.  It's going to be a change to be sure Mattie gets some school attention too, but I don't typically spend that long each day in the early grades, so I'm sure we can get it done.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Can one be "too" social for cooperative learning??

I think I've determined that when we are together with other children, Jacob just can't learn a blessed thing. He gets so focused on the playtime he can't focus AT. ALL. on the task at hand. He does this with a structured lesson (interesting or not) or a field trip... and a "museum" field trip is just sheer torture! 

This past week we went to the zoo and I thought for two weeks about who we should invite to go with us. We have a lot of families we could ask. But I decided to go just us so that the kids and I could make a memory (instead of my kids playing with friends and the other mom and I talking the whole time, thus making no memory at all with my children). We had a delightful time! Jacob was a big help with the almost 2 year old we babysit, he stayed much nearer to me and was not class clown-ish or disrespectful at all, and he and I got to experience the zoo together. It was so nice!

But I wonder, will he outgrow this or always struggle in these situations? Mattie is not this way at all... she can totally calm it down to focus and wait until playtime.  I'd like to think a coop may fit our family at some point in the future, but I just end up stressing about his behavior and lack of interest the entire time.  I guess we're just going to go solo for a while... I think it will be a relief to just let that be okay!

We Made Snowflakes!

As a part of our Snowflake Bentley, Winter Wonders DNG, and The Snowy Day units where we learned about crystals, we made Borax crystal snowflakes.  This was a great activity that gave us great results!

We poured boiling water (that had cooled for about 10 minutes) in these glasses and added Borax by the tablespoonful until the water was saturated.  We added 1 drop of blue food coloring just to make them pretty.  Then we took pipe cleaners that we had fashioned into the shape of snowflakes and hung them on pencils so we could easily get them out.  Within hours we had some crystals and within 24 hours ours were complete!

This snowflake is on the snow in our front yard.

Review: Winter Wonders!

DNGs are digital units complete with everything you need for a week of school for your K-4th grader.  They include links to videos, vocabulary words and their definitions, printable worksheets and lapbook components, suggestions for books to enjoy and so much more!  Click here to check out all that's available. 

We have been blessed with snow this winter!  Where we live, we typically have some dustings, but not often more than once or twice for the kids to get outside and play.  This year we've had 4 or 5 enough-to-play-in-snows already!  The best part is that some has come right while we were enjoying Winter Wonders, a DownloadNGo unit study.

This week we've made snowflake crystals (photo above), snowflake cookies, learned the history of hot chocolate, looked specifically for an individual snowflake and its shape, and learned about specific characteristics of winter.  And that's just some of it!

Winter Wonders had enough information that we could choose what fit best for us each day.  Some content is perfect for Mattie and some is perfect for Jacob. 

Here's what you'll learn when you jump in to Winter Wonders:







Day 1: What is Winter?

Day 2: Science Secrets of Winter

Day 3: People and Places of Winter

Day 4: Time for Tips and Treasures of Winter

Day 5: Goodies and Gadgets of Winter 

Click right over here to purchase so you're ready to get started!  And then click on the thumbnails below to check out how other homeschool home schooling families are using Winter Wonders. 

I received this product for at no charge in exchange for my honest review.

Help

I often struggle with Jacob and how much to help him.  He does not have an "I can do it myself" bone in his body (Mattie, on the other hand has an entire skeleton of them!), so I often wonder if he really needs help or if he doesn't want to try to do it himself.  Couple this with him being a perfectionist who seems to be afraid of failure, and I end up most often at the second conclusion: he doesn't want to try.  And that makes me expect too much of him, because I don't trust his requests.

I went to the CHAP conference recently and surprisingly, this was one of the topics that was addressed in an essay writing seminar (not even one I really needed to attend!). Well, not surprising that it was addressed with writing... surprising that how much to help was the main nugget I left with.  I was so thankful, as this was a question I'd been wondering about for some time!  Andrew Pudewa was the speaker, and his conclusion was that one cannot help a child too much.  He said that children will inevitably say so when he or she can do it by themselves.  A child will not want help when he feels confident.  (Not sure I agree with that if the child is just lazy, but in this context it made sense.)  He also made the point that insisting a child do something on his own will delay independence!

