Homeschool Curriculum, Part 2

You might see more from this list of our second-part-of-the-day curriculum that I’m loosely following a Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling: short lessons, good literature, narration, nature study…  Most of these things we do together versus the earlier-in-the-day items are one-on-one with each daughter.

For what we do first in the day, check my first post on our homeschool curriculum.

Literature: Ambleside Online

We’ve been following the reading schedule for Year 1 on Ambleside Online’s curriculum guide. We’re reading books like Our Island Story—learning the history of England in a story format from 1905. I would have never imagined we’d be reading literature that I now find so rich in comparison to other less classic books. I really wondered how the girls would do when we began! It’s been wonderful to see them really pick up what they’re hearing. We also practice oral narration after a story or poem is read. They never know who I’m going to call on, and I always let the other girl fill in anything the other may have forgotten.

There are some stories in our books that I do not feel are appropriate for the girls now {ie: gruesome death details}, but overall I’ve found we have all enjoyed the literature recommended. Many times they ask me to read ahead! One plus is that many of these classics are available for free online.

Portuguese: I make it up

It hurts a tad when I see all the great teaching helps out there for kids to learn Spanish. Then I have to remember my children are already speaking a second language, and I just need to reinforce what they’ve learned. I have found Portuguese/English sticker books to use and many dictionary-type kids books that we can review words with. Once a week the girls listen to a story on CD that goes with some books they have or watch a kids’ show in Portuguese. Of course our best learning goes on when our neighbors’ kids come play!  I don’t plan on teaching Portuguese grammar until 4th grade or so.

Bible: Positive Action Bible Curriculum

Because I have one daughter in kindergarten and one in 1st grade, I felt I should wait on starting SCM’s Bible Modules. Now I think I could have just followed a Bible reading schedule/highlighted stories as per Penny Gardner. However, I had already bought two levels of curriculum from Positive Action Bible Curriculum. When I got them I realized I’d be doing a lot of separate teaching for each level. My husband encourage me to go with the kindergarten level so both girls could do the workbook activities. That has worked out fine.

The lesson plans appeared like way too much to me at first, but I’ve found a groove that is simple to follow. Usually there are two days worth of Bible readings of a story with a introduction and discussion questions at the end. The 3rd day I follow the teaching strategy with the workbook pages. The 4th day we read the Bible verses and fictional story in the guide. Lastly we focus on that week’s character trait, fitting it in on Friday or whenever it seemed fitting.

The girls have enjoyed the workbooks and stories. I am thankful for the questions and comments that get at the heart. I haven’t decided if we’ll continue with this next year, but it has been a good experience for this first full year of homeschooling.

Science: Simply Charlotte Mason and others

We recently finished the Outdoor Secrets book and Outdoor Secrets Companion, a recommended “living book” and it’s teacher guide published by Simply Charlotte Mason. We would do a lesson two times per week. Many lessons gave direction in our nature study time and nicely followed up one of the readings.

My mom brought us sturdy sketch books from America that the girls take outside to draw in for our nature study time. I need to do a better job planning time for them to be outdoors for this in different settings besides our backyard {which is not that big} and street.

Now that we’ve finished Outdoor Secrets, we started reading Among The Forest People—a book from 1898 that personifies the animals and helps us learn about them through the story. The girls are enjoying it as well as science-oriented selections in our Ambleside readings.

A huge help has been owning a bird field guide for our region of the world. We like our RSBP Birds of Britain and Europe. It is a bummer when many of the birds in the stories we read are not the same as those found here {they were written in America}, but we find the closest species that we may have here.

Geography: Expedition Earth

I purchased Expedition Earth: A Journey Through God’s World last summer after seeing my girls’ interest to learn about a certain country. I thought we could continue to use it this year, and it has been a great base to learn about many nations. Beware that there are many books that you need to borrow/purchase since I did not understand that when I first bought it. One our our favorites we did buy has been Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World.

I do not do all the recommended ideas in the guide provided, or I feel like we’d be doing a geography project all the time. I’ve found the few things that we really learn well from without having to do all the extras. I’ve not made it something I test the girls over—I am more pleased with their increased awareness of other nations and cultures. It’s peaked their interests in all kinds of other things we go searching to learn more about.

