CC Week 23 Cycle 3

History

We enjoyed watching Barney Fife attempt to say the preamble to the constitution.

Geography

An opportunity to learn about swamps and the animals that live in them

• Okefenokee Swamp information
• Draw Write Now, Book 6 Animal Habitats

Math Learning Games

Have fun with this hands on math learning game!

Here are the items you need to begin for a two player game:

1. 1 dice 
2. 10 sticks of 10 blocks.  (I have two of the sticks broken apart into "ones" while the other 8 sticks are "tens.")

Players take turns rolling the dice and taking that number of blocks from their "ones" pile.  Since there are only ten "ones," players must trade in ten "ones" to receive a ten stick.  The first player to have five "tens" sticks (that is 50 blocks) wins.

So, for example, player one rolls six.  He takes six blocks.






On his next turn, he rolls a five.  He takes four ones - that equals ten.  So he trades in all ten "ones" for a ten stick of his color choice.  But he still needs one more block.

He now has one ten and one one, totaling eleven.

In playing this game, kids learn about tens and ones, simple addition and they learn to relate facts such as 5 + 6 = 5 + 5 + 1 = 10 + 1.  This hands on approach to math teaches place value and mental addition that will aid in calculating higher numbers.


They can see that 9 + 2 = 11 and 19 + 2 = 21 and relate those facts mentally, in a fun way.  My children love to play this game and I have found they are learning math facts and concepts way faster than through quizzes, flashcards or worksheets.

The game can be modified to more players, especially if there are more blocks than 100.  Also, the game could go to a more challenging level with more dice involved.  However, we are enjoying our simple version for now.

How to Make it Work

Some may perceive unschooling as zero structure and not very goal oriented or that the students are "getting enough."  And to some extent they are not getting everything someone in public school grade level is getting that year.  The student is probably behind in some subjects but ahead in others.  

Here are some suggestions on how ensure you are making progress without completing a formal curriculum or having grades or a completed binder, etc.

1. Mom needs to be learning along with the kids.  Learning can be contagious.  

• I think it is good for mom or dad to be reading lots or watching documentaries on various topics.  This leads to mom being able to talk with her children throughout the day, teaching them informally.  I have really enjoyed watching some history documentaries that go along with their history sentences.  I have learned so much and then when they have questions, I can actually answer them and elaborate on what they are learning.  
• Reading to our children is also very valuable.  For example, we are currently reading missionary stories together as a family at night.  We now all have the same context when discussing missions and then when we are reading something about Africa in a different book, we can say to them, "hey, remember what happened in Africa with David Livingstone?..."  A common context with books, movies, sermons, Scripture, etc certainly accelerates learning.  
• It is also helpful for mom to be learning about education in general - reading blogs or books about learning styles, curriculum, what are other kids learning or what books are they reading at various grade levels.

2. Making use of everyday life as opportunities for learning.  Make it a point to talk with your children during lunch or snack time.  Read together at night.  Have conversation while doing chores together.  Play word games or other games together.  Have the older kids teach the younger kids something. Sing together.  Watch TV together (and this doesn't have to be just "educational" TV).  Go for walks or get outside together.  

3. Create some structure, habits, expectations with your children.  Just because you are not having school at the same time every day, does not mean there is no structure.  My children expect that most days we will do math, have some reading time, and work on AWANAS.  Make monthly or weekly assignments such as: write in your journal three times a week, or read a chapter book a week and write a summary, or complete a handwriting sheet on a Bible verse a few times a week.  We make these type of assignments into habits so that there is not fighting or stress about doing school and many of these type of assignments are expected to be somewhat independent work.

4. Being part of a homeschool group.  I feel like this can fill in the gaps of things we might not get to at home.  These groups can be more formal ones like Classical Conversations, or could be a group that goes on field trips or that focuses on one area like science, music or athletics.  Our church also provides an important outlet for our children - they get the social environment, the structure of a classroom, and get to have other adults teaching them.

5. Being flexible and teaching your kids to be flexible.  Some weeks we don't accomplish much.  Those are usually weeks when someone is sick (or all of us) or when we aren't sleeping well.  And maybe some days we take off just to have a fun day or to catch up on other projects.  We as a family try to plan for these days.  The kids are usually motivated to do a little extra work on some days if they know we will have a playdate later in the week.

