Changes.

I am so blessed to have some of the friends that I do.  But I am mostly blessed to have the direction of the Lord!  He leads me when I ask him and I am so thankful to Him for that.  

This time, my request was to please help me find the right program to use for Kyle to teach him Phonics.  As most of you know from my other entries, the A Beka program that we are currently using is not working for him.  He is not grasping the identification of letters, the sounds of letters, the blends of letters and writing the letters all at the same time.  I know that the program I used with Amanda, that I can't use with Kyle because I don't have the lessons, taught first the letters, then the sounds, then the writing, then the blending of sounds.  

So a girlfriend of mine that I went to school with told me that she was soon coming into town and would bring me the Hooked on Phonics program that she had.  So in them meantime I had printed out worksheets for Kyle to learn the letter I.  Saturday my friend came over with the said program, and yesterday I got to sit down and really check it out.  I am so excited about it!

I am going to basically start Kyle at the very beginning.  Because A Beka mixed everything up while learning it, he hasn't even learned recognition of all of the letters yet.  So today we started with that.  He knows a lot more than I thought, but not all of them.  He knows more capital letters than small letters.  So every day we will work a little bit on recognizing the letters until he knows them all.  And I will also find some other ways to mix-up and enhance this exercise.  

Since I do not even care for A Beka's phonics for 1st grade, we are currently trying to figure out where to place Amanda in the program.  I figured that each set kinda ran for each grade.  It tells you how to place your child in the program, and the first step is to read through the book at Level 1.  Well, I'm not going to waste time, so we flipped to the last page and she read all of the words with not problem.  Good.  On to level 2.  We started reading book 2 and was seeing how easy it was.  We read 2 of the books that it says to read along with the work book and she was still reading it with plenty of ease.  Once again, we skipped to the last book that it suggests to read and read that and decided that tomorrow we will start Level 3 and see how far we get.

Amanda decided against reading Charlotte's Web right now.  I am not sure why, but didn't push the subject because I think that she needs to wait a bit before trying to read this book with me.  Instead she decided to try a book that I think she will be able to read much easier with me.  It is still a chapter book so that is fine with me.  It is Barbie as The Island Princess.  Amanda has this movie and it is a cute one.  I actually enjoy most of the Barbie movies that she has or that we've seen.  We did start this book today but we only read the introduction as we had a long day of school.  She read one page and did a really good job with the words.  I don't know how she learned so many words all of a sudden.  She is sounding out words that are hard and she is also just looking at some words that are long but pronouncing them correctly without any hesitation. It is amazing to me because I know these are not words that we have covered during school!  lol

I have decided that since we are going to do school during the Summer and it doesn't appear that the Hooked on Phonics program goes by grades, that I am going to stop stressing when I don't do school 5 days a week.  Actually, do you want to know the truth?  Shhhh!  You can't tell anybody......I think I have only done a full 5 day week of school maybe 10 times since I've been homeschooling!  But I don't think it's even been that many.  It might even be more like 5 times.  We are almost done with our Science for the year, Amanda has finished everything but Math and Phonics but her Math is almost done.  We have just about 2 months left of Math.  Kyle is about half way through his math program but I didn't work him as hard considering he started Kindergarten a year early.  

What will we focus on that 5th day you may ask me?  Well, I figure that is a great day for the kids to learn "life lessons" as my homeschooling friend Kristy calls them.  Included in these lessons may be housecleaning, gardening, errand running, financial learning, volunteer work, cooking, or it may even be a well needed day of rest and free time.  

 The bird pictured on the elk antlers here is the male bird that is nesting here this year I believe.  Every year we have a couple of violet-green swallows that build a nest in a bird house that my husband built me one year that hangs off our front porch.  We are out in this area all of the time, but they don't seem to mind.  When we sit on our front porch, they will come swoop  in front of us to check us out, but they have never attacked any of us.  We always have company over, and many of them sit out there also.  Our porch is covered, but it is only about 4 feet wide.  So when you are sitting at the table, the bird house is hanging just over your head about a foot away.  It also spins, so sometimes the birds have to fly under the porch to get into the bird house.  We really love having these birds visit us every year.    They are fantastic to watch!  I have taken pictures of them some of the years that I have had a camera.  The best pictures are ones that I can get of the babies.  I will share the photos that I get this year for sure!

