I’ve finally put together a ‘flexible’ schedule based on what I feel is the most important things to get done…they get done first….so that if something comes up in the day those ‘foundational’ lessons won’t be too affected AND also based upon my desire to have our ‘core’ studies done before lunch this is how our schedule for this year looks.(is that a run-on sentence?)

Bible(includes Memory Work)
Arithmetic

break for dd; I work with Kindergartener in Phonics

Handwriting (work with both-2nd grade cursive/Kindergarten manuscript
Spelling/Phonics/Grammar
‘Morning’ Read Aloud(Poetry reading/recitation)

Physical Activity Break

LUNCH

‘Afternoon’ Read Aloud
History Unit(MWF)/Science(T,TH)
Music

I think I am beginning to really appreciate and understand the notebook approach and the purpose of the student’s notebook. Much of the content in these workbooks can be recorded in a workbook as I teach. I see how that is possible and better(in my estimation) than having it printed in on a workbook page that u just ‘fill’ in the answers.

For example, in Abeka’s Spelling curriculum(which I use only parts of) they have some of the phonetic rules printed on the workbook page in the spelling text. I did not buy the Phonics text b/c I just didn’t ‘feel’ it like I did with buying the Arithmetic. But it dawned on me that since I did not have the Phonics text make her notebook her Phonics text. Record the phonics rules as we come across them, record the word lists, record any tests taken, record spelling lists, word analysis….and refer to these pages just like we would with a text when she needs to review something.

The same for arithmetic…for arithmetic record mathmatical principles, record addition families(in addition to oral drill), record counting by 1, 2, 5, 10 up to 100 or 200 and refer to these page
; keep in chart form, record 100 counting chart….

I’m beginning to see the value in notebooking and beginning to understand the term ‘notebook methodology’. Upon reading that section in GACE some months ago I always just thought it meant put what u learn in a notebook…I think it’s purpose goes deeper than that. What our children(or us for that matter) record by way of learning, or insight, or information, our reasonings, enable us to internalize what we write down. If WE write from our own understanding it then becomes ours, rather than a writer of a textbook writing it for us…we are so much the more ‘removed’ from the revelation of it if it comes from a ‘workbook’

I remember when I was in school when we used to have to write words 3x each or write addition facts and because I wrote it down I was able to remember quicker and what I spent time recording stayed with me. Now the only difference is that I desire to impart an understanding to my children about why certain words are spelled the way they are(phonics rules) or how we can see God in what we study(biblical foundation) or the explanation as to why 2 is an even number…or why 58 is greater than 49.(rules of arithmetic)

I guess I see now why in the SDS and even GACE it encourages you to write down your philosophy of education, government, defintions, your own study of each principles and key words…It then becomes yours and as u grow in understanding u can refer back to these writings and quite possibly glean even more insight and wisdom.

Well all I can say is that u can learn much by studying but you can learn even more by doing and allowing God to show u how to put into action what you studied.

I thank Him for leading, guiding, and instructing me……

It seems like it has been an eternity since I have been able to post anything. I”ve been so busy and every time we finish with our lessons and I think I have 15min. to myself the baby is pulling at me wanting to be rocked/held or someone is hungry b/c it is lunchtime or I something else more pressing needs to be tended to, like the house/dishes or I’m pouring over my lesson plans and praying/deciding how to ‘tweek’ them so as to meet the needs of my children and to insure ‘understanding’/teaching them so that they learn to reason. So I’m finally here at my blog and I will attempt to chronicle the last several days. I’ve been remiss at putting down what happened each day and now I don’t remember all that was done but I can give a ‘general’ picture of how our days went.

Last Friday was ‘Park Day’! We met another homeschool mom at the park with her dd and the children enjoyed the park.

This past Monday was the start of our ‘academia’ studies - we started with Bible Study and Arithmetic and Handwriting(Beginning Cursive). I figured those are THE most important right now so we do those FIRST. Somewhere in day I also go over their memory verse. DH gave them a memory verse on Sunday during our family worship and it is Heb. 11:1 from the Kid’s NIrV bible.

Bible Study

I’m using the NP Lessons for Grade 1(even though my dd is 2nd grade). I’m substituting other reading material for the Bible As Reader program. This week we are discussing and reviewing the principle that The Bible is God’s inspired Word…that men did not write the bible but God spoke to men on this earth and gave them the words to write. For dd’s oral reading (Bible As Reader) we read from The Children’s Book of The Bible. We are reading from the section HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE.

On Monday we discussed 2 Tim 3:16 and the purpose of the bible/scripture and the origin of the bible. I had dd draw her own original picture to make a divider page for Bible Study for her notebook.

Then we covered Arithmetic.
I”m using Abeka Grade 2 and I’ve been kind of agonizing over how to incorporate the content in the is workbook with how Ray’s teaches along with how GACE has laid out the arithmetic course…sounds crazy I know!! Anyway, I’ve decided to go with GACE’s layout(which is how I’ve written my arithmetic course content anyway and just use the workbook pages to reinforce what we do in Arithmetic lesson time.

