School Choices

I don't spend much time writing about school.  I'm not sure why.  I spend a LOT of time thinking about it, preparing for it, cleaning up after it and actually executing school work.  BUT, I do think I will  want to remember what we were doing someday when I look back over this record....so record I will.

There are benefits to having children 15 months apart!  Besides a difference in reading levels, math programs and writing skills the kids work together quite a bit.  Andrew listens to all the stories from American History and the science lessons.  Emma generally just does a little more comprehension work afterwards.  Emma is doing mostly 1st grade work.  Her language arts program I bought is 1st/2nd grade and so far it seems like it is the right speed for her.  Andrew is now doing his formal "kindergarten" work.  MY goal for kindergarten is to make him a reader.  We read loads of books. He is very good at cvc words and is getting VERY good at spelling them!  I am not a fan of sight word reading and we spend lots of time "sounding it out."  Andrew likes to be fast and he often looks at a picture in a book and guesses what he thinks it says.  I say to him all the time:  Don't guess it, sound it.  He reads about 4 books a day to me and then I read to him.  He has made HUGE strides in his reading in the last month and I want to keep him moving.  It is AMAZING to watch your kids learn to read!

Language Arts: After HOURS of research we went with Winter's Promise and I've looked all through it and it seems like something Emma will enjoy.  She's completed her first week of work and she enjoys having this program that is just for her.


Math: (both kids are doing this- 2 different levels) For the second year in a row we're going with Singapore Math.  It's concise and progresses at a steady pace.  For extra addition practice I give her file folder games and work sheets.  I appreciate that Singapore is MUCH less expensive than many math programs but my kids don't mind doing the work. This is a program I hope continues to work for us for many years.

Social Studies:(both) We are working our way through American history before we move onto Story of the World .  For American History we are using living books and our main spines are: The American Story, Children's book of America, Children's American History Encyclopedia, and My America My World.  I really appreciate teaching history with stories.  This week we've been learning about Colonial America and we hope to make a trip to Jamestown very soon!  What an amazing thing to live near all of this history!  We're also working our way through Beginning Geography which she has been enjoying very much.

Phonics/Spelling:  We are learning phonics rules and spelling rules with the same book- Phonics Pathways.  This is the book I used to teach both Emma and Andrew to read with.  I LOVE it!  There are quite a few very expensive phonics programs out there....but we lucked out when we found this one. Andrew  uses many phonics file folder games I've printed and games I've made for him.  We also have a program of games called Happy Phonics which he quite enjoys.

Science: (both) We are also using Singapore for Science.  Their Early Bird Science books are for k-2nd grades and they are short and sweet on the subjects.  For instance- the first thing we learned about was living/non living things.  They had one paragraph to read and 2 workbook pages.  I expanded this a bit with a cut/glue page the kids did today and a living/non living thing scavenger hunt they did the other day when we visited a park.  They drew pictures of all the living/non living things they saw.  They thought this was GREAT!  Next week we do the human body and we are EXCITED about that!

Art: (both) Aside from the constant flow of pictures/glue projects my kids do related to other areas of study ALL the time we will be using Storybook Art and learning about different styles of illustration and doing some of the fun art projects in this book.

Handwriting:  I'm a fan of copy work. Andrew responds very well to all the writing exercises in the Explode The Code series so he is working his way through there.  There is a handwriting component to Emma's Winter's Promise program so that is what she uses.  Both the kids also copy pages of passages I've written or they write in their journals.  Often times they tell me what they want to say, I write it and then they copy it.  Emma will NOT write anything she doesn't know how to spell.  She would NEVER guess.  Andrew LOVES the satisfaction of knowing he has written sentences when he copies what I write for him.

Other:
Spanish we won't start until after the summer as Emma and Andrew are both taking Spanish at co-op this fall!
Piano- Mike is Emma's piano teacher- at least for the first year until I feel like I can really pressure her to practice.  I'm not going to pay money for lessons until she will dedicate INDEPENDENT practice time every day to learning her piano.  She wants to be Motzart....but she gets SO frustrated when she makes a mistake in the piano.  We're VERY slowly working through her first piano book. She is on lesson 7 or 8 or so.  She is VERY pleased with herself when she can hear that she is playing a song....but getting her to practice without someone sitting next to hear willing her to keep trying when she messes up is very difficult.  SO- one thing at a time.


Phew!  Anyone else exhausted?