Anyways the point to this story was our bird project that we are doing in school.  Today we started the Bird Watching for Beginners ebook.  The kids didn't enjoy the introduction to this ebook, but we're going to read it anyways.  I don't read it word for word, I read the parts that I think they should know or would like to know.  But they only have 6 more lessons that we read out of it and starting tomorrow they will be able to work on lapbooks while I read.  That is God willing I have enough ink to print stuff out for them to use for lapbooks.  I am just about out of ink an will not have money for about 3 or 4 weeks to buy more ink.  :-(

I am also watching the calendar for the weather reports so that I can try and have a day where we take a bird watching trip.  I am not going to plan it far away, we can go right down the hill to the river or something.  I even think that is a field trip that Greg will definitely want to join in.  It's also one that I don't want to forget to bring my camera!

Today we learned about  how they could attract the birds to our yard that the kids chose to do their lapbook on.  Amanda chose an American Goldfinch and Kyle chose the Violet-Green Swallow.  When we have enough money, which unfortunately will be about the same time as I can buy ink, we will buy the bird seed needed to draw in the American Goldfinch.  Unless Amanda can drop a few heavy hints to her Grandpa Jim.  lol

For the rest of the week they will be learning about bird watching each day and work on the lapbook pages for anatomy, migration, nests and babies if we do a 5 day school week.  I'm totally not going to stress that though!  Next week will be our last week of doing the bird study.  

Our Obedience Study is going good.  We only have one story left to read.  Because I have had so much to do lately, our Bible lessons have not included very much memorizing.  So the kids aren't ready to do the oral part of the test yet.  Because we only have one story left to read, I really should write that test up tonight!  Eeek!  I should also start writing our next Bible studies.  I haven't decided what that will be yet.  If I want to move on in our Bible stories to Moses, or find a topic to study like we did with obedience.  I liked that.  Oh, that makes me think of a really good idea for some reason.  I want to find a worksheet for the kids to write the word obedience out. I'll have to do some searching for that when I have time.


The rest of our week will consist of moving along in Math, and Kyle and I will keep reading War of the Worlds for young readers.  He likes it so far.

 

The Plan is Working!

So far we have 2 stories left in our disobedience/obedience lessons from the Bible and I think the kids are starting to get my point.  As I was typing that sentence, the were being disobedient and I went in and told them since they won't mind, they need to pick up their room.  They both apologized immediately and started picking up.  NO arguing.  When they were done I told them calmly to pick up the books on my couch and they are very happily doing it.  I think we are getting somewhere!

We started memorizing their Bible verses on obedience today.  We are late in starting it but that is my fault.  We have all the time in the world.  I still need to write out their test for this, but it won't be a major one being their ages, so it should only take a moment to do.

For Science we are still learning about the birds.  Today we started reading on how to learn how to bird watch.  I think once we get to actually leave our house for some bird watching they will really enjoy it.  I will do that once we read a little more about bird watching and they get a few ideas on how they would like to do it and the supplies they want to bring with us.

On Friday I am going to a new friends house because she has a couple of birds that she is going to let us visit.  This will give the kids a chance to see a bird up close and check out some anatomy. 

I have decided to break down the phonics and letters for Kyle a little slower than what A Beka is doing.  So this week we are focusing on the letter I and the short sound for it.  Amanda is still plugging through this boring A Beka program.

Kyle is catching on to math very fast!  Amanda is like that also.  He is adding now and totally gets the concept.  Amanda is learning some fractions this week along with a lot of review on telling time, measuring, adding, subtracting and counting money. 

Amanda is moving right along with her reading.  In fact, we are going to start reading Charlotte's Web together.  There is a story behind this if you'll bear with me.  My first chapter book that I bought and owned was Charlotte's Web.  When I read that book, my mom and I read it together.  She would read one page and I would read the other.  That's a good memory.  So I told Amanda about that.  She had bought her own copy of this book the other day because she wanted it.  So we are going to read it like my mom and I did.  One page at a time....together.

