We've been "schooling" for almost 2 months now.... and what a crazy two months it's been. During the month of September Ken & I were out of town together for 10 days & the kids were out of town for 4 days. We also had 2 birthday parties to plan & gather all the supplies. We have done school but not at the level that I had intended initially. One of the areas that I was unsure about when I started planning for our year was reading. It's her least favorite subject (we can add spelling to that list, too) and I feel the least prepared for teaching it. I looked at curriculum over the summer and never found anything that made me happy. I'm hoping that maybe I've found something I like.... and here we are in October figuring this out. Math has been very easy but she doesn't have her math facts down as well as I'd like her to have them. We're about half way through the math book because we skipped so much of the review. I'm all for drilling stuff you know well but the beauty of Saxon is that you continue reviewing. We're going to try an oldie but a goodie, Ray's New Primary Arithmetic which I believe was originally published in 1907. I'm not 100% unhappy with Saxon so I think we'll continue plodding through it but will add Ray's to the mix. The same friend that told me about Ray's also told me about Memoria Press. I've looked at their reading program and really like books used for the 1st grade curriculum. How can you go wrong with "Make Way for the Ducklings" and "Blueberries for Sal" ? I like that they've done the hard work of picking vocabulary words & comprehension questions for me. 2nd grade has her reading "Little House on the Prairie" & "Mr. Popper's Penguins". I'm already looking forward to that.
I haven't pressed Lincoln nearly enough this year. The stinker has been reluctant to do work and I've let it slide since he just turned 4 and he's a boy. It's not worth a fight. Then he started reading words. At Sea World, he looked at the map and said, "Daddy, it says 'sea lion' right there." And, he was right. It did. There was no sea lion in the picture. Tonight he said, "That says, 'Go team, Go!'" Clearly I need to take advantage of that. Like Coralee, he wasn't fond of Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I'm thinking that we need to back up and start over again and do the kinds of activities I did with my 4 year olds at OLC..... gluing things on the letters, etc. I can do all the things from OPGTR without having the book in front of him. My goal is to pick our 4 activities for the week and do pretty much the same thing every week. I plan on doing that while Coralee's working on things that don't require Momma's attention; handwriting, Latin & spelling. I really liked Memoria Press's reading curriculum but he doesn't have the fine motor skills to trace letters. Clearly another thing we need to work on before next year. I'm thinking of using at the McGuffey Reader Primer for him. For Math, we're going to look at what is further on in the book and attempt to teach him something he doesn't know. You can only count 5 counting bears for so long.
Since we've been back from France, all this has been bothering me so I feel very relieved to have something new to try. After all, that's the beauty of homeschooling, right? If it doesn't work, try something else! Poor Coralee, she's my guinea pig!
Sunday, October 09, 2011
Coralee is 7!!!!
I'm rather late with this but the past two weeks have been a whirlwind. On the 20th we celebrated Lincoln's birthday and on the 22nd, we headed to Beaumont so Ken could do recruiting for NI at Lamar. On Friday we headed to San Antonio. NI has rented out Six Flags for the past few years and so we've made it a weekend to celebrate since it usually falls near their birthdays. We started the day with Ken bringing Coralee breakfast in bed (a waffle from the buffet downstairs) and cupcakes that I toted along on the road trip. I feel badly, earlier in the week, Coralee asked if she was going to have breakfast in bed and I totally forgot it was her birthday. I remembered before I said, "No!" What did she think she was, a princess? ;-) We went to Sea World to celebrate her big day. We saw all of the shows and she got to ride her favorite ride... the Shamu roller coaster. She was even brave enough to ride Atlantis with Ken & Lincoln. We ended the day with burgers & shakes at Cheesy Jane's. My phone ended up in a milkshake, too, so we stopped at the HEB for rice. Unfortunately my speaker still doesn't work.
Now to talk about my big girl. She's awesome. My Daddy used to tell me that we were more fun as we got older. I'm starting to see how that is true. She has always been the "other mother" for Lincoln & Lauramae but she seems to be more and more helpful as time goes by and has the sweetest servant's heart about doing it. I really think her kindness sets the tone for the relationship that the three of them have. It shocks me how well they get along and how much they love each other (not trying to make it sound like it's peaceful & happy all the time at our house; it isn't, they definitely have their moments). I am incredibly thankful for that and I hope it never changes. She is doing really well with her schoolwork. She's started writing her first name in cursive. She is much more willing to read which makes me happy but math still seems to be her strongest subject. Most imporantly, she is eager to learn and do her work. That makes things much easier for us both. She loves to draw and make things which thrills this Momma's heart & also makes me want to scream sometimes with the mess that comes with it. She's started making her own breakfast & her siblings as well. She helps with the dishes & laundry although she'd honestly rather play some times. I've tried to be really honest about the fact that Mommy doesn't like doing those things either but the quicker we get started the quicker we're done. She's in her fifth year of dance which is hard to believe. This year the class is longer and includes jazz. I'd like to say that I've hung out to see what they're doing but there are two classes at the same time and the waiting room is crazy. She's in her second year of Sparks and spends all her time at church upstairs. That was a hard transition for Momma. All my babies are supposed to stay in the preschool area indefinitely. Her birthday party theme was dogs this year. She has always liked dogs but I think getting Eva this year really sealed the deal. She thinks of Eva as her dog and loves to sneak her into the bedroom during naps. They're quite cute together.
Now to talk about my big girl. She's awesome. My Daddy used to tell me that we were more fun as we got older. I'm starting to see how that is true. She has always been the "other mother" for Lincoln & Lauramae but she seems to be more and more helpful as time goes by and has the sweetest servant's heart about doing it. I really think her kindness sets the tone for the relationship that the three of them have. It shocks me how well they get along and how much they love each other (not trying to make it sound like it's peaceful & happy all the time at our house; it isn't, they definitely have their moments). I am incredibly thankful for that and I hope it never changes. She is doing really well with her schoolwork. She's started writing her first name in cursive. She is much more willing to read which makes me happy but math still seems to be her strongest subject. Most imporantly, she is eager to learn and do her work. That makes things much easier for us both. She loves to draw and make things which thrills this Momma's heart & also makes me want to scream sometimes with the mess that comes with it. She's started making her own breakfast & her siblings as well. She helps with the dishes & laundry although she'd honestly rather play some times. I've tried to be really honest about the fact that Mommy doesn't like doing those things either but the quicker we get started the quicker we're done. She's in her fifth year of dance which is hard to believe. This year the class is longer and includes jazz. I'd like to say that I've hung out to see what they're doing but there are two classes at the same time and the waiting room is crazy. She's in her second year of Sparks and spends all her time at church upstairs. That was a hard transition for Momma. All my babies are supposed to stay in the preschool area indefinitely. Her birthday party theme was dogs this year. She has always liked dogs but I think getting Eva this year really sealed the deal. She thinks of Eva as her dog and loves to sneak her into the bedroom during naps. They're quite cute together.
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