Category Archives: Homeschool

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

Homeschool

Our three Rs are a bit unbalanced

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home/schoolWhen we were first planning our kindergarten year, I suspected that I’d need some kind of curriculum to keep me on task on science and math. That has most definitely proved to be the case. We’ve been heavy on the reading, writing and arts lately, but we haven’t done much formal study on math or science at all. That’s not to say we’re not doing anything, but it’s definitely been more casual and kind of “Hey look! It’s a math application!” than I’d hoped to do.

So that’s what we haven’t been doing. Here’s what we have done lately. (As in this week.)

Our “Five in a Row” book this week was “The Finest Horse in Town.” It’s about a pair of sisters at the turn of the century who own (you guessed it) a really fabulous horse. The narrator is the great-niece of the sisters, and the story is a combination of the memories of someone who knew the sisters and the narrator’s imaginings of what might have happened. We talked a bit about life at the turn of the century, watercolor paintings and how the leaves change color in autumn. We’re also working on writing and illustrating a similar story based on a story Rockford’s grandfather has told us of his childhood.

In Health, we’ve finally gotten to the interior. Poppy learned about the circulation system and the heart this week, and we also talked a little bit about the lungs. This is the stuff she wanted to learn about, so she was pretty excited. She’s been talking about her veins all week.

We’ve been reading “The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter” for the last few weeks, and we’ll finally finish it this afternoon. Poppy also finished her first BookIt challenge last week; she read “Mercy Watson: Princess in Disguise” out loud to me. I was surprised by how easily she got through it, but I’m thinking she may have memorized part of it. She’s listened to the story on CD before, and she memorizes things really easily. Next month’s book will be something she hasn’t heard before, so that’ll give me a better idea of how well she’s reading.

Speaking of memorization: Poppy has been memorizing poems like nobody’s business. I started with some pretty short poems so she wouldn’t get discouraged and want to quit if she had a hard time with it. But I think she could memorize “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” with little problem. This week was the first one she didn’t have down cold after the first day, and it still only took her until Wednesday to recite it without help. I’m so glad she inherited Rockford’s memory instead of mine! Here’s what she’s memorized thus far:

  • “Fly Away, Fly Away Over the Sea” by Christina Rosetti
  • “The Purple Cow” by Gellett Burgess
  • “There Was a Little Girl” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • “A Leaf” by Aileen Fisher
  • “Autumn Fires” by Robert Louis Stevenson

    About that science/math thing: I’m looking at Nancy Larson for science and RightStart for math. They’re both pricey, though, so it’ll be January at the very earliest before we can get either one. Have you used either program? Or is there another math/science curriculum you’ve loved?

    • Homeschool

    Switching things up in the schoolhouse

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    We started a few new things after coming back from our first break. Poppy is doing some memorization work, using this memorization system. She memorized “The Purple Cow” last week; home/schoolthis week’s poem was “Fly Away, Fly Away Over the Sea.” We also started doing lessons from “Character Building for Families,” which I’m hoping will help with some of the attitude issues with which we’ve been dealing. The first series of lessons is on obedience. There’s some Scripture memorization involved with the “Character Building” lessons, too, so we’re using the system for that and the poetry, too.

    Most of our days looked pretty much the same this week: handwriting; “Character Building”; Spanish; a chapter of a read-aloud; reciting the memory work. On Tuesday we did a health lesson on the five senses, and on Wednesday we finished reading “My Father’s Dragon.”

    We’ve also started Pizza Hut’s Book It program, and Poppy’s October challenge is to read “Mercy Watson: Princess in Disguise” out loud to me. I know that October didn’t start until yesterday, but she was really excited, so we started a little early. If she gets through it with a lot of the month left to spare, November’s reading challenge will be more … challenging.

    On Friday we talked about Jackson Pollock and looked at a few of his paintings before heading outside with paints, brushes and canvas. Then Poppy, Pete, Rockford and I made our own Pollock-inspired painting in the driveway. Poppy picked out the colors, which were a little “Miami Vice” for my taste. But they’ll look great in her room!

    Homeschool

    A hectic start to a simple week

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    home/schoolThe kids and I were lounging on my bed reading this week’s Five in a Row title (“Gramma’s Walk”) on Monday when our once-leisurely morning took a turn for the chaotic. Rockford was leaving for a business trip, and we’d planned to drop him off at the airport in the afternoon. Except that once he checked his itinerary, he realized he’d been wrong about when his plane was leaving. A good deal of rushing around later, and we got him to the airport on time. Then we went home, made a picnic lunch, drove to the park, discovered there was some sort of festival going on at the park, tried to go to a different park, got lost, finally got there, had lunch, played, encountered a pack of wild rude girls, had tantrums and came back home. Phew.

    This, friends, is not my idea of a Good Way to Start One’s Week. Happily, things did improve and settle down a bit. My mom came over on Tuesday to stay for a few days, and that’s pretty much like having an in-house nanny. And that’s a big win in my book!

    Monday

    I’m trying to do some cooking lessons with Poppy, and this week we decided to talk about eggs. We talked about their nutritional value and all of the great things you can do with them, then we made some fried eggs for Poppy and omelets for me and Pete.

    Additional work: Handwriting, Spanish, “Doctor Dolittle.”

    Tuesday

    Health, handwriting, Spanish and “Doctor Dolittle.”

    Wednesday

    Handwriting, Spanish, ballet and “Doctor Dolittle.”

    Thursday

    Spanish, and we finished “Doctor Dolittle.” Poppy was pretty upset that the book had ended.

    Friday

    We talked about simplicity and realism in art, and I helped Poppy make a sketch of a rose in a vase to paint. And when I say “help,” I mean I flipped the paper over and sketched it for her after she’d drawn a giant black squiggle. I usually let her do her own interpretation of whatever we’re doing, art-wise, but I wanted to emphasize the “realism” part of the effort.

    Additional work: Spanish, handwriting and a new read-aloud: “My Father’s Dragon.”

    I’m experimenting with a nearly year-round schedule this year. We’re doing three weeks of school followed by a week off from August through June. Next week is our first break, during which I’m going to be gathering materials and putting things together for our second three-week session.