For Kyle's reading he chose a condensed version for young readers of War of the Worlds.  We read 2 chapters of that today and he likes it.  I am glad to have this opportunity to introduce and share good novels with them.  I was worried that they might not be old enough for some of these books that we are reading, but they understand them for the most part and love them, so I will keep reading them.

We just finished reading Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary and they liked that book.  Although, none of it like it as much as the first book where we met the mouse Ralph.  That book is The Mouse and the Motorcycle.  We really liked that book.  I remember reading these as a kid, once.  I didn't read these ones as often as Beezus and Ramona or books about Henry Higgins.  Those were some of the best Beverly Cleary books in my opinion.






That is all we've been up to lately.  Stay tuned for more adventures in Teaching At Home in a Christian Way!  lol

Lessons on Obedience Pt. 1

Lately my children have been, shall we say, not as obedient as I would like.  So to make sure that I've covered the bases and done what I need to do, we are going to do some lessons on obedience in school.  Instead of reading through our childrens Bible each morning for their Bible study, they are going to be reading verses, memorizing verses and doing a character study on someone who is obedient or disobedient.  I am also going to make them take a test at the end.  Kyle will likely have an oral test.  I haven't decided about Amanda's test yet.

The first book that I went to for a reference to verses was Bible Truth For School Subjects Volume 1 Social Studies.  I have the whole set of 4 encyclopedias that was given to me from a good friend from high school who was homeschooling her son.  I wanted to start at the beginning so here is the first lesson.

Lesson 1: Parent's Responsibilities
A. Parents must teach their children.
       Exodus 10:1-2
       Deuteronomy 4:9-10; 6:6-9, 20-23; 11:18-21
       Psalm 78:5-8
       Proverbs 4:1-4, 10-11; 22:6
                                                               Ephesians 6:4
 B. Parents must provide for their children.
       1 Samuel 2:19
       Proverbs 13:22
       Luke 15:20-24
       2 Corinthians 12:14
       1 Timothy 5:8
C. Parents must control their children.
       Exodus 20:10
       Deuteronomy 5:14; 21:18-21; 32:46
       Numbers 30:3-5
       1 Timothy 3:4-5, 12
       Titus 1:6
D. Parents must correct their children.
       Proverbs 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 29:15-17
       1 Thessalonians 2:11-12


I wanted to provide this information first because I often explain to my kids that I have to punish and discipline them because God expects me to do that so they will grow up to be good people.  


Lesson 2 Children's Responsibilities
1. Children are responsible to God, especially as they come to maturity.
      Judges 6:25-27
      1 Kings 15:11-13
      2 Chronicles 7:17-22; 28:22-25; 29:2-9; 34:1-8
      2 Kings 22:2, 22-25
      Proverbs 20:11
      Ecclesiastes 12:1
2. Children must obey or submit to their parents.
      Exodus 20:12
      Deuteronomy 5:16; 21:18-21
      Judges 11:36-39
      Proverbs 1:8; 4:1; 6:20; 13:1; 23:22
      Jeremiah 35:18-19
      Matthew 15:4
      Luke 2:51-52
      Romans 1:30
      Ephesians 6:1-4
      Colossians 3:20
      1 Timothy 3:4-5, 12
      Titus 1:6


I am aware that quite a few of these verses are repeated in each lesson and heading.  But repetition is the best thing to make them remember!  Plus they are also going to choose 2 verses to memorize for their test.  