So how does this translate into our life - cleaning a room, using the dustpan after sweeping the kitchen, math, a comprehension question, folding a shirt, etc.  Those are the areas in which Jacob consistently asks for help.

So I came home and decided to test this theory of Mr. Pudewa's.  I sure wasn't convinced I was handling it the right way before, so I was open to something new!  It's been three weeks now, I think, and I've been consistently offering more help in these areas.  I didn't badger or abandon him before, but I would tend to help verbally or ask him more than once if he really needed help.  Now I'm just offering it.

Jacob seems to be much happier while doing these things.  He is complaining less about them, and actually said about himself the other day, "I can't believe how many I'm getting right!"  (As an aside, he's actually not getting a higher percentage right, he's just seeing it differently.)  He was playing with Legos the other day and was stumped as to what to build.  After offering 10 ideas and him still being negative, I went and sat next to him and offered to help.  He had a great penguin built in 5 minutes and didn't let me help him once.

As for now, this seems to be the right path.  I'm so thankful for the three or four minutes in the seminar.  This is one of those I want to be sure I don't forget. I know the Lord will always give me the help I need as well, and I think this is one of the ways I can share His grace with Jacob.

How did you teach writing?

A doctor had eight children and his wife died tragically.  She had been homeschooling them, and he intended to continue.  He said he had the kids do these things each day while he was at work:
1) A math lesson
2) Reading out loud
3) Write something (any topic they chose, non-fiction or fiction)
When he came home, he corrected their math and talked through their story with them.  They corrected their grammar and writing issues appropriate for their age.
That's all he did.

I was one of three home schooling moms who were picking strawberries on Monday, another of whom is a veteran.  She has successfully home schooled 5 children, all of whom are very good writers, independent thinkers, and excellent public speakers.  So we asked her what she did for writing.  She told us that story and decided to follow the writing plan.

How easy is that?!  I've been looking for the right curriculum for Jacob for a long time.  I'd like it to integrate writing and grammar in one curriculum, but so far that has eluded me.  So I decided right when I heard my friend tell me this simple story to jump right on it!

Jacob has written few stories, poems, etc in his three years of schooling, I'm ashamed to say.  I just put it on the back burner until he matured more.  The ones he has written have been good enough to know he wasn't totally clueless, so I just let it go.  I had decided  already to start grammar this coming year and found a program I'm happy with, but the writing still remained to be figured out, though I have a few recommendations.

But now I have a plan, and a free and simple one at that!  (Why do we make things so hard on ourselves?)

Jacob wrote his first story today.  I'm going to have him write for a week or so before I start editing anything.  (Andrew Pudewa said the word "edit" evokes much less resistance than "correct," and it make a lot of sense!)

Here's what he had for starters:

Jacob  May 19 2010

Hot wheels     Hot wheels are super fast cars with very cool gadgets, some have spike tires!  Some have chainsaw blades.  Some can even drive on lava!  I think Hot Wheels are really cool.

I have to say, not like he's some awesome author, but I was excited to see a topic sentence (though punctuated incorrectly), three supporting statements and a conclusion!  Lol!!  :)  I liked just seeing what was on his mind!  I've also been trying really hard to find a passion or high interest in him (another result of the homeschooling conference), and I'm hoping this helps that surface.  So we'll do this for the rest of this week and we'll start editing next week.  I intend to let him write about anything... retelling a favorite story, a favorite toy, an original story, why he's angry about something, something we did the day before, etc.  I hope this goes well.

Website to Share

I've heard of this website before, MathisFun, but have never used anything from it thus far.  We've found it very useful lately!  We've been using it for the Math Trainer, a timed drill and practice opportunity for addition, subtraction, and multiplication.  It divides the table up into 4 chunks so he can focus on one chunk at a time.  It's been very helpful for Jacob!  The characteristic that is best for Jacob is that the "timed" part works so he only has to do 5 minutes worth, it's not a race sort of timed activity.  He gets so stressed out with timed tests he can hardly focus on the task at hand, and he inevitably ends up moping or crying that he made a mistake... definitely not what I'm looking for every day!  I'm thankful this is FREE and seems to be fun for him!  Just thought I'd share.