Art: Artistic Pursuits

Once a week we do a lesson from Artistic Pursuits Grades K-3 Book 1 An Introduction to Visual Arts. It has been a jump for us to move from crayons and markers to learning how to use watercolor pencils and oil pastels! But a fun jump I must say! The program does complement the study of fine art by usually highlighting some fine art for each topic we will learn. It also shows other children’s work as examples for each lesson so that encourages the girls that they can do it as well.

Picture Study: Simply Charlotte Mason

Both Ambleside Online {AO} and Simply Charlotte Mason {SCM} have a recommended order of artists to be studied. We have studied the SCM Module 3’s Rembrandt, Velasquez, Van Eyck, and now Cezanne so far—one time a week for six weeks. SCM has created some picture study portfolios that come with nice copies of the art and a teacher guide. I’ve done my best to make sure we’ve got some other books to supplement our learning of the artist and their art. SCM has a link to available books on each artist.

Composer Study: Simply Charlotte Mason

We are following the SCM composer study modules so we’ve just begun Tchaikovsky—also one time per week for six weeks each. Funny enough, the girls are excited about him since they’ve learned a song of his on the CD: Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies. They would highly recommend this CD because they really enjoy it!  I also found a list of all the composers highlighted in Little Einstein’s episodes. Doesn’t sound like a very classical approach, but the girls get excited when they recognize the music in one of their favorite shows! We also utilize the online show called Classics for Kids that talk about each composer and multiple You Tube videos of these famous pieces being played or danced to.

Hymn Study

Both AO and SCM have lists of hymns to be studied, but I decided that we’d learn hymns the girls are already singing in worship songs we have. For example, we love Laura Hackett’s version of Joyful, Joyful, so I thought this would be a great place to start learning verses from hymns! I’ve heard hymns sung by Chris Tomlin and other worship leaders these days that we will also learn. This brings some practicality to learning hymns for us, when we don’t attend a church that uses a hymnal per se—at least it’s a place to start.

Handicrafts and Life Skills

Once a week we do some sort of handicraft or life skill that could be baking muffins or learning to use the knitting fork the girls got for Christmas. SCM has a list of what this time could include. Often I see that we’ve already done some kind of life skill learning that day so we don’t need to do something extra. I want to be more intentional about the girls learning craft skills so they can become proficient. For example, my oldest enjoys a latch-hook rug set she was given, but does it so infrequently that she has to be retaught each time it’s pulled out. I know this is par the course for this age, but I know their abilities are increasing as well.

So, lots of info. I hope it is helpful to someone out there like many of the blogs I’ve visited in trying to figure out what we were going to be doing! Please contact me with any questions—I’d love to be more help!

Homeschool Curriculum, Part 1

We’ve been at homeschooling full time for 7 weeks now, so I’m feeling in more of a groove, even letting go of some things I thought I’d be doing. I’m so thankful for encouragement I’ve gotten from friends and family as well as the vast online homeschool community. So I thought I should share what we’re using this year {at least right now!}. Hopefully it can be helpful to someone else as others’ recommendations years back helped me navigate the plethora of curriculum choices!

My daughters are currently 5 1/2 years old and nearly 7 years old. So I have a kindergarten and 1st grade student.

Reading: Explode the Code

I started using Explode the Code books last year for my oldest when the girls were still in Portuguese kindergarten. Both of them like the humorous pictures and sentences. I am so thankful for the Teacher's Guide Books that give great ideas in helping teach and reinforce the lessons. We also use the 1/2 books for each level as additional practice for the girls.

I also use some of 1+1+1=1’s You Can Read program for sight word practice and her Raising Rock Star’s Kindergarten printables as additional practice for both girls. We used the RRS’s Preschool printables last year, so it is nice to revisit the Scriptures we focused on last year. These items are helpful for me to give one girl to work on while I’m teaching/working with the other.

Spelling: All About Spelling

Both girls have enjoyed our spelling curriculum, All About Spelling. I have found that it’s multisensory approach keeps things more fun, and it’s been a great reinforcement for what the girls are working on with their reading. They get excited to finish a step and color it on their chart! As others have said, you do have to be ready to do the up front work of cutting our letter tiles, attaching magnets, etc., but it is minor in the scheme of homeschool prep in my opinion. I did buy two sets of cards because the girls are at different levels, but I made my own dividers and use a different lidded container for the second set. The teacher’s guide is very helpful as is the website and online support.

Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting

After our calendar time in the morning, we start with handwriting. My oldest has just finished the A Reason for Handwriting: Level A review lessons. This week she began the 5 day process of practicing the words in a Scripture to write on a special page she’ll color at the end of the week—copywork in a sense. She had been looking forward to it! My kindergartener loves the letter pages with an animal to color on the back. Once the girls get started, I read about the animal to them {from the Teacher Guidebook}. The guide is full of helpful tips in encouraging best handwriting. I like that it covers level K through 6th so I won’t need to buy a new one for a while!

Math: Singapore Math Standards Edition

We’re using Standards Edition Primary Mathematics 1A & 1B for my 1st grader including the textbook, workbook, extra practice and tests book. I love the Home Instructor's Guide for how it gets me prepared for lessons, reminds me what is really important for her to have down well a certain point, has creative and simple ideas to reinforce concepts and has a scheme of work {what I can aim to accomplish in one week}—nice that I can use it again next year too!

This is my 2nd year to use Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics Standards Edition A and B for my girls as kindergarteners. I use the Activity Book for with it too. I don’t have the instructor guide for this level, but I feel I’m making it ok without it. I’ve actually just decided this week I’m going to skip a few units for my kindergartener and save them for when we’re working on the same concepts with my 1st grader soon {ie:weight, capacity}.

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So, that is the chunk of our morning curriculum. Please ask if you have any questions. I hope to address the other subjects we cover in the afternoon soon!

Our School Room

Having my husband’s old office for a school room is wonderful after containing our homeschool books and supplies to a few boxes and carts. See last year’s post for what I was working with before. We have tried to get it all in order before starting homeschool this week . . . and it is getting there. {Please excuse the picture quality in this post. I’ve found it difficult to get good photos in this room with the light against me from the window—tips, anyone?}

Making or finding fun decorations for the room was the easiest—I am inspired to do that! I made the vowels I love you print after seeing one on etsy I loved.

I found an amazing Portuguese 1st grade primer from 1945 that was falling apart, so I didn’t feel too bad to frame some its pages. It was hard to choose which ones to display!

Another great flea market deal was this bookcase that now houses all kinds of special things from the girls and some books I look forward to reading with them!

It’s been a great landing spot for the latest special feather, shell, or rock.

We use the window sill for other handmade treasures and baby succulents that had sprouted from leaves the girls had glued on a paper!

We hung a map from America {geographic titles written in English} above our computer.

I have a U.S. map and a Portugal map on our closet doors with the calendar and other things we do every morning. If you’re interested in any of the items we use, check out Homeschool Creations or 1+1+1=1’s Calendar Morning Board printables. There are other things I’d like to incorporate into that time as I can get to it!

I use a BIG sheet of laminated notebook paper for reviewing weekly themes. I’ve been blessed with a great dry-erase board, a small roll out desk attached to the wall, a movable dry-erase board we use for All About Spelling, and a new bulletin board for items like our picture study—not posted at the time of photograph. My sweet step-dad grabbed the colorful bulletin board border and a welcome-to-the-classroom sign from the Target dollar bins before they came to see us this summer!

We got our desks on sale last year {a pre-having-a-school-room-purchase!} that are a great fit—not too short like the ones the girls are outgrowing from IKEA! We are waiting for our next trip to IKEA for the TROFAST shelves for our bins. They’ll hold the girls’ independent assignments to work on while I work with the other sister, kind of the workboxes system. 

And behind those closet doors are gobs of stuff in some resemblance of orderly fashion. Everything from our hallway art cupboard moved in here so games could have a new home in the hall. I made labels for my magazine holders with my Silhouette and some sticky chalkboard paper I found here. My fun idea did not have the longevity I’d hoped for since the labels get smudged when you grab the box. Maybe a chalk marker next?

The best things in our classroom are my wonderful students of course! They’re fairing pretty well with the change to full-time homeschool; every day this week has felt like we’re getting in the groove better and better. THANK YOU to those of you who were praying!