On Monday, we started with oral counting by 1’s, 5,’s, and 10’s and did oral drill on addition combos. adding/subtr 0, adding /subtr 1. She completed the page in her Abeka text to ‘reinforce’(hopefully) what we did in our lessons.

I don’t remember if I read-aloud to them or not on Monday. Somewhere in here I don’t remember if it was after lessons or not I managed to have them clean their rooms and also take my Kindergartener thru some beginning phonics. All of this took us from 11:00 am - 2:00pm. I don’t know why it took us so long to do 2 subjects!! but it has been getting better with each day, I’m pleased to say.

After lessons and blessing their rooms (by freeing it from clutter) they were able to go out and swim in the pool(physical edu) and then we ate lunch. The rest of the day was spent by me reading thru my lesson guides to prepare for the next day.

Sometime in this day we practiced lower case e in our cursive handwriting.

Tuesday

Tuesday we covered:

We actually did Arithmetic first:
oral(and written) counting by 1’s, 5 and 10
worked with money(1,5, and 10 dollar bills, and dimes, pennies, nickels)
reviewed place value
intro. even and odd/counting by 2’s
completed page in workbook

We discussed Gen 1:5 - that (Arithmetic) Counting was established by God. She drew and colored her own original picture for her Arithmetic divider in her notebook

Bible - Principle: The Bible is God’s inspired Word
we read more from CBOB about HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO BE.

Literacy - discussed the purpose of being able to read, write, speak,(spelling and grammar) and the biblical origins of each
Ex 24:7 - Reading
Gen 1:1-3 - Speaking
Writing - Ex 24:4

DD reasoned that one (the most important) purpose of being able to read and write, spell and speak clearly and to have command of the English language is to understand God’s will, which is HIs word, to obey His Word and to be able to read the bible to others(from Ex 24:7)

Handwriting- lower case cursive i and t

Grammar - She did the page in her grammar book…This grammar is very weak in biblical foundation but I’ll have to add that when I get the time to study up on it. Right now I just need this workbook to cover the elements of grammar and to keep me on track.

After lessons they managed their ‘government’ of their rooms, ate lunch and we spent about 1 hour reading aloud an assortment of story(picture books). I’m noticing dd is reading more on her own…she had slacked off reading by herself..along with me slacking off in our read aloud time. I’m finding that as I have started reading aloud again she has taken off in her reading on her own again. She read 2 books on her own after I finished reading aloud and at night right before bed I told her to pick 2 more books to do her independent reading along with her bible before bed. She did with not complaints. Yea!!

We started at 10:30am and was done by 2:30

Wednesday(today)

Bible - same principle; discussed/reviewed divisions of the bible(Old/New Testament), read another section on How the BIBLE CAME TO BE called Writing the Law…this went into how Moses first wrote the law. This coincides so well with the COC which I have not even gotten to teaching yet!!!!!!!! My late mornings are sooooo busy and we spend like 3-4 hours getting our core subjects done along with read aloud and chores that we are ‘done for’ after lunch!!

Arithmetic
Handwriting
Phonics
Read Aloud/Oral Reading

We started at about 10:30 today and got done by 12:30…so we are getting the hang of our schedule.

Still no history units or science got done today. I think I’ll start next week with those.. This week we are just trying to get adjusted to our new schedule and get into a ‘groove’.

Also, she has homework or seatwork as Abeka calls it. I assign homework in the evenings after dinner and her bath. While she does her independent work(that reviews the days’ lesson) I can give the other two baths and put them to bed. Then she’s free to do her independent reading.

In between bible and arithmetic she gets a little break…either clean her room if not done before lessons or occupy the baby(play with him) while I work with my Kindergartener. In just the few days of school he is able to read words like at, it, mat, bat, mit(no extra t yet), sit, pit. Today we started with short e sound. We sing the song Be My Echo to the tune of Are You Sleeping? That has really helped him remember the vowel/letter sounds.

Things are going well. I MUST go now. It took me about 2 hours just to type this with the baby pulling at me, refereeing candy distribution, changing pamper, etc. Now the baby is sleep and I’ve gotta go get dinner done.

Until later!!!

Our first ‘official’ day of school was July 6, 2006. We started off with a bang with a trip to the Botanical gardens. We went with our homeschool support group(it was about 6 families in all..about 15 children). Once we got there they gave the children a ‘class’/presentation on bees and beehives. The children glued the queen bee, baby bees and worker bees onto their layout of the hive on their construction paper. They then went to another station and learned about bee antenna. They were then given their own set of ‘antennas’ to wear home. We were taken thru the garden ‘maze’ and stopped at different sights along the way to show how bees ’see’ and smell pollen, etc.

We were then able to walk thru the gardens on our own. We decided to take the ‘tram’ that gave us a tour of the garden and talked about it’s history.

We(and 1 other family) left and went home after our tram ride while some of the other families stayed and ate lunch at the garden. That was the jist of our first day of school.

It was a nice outing…I just wish it wasn’t so early in the morning as we tend to be night owls and late risers so getting up and trying to get out of the house was a bit of a trauma for us. We had to meet the other families at 8:45am(so we had to get up at 7:30am…uuugggghhhh….but we made it.