I haven’t purchased a spelling curriculum for Joe yet, mainly because he isn’t old enough for the one I’ve chosen, but I plan to go with Spelling Power when he is in 2nd grade. Nevertheless, I want him to start learning the correct spelling of the words he writes. He has really taken off in reading and writing the last few weeks and I feel like it’s time for a little spelling guidance.
I found a great site for free spelling lists for grades 1-4, called Super Teacher Worksheets. There are 36 spelling lists for each grade level—enough for an entire school year. Besides the lists, there are printable practice sheets, word scrambles and ABC order activities that go along with each week’s words.
Super Teacher Worksheets also has free printables in the areas of teacher helps, math, social studies, phonics, grammar and just about any subject you need to teach. This site is loaded with awesome stuff and worth checking out!
Just this past week Joe started reading short chapter books like these two on his own:
I am really excited that he is reading so well and has the desire to read on his own—he read all week, sometimes for over an hour at a time in these books! But…I am concerned as to whether he is comprehending what he is reading. I also want to make sure he is reading the words right when he reads independently. I still have him read aloud to me daily and I read to him at night, and during school as well, but I still worry.
I used it with Hanna when she was in lower elementary for book quizzes to gauge her reading comprehension. Just about any book title can be found on this site in their Quiz-O-Matic section. I signed Joe up and he has been taking quizzes on what he reads independently this last week, and doing very well so far, phew!
Do you have any spelling and/or reading comprehension sites/helps you use? If so, please leave them in the comments—I’d love to check them out!
The Home School Legal Defense Association is offering a free 3 month trial membership if you sign up between now and March 31st, good through June 30th! A standard one year membership is $115.00, so this is a wonderful opportunity to see what they offer.
Here are some of the HSLDA membership benefits:
Access to homeschool experts for answers on just about anything, whether it’s choosing curriculum or finding encouragement for your homeschool.
Online Curriculum Market where you can buy and sell homeschool materials; HSLDA Store discounts.
Weekly email updates on local, state, and national homeschool issues and legislation.
Hop on over and sign up at HSLDA before March 31st—I did!!
We had a good week of school, and fun around home too. We enjoyed celebrating Valentine’s Day on Monday, and then Jamie’s birthday on Friday. It made for a busy week, but lots of fun activities throughout.
In HISTORY we completed chapters 13 and 14 in SOTW, Volume 2, Middle Ages. We studied about kings of France—Charles the “Hammer” and his grandson, Charlemagne. We learned a lot about Charlemagne and the kingdom he built in the Frankish empire—which was pretty amazing!
We read about Viking barbarians who invaded the Frankish empire so often the Franks gave them a piece of land that became Normandy. We learned about Eric the Red and his son, Leif “the unlucky” Ericsson, and his discovery of Greenland. Very interesting story as to how he lured others to “Green”land with the name, when it was actually a very icy, non-green place to settle.
Hanna completed mapping, timeline, notetaking and lapbook pieces on these two chapters.
In READING AND HANDWRITING Joe and I moved along with his normal routine—daily lessons from Abeka Handwriting, Abeka Lessons and Sounds workbook, Happy Phonics games and reading aloud each day from a reader of his choice.
In ELA everything is progressing wonderfully at the moment—Winston Grammar, Wordly Wise and Writing Strands are all going well for Hanna.
I am having Joe keep a journal. He writes in it daily. I have him tell me 1-3 sentences, I write them in yellow marker, then he traces over them in pencil. After that he draws a picture to go with his entry. At the end of the year I plan to have these entries made into a spiral bound book.
Both kids are doing great with their individual MATH programs—Hanna with Teaching Textbooks 7 and Life of Fred, and Joe with Abeka 5K. Nothing new here.
In SCIENCE we completed our lesson on manatees and sea turtles. Joe began working on a science related art project and Hanna began painting the creatures she made last week for her ocean box. I hope to share those next week when they are finished.
We attended our monthly art class at the art museum. This month’s lesson focused on painting with lots and lots of texture using tools such as palette knives and large brushes. After walking around the museum with the kids’ teacher to see pictures created in this fashion, the kids’ made their own. Let me just say, this was tough for Hanna. She is very detail oriented in her art and she didn’t want to “let loose” with all the gloppy paint blobs and palette knives for the texture. She was a good sport though, and she did manage to get some very thin texture globs on her finished painting:-). She painted Baby O. She did a great job.
Now, this was right up Joe’s alley! He loved using the palette knives and had lots of fun making his painting. His looks a lot like a real Monet to me:-).
That wraps up week 29 of Our Homeschool Fun, and thankfully this week, it was!
