Big Plans for the Fall

Next Monday, as DH heads back to the classroom, we’ll be starting our fall semester of homeschooling.  It’s taken quite a bit more work to coordinate this time around for a variety of reasons.  First of all, Bailey sincerely asked to include more science experiments (although I think the more accurate term is “demonstrations”).  This is way outside my comfort zone, so I’ve been doing a lot of organization to include this.  Secondly, after reassessing her learning style, I started looking for some more hands-on learning materials.  Third, after reading The Well-Trained Mind, I felt inspired to add a dab of history and logic to our schedule.  Fourth, after much discussion and debate, DH and I decided not to send her to Religious Education classes at our parish but to do religious instruction at home as well (with the blessing of our wonderful Director of Religious Education).

As usual our main focus is math and reading/vocabulary.  We will continue to use the Singapore Primary Mathematics series four days a week (M, T, R, F), finishing up level 1A and then moving on to level 1B.  On Mondays I plan to incorporate one English from the Roots Up card per week and have Bailey put together a Roots Up binder.  Each page will include a Greek or Latin root and its meaning written by her own hand along with pictures drawn to represent the root’s meaning.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we were going to use  Singapore’s Word Study 1; however, just last week I discovered Explode the Code On-line.  It seemed perfect for Bailey.  It was $55 for a one-year subscription (add that to my tally), but to see her get excited to learn to read was priceless.  As soon as we got it set up, she played for an hour.  I figure I’ll plan on two 20-minute sessions a week for when her interest wanes.  We’ll save the Word Study 1 for another semester.  In the meantime, I now have to go through and scratch out”Word Study” and write in “Explode the Code” on every page.  Oh, well…

Just the idea of doing the science demonstrations makes me nervous, so it would be very easy to conveniently run out of time to do them if they were tacked with work that I felt was more important.  So, I set aside Wednesdays for science demonstrations gleaned from Janice Van Cleave’s 201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre, and Incredible Experiments. I thought that would also be a good day to incorporate a short history “lesson” following the history/biography scope and sequence recommend in The Well-Trained Mind and using books available at our local library.  We’ll round out our Wednesday’s by doing Mind Benders logic puzzles, starting with Beginning Book 1

With so many things to juggle, I decided to write out a weekly lesson plan for the first time.  I developed my own schedule sheet using Excel (I Heart Excel!):

First of all you will notice that I just listed things like “Singapore Math” and “History” rather than specific pages or lesson numbers.  I wanted to keep it fairly flexible in case we missed a few days, needed to spend more more time on something, or worked through faster than expected.  Each of these subjects has its own sequence page where I just check off each completed lesson in order.  The science demonstrations are more specific for each week, with notes about any special materials I might need.  Secondly, I have left Fridays fairly open.  Once our math is done I plan to use Fridays as make-up days, and if we have nothing to catch up on then I’m putting together a list of extra learning activities (flash cards, charades for reading practice, etc).

As part of our religious education, I’ve picked at least one saint feast date to celebrate each week.  We’ll read a little about the saint, perhaps add a prayer card to our key ring for Mass, and do a coloring page.  I even have a few recipes we can use to celebrate.  On most Tuesdays we’ll be discussing lessons from the St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism v. 1, but on some weeks it will move to Thursdays depending on how feast days fall.  We will also be using All Things Catholic three-part cards to learn the names and definitions of various church vessels; I anticipate learning as much as she will.

And then I have Piper to consider.  She often asks to do school work, too, but I am hesitant to do any formal preschool with her.  I’ve bought a few preschool level workbooks for use on demand.  Otherwise I just try to follow her learning interests.  I also hope to incorporate a little one-on-one time every morning either letting her help me with chores, reading books, or playing games together.  She may also participate in our history, science, and feast day presentations as much as she desires.  I suspect she’ll learn a lot just from being around for the other lessons.

I’m hoping to still keep our formal schooling time to no more than an hour each week day.  I know some things will need to be tweaked as we go along.  For instance, I’m not sure if the best time to discuss the Catechism will be during the day, over dinner, or at bedtime.  Bailey and I have had a lot of good theological discussion at the latter two times.  I also want to keep a lot of flexibility in our schedule so that we can deal with whatever curve balls or opportunities life throws at us.  And as usual, I expect a lot of unplanned learning will continue to happen.