6. Have access to some learning resources.  These do NOT have to be expensive. 

• internet access
• books (we use the library lots!)
• a few general reference things to own (like an atlas, a Bible)
• math manipulatives
• lots of paper, pencils, crayons

Why We Are Unschooling

It happened almost on accident, out of necessity.

1. Life happens.   There are always interruptions to schooling.  Even if the kids were in public school, they would be out for sick days, holidays, and various vacation days.  The past two years I have had two hard pregnancies back to back.  (My boys are not even a quite a year apart!)  So, we did our best at making progress with school.  Hours of bookwork would not have worked for us.  A more flexible approach to schooling was a lifesaver.  We read lots of books together and had lots of conversation.  And I invested in teaching the kids to help me around the house, which has paid off dividends already!! We may not have completed many grade level workbooks, but we have learned to read, memorized Scripture and learned to cook.

2. Having a large family. Because I have many children, all at varying grade levels and ages, it is easier if everyone is learning something together.  We can all work on the same Scriptures or listen to the same books being read.  This is also why Classical Conversations works for us - we are all learning and reviewing the same facts.  I don't need separate curriculums for art, science, history, geography, music, etc.  For more of why we use Classical Conversations, see our reasons.

3. It's working better than curriculums we purchased.  I love books and curriculum and as a former teacher and student, I loved workbooks and school in general.  But many things I tried with my children DID NOT WORK.  We have had many tears and struggles over reading and writing and spelling and math.  

• I think part of our struggle was that I was over zealous to do too much too early.  A wise homeschool mom told me that the tears were because I was asking my child to do something she couldn't do.  There is a difference between making them do work that they don't want to do and asking them to do something that is too hard.  Also, I have learned that there is a lot of value in going slower to build up confidence and mastery of a subject.
• Another reason it didn't work was I was not able to give enough time and energy to a subject because I was too distracted with all the other kids and responsibilities of running a household.  Maybe we could have used those other curriculums had I been able to have one on one focused time with each child for long periods of time.  But then again, maybe not because of #3
• A third reason is that traditional curriculums and workbooks do not always work well for all learning styles and student personalities.  What we are doing now is working because we are able to tailor our schoolwork to fit their individual personalities and learning styles, which in turn, makes real learning happen more readily.

4. Our philosophy of education. Over time my philosophy of education has evolved.  

• Just because teaching is happening and workbooks are filled, does not mean that learning and understanding is occurring.  I don't want to fill our days with busy work.  Real learning happens more often when the student is engaged - when they ask the questions, when they choose a book or discover something.  I think it good for the parent or teacher to frame those discussions and discoveries and not just leave it all to chance.
• Furthermore, real life is not just academics.  I did well in public school, but felt like I was lacking in practical life skills.  For example, I knew nothing about cooking or gardening. The way we homeschool will hopefully allow our children to have both.

5. It frees up time for other important pursuits.  In the last year, for us, that has mostly meant just surviving pregnancy and toddlers, but it has meant a lot more over the years and hopefully for the future.

• art and music
• sports and exercise
• learning skills such as sewing, crocheting
• learning to cook, and run a household
• working on projects (we make lots of homemade gifts at the holidays)
• church activities
• starting a small business
• service to others (cooking a meal for someone, babysitting,construction projects with Dad)
• more time for relationships with others
• involvement in the community

Overall, I enjoy the flexibility that unschooling offers.  I don't have a set curriculum or structure that ties me down, that keeps me from doing important things.  Unexpected circumstances cause me less stress, because we are not trying to complete a book by the end of the year. Of course, we do have overarching goals of what I would like to accomplish in a year, but we just make learning and working a way of life day to day, week to week.

