Category Archives: Homeschool

Learning at home with a second-grader and a fifth-grader.

This week in homeschooling: History on the go, cups of dirt and Yoda on a stick

10/03/2014 Nichole 4 Comments

We had a rather nice week. Poppy started taking tennis lessons alongside her brother, and we had our normal schedule of tae kwon do, soccer practices and extracurricular classes. It felt less hectic than last week, though, because last week Rockford was in China and this week he was at home. That always helps.

I jotted down notes as we went through our school days this week, but some of them were more detailed than others. As you will soon see.

Monday

I’ve been putting our current chapter of “Story of the World” history on my phone so we could listen to it while we drive around, but this was the first week that I actually remembered to put the cord in the car so we could listen to it over the speakers. The kids were silent on the way to co-op while they learned about tobacco and the spread of slavery in the New World and about Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba. They asked to listen to it again on the way home. Those audiobooks might have been the best purchase I made this year.

Poppy is taking a Greek mythology class and a “one-act play” class at co-op this session, and Pete is taking Chemistry and “Star Wars”/Astronomy. I’m teaching the “Star Wars”/Astronomy class, and it’s been going pretty well (even though it’s exhausting, because 4 of the 5 kids are very energetic 5- and 6-year-old boys). We usually do a small “Star Wars”-related craft, talk a little bit about a planet and then paint part of a solar system kit. This week we spent most of the time making Yoda puppets using a template from “The Star Wars Craft Book.” It was meant to make a felt finger puppet, but I don’t know how to sew even without a herd of kids around so we just went with paper and popsicle sticks. After Yoda, we read about Venus and then painted our Venus models. And then some of the boys decided to paint themselves because of course they did.

After co-op we came home and ~~I collapsed in a heap~~ did some grammar, and then Poppy read two chapters of “The Borrowers” and worked on her literature study worksheets.

Tuesday

We all woke up late, but we still managed to start school on time. I’m still not sure how that happened. Some of the notes I took for Tuesday are completely illegible, so how about a bulleted list?

We started “Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo last week as our read-aloud. The kids were enthusiastic about it because DiCamillo also wrote the “Mercy Watson” books. Poppy is still reading all of the “Warriors” text she can get her hands on, and Pete is still trying to finish his Boba Fett book.

Poppy played a few educational games on my iPad after working on Duolingo Spanish for a bit.

Poppy is memorizing “Invictus” (she thinks it’s creepy), and Pete is memorizing the Pledge of Allegiance.

Our current science unit is about recycling. We read a book called “What Happens to Our Trash?” and started an experiment that involves burying a piece of lettuce and piece of plastic in dirt. So now I have two glasses of dirt in my kitchen.

Wednesday

Here is exactly what I wrote down on Wednesday:

9am. Pete: Perler beads; Poppy: math from yesterday
“Winn-Dixie.” handwriting; history (listen & color); memorization
Poppy: reading comp & lit; MCT
10-11 break; 11:30 tennis; lunch; 1-3 art; 4:30 – math.

I either need to work on my note-taking skills or start writing 1/5 of this post every evening, when the day is fresh on my mind. (That’s what I did yesterday, which is why the Thursday entry is so long.)

Thursday

We started working at 9 sharp yesterday morning. Pete finished coloring his picture of Queen Nzinga perched atop her servant/throne while Poppy did her reading comprehension, and then we worked on their history mapping together.

And then I gave the kids my phone.

A big part of the “Story of the World” curriculum is narration, which calls for the students to put the stories in their own words. The curriculum wants the kids to write their narration, but my kids really, really dislike doing that. There was much complaining and whining every time I asked them to do it, so it became something that I didn’t ask them to do very often. But then I had a minor brainstorm a few weeks ago, and narration has been smooth-sailing ever since. The secret? I downloaded a voice Mmemo app and let them record their narration.

They love doing the recordings and listening to them over and over again. (I typed out at posted Poppy’s work on her blog, if you’re interested in reading the story of Queen Nzinga for yourself.)

At 10am we took our half-hour break, which turned into an hour-long break because I got distracted and forgot to set the timer. Pete wisely used some of that time to do his required free reading for the day; he’s been reading a “Captain Underpants” book.