I began looking for a map set to use in conjunction with our Story of the World studies last Fall. After looking at several, I chose Knowledge Quest Maps, Map Trek Medieval World ebook since we are studying Volume Two, Middle Ages. I have been very pleased with this decision! I wanted a map set that would be a bit more advanced for my 6th grader.
I posted last week about how I am using the Story of the World Integration Guide from Knowledge Quest Maps to weave in their map set and book, What Really Happened During the Middle Ages, for my middle schooler. If you haven’t checked out their integration guide for Story of the World, and you homeschool children of various grade levels, you should! It has turned out to be super helpful for me.
Each Knowledge Quest Map set includes the following:
A full color teacher's answer map that will help you tremendously.
An unlabeled student map for your child to color in and label.
Lesson Plans to help you know what to assign to each of your children at their various grade levels. There are lesson plans included for all 32 outline maps and they are broken down into 3 levels - Level A (grades 1-4), Level B (grades 5-8), and Level C (grades 9-12).
Grid maps and blank grids to help your kids learn to draw the land masses of the world.
Here is what is included in this Map Trek Medieval World eBook for $14.95:
32 Full-color teacher answer maps.
28 Blank outline maps for the student.
4 Grid maps
2 Blank grids (different size grids)
Instructions for how to use each map.
Lesson Plans
Glossary of terms
82 total pages
Here is the full list of maps by title:
World Map (Landforms)
Byzantine Empire
Islamic Empire
Viking Expansion
Empire of Charlemagne
The Holy Roman Empire
African Kingdoms
Norman Conquests
The Crusades
Mongol Empire
Medieval China
City Centers of Europe
Medieval Japan
12th Century Europe
The Black Death
Hundred Years' War
Renaissance Italy
Early Explorers
Christopher Columbus
Later Explorers
Central/South America
The Powerful Habsburgs
The Netherlands
The Reformation
The Expansion of Sweden
The Expansion of Russia
Spanish/Portuguese Empires
World Map w/ Grid
Europe Map w/ Grid
Italy Map w/ Grid
England Map w/Grid
S. America Map w/ Grid
Would you like to win an eBook copy of Map Trek Medieval World to enhance your history studies? Terri, at Knowledge Quest Maps, has agreed to give one of my readers an ebook of this product, valued at $14.95.
TO ENTER:
Leave a comment telling me what history curriculum you will be using this map set with.
We’ve had to make yet more changes to our curriculum over the last two weeks, frustrating. I was in a panic last week after talking to my accountability consultant. I found out much of what I had planned for us for the long haul will not work for a college prep track. Luckily, we have not spent much time at all using these resources. In a nutshell, we will not be using the Four Year Plan. I spent last week refiguring everything and making a curriculum map for Hanna through 12th grade, and Joe through 8th grade (with the help of my consultant). I feel so much better now. I had many things I’d hoped to use, but didn’t really know where to plug them in/if they would work. It was a long process, but well worth it. (I’ll be updating my curriculum page over the next week or so to have it current. Mostly though, we went back to a lot of what we had been using, and will be adding in a few new things with the start of our new school year in the Fall.) We are going to have to have a pretty heavy workload over the next 6 weeks to catch up. Taking that into consideration, the last two weeks went well, although very, very busy on the school front. The kids never complained, and for that I am thankful. On to what we accomplished…
In HISTORY we completed chapters 11 and 12 in Story of the World Volume Two. I posted my plans for using it through 8th grade earlier this week. We reviewed previous chapters briefly, studied about the Franks, barbarian take overs, Charlemagne and Clovis. We read some good books, Hanna completed mapping and timeline events, and Joe enjoyed coloring while I read aloud. We also looked at our journey through history so far this year on the globe.
In READING and HANDWRITING Joe continued with daily lessons from Abeka’s 5K handwriting curriculum, we played some Happy Phonics games, and he read to me daily from a reader of his choice.
In ELA Hanna completed the next lesson in Writing Strands 3, Wordly Wise and we completed the next two lessons in Winston Grammar.
In MATH Joe moved on each day with a lesson from Abeka 5K Math. I also had him complete some telling time worksheets for review/practice.
Hanna finished up Teaching Textbooks Math 6. I’ve found out through my homeschool support group some not so positive things about certain aspects of TT Math for the long haul concerning SAT/ACT scores, so to cover all of our bases (beginning next week), in addition to doing one lesson each day from TT Math 7, she will also complete one daily lesson from Life of Fred Decimals and Percents. She enjoyed Life of Fred Fractions last school year and learned a lot from it, so this is what Jamie and I decided best for her. (She was already completing two lessons daily from TT Math, so this will not be overload.)
In SCIENCE we completed lesson 3 (manatees, seals) and began lesson 4 (sea turtles and sea snakes) in Apologia Swimming Creatures. We had fun going back to Apologia. It really is such a thorough, fun read for all of us. Hanna completed notebooking pages for what we read, and made several sea creatures for her ocean box. She made them from model magic and will paint them next week.