Teaching your Child to Read

A Review of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Ugh!! Trying to teach your child to read can be very frustrating. The English language is phonetic, right? Well, sometimes. But even words that at first seem phonetic, are only phonetic when you know this spelling rule or that rule. There are so many spelling rules and letters make multiple sounds. So where do you start? If your child already knows the letters and one sound for each letter, then teaching a child to sound out words should be easy right? They should be able to read a simple children's book right? Well, right, if the child knows all the spelling rules, but a child will get easily frustrated at having to learn a new pronunciation rule every few words.   For example, in my last sentence:

• right - gh is silent
• the – th makes a diffent sound than t and h separately
• child - ch makes a different sound than c and h separately 
• knows – k is silent, the ow is the long o sound, not 'o' as in on, not 'ow' as in how
• all – the a does not make the 'a' sound as in apple

And there are many more such examples of spelling/pronunciation rules and exceptions in the remainder of the sentence. All of this can be overwhelming to a child who is first starting to read. This is why I recommend using a reading curriculum that breaks down rules for reading (or decoding) in manageable chunks, in a way that gets kids reading fast and with confidence.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a great book for teaching your child decoding skills. A child who does not know any letters can begin this program. The book makes reading manageable by:

• introducing one sound at a time, so that children learn a sound well before moving on
• teaching the skill of putting sounds together 

• it starts by introducing only lowercase letters and adds capital letters later
• it notes rhyming words and spellings

• letters are written slightly differently when they have different sounds, so that decoding skills are learned and there is still exposure to the real spelling of words
  
  
  • for example, th are written closer together for one sound, long vowels have lines over them, and silent letters are written in a smaller font

• sight words that are not phonetic are introduced one at a time (like “was” or “to”)
• new sounds for letter combinations are introduced slowly so that they are mastered, such as “ow” as in “how”
• there are checks throughout for reading comprehension,
• reading concepts are taught throughout – spacing between words, reading left to right and top to bottom, periods at the end of the sentence, quotation marks for speech, titles for a story, capitalization rules, etc.

Some great things about this curriculum, that make it so easy to use:

• Directions are written so that parents know exactly what to say for each lesson and the only preparation time needed for the parents is to read the introduction
• Children gain confidence early on and can begin reading words within just a few lessons
• Each lesson can be done in under thirty minutes, or even less time if lessons are broken in half

A few caveats about this curriculum

• The markings and fonts are different than what you will find in storybooks, so it is suggested that you work all the way through the curriculum so that the transition from the special decoding markings to regular font is made smoothly. I have found it helpful to supplement this curriculum with flashcards that do not have the special markings – like “see” without the long vowel marks.
• The names of the letters are not taught until very late in the curriculum, only the sounds. This is not necessarily a problem, but something to be aware of.
• Some of the lessons progress rather quickly, so we sometimes repeat lessons until we are ready to move on.

For more information about this book, check out www.startreading.com

Language Arts

At this time, we do not have a formal language arts curriculum.  I have tried a few things and we use those from time to time or for a reference.  But here is how we approach teaching language arts.

Pre-K, Kindergarden

• Learn letters and sounds
• Leap Frog videos
• 100 Easy Lessons to Teach Your Child to Read
• Tracing and Copywork
• Learning to write their names and a few other words
• Reading LOTS of books to them, with them

Once they know how to read:

• Copywork and dictation - usually from a Bible verse, but also CC facts or a poem we want to learn
• Spelling lessons
• Have them read aloud with me, easy readers until they can read by themselves
• Assign them books to read (they also have a lot of choice in this)

I used to be concerned that we weren't writing enough, but other experienced homeschool moms encouraged me to just get them reading and the writing will come.  And it has proven true so far.  I know that we don't write near as much as maybe a public school student would at this age, but I am confident that we will catch up because we have a good foundation.

My daughter could not stand to write anything.  It would bring her to tears and so we backed off a bit.  She began reading at least one chapter book a week.  Six months later, I began having her write a few paragraphs about what she was reading.  This came with ease.  Her spelling improved.  She understood sentence structure and capitalization and punctuation rules much better without a lot of formal lessons.  And now when I do these lessons with her, or correct something, it makes much more sense to her.  Before it only caused frustration.

Materials we have used:

• A Reason for Spelling: A, B, & C
• Spell to Write and Read
• Various online lists of books for grade level

Saxon Math

We have used Saxon Math beginning in first grade.  For pre-school and K, we play math games, write numbers, practice counting, and sometimes the younger children participate in the older kids math activities, such as shapes, money counting, etc.

I will admit, we did not like it at first, with my oldest child, but she was not reading much and it reading the problems intimidated her.  She could do the math fine, but words and the amount of worksheets made it a bit hard at first.

