School
School is going really well these days. We were having a hard time fitting it in with our every day commitments, but then I realized how crazy that is. I kept saying that since we homeschool, we could meet friends for lunch, or be at pottery by noon, or whatever. But I found that Kara really learns the best first thing in the morning. And if we didn't have enough time first thing in the morning to do something, it wasn't getting done. Which led to: breakfast, packing lunch, showering, getting dressed, doing my hair, etc didn't leave enough time for us to leave the house by 11:30 every morning.
So, I decided from now on we need more time to do school as Kara is getting older and we won't be able to be anywhere until 2. Wow! Much better! If we get super into school right after breakfast, we can be done with school by 11. But then I still need a shower, I need to start the laundry, we need to eat lunch, etc. But most days we're not done until 12:30 or so. Then it's time for lunch. I can't tell you how nice it is to spend time in school teaching Kara like we used to - making sure she gets it, answering questions, and making it the focus of our mornings. Instead of rushing through it to get it done, instead of just checking a box, we're luxuriating in it and it's beautiful. Exactly what homeschool was meant to be.
Right now, it's working for us to do one subject every day. We start with Bible and do spelling words every day, but then we move onto the subject for the day. We do a weeks worth of that subject that day. I'm finding we are delving deeply enough into that subject for Kara to be focused and learn something and retain it. Every time we do something, I find her relating it to what we learned in school that day. That's what it's about, man!
So, for Bible we are still doing Awanas. It is a fantastic curriculum and Kara loves it - I think she's really getting a lot out of it. Awanas takes a long break from mid-May to mid-September, so I will find something else to use for those months. I have a few books I need to look through. I have time though because we will be doing a vacation and won't start the new Bible stuff until June. (Yep, we're doing year round school again. I LOVE being able to take a week off every month.)
For spelling, Kara is still using Abeka's 3rd grade spelling lists. She knows 3/4 of the words, so I have her do a pretest the first day of the week, and we only study the words she doesn't know. Most weeks there are so few words we need to work on that we go through 2 lists. That's 24 words in each list, 48 total, and she won't know about 10 words. So we study those. Each list has 3 vocabulary words, but every single subject has vocabulary in it, so she is learning a lot of vocabulary.
Kara is working on 3rd grade English - we love our grammar book (lately we've learned about adjectives, articles, diagramming sentences, etc.). It's called Growing with Grammar and we plan to use the 4th grade level next year. We also follow the state guidelines to all that is required for 3rd grade English. (It's our guidelines for Math, Science, and Social Studies too, for that matter.) Then we read our own books to learn everything the fun way. It's more work for me, but Kara loves it. Last year, Abeka was full of worksheets - they were so cute and fun and really not that much work, but she LOATHED it. Now I am making worksheets in notebooks or on the computer, and she loves it. Go figure. Today we diagrammed sentences and she loved every second of it. We also make sure we're writing plenty. We have been working on summaries. I found easy peasy (Day 106) explaining the easiest way to summarize is to find the main idea, then 2 other important things that happened, put them together, and you have a summary. She likes this too. She's always loved writing - as long as she can write about what she wants to write about. Oh yeah, and we're doing poetry. Kara LOVES poetry. I always had a hard time with poetry, but since she loves it so much, I'd like to incorporate more reading of poetry to our every day lives. As far as school goes, we've been talking about rhyme scheme, stanzas, refrains, choruses, etc. There is so much going on in 3rd grade English!!
Math has been difficult lately. While Michael and I have always loved math, and we really think Kara loves it too, lately she hasn't enjoyed it at all. I am currently looking for a new curriculum. Around January we began 4th grade math, but the curriculum we're currently using is boring. And while Kara can do most of it, there are a few things that are either above her abilities, or I'm not explaining right. I think a new curriculum is what's in order. At least we are far enough ahead that if we want to redo parts of 3rd grade or take some extra time in 4th grade, that's a-okay.
Science has been magnificent. We are using BJU's 4th grade science book. We already learned about animals and insects. Now we're learning about plants, which we'll finish up this week. Then next week I believe we are talking about force. Very cool. I think a trip to the Maryland Science Center is in order to see all of that in action.
History has been even more magnificent. We adore our curriculum - Story of the World. It doesn't have a grade associated with it, so I'm not sure what level it's on. It does just what it sounds like - it starts at the beginning of the world (starting with nomads - it's secular) and works through ancient history all the way through modern times. It's written in 4 novels, and we're loving it. We are on the first novel and it's FASCINATING to learn about ancient history. When it lays out who was doing what all at the same time, it just makes sense. There are a lot of excerpts from Scripture, since it's an excellent record of history. It's helping me put all of my Scriptural history together too! I am ashamed to say I don't think I knew why the Israelites were in Egypt being their slaves to begin with. Last week we learned they left Canaan because of a famine and headed down to Egypt. Egypt was cool with it at first until the Pharaoh realized the Israelites were so numerous that they could take over if they wanted, so he enslaved them out of paranoia. You all may have known that, but not studying Scripture until I was an adult left me learning bits and pieces here and there, and not really getting the whole overview of everything. I. Love. It. P.S. I always hated history. Always. Now Kara and I both love it. I plan to keep these books forever as reference books.
We're still using Abeka Health, music is really just singing at church and at home (maybe we'll do something more next year, maybe not), art is abundant thanks to skyping with Vicky and pottery classes, PE is also covered by loads of playground visits, hikes, riding her scooter, and of course, horse lessons.
And that's everything! We just studied Asia in geography since that's what we're learning in history. I do a little bit of cursive on the tablet - I'm keeping it light and fun - Kara used to cry over this. Maybe we'll do more with cursive this summer. I'd really love to teach Kara Spanish, but it just isn't really working right now. I am sure it will happen when the time is right.
