Wish List

Ooh, I love a new school year and I love to plan it out.

Implementing it---that's a whole different ball of wax.

But for now I am in the planning stage and it's all fun and games.

I've been pouring over my favorite homeschool suppliers and came across two fun new items that I would love to have.

Composers Lapbook


How cute is this folder? It's arranged like an orchestra. See the conductor there in the front? And all the instruments are tucked into their little pockets.

I'm also looking at the Civil War Time Travelers CD. I'm torn about this one. I have two of their other Time Travelers CDs and we used some of the projects from them, but not as many as I'd have liked for the price. I also already own the Civil War History Pockets and looking at the topics, I see many of the same in both sets. Granted, there is much, much more in the Time Travelers CD, but why not NOT use what I already own instead of spending more money to not use something else.

There. I talked myself out of it.

Yet, if I could find it for $5, I think I'd snap it up....

So basically, we'll be working through Sonlight Core 4 this year with the girls. Banana Boy is going to hang out and maybe listen in a little. I might read through The American Story with him. Not sure. I haven't ended up loving that book as much as I wanted to either. In story-length and illustrations it appears to be for young children, but then some of the language/vocabulary/concepts seem way up there. I guess I'll have to give it another shot to see.

For science I was all set to use Real Science 4 Kids: Chemistry. It will be too much for Banana Boy, so I ordered the updated parts of Sonlight Science K for him. This mostly consisted of the Usborne books I didn't already own. I have the old SL Science K from when Rose Bud was small.

AND since I was doing a SL order ( I had a $25 coupon) I also picked up most of the parts of Science 4. We have the microscope from years and years ago when SL offered it at an incredible price around Christmas. I never used Science 4 with Rose Bud, though, so I didn't have many of the books. It's been mostly revamped anyway, so I bought the new Usborne books that are included.

I have to say, The Story of Inventions has been a HUGE hit. Both girls have been gently spatting over who gets to read it and as soon as one puts it down, the other snaps it up. Rose Bud has read it, too. I read through a couple of the articles and it ranks up there as one of the nicest Usborne books I've ever read. The articles and text are easy to read, interesting and not as discombobulated as some Usborne books tend to be.

We're sticking with Singapore for math. Daisy will begin the 6th grade book next week. Pepper just began the 3rd grade book and BB is working through the 1st grade book.

For grammar, I'm typing up the worksheets from the old Sonlight LA 3, back when the grammar was good! Rose Bud, of course, used up the worksheets, but I still have the answer keys, so I'm retyping the worksheets and will use them with both Daisy and Pepper this year. The grammar instruction was so thorough and so wonderful and Sonlight has changed the format so much, that I want the girls to benefit from this, as well.

We are also continuing with Rod & Staff English. Daisy is skimming through the 4th grade book with the goal of working thoroughly through the grade 5 book later this year. Right now she is mostly working only the Review sections and skipping the main lessons and exercises. Pepper will begin the grade 3 book this fall.

Both girls are also continuing in Sequential Spelling. Daisy should begin book 2 sometime in September. Pepper is about half-way through book 1.

For spelling and phonics, Banana Boy will continue in Explode the Code. In 13 years of homeschooling, SL Language Arts has never done it for us before 3rd grade. I have tried, and I have tried and then I have tried some more, and we have yet to complete a full year of SL LA before 3rd. After 3rd, yes, the old LA was FABULOUS!

Language Arts-wise, my kids have done well doing just Explode the Code and (heh, I just accidentally typed "Explode the COD." snort) reading a lot. For those who have been strong readers by 2nd grade, we've also begun the R & S English book.

Anyway...this will be our main thrust and what I hope to get to every day. I'll share in another post the extras I hope to throw in.

Lest You Think About Calling CPS on Pepper...

She and Banana Boy are examining our presidents poster. She's quizzing him on presidents. He found George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as any good American child should.

Next, she's giving him clues. "Find James Buck an an. He has fives by his name. Warmer....Colder.....Warmer... Warmer!!!! YETH!"

"Find Calvin Coolidge. It starts with a C. Two C's."

Banana Boy wants to see that Marak Obama's picture, but then he reasons to himself, "I guess he's not on there yet because he didn't get there yet and they (all the other presidents) were there for lots of times."

Then they are talking about Theodore Roosevelt. BB asks why there are mountains in the background of his picture and Pepper explains,

"He loved animals and he made lots of parks because people were shooting the animals and then they had a place to live."

*I* didn't teach her that! We haven't even gotten to TR yet. She picks all that up from reading books.

Also this week, in Pepper's world:

She colored her December calendar (and filed all the rest of them in her binder), filled out the dates and announced there were STILL 35 days until Christmas! All with no help from me.

She quizzed BB on sight words. We have a bunch of them hanging on the kitchen cabinet.

She opened the Penguin set and had an Antarctic penguin party.