I have figured out how to make this work for us:

• I pull out two weeks worth of worksheets at a time and put them in their math notebooks.
• I write on the back of the fact sheets or on blank paper, any notes from the teachers book for me to go over and anything from the meeting book I want to address for that day
• Instead of using the meeting book regularly, we all make a calendar at the first of the month and we mark holidays or birthdays.  They place them in their notebook or hang them up near their desks.  I have found that making monthly calendars starting at age 4, teaches writing numbers and counting easy to learn. This is one of the main things we do for preK and K math.
• We do NOT do everything that it says to do every day.  Instead, we do calendar at least once monthly, we skip count one day, work with clocks one day, work with money a different day.  We spend more time on areas where they need practice, but we don't find it necessary to skip count everything every day or pull out manipulatives every day.  It's too much!
• I put away my teacher's book and rarely have to pull it out on a day to day basis.  Again, it is too much if I'm pulling out manuals for each kid every day, while having a baby at the hip.  I've been able to simplify the process and we waste less time during the school day that way.
• Sometimes a lesson may require 3-4 workbook pages.  Depending on the assignment and on my student, that might be too overwhelming, so we can break up a lesson into two days if need be.

Now we love Saxon Math and are making good progress.  This is actually the only book work curriculum we use, but with math it makes since to use a formal program with the scope and sequence laid out, and Saxon is best at the methodology of building on itself and reviewing earlier concepts constantly.

For math, we also learn our CC facts and have watched the MathTacular videos by Sonlight.  Often, the younger children participate with the younger students, learning to count money, skip count, etc before they are even in first grade, building their confidence when they really begin math.

Educational Videos

Those specifically suited for CC Cycle 3 (American History)
Liberty Kids
School House Rocks

Leap Frog
What's in the Bible? with Buck Denver

MathTacular DVDs by Sonlight
Do & Discover, science DVDs by Sonlight

Book Adventure

While scanning the web looking for language arts curriculum I came across a great website for encouraging reading!  It's Book Adventure, similar to the accelerated reading programs in the public schools.  Kids log in to the website and take a 5-10 question quiz on a book they have read to earn points.  There is an online prize catalog to redeem your points, things like books and games.  There is also a parent section of the website, where parents can input their own prizes to reward their children for reading progress.

We have read two short books and taken the quizzes.  So far, my daughter has 150 points.  Most prizes are for over 1000 points.  Now, of course, not every book your child read will be found on this website, but there is a pretty good list of books at all different reading levels.  You can search for books by reading level, category of book, title, author, etc.  Today, we tried testing on "The Little Red Hen" but discovered that it must have been a different version of the story - our version wasn't listed.

I have been impressed with this website thus far and intend to incorporate this into our reading curriculum for next year.  It will be great to combine computer skills with reading and comprehension.

The Moon

As we discussed astronauts walking on the moon, we decided to look up what the Bible says about the moon. From Genesis 1, we read:

 

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

So, I ask the kids questions to get the conversation going:

• What is the lesser light? They answer, "the moon." 
• And what is the purpose of the moon? God gave us the moon to govern the night, but also it is a part of marking time.
• How does the moon mark time?  

This led to a whole discussion of orbits of the moon, of the earth, and rotation of the earth and how this marks days, months, seasons and years.  I had the kids walk around each other, one pretending to be the sun, one the moon, one the earth.  They marked days, months, seasons and years.

At other times we have actually charted the moon on a calendar with our observations.  We could see how the moon cycle marks a month, although it doesn't specifically line up with the Roman calendar we use.  We talked about how the people of Israel measured time with a lunar calendar and how the various Jewish feasts correspond in the lunar calendar.

You can also make a display of the phases of the moon using oreos.

Another fun idea for the moon is to read the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson entitiled "The Moon."  We memorized this poem as a family and my daughter even made up a song for it.