Around the World Books

As you know, we've been traveling Around the World with our unit studies this year.  I have so enjoyed this, as it's allowed me to learn much I did not know about the world outside our country's borders.

For many of our units, we've referred to the same basic books or series, so I thought I'd share them here in one post for reference.  You can click on any book to go to a page about it specifically.

Most of our information has been gathered from books by Bobbie Kalman.  Our two favorite series are The Lands, Peoples and Cultures Series and Spotlight on My Country, with the latter having the perfect amount of text for Jacob's level.  After we read the book, I'll make Jacob a list of questions or activities to complete, giving page number hints if needed, and he's learning how to research a little bit.

The "Look What Came From" series has a been an enjoyable one as well.  It offers facts Jacob can relate to about the origins of many of our favorite things.

This is one of my favorite resources for a general overview.  I usually forget I have it and end up getting a book from the library, but I'm always happy when I pull it out!

This is a great book that gives snippets of what a child's life is like in their country.

In addition to non-fiction books, we've read a lot of picture books that illustrate the culture in them as well.  These give us some snuggle on the couch time.  They also give me a way to connect Mattie to 

This book in general is a bit over Jacob's head for sure, but it does have some useful information to show him.  It's a great coffee table book that provides a quick reality check about how good we have it here in our wealthy country.  Once I sit down to look at it, my nose is  buried in it for an hour.  There is another book authored by the same people called What the World Eats.

This one we used only during our study of the Middle East and Holy Lands (is that redundant?), but it proved to be invaluable.  I have looked for it several times since then during my own personal Bible study! Honestly, I understand the nightly news a whole lot better after using this book as a resource!  Rose Publishing has a lot of great resources.  (I think I'm about to buy this timeline, because I'm doing such a poor job of keeping mine up.)

And last but certainly not least, this is a book we just added recently, and I'm sad I didn't order it in the beginning.  It has a one page spread on many countries or people groups which shares cultural information about them.  The neatest part is that it includes religious information from a Christian world view, most importantly, how we can pray for them.  If you chose only one book to order, this is the one you want.  One of the main focuses of mine in doing this Around the World study was to help Jacob see how big the world there really is around us.  It's really hard to imagine for me even, so I know it's hard for him too.  But this book has helped us pray and focus on the most important needs of the people God created that seem so far away because they live in different lands.

If you decide to do an Around the World journey via books, these books should certainly get you started!  If you know of any others I'd enjoy, let me know!  We still have 3 more continents before we land!

Why was this so difficult?

I don't know why this has been so difficult for me.  For a long time I've felt like I needed to have some sort of written "proof" that we studied something.  For lots of inane reasons, probably, but also so we could go back and reference it for review.  Much of what we do in our literature based studies is converse based on books we read.  That's a great fit for us! but it assumes the student will remember a conversation without any reinforcement or review.  And that has always been a hang up of mine.  Mostly because this is a way that is very effective for Jacob to learn.

Lapbooking does not seem to be for Jacob... too much cutting, pasting and putting together.  Not enough "just the facts" please.  And in the end, stacks of stuff waiting to be put together into a finished product.  (I have no doubt it will be right up Mattie's alley, but she'll actually want to do the crafting part of it!)

Worksheets are more what I was looking for, but were sometimes a lot of information that wasn't important or wasn't what we studied.

Self created worksheets would have worked as they would have been customized, but I didn't always think of the questions at one time and really didn't want to waste the time at the computer formatting and making it look pretty, so I never did that either.  I needed something I could produce on the spot.

But I had a revelation of sorts.  I cold actually just use a pen and create my own worksheet!  I could add one question at a time, choose questions relevant to the information I wanted Jacob to remember, draw relevant diagrams to label, make questions in whichever format I preferred at any given moment!   

Why in the world did it take me 3 years to think of this?!??!??!