For the rest of the lessons I am going to be reading some Bible stories to them that show obedience and the reward of that and disobedience and the discipline of that.  Here are the next sequence of lessons.  I will do one story a day and I have different books that I will read these stories from.
Jonah and the Whale
Noah's Ark
Saul Disobeys God
Adam & Eve Disobey God
Daniel
The Walls of Jericho coming down


After those stories have been read, I have one book on a little girl who is disobedient that I am going to throw in for a story time one day.  Then they will choose one of those people that I read them a story about and do a character profile on obedience with them.  For example: if one chooses Daniel, I have worksheets from just about every person in the Bible's name on it.  They have a place to draw a portrait of that person, lines to write description and 2 other boxes to draw a picture or put other information in.  I will give that child the sheet with Daniel.  Then it will be their job to create that profile with the disobedient/obedient act and either the rewards of obedience or the punishment of the disobedience.


The come the tests.  I want to do a test because I want them to realize I am serious about this.  I want them to know it's a BIG DEAL to me!  They must be obedient.  When  I come up with how the test is going to be done I will post that.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

School has been going really smoothly lately.  I have gotten a nice schedule going and it's easy for all 3 of us.  This week they have been finishing up the lessons on Jacob in the Bible and then we are finishing what they started with Joseph while we were camping.  I was going to keep reading through the Bible, but my children are having trouble being obedient lately and my husband and I have decided that maybe it's time we do a character study on obedience.  So I will be planning that one tonight to start our study after Joseph.  I don't want to get into Moses yet because that is a long story in itself. 

Math and Phonics have been going very well for both of the kids.  Kyle struggles with the letters and sounds, but he is not even supposed to be in Kindergarten yet so I'm not worried about it.  We'll just keep working until he gets it and we'll still be ahead.  I am going to find some additional phonics lessons we can do besides following the boring A Beka manual.

Reading has been really fun lately with the kids.  They are starting to get into the stories more and Kyle most of the time doesn't want me to stop!  Amanda is reading so well on her own now, it just happened like that *.  (that is a snap, lol)  When it's reading time for Kyle he picks out a book from his library pile and brings it to me.  They are usually quite long books and he wants me to read it all.  I've had to cut the really long ones down to about 10 pages at a time.  But he brings it back the next day and continues until we finish it.  I love it and will encourage reading! 

We are reading Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary right now.  She is my favorite author for kids.  They love this series so far and want to buy the 3rd book.  I can't wait to introduce them to Ramona, Beezus and Henry Higgins!!  Those were my favorite books as a kid.  The chapters in this book are pretty long and take about 20 min or so to read one chapter, but Kyle doesn't want me to stop.  Amanda is ready for me to though.  That's ok. 

In our Science lessons this week we covered all types of animals.  A Beka Science 2 doesn't get really deep into the lessons, so I was able to combine quite a few of the lessons to get them done faster.  We have one more lesson to cover tomorrow about owls, then we will start our bird study on Monday.

During our bird study and our obedience study, I will put together a different copywork folder for the kids that go along with our lessons.  They actually really enjoy doing the copywork pages and I like to have them go along with what we are learning or the month that it is.  There are 14 lessons planned for our bird study, and we'll do more if they need to finish their lapbooks for that.

I am also starting to plan our plant/flower/garden study.  I am going to spend a week on plants, a week on flowers and a week or 2 on gardens.  They are going to have some little place to plant a few seeds and take care of a tiny little garden of their own.  I am not finding any lapbook stuff that I like for this unit, besides one that costs $19.99.  I don't know if I will be able to get that one or not.  If not, I will maybe do a notebook style project with some scrapbooking supplies.

All of this planning keeps me busy but it's one of my favorite part of homeschooling!

Science Lessons for Our Bird Project

We are so excited to do some lessons on birds.  We are also going to learn about some birds that live in our yard and learn how to attract them or others.  We will be starting this project after we do our animal lessons.  There are 6 of those lessons, and if I stay on track, we'll finish them next week and can start birds the first week of May.  After our bird project we will be doing a lengthy study on plants/flowers/gardens that will go quite a bit into our summer.  I really want to start a compost pile.