She worked on discovering whether sums and products of numbers were odd or even. This is in her Miquon Blue book. So for example, she works
2+2, 4+6, 12+30 and so on, a whole column of them and determines whether the sum is odd or even. Eventually, it asks her to decide whether ANY even + even combination will always be even (yes, it will) and then she has to make up 3 or 4 of her own problems following the pattern. She followed this same pattern for odd + even, even + odd and odd + odd, then odd x odd, odd x even, even x odd and even x even. Because of my head cold, it makes even ME dizzy thinking about it.

She and I also played Bananagrams together, making just one puzzle instead of each our own.

If you have grade schoolers and you have not yet purchased this game, PUT IT ON YOUR CHRISTMAS LIST! We LOVE this game.
It's fast to play and anyone can join in. You turn all the tiles face down in the middle of the table and each person picks 21 tiles (for 2-5 players, fewer if there are more players). Someone says "split" and everyone turns over all their tiles in front of them. You each begin building your own Scrabble/Crossword style puzzle using just your tiles. If you get stuck with a bad tile, you can "dump" and exchange it for 3 new ones. Whenever anyone has used all their tiles, they say "peel" and everyone picks one new tile. The first one to use up all their tiles after the middle tiles have been used up says, "bananas" and wins.

Banana Boy gets his own set of 21 tiles and makes 3 letter words, but he's not required to connect them together. It's great for his beginning reading and spelling. Pepper and Daisy are pretty evenly matched, since Pepper is a natural speller and Daisy is not. I am fast at using my tiles, but rather than using my last tile and calling "peel" right away, I stop and help out whomever looks stuck. I spend as much time helping the kids as I do making my own puzzle, but we don't play competitively anyway.

The girls got out their Hands & Hearts Early American kit this week and made pomanders. The skewer, the cloves and the string and ribbon were all included. We just had to supply the apples.

We also discussed the importance of correct spelling and how changing the spelling of a word changes the vowel sound from long to short or vice versa. We explored the difference between exploding the CODE and exploding a COD, being sure you are eating a SNACK and not a SNAKE, and SCRAPPING, not SCRAPING your photographs.

She also colored a picture of Lewis and Clark and read about 4 million books about Sacagawea.

So there you have it. A week in Pepper's unschooling world.

Homeschool Gems

First of all, I have to say that I am so blessed to have such a beautiful library!  Thanks, Honey!  Secondly, I have to confess that I have a little, tiny addiction to books.  ahem.

 

However, as we were listening to one of our favorite CDs this morning, I began to think about my very favorite homeschooling gems.  These are the things I return to kid after kid.  These are the things I enjoy each time I use them.  These are the items, if I was forced (at gunpoint) to give up all but a few homeschooling things, I would keep.

 

One Hundred Sheep skip counting CD  This is the CD we were listening to this morning.  It teaches skip counting from 2s to 10s via Bible stories and song.  And these songs are crack-up-the-adults-listening hilarious!  Our favorite is the 6s.  Plus the skip counting song part sticks in your head.  A good thing.

 

WeeBeeTunes DVDs  For geography, we love these!  There are two DVDs (I wish they'd make more!).  Each continent has it's own character who travels around and visits different countries.  Again, there are songs (I love learning to music) and the video.  At the top of the page in the link, you can click on Samples and hear some of the songs.  You don't get the benefit of the video, but I can tell you, it's very cute.  MeiLin Yak is our favorite character.  "What's in your backpack, MeiLin Yak?  What do you have to show us today?"

 

Singapore Math has made us very happy.  You can buy teacher's guides for it now, but I've never used one because it comes intuitively for me being a math geek, and all.  I'm currently taking my 4th kid through the K books and still love it.  Rose Bud went to public school this year into the 6th grade math program they are using.  It all was very easy for her, which was fine for me.  The testing, if nothing else, was new to her.  On the standardized testing, she actually did just average, except for the algebraic portions where she was BELOW average.  However, at the semester, her math teacher (love you, Mrs. H!) asked if RoseBud could be moved into the advanced math class (doing 7th grade math) as the regular math was not challenging her enough.  I was all for that!  And she segued in without much trouble (thank you, Mrs. F, for giving her the extra help and time!).

 

Now Rose Bud (and the rest of my kids) are all math geniuses....I mean naturals at math (math geeks, we like to call ourselves), so she likely would have done fine with a different program than Singapore.  But it has worked well for all of us so far and we're stickin' with it!

 

Rod & Staff English  This is an excellent, very solid grammar program and all three girls have loved it.  We never seem to finish a whole book before moving on to the next one, but it always works out.  They have a very good survey of grammar topics, diagramming, lots of practice and some review of writing (although I've heard from others who use the writing in here that they like it, we never get to it).  We do most of the work orally, except for diagramming and things they need extra practice on.  We have always used just the student text book and no other components.  When we do do the writing assignments, they always work on the white board.  Their favorite part of this program has always been when they need to identify two different things (say the noun and the verb), I hold out my hands, labeling one noun and one verb.  Then the girls "pick up" the word out of the book and drop it into the proper hand.  Silly, but effective!