Spring/Summer 2009

This week is finals week at my husband’s college, so I’m calling this the last week of our semester as well.  From January through March DD#1 and I did pretty well with working two to three days a week on her math and reading.  About mid-March, though, things started getting hectic and our focus changed quite a bit.  So we did not complete all of Singapore Math 1A or get through as many reading worksheets as I had hoped.  However, I think it was really for the best.  I think my daughter needed a little more time to develop before she was going to be ready to tackle addition and subtraction through 20.

Once I looked into getting all three of our daughters baptized, there were some issues because my oldest is so close to the age of reason in the Catholic Church (age 7).    Some requirements were waved, but we were asked to go through a religious education text book with her and make sure she knew some basic prayers.  I decided that saying the Rosary every weekday would be an excellent way to practice the prayers, and I threw in some coloring pages to keep it interesting for her and the three-year-old.  Since my husband was entering the home stretch towards his reception into the Church at the Easter Vigil, we were also required to attend several events during Holy Week.  In other words March and April ended up being a unit study in our faith.

Going through that religious text book just reinforced that we are so not cut-out for “school at home”.  It was so boring for her and for me.  There was a lot of good information in the book, but I would have approached it differently if she had only been accountable to me.  And I felt myself kind of stressing out if we didn’t read every word, if I didn’t feel that she was paying attention, or if the younger two were being too loud.  I realized that my oldest daughter really responds best to a conversational style of learning.  And we hit an incredible number of topics by just being willing to answer her questions–the other night for instance a question about my book and record sets from childhood led to a discussion of the Nazis.

I’ve also realized that we may be hitting a point where we may need to switch from night schooling to afternoon schooling.  Or we may just need to switch to afternoons during the Spring.  When things started getting crazy mid-March, we were doing our Rosary and religion text in the afternoon and regular school work after dinner.  But when tee-ball, Holy Week, and American Idol started taking up so much of our time, the night schooling fell by the wayside.  (I know, I know, priorities, priorities.)  The point is that once our nights got crazy I had a hard time mentally adjusting to the idea of doing our schooling earlier in the day, so I just didn’t do it.

Despite falling off the formal schooling wagon for the last two months of our semester, as always, I can see that the children continue to learn.  Besides our religious education, DD#1 became the co-manager of her dad’s new fantasy baseball team and started up with tee-ball, so she’s been learning more about the intricacies of the game and decision-making (to trade or not to trade?).  DD#2 has started writing her numbers in addition to composing her own songs.  We also learned that she likes swimming but not swim classes. Our life continually offers up new opportunities for learning, like dinner the other night at a local restaurant where the Muslim staff and friends were doing their ritual prayers in the back of the dining room.

That being said, I am thinking about using my husband’s three week summer session as an intensive homeschooling session for us as well, at least as intensive as we get.  I’m considering five days a week of afternoon work consisting of two reading worksheets each day.  I think I’ll also put together a review of her math concepts so far:  addition and subtraction through ten and number bonds.  She’s about a quarter of a grade level ahead in math, but I really don’t want to fall behind with her reading vocabulary.  Then we might pare down to two to three days a week for the rest of the summer.

Fall 2008 to Spring 2009

Now that our semester is over, I’m taking some time to assess which goals we accomplished and which ones we didn’t. Of course, our “break” times really aren’t much different then our semester time.  We still do some schoolwork, but we’re just even more casual about it (if that’s possible).   It’s just a good time for me to see what’s working and what’s not and make new short-term goals.

DD#1 (turned 6 in November) did finish her Kindergarten math with about six weeks left in the semester and couldn’t wait to dig into her first grade books when they arrived. She made real jump in her reading abilities, and by the end of the semester she was starting to breeze through BOB books and a few other simple readers from the library.  She and I had some very good discussions about theology.  She also learned a lot about baseball, fashion, and elections. In gymnastics she leaped from Preschool to Developmental I, and she has been recommended to move up to Developmental II in the next session.

I also learned two very important things about my oldest.  First of all, she does much better having school time after dinner.  During the day, she has too many other things on her mind and erratic eating habits.  This makes her easily frustrated.  After dinner she really hits her groove, though.  I also realized that she doesn’t really like fiction very much.  If she’s going to be read to at all, she would generally prefer non-fiction.  Now that she can read a bit, though, she is starting to appreciate books a little more.

