In the previous post, I moaned about jumping in way too deep with the wrong reading curriculum. But my husband has wisely advised me to make the most of it and just stick with it and READ as much as we can with our kids. They're bright and they're catching onto this reading thing despite their poorly planned homeschool days and scatterbrained mama... Praise the Lord!
A few weeks ago, my tutor cancelled class one morning and I had the chance to skim through all 400 ish pages of the Kindergarten workbook and teachers book to try to select a simplified version that might be most helpful/useful for our kids, considering the level they're already at. So now I have these simplified workbooks (xeroxed worksheets for them to write on) for each of them and I'm going through those, starfall, and will be adding in a few lessons (see below) and I think that will be our K reading plan.
We just recieved the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I have heard a half dozen moms rave about this book.... it must be The Way to go. But, our kids are welllll past lesson one now (at 5.75 and 4.4 years old) and it seems plain enough that we don't need to go back to start to lesson one just to do things this one way.
Here's a brief list of the perks I've picked up from this book
So, as of today, we're going to try to put our noses down and stick with this makeshift plan.... and I am encouraged with where they're at already.... that our kids are learning to read! How Exciting!!!
Gifts from the exceptionally kind Jeanne @ Book Ends, arrived a few days ago so our kids now have a nice little pile of beginning reader books to select from. We're already done with the first book on each of their reading charts and these two are *Motivated*. Ice Cream for every 5 books they read. This is a fun time!
Lavish thanks and cheers for my hubby (for advising me to not pitch every program that didn't seem perfectly suited to us in its orginal form) and to Jeanne. Oh these books.....
They're reading!!! (beginning to!!) What a JOY!!!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Kinder curricula
I had heard that a stay at home mom, when she just does her normal thing (read aloud to the kids, talk about letters as you can) will have her kids ready for kindergarden or beginning reading. I didn't think it could quite be right.... but I have been gladly surprised.
So far in my investigations into homeschool curriculums, I think I'm most interested in using My Father's World (largely a Charlotte Mason approach, but with terrible artistry) and Veritas Press (which seems to me to be the best of the best of the Classical Educational style- looks especially good for older kids and has masterpiece artwork from K on up) and then also Singapore Math. I'm really excited about and content to see these products and curricula on our horizon.
Anyway... I ordered the Veritas Press Museum Combo Kit for K - 1st grade. It's beautiful. Artwork all spectacular (really important for our artistic boy) and obviously all high quality stuff but hte problem is we just didn't need it. I wouldn't recommend any mom like me to get this.
We could have skipped it altogether (and it wasn't cheap! would have been nice to save that $220!!) and just continued with the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD, Word Factory (we don't watch TV or many DVDs but these two are so helpful for when we need that kind of break) then with the starfall website and ABCya website educational games and with the simple reading, sounding out words that we do.... I think we could have skipped the entire K year of this Veritas Press kit at least. Still, it will be fun to play around with some of the beautiful worksheets and the paper dolls and doll-house style Museum where the kids can hang art- a masterpiece for every letter in the alphabet. Much of it is very clever (though I'm not a fan of the music CD.)
If I could go back, I would maybe have bought the Delightful Reading kit at Simply Charlotte Mason.org. It's about $50 and looks excellent too. Most importantly, this short series of articles for teaching kids to read (this is the way to go folks- excellent ways to engage kids with letters- and free!) plus the few things I mentioned above (DVDs we already have and websites we already use) would have maybe been all we needed.... oh well. We've got 4 kids to use this kit on and I think it will be fun to play around a bit more with the letters they already know.
Singapore Math. I was a bit intimidated when a friend told me that her daughter (one month older than Isaiah) has already gotten into the Earlybird Activity book A. But when it arrived I realized.... it's basically just a glorified activity workbook. Grandma has loaded us with dozens of educational workbooks to play with and this first level textbook is basically just a pretty step up of that same material. Again... we could have skipped it. I think we'll be passing level B and I'll look more carefully at what material is covered in the next level up.
To sum it up... perhaps I should have paid a LOT more attention to the few people who told me that Kindergarten doesn't need to be taken too seriously. Glad I didn't get any more materials than this!
Since our kids are in morning Chinese preschool, I was only planning on doing a bit of math and teaching reading this year. This morning Isaiah's homework for preschool was to mark which animals have living births and which lay eggs.... higher level science than I remember studying anytime before junior high school!
So far in my investigations into homeschool curriculums, I think I'm most interested in using My Father's World (largely a Charlotte Mason approach, but with terrible artistry) and Veritas Press (which seems to me to be the best of the best of the Classical Educational style- looks especially good for older kids and has masterpiece artwork from K on up) and then also Singapore Math. I'm really excited about and content to see these products and curricula on our horizon.
Anyway... I ordered the Veritas Press Museum Combo Kit for K - 1st grade. It's beautiful. Artwork all spectacular (really important for our artistic boy) and obviously all high quality stuff but hte problem is we just didn't need it. I wouldn't recommend any mom like me to get this.
We could have skipped it altogether (and it wasn't cheap! would have been nice to save that $220!!) and just continued with the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD, Word Factory (we don't watch TV or many DVDs but these two are so helpful for when we need that kind of break) then with the starfall website and ABCya website educational games and with the simple reading, sounding out words that we do.... I think we could have skipped the entire K year of this Veritas Press kit at least. Still, it will be fun to play around with some of the beautiful worksheets and the paper dolls and doll-house style Museum where the kids can hang art- a masterpiece for every letter in the alphabet. Much of it is very clever (though I'm not a fan of the music CD.)