Thankfully, at least I thought of it now. 

*I create the questions as I think of them and he completes them usually several at a time. 
*If he has to look up the information, I put a page number as a hint to the left so he knows where to look.  *They are different colors, as we are traveling Around the World for now.  Each color is for a continent.
*Every now and then, we'll do a review week.  During that week, we'll cut the questions from the pages (b/c there are things I've scribbled out that I messed up) and put them on 3 hold punched cardstock with pictures we colored or photos of activities we did.  But I still know if we never get to that, I still have an organized place where he can keep his work.  (His notebook has music/art and science sections too.)

Here are three of the "worksheets" Jacob has in his notebook.  There are some spelling errors, but he's such a perfectionist that I don't always go back and correct those things after he's finished.  He's hard enough on himself!

You've probably noticed recently I'mposting a lot about our home school and what's working for us.  It seems like we've found a groove this year, and I'm really thankful for it!

We've Started Workboxes

There is a new wave among homeschooling methods.  Imagine that!  It's come from Sue Patrick's Workbox System.  I have not read her book, but I thought I ought to give credit where credit is due.  (I have to say this idea is not a new one, as I used it with preschoolers in a classroom when I was 17.)  I should also say that I know I'm not doing it like she suggest to do it.  I'm doing the basic idea and have made it all work for us.

Here's how it works:

 I fill these boxes with work for the day.

The top three are Mattie's... of course she doesn't have to do any of them, but she wants to "do school," so I indulge her!  The bottom nine are Jacob's, but we've never gotten to that many and probably won't anytime soon.  (I'll probably just switch to six and six and use Mattie's to switch up fun activities for her to notice as she walks by.)  One of the benefits of Jacob's medicine has been that we can do stuff on such a deeper level, so it takes longer, but I'm still learning what is a good amount of stuff.  He's also very careful about neatness, so that takes him longer now too.  :) 

 

After Jacob has completed whatever is in the box, he moves the box to this stack. (I think I'm actually going to put cards that say "FINISHED" on one end so he can just return the box with that end sticking out.  It serves the same purpose without the awkwardness of a lopsided stack.)

In his boxes I put his essentials and just for fun things.  I add in trampoline time and structured "play" that he might not otherwise choose.  I put in a game to play with me or an activity to do with Mattie.  And I choose activities that we never got to during a certain week, but that provide a great review two weeks late!

The purposes this system is serving in our home school:

*It provides Jacob with a very clear visual as to what is expected of him that day.  He gets much less frustrated than when I say, "Now the next thing to do is..."  Now there is no doubt when he is finished!

*It provides variety as I can switch up the order of his activities.

*It provides accountability for me as I need to fill them each night.  (I have seen that 10 minutes of planning in the evening saves me much more time than that the next day.)

*It provides an opportunity for independence as Jacob can just go to the next activity without requiring me to tell him what is next.

*It provides a routine.  Even though the boxes are full of different things or in a different order each day, the fact that his work is in the boxes is the same, and that works for him.

*It encourages me to add fun review by adding "just for fun" things to the boxes.  They serve a purpose in my mind, but he doesn't see them that way.

*Because the boxes are three dimensional, it challenges me to include three dimensional learning opportunities.  (It's not workbook stuff of which we do too much, just hands on stuff of which we don't do enough.)

Three ways I've simplified it and made it work for us:

 

*In this basket I keep the things we use regularly.  Because I'm such a visual person, I have to see it for reminders or I'll never think of using it!  So I just flip through this basket to see what is a good fit for the following day and stick it in!  In that magazine file to the right I keep pages I've printed to go with a unit or skill where he needs reinforcement.  (Now I have upcoming units in manila files so it's a bit more organized.  This also gives me a place to put things when I print them.)

*The things Jacob does daily are on these cards.  They usually just stay in the boxes, but often something else will go in the box with the card (like a multiplication drill for Math or a theory assignment for piano).

*I have put index cards on the covers of the books we use most often, and I write his assignment on those cards.  It saves him coming to me to ask more than several times what he is supposed to do, and gives him an item to cross off a list.  He's all about crossing items off a list!  (He comes by it honestly, I must say!)