Like I said, actually doing school only takes about 2-3 hours each day, but planning for it takes a lot of time! I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my extraordinary life. :-)
So, I decided from now on we need more time to do school as Kara is getting older and we won't be able to be anywhere until 2. Wow! Much better! If we get super into school right after breakfast, we can be done with school by 11. But then I still need a shower, I need to start the laundry, we need to eat lunch, etc. But most days we're not done until 12:30 or so. Then it's time for lunch. I can't tell you how nice it is to spend time in school teaching Kara like we used to - making sure she gets it, answering questions, and making it the focus of our mornings. Instead of rushing through it to get it done, instead of just checking a box, we're luxuriating in it and it's beautiful. Exactly what homeschool was meant to be.
Right now, it's working for us to do one subject every day. We start with Bible and do spelling words every day, but then we move onto the subject for the day. We do a weeks worth of that subject that day. I'm finding we are delving deeply enough into that subject for Kara to be focused and learn something and retain it. Every time we do something, I find her relating it to what we learned in school that day. That's what it's about, man!
So, for Bible we are still doing Awanas. It is a fantastic curriculum and Kara loves it - I think she's really getting a lot out of it. Awanas takes a long break from mid-May to mid-September, so I will find something else to use for those months. I have a few books I need to look through. I have time though because we will be doing a vacation and won't start the new Bible stuff until June. (Yep, we're doing year round school again. I LOVE being able to take a week off every month.)
For spelling, Kara is still using Abeka's 3rd grade spelling lists. She knows 3/4 of the words, so I have her do a pretest the first day of the week, and we only study the words she doesn't know. Most weeks there are so few words we need to work on that we go through 2 lists. That's 24 words in each list, 48 total, and she won't know about 10 words. So we study those. Each list has 3 vocabulary words, but every single subject has vocabulary in it, so she is learning a lot of vocabulary.
Kara is working on 3rd grade English - we love our grammar book (lately we've learned about adjectives, articles, diagramming sentences, etc.). It's called Growing with Grammar and we plan to use the 4th grade level next year. We also follow the state guidelines to all that is required for 3rd grade English. (It's our guidelines for Math, Science, and Social Studies too, for that matter.) Then we read our own books to learn everything the fun way. It's more work for me, but Kara loves it. Last year, Abeka was full of worksheets - they were so cute and fun and really not that much work, but she LOATHED it. Now I am making worksheets in notebooks or on the computer, and she loves it. Go figure. Today we diagrammed sentences and she loved every second of it. We also make sure we're writing plenty. We have been working on summaries. I found easy peasy (Day 106) explaining the easiest way to summarize is to find the main idea, then 2 other important things that happened, put them together, and you have a summary. She likes this too. She's always loved writing - as long as she can write about what she wants to write about. Oh yeah, and we're doing poetry. Kara LOVES poetry. I always had a hard time with poetry, but since she loves it so much, I'd like to incorporate more reading of poetry to our every day lives. As far as school goes, we've been talking about rhyme scheme, stanzas, refrains, choruses, etc. There is so much going on in 3rd grade English!!
Math has been difficult lately. While Michael and I have always loved math, and we really think Kara loves it too, lately she hasn't enjoyed it at all. I am currently looking for a new curriculum. Around January we began 4th grade math, but the curriculum we're currently using is boring. And while Kara can do most of it, there are a few things that are either above her abilities, or I'm not explaining right. I think a new curriculum is what's in order. At least we are far enough ahead that if we want to redo parts of 3rd grade or take some extra time in 4th grade, that's a-okay.
Science has been magnificent. We are using BJU's 4th grade science book. We already learned about animals and insects. Now we're learning about plants, which we'll finish up this week. Then next week I believe we are talking about force. Very cool. I think a trip to the Maryland Science Center is in order to see all of that in action.
History has been even more magnificent. We adore our curriculum - Story of the World. It doesn't have a grade associated with it, so I'm not sure what level it's on. It does just what it sounds like - it starts at the beginning of the world (starting with nomads - it's secular) and works through ancient history all the way through modern times. It's written in 4 novels, and we're loving it. We are on the first novel and it's FASCINATING to learn about ancient history. When it lays out who was doing what all at the same time, it just makes sense. There are a lot of excerpts from Scripture, since it's an excellent record of history. It's helping me put all of my Scriptural history together too! I am ashamed to say I don't think I knew why the Israelites were in Egypt being their slaves to begin with. Last week we learned they left Canaan because of a famine and headed down to Egypt. Egypt was cool with it at first until the Pharaoh realized the Israelites were so numerous that they could take over if they wanted, so he enslaved them out of paranoia. You all may have known that, but not studying Scripture until I was an adult left me learning bits and pieces here and there, and not really getting the whole overview of everything. I. Love. It. P.S. I always hated history. Always. Now Kara and I both love it. I plan to keep these books forever as reference books.
We're still using Abeka Health, music is really just singing at church and at home (maybe we'll do something more next year, maybe not), art is abundant thanks to skyping with Vicky and pottery classes, PE is also covered by loads of playground visits, hikes, riding her scooter, and of course, horse lessons.
And that's everything! We just studied Asia in geography since that's what we're learning in history. I do a little bit of cursive on the tablet - I'm keeping it light and fun - Kara used to cry over this. Maybe we'll do more with cursive this summer. I'd really love to teach Kara Spanish, but it just isn't really working right now. I am sure it will happen when the time is right.
Like I said, actually doing school only takes about 2-3 hours each day, but planning for it takes a lot of time! I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my extraordinary life. :-)
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