 

The best place to buy it is directly from Rod and Staff, but they are not online.  You can call them at 1-606-522-4348.  The service and friendliness is awesome and shipping is very fast!  (I've heard that the Anabaptist website that sells R&S materials online is not as reliable and is a different company)

 

Word & Song Bible CDs produced by Focus on the Family  Banana Boy knew Bible stories I hardly knew after listening to this at bedtime and naptime for several months.  Most stories have a corresponding song to go along with them.  The voices are by an all-star cast including, Packer fans, our dearly departed Reggie White as Samson!  The Bible itself is so-so (I mean the Word & Song Bible, not THE Bible) but the CDs are worth their weight in gold!

 

Geopuzzles  Love these and my kids do too!  Banana Boy was doing these last year at age four (he is rather gifted at puzzles!).  In his case, he was just learning to recognize the shapes of the countries and how they fit together, but the girls, of course, could read the names.  Fun, easy, brainless learning.

 

My Base Ten Blocks, which I've mentioned before.  Just noticed in re-reading that entry, that Leslie had asked where to buy them.  Plastic blocks are available at Rainbow Resource (free shipping if your order is $150 or more.  I never seem to have trouble making the minimum...)  The wooden set is available at Christian Book Distributors (CBD).

 

My ABC Bible Verses   Love, love, love this little book!  There is a Bible verse for each letter of the alphabet and a sweet story illustrating its meaning in a way preschoolers and kindergarteners can understand.  All my kids have begun memorizing Bible verses with this book and Banana Boy is beginning to work through it.  Yesterday, I came into the kitchen pretending to whine at him about something (he is my star whiner) and he came up to me with a little smirk and said, "Mom, A soft answer turns away wrath."

 

Bob Books   The BEST little phonics readers for beginners.  All those trendy, character-based phonics sets they sell in the Scholastic catalog can't hold a candle to Bob Books (which are also sold by Scholastic, BTW).  The others aren't truly phonetic and contain too many site words for beginners, IMHO.

 

Let's Read And Find Out books  I can't own enough of these very basic, easy to understand yet in-depth science books for elementary students.  Our Favorite is What Happens to a Hamburger.

 

I Can Read series of history books  These are wonderful history readers for 1-3 grade.  My girls read them over and over.  Most of the other I Can Read books are great too.

 

Ok, they are going to shoot me with that gun if I keep adding stuff.  I guess those would be my absolute favorites.

 

I'd love to hear from you if you're a homeschooler reading my blog what your homeschool gems are.  Please share!

 

Blessings,

Sandwich

My favorite math manipulative

I have to say I could really throw out all my other math manipulatives except for my base ten blocks.

I use these more than anything else I own and they are great for teaching so many concepts.

I love the wooden blocks!  They have become difficult to find as most homeschool suppliers sell the plastic sets now. :(

Today Mr. GT had the day off from work, so he and Sunshine spent the WHOLE day out running errands!  Isn't he sweet?



I've been meaning to play the "trading" game with Pepper for weeks now, but it is impossible with the little man around.  So we got out the base ten blocks and two dice.  We took turns shaking the dice and taking as many unit blocks as the dice scored.  When we had collected 10 unit blocks, we got to trade them in for a ten stick. Then, you guessed it!  When we had 10 ten sticks, we traded them in for a hundred-flat.



I love this game as a basis for building the ideas we'll need to begin two-digit addition and subtraction with borrowing and carrying.  And strangely, my kids have all LOVED this game.  It is so simple, yet it's fun.  I remember one night (long ago!) Rose Bud and I played to 1000!



Even Banana Boy got to play.  He started out as my partner, shaking the dice for us and counting out the blocks.  But as soon as I showed him how to trade, he caught on and soon wanted to play by himself.  He worked on simple counting, the trading and practicing his counting by 10s to find his score.



It's even a good spatial toy because the blocks only fit into the Rubbermaid container one way:  You have to put the 1000 block in first, then all the hundred-flats, then the ten-sticks and unit cubes.  Any other way (like just dumping them) and it's a no-go.



We also got a bunch done on the lapbooks.  Daisy is making a separate folder for each of the 4 Indian groups, so she is working on her Plains folder right now.  Pepper is making one double folder containing all four groups.



For geography, we are doing a couple of things this year.  We are using the Trail Guide to U.S Geography and doing the Geography Trails each day.  We are also pulling together a state summary sheet from a couple of different map books I've collected.  Daisy keeps track of the state, capital, date of statehood, motto, nickname, and area.  Pepper just writes out the state name, capital, year of statehood and nickname.  They both have stickers I made with the state bird, tree and flower to stick on their sheets.Daisy's Connecticut Page



Usually on Monday, we do the Geography Trails from TGtUSG for a state.  Tuesday we fill out the state sheet.  Wed. and Thurs. repeat, so we are covering two states a week.  We are memorizing the states and capitals.  On her own, Daisy is making a game to match the two.  And the girls have taught Sunshine the capital of Maine.  "Gusta!" he says.



Fridays we are using the Geography from A to Z and the Geo-Terms pages from History Scribe to study a geographical feature.  Today we learned about atolls and last week, archipelagos.  Pepper's Atoll Page