At 11am we were back on track. Pete did a page in his math workbook and we worked through his spelling for the day and read from “First Language Lessons, Level 2” together while Poppy did a few sections of her Worldy Wise 3000 vocabulary program on the computer.

When she was finished, we all gathered on the couch to read a bit of “Grammar Island” and “Building Language” together before reconvening to work through some sentences in the kids’ “Practice Island” workbooks. (I’ll share some thoughts on how the Michael Clay Thompson is working for us once we finish “Grammar Island,” which will be soon.)

Pete was finished with his bookwork for the day after that, and Poppy finished up around 1:30, after her piano lesson and another break. The kids both had tae kwon do in the afternoon, and Poppy had soccer practice later in the evening.

Friday

The kids didn’t have all that much left to do today, and they got a lot of it done in the morning. Rockford came home for lunch and I went to get my hair cut. I walked in the door ready to say, “OK, kids! Let’s do some math!” and found Poppy reshelving her math book. Well done, kid and dad! Pete still had to do his math, and then we finished up with a little Michael Clay Thompson grammar. After that the kids absconded to their rooms, and it’s been pretty quiet here since about 2pm.

Happy weekend to you!

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

Homeschool

This week in homeschooling: A whole lotta Language Arts

09/05/2014 Nichole

Homeschooling at ButterscotchSundae.com

Our homeschool schedule has been pretty loosey-goosey over the last few years. The kids each had a daily list, and as long as they got everything (or, let’s be honest: most things) checked off by bedtime, we were good. This year, though, they have so many extracurricular activities that I had to make a sort of draconian schedule. We start work at 9am, take a snack break at 10, do more work until lunch, and so on.

And you know what? School has been going really well so far this year, and I think the extra structure has a lot to do with that. Most days the kids are focused and cheerful and have finished their schoolwork before or shortly after noon. That’s a great thing, because with the soccer and tae kwon do and tennis (oh my!), it’s nice for them to have the afternoon to take it easy.

In the spirit of changing-things-up, I also reorganized the kids’ daily to-do lists this year, and when I did it became obvious that we are really heavy on the Language Arts around here. That shouldn’t have surprised me, I guess, since those are my favorite subjects, but it certainly makes for a long This Week In Homeschooling post. So for this week, at least, we’re just going to talk about Language Arts.

Reading

Our first read-aloud of the year is always a “Harry Potter” book. (Or at least, it will be until 2018, I guess, because that’s when we’re slated to finish the series.) (Yes, we’re only reading one a year. As it should be.) This year we were reading “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” Until last night, when the kids asked for another chapter before bed and suddenly it was 9:40pm and we’d finished the book. The kids, as always, loved it.

Pete is tackling his first chapter book! He’s been wanting to check some of the “Star Wars” books out from the library, and I told him he could if he’d read it on his own. He’s currently reading “Boba Fett: The Fight to Survive.”

Poppy’s been reading her way through the “Warriors” books and every “Garfield” compilation she can get her hands on. She’s also started an official Literature curriculum this year, and her first book for that is “The Borrowers.” She reads two chapters on Mondays, then spends a few days doing the accompanying worksheets from Reed Novel Studies’ “Borrowers” unit. She doesn’t always love it, but I really like the emphasis on vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Spelling

Pete finished Lesson 13 of “All About Spelling: Level One” this week. It was a lot of annunciating different letter blends and writing different phrases, and he wasn’t crazy about it. Hopefully the next lesson will be a little more hands-on for him.

Vocabulary

Poppy started Wordly Wise 3000 toward the end of last year, so she’s still working through their third-grade curriculum. She’s doing very well with it, though, and she enjoys the program. I’ll probably sign Pete up for it next year, too.

Writing

We finally resumed “Writing Strands” this week! The first step of Poppy’s current lesson was making a list of things she enjoyed about a recent school day. “Reading ‘Garfield’ ” was on the list.

Grammar

We’ve been reading a little bit of “Grammar Island” every day. The kids like the couch time, but I’m not sure how their retention is with the material. They’ll be starting on the practice portion of the curriculum in a few weeks, so I guess we’ll find out then.

Poppy’s still working through “Growing with Grammar.” She didn’t do anything with it over the summer, and she definitely hasn’t retained much of what she learned from it last year. She still enjoys doing the work, though, so we’re going to stick with it.