We conducted an experiment on the effects of whale blubber using ice water, crisco (blubber) and rubber gloves. The kids first put their hands in the ice water with only the gloves on until they could no longer stand it. Next, I filled a ziploc bag for each of them with crisco and they put a gloved hand down into the middle of the crisco, submerged their “blubber” coated hands in the ice water, and left them there again till they could no longer stand it. They could have left them in the water for ages. This was really fun for Joe and a good hands-on learning experience for him. I let Hanna do all the “teaching” for this.
We finished our egg experiment that we started on the permeability of an egg’s cell membrane. This was really neat! Definitely something I’ll do again when we study anatomy.
Jack had fun playing with Joe lots this week while Hanna and I worked on some lessons together. In addition to the two of them playing so well together (so sweet to see), Jack enjoyed play doh…
…and color sorting with number magnets on a cookie sheet.
stART, READ.EXPLORE.LEARN, KIDS GET CRAFTY
Each of the kids made Valentines this week. Jesse made an adorable footprint butterfly.
Joe also made about a dozen Valentine’s to mail to friends and family. It took him a while to paint, cut and glue everything together. I was proud of him for plugging away at them all week each afternoon. He painted a brown paper bag red, cut out hearts, glued them onto a doily, and then glued a Happy Valentine’s Day heart in the middle. I used templates for his cards from Kids Soup.
Hanna hand sewed all of her Valentine’s. I am SO proud of her! She spent a lot of time on them. She gathered the pink ribbon around the outer edge of this one herself—it was not bought this way. She sewed so straight too.
For these she used red felt and sewed lace around the outer edge. They turned out so pretty. She made around 15 of these. She can now pull out and set up the machine all alone, thread bobbins and the machine repeatedly by herself, as well as troubleshoot things that go wrong. She did these from start to finish without any help from me. She really has a knack for sewing and I know she will continue to learn and grow in this area. I am just so proud of her. She’s already got another project in mind to start up next week.
Whew! That was a lot to catch up on! Looking forward to the weekend. It’s supposed to be a little warmer with sunshine, so we are hoping to get outdoors some.
Do you find yourself wanting to make it to an area homeschool conference, but just can't seem to get away to go? I have for the last couple years, and this year is proving to be no different. The two conferences I really want to attend this year fall on special family birthday weekends--my middle son's, and my own! So, when I found out about The Schoolhouse Expo held from, May 16th-May 20th--an online conference you can attend from the comfort of your home--I was excited! I also love the fact that each ticket includes MP3 downloads of all the sessions from the convention. Not only can I attend from home, I can hear any sessions I may miss out on at my convenience.
This year's theme is "Homeschooling From the Heart". Speakers include Susan Wise Bauer (Story of the World and so much more!), Jim Weiss, Marie Rippel (All About Spelling), Dianne Craft and Diana Waring. You can view the full list of speakers, *here*.
Don't miss out on the Early Bird ticket goodies through 2/09/11 which include a virtual goodie bag (valued at over $200!), door prizes, and even a virtual vendor hall offering freebies and specials! Early Bird ticket prices are $19.50. Beginning 2/10/11 tickets go up to $29.00 and the Bonus Freebies are no longer available, and from the 11th on tickets are $39.99 each.
GIVEAWAY
Would you like to win your own Expo to Go Download from the October 2010 Expo? It is valued at $19.99 and includes MP3 downloads of all the speakers from Fall 2010's convention. Speakers included are:
One extra entry (leave a separate comment) if you already follow Our Homeschool Fun.
Follow Our Homeschool Fun either Google Friends Widget or email. (Leave a separate entry for each way you follow. )
One extra entry if you subscribe to Our Homeschool Fun. (Leave a separate comment for this entry.)
Giveaway begins 2/8/11 and ends 2/15/11 midnight Eastern time. I will contact the winner via email, and the winner will receive a digital download of Expo to Go.
I have really enjoyed our year with Story of the World history. We’ve been studying Volume Two, Middle Ages. Story of the World is written in such a fun, but educational way. It is filled with hands-on projects, and a very thorough book list for elementary aged children. It has given our family a love for history that we never had before. Well…that’s not completely true, Hanna has loved history for several years now, but me, not so much:-). Story of the World has turned me on to history in a way I have never known before.
All that said, I personally do not feel it is a “meaty” enough history by itself for grade levels much above 5th. I want to continue to use it as our main history curriculum through Hanna’s eighth grade year. I have searched and thankfully found ways to do this! I wanted to share these resources here, because I know what a blessing they are going to be to me. Anytime a homeschool mom can school her children together it is a huge help!