1.  Learn about birds body parts and feathers, Read First Book of Birds ebook (FBB) pg 6-16
2.  Learn about birds body parts and feathers, Read FBB pg 16-25
3.  Learn about migration, Start bird-watching journal, Do Nature Journal cover, Read FBB pg 52-60
4.  Learn about mating/nesting, Read FBB pg 33-43
5.  Learn about eggs/babies, Read FBB pg 43-51
6.  Look at books with birds in Washington and choose bird to do lapbook on, Learn about bird watching, Read FBB pg 62-65, Bird Watch
7.  Research favorite foods, flowers, etc. of chosen bird, Take notes, Read Bird Watching For Beginners (BWFB) ebook pg 8-19, Bird watch
8.  Anatomy lapbook, Read BWFB pg 8-19, Bird watch
9.  Migration lapbook, Read BWFB pg 19-22, Bird watch
10.  Nest lapbook, Read BWFB pg 22-34, Bird watch
11.  Babies lapbook, Read BWFB pg 34-37, Bird watch
12.  Predators lapbook, Read BWFB pg 37-46, Bird watch
13.  Poem and Song lapbook, Read BWFB pg. 46-52, Bird Watch
14.  Observation lapbook, Transfer information from bird-watching journal, Bird watch
15.  Finish bird lapbook

Follow Friday-April 23, 2010

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Schedule For April 12-18

Last night I got all of the schedule done for this school week.  I find it much easier for myself to plan each week.  I usually have an outline of what I want to do, then I start to plan.  
So since I have decided to make this easier on myself, and Kyle wants to do most of the school work that Amanda is doing, so I have combined everything for them except Math, Reading and Phonics.  For some of the projects and studies we do, Kyle isn't expected to do the same work as Amanda, but he is learning the same subjects.  So to clarify, Amanda's subjects are labeled with a 1 for first grade and Kyle's is labeled with a K for Kindergarten.
The Bible that I read to the kids is one that I had when I was little.  It's called My Picture Story Bible by Dena Korfker.  I want my kids to learn King James version of the Bible, but these stories are perfect for the kids to understand what is going on.  So for our Bible study, I read out of this children's Bible.  When we memorize verses they memorize KJV verses.  And of course, everything at church is KJV.  This Bible tells the story at a great level for children to understand and not in nonsense ways.  

MONDAY:
Read Jacob Runs Away in Bible
Read Dinosaurs Before Dark ch 5
Practice AWANA verses
Math 1/K
Phonics 1/K
Reading 1
Science Lesson 12
Copywork

TUESDAY:
Read Jacob Wrestles with God
Read Dinosaurs Before Dark ch6
Practice AWANA verses
Math 1/K
Phonics 1/K
Reading 1
Science Lesson 13
Copywork

WEDNESDAY:
Read Jacob Keeps His Promise in Bible
Read Dinosaurs Before Dark ch 7
Practice AWANA verses
Math 1/K
Phonics 1/K
Reading 1
Science Lesson 14
Copywork

THURSDAY:
Read Joseph the Dreamer in Bible
Draw picture of Josephs coat of many colors on worksheet
Read Dinosaurs Before Dark ch 8
Practice AWANA verses
Math 1/K
Phonics 1/K
Reading 1
Read Berenstain Bears Science Book (goes with what we are learning in science)
Copywork

FRIDAY:
Read Joseph Sold by His Brothers in Bible
Draw picture of Joseph being sold
Read Dinosaurs Before Dark ch 9
Practice AWANA verses
Math 1/K
Phonics 1/K
Reading 1
Copywork

SATURDAY:
Read Joseph Goes to Prison
Fill out Bio sheet of Joseph
Read Dinosaurs before Dark ch 10


SUNDAY:
Read The Butler and the Baker


Thursday we are leaving for our vacation.  We are going camping by Lake Chelan.  I guess it's above the lake in the mountains.  The Bible lessons that we do at camp will involve the other kids.  I took them to Vacation Bible School with us last year and David, same age as Amanda, got saved.  Now they haven't been going to Sunday school or church all year.  But I want to teach them about God and Jesus as much as I can.  I already asked their mom if she minded if they did the lessons with us, and she was glad about it.  So I made sure to have some activities to do with the lessons.  Shawna is older.  I think she is in 2nd or 3rd grade.  Not totally sure.  
So there is my agenda for the week.  Have a great week friends!