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Fingernails and the Circus

Our girls finished up Portuguese kindergarten this past Tuesday, so our summer is just getting started! My surgery recovery has limited most of our afterschool homeschool activities, but I’m thankful to see the benefits of the girls’ creative play time without too much mommy intervention.

This morning was the beauty shop! Their Nana had brought the girls some cute boxes with new lip gloss and fingernail polish. The girls spent time making bracelets for everyone who was coming to the “salon” (our interns were invited since they are leaving next week and love being with our girls).

My 5 year old did a great job copying my written words for a sign she was making! 

 

Both girls enjoyed the special attention and getting to paint a big person’s nails {they are so nice to let them do that!} and fake nails. Take note of these faces of concentration!

Nail painting could not top the circus we had at our house a few days prior. At the girls’ trampoline class exhibition, we saw other unusual-to-us sports like synchronized roller skating and circus acrobatics. {Really!}  Now we have want-to-be acrobats in our home who have daily been working on new “tricks”!

So, they had a show for us complete with music, clowns and animals! {Sorry to those of you who don’t think tricks off the couch is a good idea. We have great mats they land on!}

I have been so pleased at how hard they’ve worked on moves like balancing on an exercise ball in the doorway or how they play the classical music over and over and move to the beat for their “routines”!

We have also been adding dates to our July calendar from 1+1+1=1’s 4th of July Connection Cards. The girls eagerly want to add each day and hear about who or what in on the picture. I have the activity calendar up from the Smart Summer Challenge and hope to do more of those now that the girls are home. So, I feel there’s no lack of learning opportunities around here!

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Jake, Oldie, and Pepe the Pill Bug

My girls have a new found interest in pill bugs or “roly-polies”.

For several days there has been talk of a roly-poly race from Dad, but other things have prevented it from happening, including several unintentional roly-poly deaths! Ah, how the girls are learning about being really careful not to squeeze them when they pick them up or step on them or how they need lots of air in the jars that become their new homes. Thankfully this has been without tears and there are many replacements out in the yard. We have now learned about the ideal habitat for our pill bug “pets.”

Today new pill bugs were able to race in a colorful track of end-to-end markers. It was amazing to see how they went forward like in a race with minimal or no help! Keeping encouraging hands away was a challenge.

Jake, Oldie and Pepe neck in neck here…

And nearly to the finish. It seemed the younger or smaller bugs were quicker on their feet. Or maybe they’d been handled less? 

So, a silly thing to blog about, but lots of fun and memories for our family.

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Gardening Fun In and Out

Even though we’ve been gone for nearly two weeks, I still wanted to report on our gardening fun outside and indoors with homeschool as we continue along with HSV’s Gardening Challenge.

Some successes include our tomatoes, green beans, strawberries, lettuce and cilantro. In fact, everything seemed to have doubled in size {after these photos were taken} while we were gone and thankfully received a lot of rain!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve had something eating up our basil and new broccoli plants, and I haven’t figured it out yet. The girls and I read an old Golden Book called, How Does Your Garden Grow?  by Pat Patterson. In the story, the little girl plants marigolds by her tomato plants after discovering aphids on them. Thankfully, this hasn’t been our trouble, but it was a great reminder to buy new marigolds for our tomato plants. {Our marigolds from seed took so long to grow last year we’re quicker to buy this time.}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some other books we enjoyed from our shelves that fit what we were doing outside were Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash by Sarah Weeks, Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall, and Beatrix Potter stories.

We all had fun doing garden themed homeschool work over the weeks since the last HSV Challenge when I downloaded much of Homeschool Creations’ Gardening Units.  The girls’ favorite was the Trowel Game where I hid the gardening trowel card under a cabbage number card. They had to say the number {which can be tricky for both of them still} before they could pick up the card to see if they’d found the trowel.

The girls also loved singing the “What Do Plants Need” song and doing all the plant growth sequencing. I look forward to pulling all this stuff out again for this season next year! Thanks for the fun Jolanthe and the  Homeschool Village!

A Numbered Collection

A new fad in our home is sticker collecting, particularly Cromos (in Portuguese). The girls were given their first set of stickers in a little tin. It wasn’t until later we learned books were made for them!