CC Week 4 Cycle 3

Science

Resources:

• School House Rock song: "Telegraph Line"

History

Resources:

• School House Rock songs: "Fireworks" and "No More Kings"
• Liberty Kids DVD series
• Benjamin Franklin: Young Printer, by Augusta Stevenson and E. Joseph Dreany, from the Childhood of Famous American series

CC Week 3 Cycle 3

History

Resources used:

• Liberty Kids DVD series 
Liberty's Kids - The Complete Series
• The Boston Tea Party, by Pamela Duncan Edwards  

• Meet Felicity and Felicity Learns a Lesson, American girl series 

• Paul Revere: Boston Patriot, by Augusta Stevenson, from the Childhood of Famous Americans series  

We had a tea party with our CC friends.  We learned from the Felicity books the proper way to accept and turn down tea.

World Religions

A few questions about different religions arose from our Timeline Song, so one day we took the opportunity to discuss the history of religion and how it relates to our faith.

We pulled out our timeline cards and the Bible.  We pulled out specific cards that deal with religion, such as Hinduism, Islam, Israel, Christian church - Catholic, Protestant, Church Fathers, etc.  We lined them up in a sort of chronological order.  I explained to my kids some of the cards (very briefly for the younger ones).  I had them answer questions or dictate back to me what they learned from these cards.  I was able to relate some of these facts to what they had heard at church or on "What's in the Bible? with Buck Denver video series or Adventures in Odyssey.

Then we looked up Acts 17, where Paul speaks to the church at Athens, a very religious people.  Paul explains that God had overlooked ignorance in the past but was now calling all people to repentance and to relationship with Him.  We also turned to Acts 4:32, which was a verse my daughter was learning for AWANAS.  We discussed how Jesus is the only way to salvation and that is not what other religions teach.

CC Week 16 Cycle 3

History

Resources we used:

• Draw*Write*Now, step by step instructions for drawing Statue of Liberty
• American Girl series, Kirstin books
• A Picnic in October, by Eve Bunting
• The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco
• "The Great American Melting Pot,"  School House Rocks song

Possible Assignments:

• Draw Statue of Liberty and write the inscription "give me your poor, ..."
• Memorize the inscription, use it for dictation, handwriting or copy work
• Read the Kirsten books and take quizzes on Book Adventure

CC Week 15 Cycle 3

Geography

Resources we used:

• Paddle to the Sea, by Holling C. Holling
• Mirette & Bellini Cross Niagara Falls, by Emily McCully
• The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal, by Cheryl Harness (J386.48 HAR)
• How the States Got their Shapes, a TV series we found on Netflix

For additional resources on Great Lakes States, see Simply Stated

History

• The Camping Trip that Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and our National Parks, by Barb Rosenstock
• Simply Presidential 
• Kids Explore America's National Parks, video we found at library (J 917.3 KID)
• Poem "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear"
• Teddy Roosevelt:Young Rough Rider, by Edd Winfield Parks, from the Childhood of Famous Americans series

CC Week 20 Cycle 3

History

Resources we used this week, focusing somewhat on Rosa Parks:

• Remember the Titans movie
• Draw * Write * Now - step by step instructions on drawing a bus
• The Bus Ride that Changed History: the Story of Rosa Parks, by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• A Picture Book of Rosa Parks, by David A. Adler
• Excerpt at the back of High Time for Heroes, by Mary Pope Osborne, Magic Tree House series

CC Week 21 Cycle 3

Science

Assignment: Make a book about astronauts

Resources we used:

• This month's Institute for Creation Research magazine featured a Christian astronaut.  A great read and great discussion starter.
• Draw * Write * Now  - step by step instructions on how to draw a rocket.
• AWANAS - in our T&T handbook, there were jokes about outer space as well as an excerpt about a Christian astronaut.
• Scripture - Psalm 8, Genesis 1
• Movie Apollo 13
• Magic School Bus episode about Space 
• Midnight on the Moon, by Mary Pope Osborne, from the Magic Tree House series
• YouTube videos from Apollo 11 landing on the moon
• Neil Armstrong: Young Flyer, by Montrew Dunham, from the Childhood of Famous Americans series

The result:  My daughter wrote out a Bible verse, drew a picture of a rocket, cut out pictures from the ICR magazine, wrote a few sentences with her own illustration of the astronauts, and drew a picture of the moon with a flag on it.

Other ideas that we have used in the past that relate to this week:

• Make a moon chart - we made a calendar and observed the moon for a month to see how it changes from day to day.
• The poem "The Moon" by Robert Louis Stevenson