Tuesday, July 29, 2008

It's working!!!!


We started our 3rd week of school yesterday and so far we are doing very well with math but have decided to start at the beginning with reading. I put away the Advanced K language arts curriculum for now and we are doing daily lessons from Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. So far so good. We are on lesson 8 and progressing smoothly. Once she can read well, we'll pull out the Adv K curriculum and start over again.

Animal Worlds is going well too, but I didn't know this until yesterday. We have been studying the African Savanna, learning about what types of animals live in the grasslands. Every day we read in our DK Animal Encyclopedia and our One Small Square African Savanna book, in addition to some other books that we look at only a few times a week each.

I really thought Maddie wasn't enjoying it, but yesterday while I was cooking dinner, she pulled out some plain white paper and announced "I'm going to draw the grasslands!" She started by drawing ants climbing blades of grass. She learned how to do this earlier in the day using Ed Emberly's Drawing Book of Animals. After she drew the ants, she added a gazelle and a lion, asking me to open the Animal Encyclopedia so she could be sure to draw them correctly.

In addition to all that I've mentioned above, I am reading to them daily from Socks by Beverly Cleary, The Little Learners Bible Storybook, and we are studying Geography using a great Children's Atlas that I picked up last week at Books A Million.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

I don't read enough

A few days ago, I read a post on my friend Amy's blog about the 100 most beloved books of all time. Looking over the list, I realize I've read very few. Actually I was surprised to find that I have read any of them. I love to read, but in high school I never read the books that were assigned. Let's just say I wasn't the top student at our school. It wasn't even a very good school, obviously, because I somehow made it through high school without ever reading a decent book or turning in a term paper. I never even took the SATs, but that's a gripe for another day.

So, I read this list of books and it inspired me to read more. I'm going to print the list, post it on my fridge and attempt to read them all. Realistically I'll say that I'll attempt to read them all because I'm sure there are a few that I really won't like very much. No sense in wasting my time with a book I dread reading. I'm sure there will be plenty that I will love and those will be worth my time.

Here is the list, copied from Amy's blog. I've bolded the few I've already read, including those I've read so long ago I have no recollection (I have a terrible memory)

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien (Working on it now...)
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie




I'm going to keep a record of the books I've read here on the blog. Any recommendations on where to start?

We did it!


We started school on Sunday! Mike was preparing to take Kayla to the airport to see her off to PA and Maddie was heartbroken about not being able to tag along. I offered to start school a day early as a distraction and it was just the thing she needed! Today will be our 3rd day and so far we both love it!

So far we have done a math lesson each day, reviewed phonics and practiced reading short words, practiced writing. We are also studying Animals in their World, a curriculum offered by Winterpromise. We've learned about various animal senses, movement, and skeletons and we've read the first chapter in a book called Red Dog, by Bill Wallace.

Soon we will be starting a unit on the African Savannah and I will be adding some geography and American History lessons as well.

Nicholas and I are working through Winterpromise's I'm Ready To Learn preschool curriculum as we have time but I am beginning to realize that we won't take full advantage of all this program has to offer until he's a bit older. He just turned three last month, so this will probably work better next year.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sweetest baby ever!

Isn't he just the cutest little man you've ever seen?

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Cuteness!


These pictures are a little out of focus and not technically perfect but then again, are they ever? This was my attempt at a spur of the moment professional style photo shoot. I have lots to learn!

Nicholas looks like a 5 year old. He's only 3. He JUST turned three in June, but he's so big and looks so grown up! He's all boy!




Madelyn was posing in all sorts of funny poses, distorting her face and putting her hands up while I tried to take photos of her. This was what I got after I asked her to stop posing.



Ben smiled a bit at Maddie but the lighting in the house was poor and everything was blurry. I got one good shot of him. I'll try again today.





Kayla of course wasn't here and doesn't let me take pictures of her anyway, but I plan on catching her off guard today. Maybe later I'll post a photo of her.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Homeschool ramblings...

We have made the decision to homeschool our younger children. Kayla will stay in public school where she is happy, so I'm starting fresh with Maddie. Kindergarten will start in our house sometime within the next 2 weeks. The original plan was to start on July 14, while K is visiting my parents in PA but not all of our books have arrived yet so we need to wait til everything gets here and til I can organize everything, shop for our project supplies and go over my checklist a couple of times to make sure everything is in place.

The thought is kind of daunting. We like to go go go all the time and frequently we rush through our chores (or give up when I realize I'm not going to make any progress) and hop in the car to make a trip to the park or a friend's house. Other times we invite all the friends here for an all day playdate. We have a great circle of friends and there is always someone ready and willing to have a playdate. We call them playdates, but really it's mama time. We cook, sew, eat, clean and mostly just sit around a kitchen table and gab while the kids play. It's incredibly therapeutic and through these conversations I have laughed, cried, and learned tons from these incredible women whom I'm lucky to have as friends.

However, once we start school, the days of spontaneous playdates, shopping trips, and outings will most likely end. Kindergarten, as I've been told, should only take about 1 hour a day or less. Our program is likely to take longer and with a baby and energetic 3 year old I'll probably stretch our "school" day to 2-3 hours sometimes. Then there are the chores and all the other things that go along with parenting my children and caring for my home.

I guess the easy way out would be to send my daughter to the big brick box down the road, but I just can't do that. There is no way the kindergarten teachers know how to teach my child. I know they all have great intentions and most are generally good people, but will they really take the time to know my child? Are they going to give her exactly what she needs? They won't and they can't be the kind of teacher my sweet girl needs.

Homeschooling in our state is very common, so there are many resources available to us. We can take classes at the McWane Center, or Zoo this year. When she gets older there are coops where she can learn with other children. There are organized park days for homeschoolers, drama classes, ice skating classes, sports teams, field trips, clubs to join and many friends to be made. I have heard from other Alabama homeschoolers that fitting in time to do actual "schooling" is sometimes hard with all of the outside activities and classes that are available. This thrills me. I am so happy to have a world of resources available for my children.

Even Kayla, who is in public school, will benefit from this as we go on a homeschooling field trip to WDW in December. Both girls will participate in Disney's YES program during one of our days there and prior to the trip I will educate them about the countries we will "visit" in Epcot, and the regions we will "visit" in Animal Kingdom.

We will be using Winterpromise's Adv K Language Arts, Animals in their Worlds and Horizon Math K for Madelyn. Nicholas will be doing Winterpromise's I'm Ready To Learn preschool program.

Figuring out how to schedule our day will do doubt be a struggle as we get started. Many other homeschoolers have told me that it pays to remain flexible and rework the system over and over again til I find a way that works for us.

Pray for us as we start this wonderful journey! We'll need it!