I am so thankful we have finally gotten this off the ground here!  I bought the shoe rack and shoeboxes right before we moved and knew I would be out of my mind to implement a new system then, but now that we're settled and he's medicated, it's perfect!  :)

Daytrana is a friend of mine.

Daytrana has revolutionized our school day.  Daytrana is this little 1 1/2" square patch we put on Jacob every day from morning until 2:00.  It's sometimes called the "ritalin patch" and is for ADHD, and boy, do I like it.

After struggling to focus for quite some time, Jacob is finally focusing really well!  We contemplated different medication options for a long time and finally decided it was time to do something.  He just. can't. focus.  To go brush his teeth, get dressed, eat his lunch, write the next word, look at what I'm doing, keep his hands off his sister, just. calm. down.

So it was time to see if we had any other options.  By 7 1/2 we saw a pretty clear difference between "boy" and "ADHD," and it didn't seem fair to him anymore to not try the medicines after exhausting all of our other options.  (We are limited with herbal supplements because of the corn allergy, he's already on all of the special diets, and we have implemented as much sensory and environmental things as we can.)

Jacob has a very sweet heart, he wants to do the right thing.  He wants to be pleasing.  He wants people to enjoy being around him.  And he knew some of that wasn't happening.  I had done all of the restructuring of our day that was possible, but there is a point where one must be able to focus to just do the next thing.

So, he started Daytrana about 6 weeks ago and it's been great for him!  We can now do about 3 or more hours of school in a row!  He can complete workbook tasks in a room where other activity is going on.  He can complete tasks on his own without me constantly reminding him.  He can play nicely with his sister without
having his hands on her or in her face.  He notices what is going on around him.  Mostly, he just seems calmer... and it's not because I don't remember correctly.  We get a reminder every night at about 5:30 when the medicine wears off!

I know many parents are afraid to try stimulant meds for a whole slew of reasons.  I was there too.  But I had a revalation one day:  If they didn't work, we could stop them!  Imagine that!  Once I realized it wasn't an all-or-nothing deal, I had an appointment the next day.  And I am so glad we went!

Without meds:
1~no more than 1 1/2 hours per day, had to be involved every minute
2~had to be reminded - literally - every minute to stay on task
3~sometimes needed several reminders before he actually picked up the pencil
4~struggled to complete any written task b/c of the focusing issue (so little of his school could be done that way)
5~I had to be leading everything so there was little independent thought involved
6~could not challenge him academically because we did the minimu we needed to do so we could get by
7~was regularly "getting in" people's faces and not noticing social cues
8~was frustrated at being corrected constantly (usually for antagonizing Mattie)

With Daytrana:
1-school up to 3 or more hours, much of it can be independent now
2~can work for ten minutes (or an hour sometimes!) without any intervention
3~usually one reminder now is sufficient
4~has done more written work in the past 6 weeks than in the previous 3 years combined, and it's been GOOD work!
5~can have a research assignment, find the right page, find the answer, and answer a question about a subject
6~is being challenged in many areas now and seems to be enjoying it!
7~plays appropriately with Mattie, isn't getting in her face all day or antagonizing
8~is happier all around because the constant correction is diminished remarkably

Jacob is happier, learning more, and growing by leaps and bounds... all because he can focus!  The really nice part is that he is still Jacob.  He's still happy, fun, loud, and full of energy, just in a different way.  He's definitely not overmedicated, something I was pretty afraid of.  We have had the negative side effect of him not being hungry, but he eats a smaller lunch just because he has to and makes up for the rest of it as the meds wear off in the evenings.  Overall, I feel really good about our decision.

Reading Resource

This won't be of any interest to many of you, but it will to others! I'm always looking for books for Jacob to read that are at the right level. I don't want him totally wasting time on books that are way below his level, but I don't want him frustrated either. I've had this link for a while but have been using it a lot more lately.

I use it to find a book on the right level. I also like to find books by author. Especially when Jacob and I have enjoyed a book together, and I'd like to find some easier ones by the same author for him to read independently. It helps me request good books I'd never know about otherwise!