“First Language Lessons” is still another cuddle-up-and-read project for Pete and me, and we’re both fans of that. He seems to be remembering the information, too, which is a good thing.

Poetry

This year Poppy is doing a curriculum produced by the Mensa people called “A Year of Living Poetically.” It includes a little bit of poetry analysis as well as stuff about rhyme, meter, etc. Last week she did John Donne’s “No Man Is an Island,” and this week she’s been working on “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare. She didn’t have much trouble memorizing the Donne, but Shakespeare is giving her a little bit of trouble. She’ll probably have it done by next week, though.

Pete is memorizing the same poems that Poppy did a few years ago. Last week he did Christina Rosetti’s “Fly Away, Fly Away Over the Sea,” and this week he’s working on Shel Silverstein’s “Bear in There.”

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

Homeschool

What fourth grade looks like at our house

08/21/2014 Nichole 1 Comment

We have two primary goals this year for Poppy: improved reading comprehension and becoming more independent with her schoolwork.

Poppy reads really, really quickly, but that isn’t always a great thing. For one thing, it means it doesn’t make much sense to buy books. She zooms through them so quickly that it doesn’t really feel like she’s getting her money’s worth. (I speak from experience, because I am the same way.) More important, though, is that she reads so quickly that she doesn’t always absorb what she’s reading. (I’m guilty of the same.) So this year we’re going to be emphasizing reading comprehension, which is why the Language Arts section further down this page is, shall we say, robust.

On the independence front, I want her to be able to self-motivate her way through her day. Obviously that’s not entirely possible for the subjects that she and Pete are doing together, but she could definitely do it on a lot of other stuff.

Without further ado, here’s what Poppy is doing for fourth grade.

Social Studies

“Story of the World: Volume 3“: We’ve returned to SOTW after a brief dalliance with another publisher. The kids enjoy it, and they’ve retained information from it. As always, I’m going to try to do more of the crafts and activities this year.

Math

McRuffy Math 3 and 4: Poppy is on track to finish her third grade math book by Christmas. She’ll start on the fourth grade book when we start up again after the holidays. I’m not sure how she ended up on this schedule in math. I’d like to get back on a book-a-year schedule, but it’s really not that big of a deal.

Language Arts

“Growing with Grammar”

This is the one thing that Poppy consistently does with very little help from me. The text is very straightforward, and the workbook instructions are usually clear. It might not be the most exciting grammar text (ha!), but it’s doing the trick.

Michael Clay Thompson’s Language Arts curriculum

I mentioned in the Pete post that this was our first year with MCT. We’ve read a little bit of the first book every day this week, and so far the kids like it.

“Reading Comprehension in Varied Subject Matter”

The woman who proctored Poppy’s standardized test last year suggested this one, and it’s pretty much exactly what the titles says it is. Short bits of text and a page or two of questions. She’s midway through the level she started last year, and I have the next level on deck for when she finishes.

Literature

Over the summer I made a list of books I wanted Poppy to read this year, and I’d planned to cobble together a few worksheets for her to fill out on each title. Imagine my delight when I found that Reed Novel Studies had a full curriculum written for most of the books on my list! I bought the study for “The Borrowers” first, and I liked the looks of it so much that I revised my reading list.

Science

Nancy Larson Science 1: OK, so the Nancy Larson website recommends this for kids ages 5 to 8. Poppy just turned 9, and even last year I think it would’ve been on the simple side for her. That said, we’re going to use it anyway, for both kids.

Handwriting

McRuffy

Phys Ed

Tae kwon do: We were gone a lot this summer, so Poppy is still working to learn her green belt techniques. She does class twice a week. She could take a third or even a fourth class every week, but so far this year she hasn’t been motivated to do so.
Soccer: Poppy is playing in a new soccer league this year, and she has practice twice a week. She started this week, and she was surprised to learn that practice was an hour and a half long. “Really?” she said. “It felt like twenty minutes!”

Art

“Creating Masterpieces Like the Modern Masters”: Poppy has always enjoyed making art, and I have never enjoyed the mess that art projects leave behind. So we’re fortunate to have a great local artist who teaches kids’ classes.

About that independent-learning thing: I don’t know exactly how I’m going to accomplish that goal. It’s on my mind, though, so please leave me your sage advice!