Homeschool

We are already in our fifth week of homeschool! I can't believe how fast time has flown. We still have our days of frustration, but they are becoming fewer and easier to overcome.

Choosing curriculum this time was especially difficult. There are so many options and ideas out there! After what seemed like a whirlwind of options, I made what I think to be the best decisions for our kids. The only subjects we do separately are Math and Reading. Everything else we learn together. This simplifies so many things, and I really think it has been beneficial for us on a whole.

I have been reading quite a few books on Charlotte Mason and her views on educating children, so we are pretty much using her methods. Things seem to go so much smoother this way!

What we are doing:

Emily's 4th grade Math - ABeka

Aaron's 6th grade Math - Saxon (we chose this so that if we return to OCS in the future he will be on the same page as the other students.)

For Dictation/Transcription we have started with Quotes from Famous People. So far we have learned quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Walt Disney. We have one quote a week that they copy from the white-board in cursive every day. Each day I review their handwriting, spelling, and punctuation from what they wrote in their notebooks. On Fridays I give them a lined note-card and Aaron writes the quote from memory then I dictate the quote to Emily. It is amazing to see how by Friday, they can easily spell unfamiliar words! I haven't decided yet if their notecards will go in some sort of binder or in a box...

We are also concentrating on Narration and Reading this year. One of Charlotte Mason's theories is that children will be more successful at doing written reports if they first learn to narrate orally. It pretty much makes sense if you ask me! If you can't narrate what you have read orally, how are you supposed to write a report on it!

Everyday we are reading The Mystery of History as a combined Bible and History class, and I have them each narrate a part of each lesson. Some days I read the lesson to them, other days Aaron volunteers, and sometimes Emily reads a paragraph or sentence over my shoulder. Along with the reading and narration done at this time, we are making a time line of what we learn each day.

Sometimes we get a bit carried away with these lessons since they are so interesting. Today for example we read about the Sumarian Civilization and we ended up investingating their alphabet and writing our names using their symbols. That lead us to Egyptian symbols, and we could have gone on and on...

Since The Mystery of History begins with Genesis 1:1, in Science so far we have done an investigation of the animals we saw on our trip to the US, and have begun a study of the planets using the online book The Sciences by Edward Holden. http://home.comcast.net/~rlaurio/TheSciences00.html

This book was written in the early 1900's but is super interesting. The first lesson talks about how far the moon is from the earth. They compare the distance by figuring how long it would take to get there if riding on an express train (the fastest mode of transportation at that time). We brought this to modern times by calculating how long it would take us to get there if we drove in our van. After this summer's trip that took 3 days, it really put things in perspective for them!

We are also doing small studies based on Holidays such as Pre-Hispanic History of Mexico and it's Independence during September (Independence day here is Sept. 16), and Famous Explorers during this month of October (Columbus Day). In November we will study the Pilgrim's journey and the first colonies (Thanksgiving).

We have 1 hour of reading time each day where I read to them for 30 minutes (currently reading Farmer Boy from the Little House on the Prarie Series) then one will read orally to me for 15 minutes while the other reads quietly for 15 minutes, then we switch. They read to me from what ever book they pick. Emily's first book was a Junie B. Jones book (which I was NOT thrilled about). When we finally finished it, I introduced her to The Littles. Much better subject matter and grammar!

Aaron read an Encyclopedia Brown book which he wasn't thrilled about because it had recipes in it (I also find reading recipes to be B-O-R-I-N-G) but he plugged on and finished it. He is now reading a book from the Goosebumps series, and there are times when he ASKS for reading time!!!! YAY!!!! THIS IS MAJOR FOR AARON!!!!!

If I there are moments when one finishes before the other, I have pulled un-finished pages out of past workbooks and have them do one as a review.

I have also signed up for membership at Enchanted Learning.com which is full of activites.

On Fridays we have Flashcard Fridays for Math and review some ABeka Phonics cards to help with reading.

I am grading Math only. Keeping a record of each days work. Everything else is evaluated and they decide if they did their very best, or if they could better it in any way. They are pretty honest!

There is a VERY GOOD chance that we will soon have a piano in the house, and I pray that there will be openings for them in the Casa de la Cultura for their Sept-Dec session. In the meantime, they spend plenty of time playing outside, riding bikes, Emi sews, and Aaron is now on a soccer team.

I just know that this is going to be a great year!!!