Panini is the same company that does sports trading cards in America. In Portugal and other European countries you can buy these books for a couple Euros and then packs of stickers for 50cents. They make them for many characters and teams. I even saw they were offering one on the royal wedding in England on the UK site.

What I love about this “hobby” is how the girls are working on higher number recognition. What a fun way to do it!

I also like that these stickers have a place when new toys and things always have to find a spot in our house. It’s been a cheap yet rewarding way to let the girls know we’re thinking about them when we occasionally bring home a new pack of stickers.

At the End of the Rainbow Rice

This St. Patrick’s Day, I was a little less motivated to go all out compared to last year. We did watch a video about this day on BrainPOP—we especially enjoyed looking at pictures of the Chicago River being changed to green afterward. Then we did a symmetrical shamrock painting since the girls had been learning about halves and quarters this week. I’d hoped to get to our rainbow rice dig for magnets {since rainbows go with this holiday a bit}, but we’ll get to magnets tomorrow as we finish up our week of the Letter M.  I’m also tucking away a great teaching tool on the Trinity using 3 leafed shamrocks from 2Teaching Mommies.

Rainbow rice is sensory bin filler I first saw on Pink and Green Mama.  Hers is beautiful as are others like Rockabye Butterfly’s below for St. Patrick’s Day. If you are not familiar with sensory bins, check out Counting Coconuts and 1+1+1=1 to get a better idea. After being inspired by an article that sensory bins were not too babyish for my age of girls, rice seemed like an easy to make option and is readily available in Portugal .

I used the directions from Pink and Green Mama. I loved that she used Purell, and we had a plethora of that! It was a great opportunity for the girls to practice measuring out one cup of rice at a time for each bag to be colored. I think we ended up making several cups of each color.

Shaking up the rice with 5 squirts of Purell and 5 drops of food coloring per instructions. I guess we had to add much more because of how much we made?

Then we laid the rice out in trays to dry. This led to some artistic landscaping rather than a nice ROYGBIV, but that’s ok.

And mixed together in the bin waiting for some fun treasures to hide within! The Polly Pockets in our house have found a great new way to go swimming!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!

Christmas Fun School

I have been motivated by all the Christmas ideas for curriculum, crafting and fun that I’ve seen online this year that I have tried to put many of them into the schedule! Here is a rundown of some of the photographed fun we’ve had the last two weeks:

 

We made the Christmas Tree Sun Catcher from Itsy Bitsy Learners. I loved the simplicity of no glue! Contact paper, sequins, and tissue paper circles instead! They look great on the window—just didn’t get that picture taken yet.

The girls enjoyed playing the “S is for Santa” game with a Portuguese version of M&M’s and dice. I like to use pages like these for their Do-A-Dot Paints too. There are tons of great Christmas learning printables at Making Learning Fun.

I read somewhere about a Christmas ornament count (let me know if it was you!), but we didn’t have Christmas stickers. So I decided to cut out a tree and have the girls add ornaments with their Do-A-Dot Paints. I encouraged them to make each ornament distinct so they could count them later. Next we graphed how many of each color. The next day they practiced writing their numbers next to each row.

Please don’t miss all the great Christmas curriculum at 1+1+1=1! She has lessons plans--a great compilation of ideas from many great blogs and sites I frequent. Here my 4.5 year old has written the first letters of these names (after tracing the letters on the back side). She was doing great until she got to S for Star!

Putting the alphabet ornaments in order has been great practice for her too. I am reluctant to print and laminate a new “theme” of alphabet every week normally, so this was nice to have a theme we can use for 4 weeks! There’s much more in 1+1+1=1’s Christmas Tot Pack and Nativity Preschool Pack—you have to see!

We came up with a fun new way to practice our sight words (those we’re learning with 1+1+1=1 RRSP curriculum).  With us doing Christmas fun this month, we’re including Christmas songs in our start time every day. The girls have been holding the various sight words (on a popsicle stick) that may be in the song. When we get to that word, the girls hold up that sight word. They LOVE it and laugh a lot, and I think they are learning the words the best this way!

I’ll be checking out Homeschool Creation’s Gingerbread Baby unit and Confessions of a Homeschooler’s Christmas unit next, along with other creative and resourceful moms at