DD#2 (turned 3 in October) learned her numbers 1 to 9 (she thinks ten is one hundred). She also learned how to spell and type her name correctly. Developmentally she made big leaps in her understanding, vocabulary, and communication.  Towards the end of the semester I discovered that she could crudely write half the letters of the alphabet.  Who knows what other knowledge she absorbed when I wasn’t looking.

She also had her first session of gymnastics.  At the first class she was very overwhelmed by the complex directions.   And physically she was unable to do certain things, like a forward roll, without help from the teacher.  By the end of the session she was rolling perfectly and able to follow all the directions really well.  It was amazing to watch her develop so much in just a few short weeks.

And the baby (7 1/2 months) learned how to smile, laugh, and roll over (and over and over and over).  She has started kind of crawling.  I don’t know what you call the opposite of the army crawl, but that’s what she’s doing.  She pushes forward with her knees and then drags her arms out of the way.

There were things we didn’t quite accomplish.  I still haven’t managed to work in daily reading time with my younger two daughters.  And since DD#2 discovered Crazy 8’s we haven’t even been doing bedtime stories.  That is definitely something I really need to work on for next semester.

I think I did better about getting my internet time under control (as evidenced by the scarcer number of blog posts).  Unfortunately, my cleaning schedule kind of went out the window early on.  Oh, well, I know it will get easier as the baby gets bigger and more self-entertaining.

In the meantime, once our semester starts back up on January 12th, I hope to start working with DD#1 three days a week instead of two.  I would like her to finish Singapore Primary Math 1A by the end of the semester.  We’ll continue working on reading lessons by alternating worksheets with practicing in readers.  She’ll be doing one more session of gymnastics and then it will be time for tee-ball.

I’ve got Kumon’s workbook on Uppercase Letters waiting in the wings for DD#2.  She often asks to “do Math” when her sister is doing schoolwork.  So, once we finish Kumon’s First Book of Tracing, we’ll refine her letter-drawing technique whenever she feels like it.  She’ll do at least one more session of gymnastics.  I would like to keep her in something while her sister does tee-ball, so we may stick with gymnastics or find some other activity for her.

John Lennon was very wise when he wrote, “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans”, even if he was rather pretentious most of the time.  So, keeping this in mind, I am again keeping our goals for the next semester short and sweet.

Goals for the Fall Semester

Today is the first day of the Fall semester at my husband’s college, and it is the first day of public schools around here. Like many homeschoolers, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on our plans for the upcoming semester. I really like to think of ourselves as year-round homeschoolers, learning all the time, but the start of each college semester is usually a good time to start a new routine. Usually, by the end of each semester the house has devolved into chaos again. Things also tend to be a little more hectic when my husband is on break as I take advantage of having the vehicle available and my husband, who is pretty spontaneous anyway, starts getting restless.

This year also marks our somewhat “official” bucking of the school system, as DD#1 would be starting kindergarten today if she were going to regular school. So here are my formal goals/plans for the upcoming semester:

Goals for DD#1 (age 5 1/2):

1. Work with her two times a week for thirty minutes.
2. Finish her Singapore Math Early Bird Kindergarten workbook 2B.
3. Work with phonics/reading activities.
4. Continue to work with her on using the telephone, telephone etiquette, and memorizing our telephone number and address.
5. Slowly go through the World Book list of the typical course of study for kindergarten to address anything we may have missed so far.

Goals for DD#2 (age 2 1/2):

1. Read at least one book with her every day during the day.

Goals for DD#3 (age 3 months):

1. Read Beginner’s Bible with her every day.

Goals for both older girls:

1. Do one craft, science, or other activity project with them once a week.
2. Incorporate into housework more.

Goals for me:

1. Limit internet time until after at least half my chores are done, and extra time in the afternoon or evening.
2. Follow newly developed housework schedule.
3. Try not to complain about unpleasant things.
4. Be more patient with kids and husband.
5. Find some more cheap and tasty recipes that are based on rice, potatoes, or pasta.
6. Get together a Birthday/Christmas suggestion list for the family.
7. Buckle down on our budget.

I’ve been slowly gathering a collection of science and craft projects to do. My goal is to get 52 on my list (one for each week). I still need about another 30. And then I need to put them into some sort of rough schedule, so we can be holiday appropriate. I am such a non-crafty person, but we have a ton of craft materials that I requested for Christmas last year. And my oldest daughter really likes organized projects, so I’m giving it the old college try.