Leveled Book List

Hope it helps someone!

Third Grade!

It is really hard to believe that Jacob and I are starting our fourth year of homeschooling together! Well, we started our year in early August, but you all know I'm a bit behind on blogging! I have a lot of fun things I was going to put up, but felt like our school year needed its own introduction so I've waited. Just a little OCD coming out, I suppose. We started heading in a different direction this year, as I felt like we needed to spend some time learning about the world beyond the United States. We have done some of this already, but just small snippets, and I really wanted to do some more in depth study of each continent. Not just the land of each continent, but learning with a goal of understanding how much we really have here in America and how much people really don't have in other areas of the world, including Jesus. It just so happened as I was going down all sorts of planning rabbit trails (trying to figure out what to do) that Candace wanted to do some around the world stuff too, and she told me about Serendipity. It's a blog that has some book lists/plans to get me started. So it has enabled us to do some literature based travels around the world without starting totally from scratch! Here's what we're doing for this year...

Geography and Culture Studies: A Child's Geography is our spine book for the geography and culture studies. It's a good book, but a little bit too wordy for Jacob's attention span. Even so, we've enjoyed learning a LOT of new information together! It's written in the style of Hillyer's A Child's History of the World, so I hear. While it is creatively written, it is still a textbook, and that really isn't the way Jacob learns best. So I use it as our spine and add in library books with more pictures on his level to explain and bring to life the concept we're learning. Some books we use for reference for each continent: ~Material World ~Children Just Like Me ~Kingfisher My First Picture Atlas (I got this at TJMaxx and LOVE it!) ~Dover Traditional Houses Around the World coloring book (Jacob really enjoys coloring these Dover books.) ~Passport and flag stickers (We add the flag sticker for each country we encounter in our reading just for fun! Each of the kids has their own.) Missionary study: We're learning about a missionary or two for each continent. My goal is to find a chapter book for each missionary as it gives us good things to read together. Plus, I enjoy learning these things too! Notebooking: We're doing our own form of notebooking, I guess, as well. As a review at the end of an area, I write up some questions asking about the details I most want Jacob to remember. If it's an answer he'll have to look for, I provide the page number of the Geography book where he'll find the answer. Then he completes it and reviews what we learned. This has been his first experience with this kind of learning and he's doing a really great job! We're dividing our notebook into continents and put all of the questions, animals, maps and other things in that one section.

Animal Study: I've learned that school is just boring without some form of animal study! Sometimes we're learning which animals live on the continent, and sometimes we're learning more in depth about some specific animals. We're using ZooBooks as much as we can for this. (Thanks, Mom!)

Math: Jacob started Teaching Textbooks 4 in July, and it has been a very welcome addition to our homeschooling routine! He is generally quite happy about doing his Math lesson and learning quite well with the program. It does a better job of teaching new concepts than I was doing. It also provides the perfect amount of review for Jacob. (In our old program, I was crossing out half the assignment because it was way too much busywork for him.) It actually seems a bit easy for what would be considered a 4th grade curriculum, but I guess it doesn't matter what it's called as long as he learns what he needs to before he graduates. And maybe I just thought it should have been harder.

Language Arts: We're still very slowly working through Queen's Language Lessons for the Very Young for a general introduction to grammar. It's not slow because it's hard. It's slow because I often forget about it! At this point, it's way too easy for him! I've kind of taken the better late than early road with grammar/language arts and it's worked just fine for us. Jacob will not ever need a spelling program (thankfully!) and has quite a varied vocabulary without any curriculum thus far. And I'm not very excited about a boring grammar book as I see him developing writing skills just fine on his own. I'll add something eventually, but we're doing okay for now. I did finally get a handwriting book for him, just because I thought if he wants to learn cursive soon, he probably needs to be making his letters in the right direction before we move on. We're doing Handwriting Without Tears. Co-op: There were 3 other things I wanted to do with Jacob, but I was afraid I wouldn't stick with them if I did them on my own. And Candace had the same struggle so we started our own little coop - the perfect answer for my fear-of-coop-commitment self! We're getting together once a week to do three things: Latin, Science and Music/Piano.