This year for Story of the World Volume Two, in addition to the individual chapter assignments—maps, review questions and chapter tests, I am having Hanna read the following books on her own and write some sort of report on them. (She is reading many more than these, and they can be found in my weekly wrap-up posts, or in my Shelfari in my blog sidebar.)
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, by Geraldine McCaughrean
The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite de Angeli
Beowulf, A New Telling, by Robert Nye
The Trumpeter of Krakow, by Eric P. Kelly
The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, retold by Geraldine McCaughrean
Adam of the Road, by Elizabeth Janet Gray
The Story of King Arthur and his Knights, by Howard Pyle
To know what maps to use and what stories to read from the two above mentioned Knowledge Quest resources, I use their Story of the World Integration Guide. It takes all the guess work out of it for me! This has been a wonderful help this school year thus far.
For the next two years, I strongly desire to continue on with Story of the World Volumes 3 and 4. Hanna’s focus needs to be on US History the next couple years, so I have been struggling with a way to keep her with us and cover US History at the same time. I plan to use AHistory of US, by Joy Hakim for our US History studies.
Last, but not least, make sure to check out and follow The Chronicle of the Earth blog if you are currently using Story of the World History. She goes above and beyond each week to post book titles, projects they are doing, internet links and a downloadable PDF file for a lapbook piece for each chapter of SOTW. At the end of this year we will have a wonderful lapbook to look back on for years to come thanks to this awesome blogging resource!
Do you have any Story of the World resources you are using that I have not listed here? If so, please feel free to leave them in the comments. I would love to check them out!
I was happy to have the opportunity to review not one, but three books from Critical Thinking Press for Timberdoodle. I quickly looked through the choices, picked out my books and anxiously waited for them.
First up is Can You Find Me Kindergarten, priced at $16.99 at Timberdoodle.com. I chose this one for Joe, as it is for ages 5-7 (K-1st grade). This book is great for reading practice and covers sequencing, similarities and differences, analogies and classifications. It encourages logical thinking to solve questions written in a riddle like fashion. It is colorful with fun illustrations throughout—very aesthetically pleasing to both myself and Joe. (You can view samples *here*.)
I was happy with the content and layout of this book. As I mentioned above it is written in riddle type language and asks questions for the reader to answer. This is not a book intended for independent work. It is meant to involve the parent and encourages interaction for the duration of the book. Joe loves it! He has even asked to work in it with me as a bedtime story more than once. This is a great book to encourage thinking on many different levels.
I chose this in particular with the hope of being able to use it as our main math curriculum. While Joe really enjoys working in this book, I don’t feel it is suitable for a full blown math curriculum. However, it is a great supplement. I feel it lacks adequate amounts of teacher instruction, and moves too quickly from one topic to the next. I prefer more review before moving on to a new area. I have come to conclude that I prefer mastery based math programs over spiral based. Mathematical Reasoning B Grade 1 is spiral based. I am also put off by how hard it is to write on and erase on the type of paper/finish used on each page in the workbook. There are some pencils Joe tried that wouldn’t even write on the pages.
What I did like about this book were the colorful illustrations, the variety of problems included throughout and the Mind Bender activities that really do encourage thinking on a deeper level. I truly think this would make a great supplemental math workbook for a first grader and we will continue using it for this purpose.
Lastly, I chose Editor in Chief B1, priced at $16.99 at Timberdoodle.com. (You can view samples *here*.) I chose this book for Hanna. I had actually been looking at it and considering adding it to Hanna’s ELA curriculum for next school year, so this worked out great!Editor in Chief B1 covers grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and attention to detail through careful analysis of written passages/stories that contain numerous errors. The book starts out with rather simple passages to edit with pretty obvious errors. As the book progresses so does the level of difficulty. The child first circles the errors in the passage, then rewrites them correctly on lines provided below the story at the bottom of the page. An editing checklist and guide to grammar, usage and punctuation is provided at the back of the book. I found this to be extremely helpful for myself and Hanna. Both the checklist and usage guide are great teaching tools!
I’m not going to lie and say that Hanna jumped up and down and was overly excited to work in this book—let’s face it, this is a real workbook, not something for fun. That said, she didn’t mind the lessons at all and worked in it without any complaints, so I think that speaks for itself.
I was very pleased with Editor in Chief. It is easy to understand, easy for the student to know what’s expected of them, great for independent work and builds editing skills—something I’ve been wanting to do with Hanna. I do think Hanna needs to finish Basic Winston Grammar before I add it into her daily ELA routine. It will be perfectly suited for her next year in seventh grade just as I was hoping, and we will be using it for one of her main 7th grade ELA resources beginning in September.
LegalDisclosure:As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of these books in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.
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