If I could go back, I would maybe have bought the Delightful Reading kit at Simply Charlotte Mason.org. It's about $50 and looks excellent too. Most importantly, this short series of articles for teaching kids to read (this is the way to go folks- excellent ways to engage kids with letters- and free!) plus the few things I mentioned above (DVDs we already have and websites we already use) would have maybe been all we needed.... oh well. We've got 4 kids to use this kit on and I think it will be fun to play around a bit more with the letters they already know.
Singapore Math. I was a bit intimidated when a friend told me that her daughter (one month older than Isaiah) has already gotten into the Earlybird Activity book A. But when it arrived I realized.... it's basically just a glorified activity workbook. Grandma has loaded us with dozens of educational workbooks to play with and this first level textbook is basically just a pretty step up of that same material. Again... we could have skipped it. I think we'll be passing level B and I'll look more carefully at what material is covered in the next level up.
To sum it up... perhaps I should have paid a LOT more attention to the few people who told me that Kindergarten doesn't need to be taken too seriously. Glad I didn't get any more materials than this!
Since our kids are in morning Chinese preschool, I was only planning on doing a bit of math and teaching reading this year. This morning Isaiah's homework for preschool was to mark which animals have living births and which lay eggs.... higher level science than I remember studying anytime before junior high school!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
art school
Isaiah and Marian got to attend art school during their summer vacation from AM Chinese preschool. What a blessing these sweet young girls were to teach our kids and inspire them so!
The first morning we were about 5 minutes late and I joked, "we'll have to tell the teachers it was because traffic was so bad during our commute." The problem is: the art school door is straight across the hall from us- about 6 steps from our front door. Truly, the perfect set up for this busy house of kiddos!
The first day Wang Laoshi had Isaiah and Marian draw a little something, just to guage where they were at. They looked at a fake pear in front of them and tried to draw it. Immediately she notice, "oh, so she's got lots of imagination and he's more of a realist." Yep. She nailed it.
She missed the other aspect about our boy, that perhaps since he's a realist, he likes to correct most everything that, in his view, is skewed a bit. The other day he was sitting at the table and asked Matt and I, who were standing in the kitchen, "do you know how much water you're supposed to drink every day?" Matt answered, "a lot." And Isaiah corrected his dad: "No, more than that."
The first morning we were about 5 minutes late and I joked, "we'll have to tell the teachers it was because traffic was so bad during our commute." The problem is: the art school door is straight across the hall from us- about 6 steps from our front door. Truly, the perfect set up for this busy house of kiddos!
The first day Wang Laoshi had Isaiah and Marian draw a little something, just to guage where they were at. They looked at a fake pear in front of them and tried to draw it. Immediately she notice, "oh, so she's got lots of imagination and he's more of a realist." Yep. She nailed it.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
theme days for the heat
I had very high hopes to teach the kids straight through the book of Matthew during these hot days at home.... but we lost track of it pretty early. Argh. We lost track- ahem, I did- of basically all my glorious plans for homeschooling.... and after a short storm of "How could I do this!?" I decided to just let it go. We'll get there.... and there is a time for summer vacation. Like, Summer.
But we still did enjoy a few theme days where we read every book on our shelf and tried to find some interesting You Tube videos for just a few fun themes: space (shuttles, planets, stars) and our bodies and ah.... maybe Curious George was our other theme day. (PBS has a fun site for CG games online for free.)
But in better news, while we've been working for a while on sounding out words, we just started in with giving writing a stab and I think we're all loving it. I'm seeing that this way into reading might grab them a little bit more. So far, they're quite enjoying spelling words aloud and writing them sometimes on their own too.... these reading days are pretty exciting.... and oh, Jesus, please give me patience for this sweet journey with these kids I adore!
But we still did enjoy a few theme days where we read every book on our shelf and tried to find some interesting You Tube videos for just a few fun themes: space (shuttles, planets, stars) and our bodies and ah.... maybe Curious George was our other theme day. (PBS has a fun site for CG games online for free.)
But in better news, while we've been working for a while on sounding out words, we just started in with giving writing a stab and I think we're all loving it. I'm seeing that this way into reading might grab them a little bit more. So far, they're quite enjoying spelling words aloud and writing them sometimes on their own too.... these reading days are pretty exciting.... and oh, Jesus, please give me patience for this sweet journey with these kids I adore!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
instead of a filing cabinet...
I've surprised myself to discover that I really enjoy blogging. And now as we begin a journey as an officially homeschooling family (I just finished clicks to order some great books!) I'm going to give this a shot as method of record-keeping and open-houseing for our homeschooling adventure.
At this point I'm ridiculously naieve and totally starry-eyed, visionary excited for what lies ahead for me with our kids: learning, growing, exploring, discovering together. Oh may this somehow, by the grace of God, turn out to be a wonder-filled road that we travel together... for your glory Lord!
At this point I'm ridiculously naieve and totally starry-eyed, visionary excited for what lies ahead for me with our kids: learning, growing, exploring, discovering together. Oh may this somehow, by the grace of God, turn out to be a wonder-filled road that we travel together... for your glory Lord!
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