Latin: I've known for awhile I wanted to do Latin with Jacob as he and I both enjoy knowing the why behind something. But I knew I probably wouldn't stick with it on my own. We're into week 9 of Prima Latina and doing great! We (yes, we) have learned about 50 words/phrases and almost 2 prayers. He is really enjoying this and applies it to words and conversations every day! It's also giving us a great introduction to grammar that's complimenting our other language arts stuff. Mattie is enjoying learning some too! :) Science Experiments: I do the science portion of our coop. We're doing experiments and learning general science concepts. The kids seem to really enjoy this, and we've done some cool experiments so far! Because this is an area that requires more planning from me, it's really good that I have the accountability to get it done. It would be very easy to push it off "just one more day" it if it was just Jacob.

Music: This is Candace's portion. She does some piano and composer study with the older three kids and some fun stuff with all of them together. Jacob seems to be enjoying learning to play the piano, and it gives me the accountability to stick with it. So that's pretty much what we're doing for now!! It seemed to me like we needed to step it up a bit for third grade, and we've done just that. Jacob was a little shell-shocked at first, but he's adjusted well. He seems to be more challenged than he's been in the past, and while he doesn't always love that, it's good for him. So now I can write some posts that show some of our fun school things individually. Being anal really screws things up some times!

Briarwood Ranch

So, today we went on the most memorable field trip... EVER. This will be one the kids will never forget! Candace and I are studying African animals and took the kids to Briarwood Ranch Safari Park. It is home to 55 species of animals from 6 different continents, but not your normal "zoo." Oh no.

They have two options for animal viewing, well, in addition to the safe and controlled petting zoo.

You can ride on a tractor-pulled wagon and experience this:

(I must say, I was quite proud of Granny!)

Or you can drive your own car and have an experience more like this:


It is not a trip for the faint of heart, though we got much more brave as the day went on. By the end, we were posing for pics with the llamas!

Here's some of what we saw. I am not zooming in on these pictures. I have my lens as wide as it will go! I tried to leave some of the car parts in the pictures for perspective.

This was one day I wish my pictures included audio. We were quite a noisy bunch for a the first part of the trip! It really was hilarious, but you had to be there, I guess.


These horns are amazing. He's some sort of sheep from the African coast.


God made this guy with a built in football helmet.


The first African animal we saw!


Hello!


We quickly gained a following. (We had food buckets the first time around.)


Our second trip around we followed the wagon even though our food was gone. (The scene reminds me of Noah's ark.) It was actually much more realaxing to not have food. It's pretty stressful when wild animals are fighting at your door for the goods you have in your hand!




The llamas were my favorite. They were very friendly and let us pet them a lot!


Mattie loved them too!


Look at my brave girl! (If only we could make this progress with the Chick-Fil-A cow!)


I think the guy with the shears thought this one was a poodle.


Nothin' like inviting yourself in for a bite to eat!


Hannah and Emily enjoying the petting zoo.






The emus were my other favorites. They'd just come pokin their heads around to check things out!


Candace was not so convinced about the nosey ostriches.
(Here are some more pics on Candace's blog.)


Not an animal I ever thought I'd have within arm's reach.


Just so feel like you were there, that's not rain on the window... it's elk slobber.


This is Sampson, a watusi bull from Africa. I like him 30 or 40 feet away. Those horns are 3 feet from tip to tip.


Ummm, yeah. Here he is right next to the car.


So their horns are cool looking...


This is what they do to the side of one's car.

I had these scratches all up and down both sides of my van. Thankfully my helpful neighbor knew what to do and pointed me in the right direction. The scratches aren't totally gone, but 3 hours of polishing compound and turtle wax later, they're probably not noticeable to the average bear. (Praise the Lord!) And I have no intention of going into auto detailing anytime soon. Lesson learned: take the wagon ride! (Or let your friend drive!)


It needed a good vacuum too... animal feed is not the scent of choice for my automobile!


Don't you wish this was you?