2009-2010 School Year

I don't have our official date for when our next academic year will begin but I do have my curriculum choices ironed out. I will be teaching second grade and kindergarten next year.

Kindergarten:
Math: Saxon K
Reading: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Bob Books Box 1
Handwriting: Seton Handwriting K
Religion: Catholic Children's Picture Bible and Leading Little Ones to Mary
(History and Science, I will not formally teach at this age but the K'er will be able to participate with the 2nd grader)
Literature: Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes

Second Grade:
Math: Saxon 2
Reading: McGuffey's Eclectic Readers, National Catholic Readers, Faith and Freedom Readers and books from the library at appropriate reading level
Handwriting: Seton Handwriting 2
Spelling: Spelling Workout B
Grammar: First Language Lessons (pt. 2)
Writing: Writing with Ease (I don't know if we will like it but I'm going to give it a try)
History: Story of the World 2 (Middle Ages), plus a study on lives of the saints, popes and some councils in this time period
Science: Geology, Astronomy, and Weather, various books and experiments
US Geography: State capitals
World Geography: North American (including Latin America) countries
General Geography: Maps, Charts, and Graphs Level B
Art Appreciation: Child-Size Masterpieces
Art: Drawing, still undecided
PE: Hopefully we'll be doing either bowling or swimming
Music: Listening to Classical music, piano lessons still pending necessary funds
Religion: Our Holy Faith book 1, preparing for First Holy Communion in May or June of 2010.

Literature will be books that fit in with curriculum, independent choices and read-alouds from classics

Book Review and Plan for the Week

The infamous Saxon Math- Level K

You can pretty much purchase Saxon Math from anywhere. I think Seton has the best price, but I could be wrong.

For the record, I have not tried any other Math program, I'm sticking with Saxon, because it works and Boo is happy with it.

What I like about it:

• Boo likes repetition, and it is repetitious, he thrived on the Meeting book
• It is scripted, though I do not always need it, it is nice to have on days I can't think
• It is fun, we all enjoyed the manipulatives
• No distracting pictures

On it's implementation:

• The meeting book could be skipped but I thought it helped with calendar skills
• I used the arrows in the meeting book to write whatever number Boo could count to. We then practiced counting to that number each month and then used the rest of the arrows for subsequent numbers
• Not all lessons need to be repeated twice
• More than one lesson can be done in a day without being overwhelming
• The program is more appropriate for a pre-schooler, 3-4.5 years old
• I never did the estimating activities later in the book
• some of the activities require practice, like skip counting, or even regular counting, for younger children

Plan for the Week

Language Arts:
OPG- Lesson 49,50(M) 51, 52 (T) 53, 54 (W) 55-56 (F) 57,58 (S)
FLL-Lesson 6 (M) 7 (T) 8 (W) 9 (F) 10 (S)
HW- Seton, extra practice- all week
MW- "O Sacrament Most Holy"-every day
CW- Continue practicing name- all week

Math:
Saxon, Lesson 6(M) 7 (T) 8 (W) 9 (F) (10) S

History:
SOTW Ch. part 1 and review questions from What is History and What is Archaeology, Make a family history book (M)

SOTW Ch 1, Part 2, review questions and cross references (T)

Cave Painting and Map activity (S)

Science:
Continue Bean Sprout experiment and observations for journal (M,T)

Begin Seed Needs experiment, continue Bean Sprout observation, read How and Acorn becomes a Tree or other library books (W)

Green Hour Challenge (TH)

Work on observation pages for experiment and finish any books borrowed from library (F, S)

Geography:
Practice US Geography- all week with wall map update on Monday
New Hampshire Map for US Notebook (T)
Maps, Charts and Graphs, Lesson 2 and continents review(F)
History Mapwork (S)

Art:
How to Draw Lesson (F)

PE:
Trips to park all week and possible Green Hour challenge on Thursday to be considered

Music:
Learn one Catholic hymn and listen to classical music- all week

Religion:
St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism- all week

Science and Living in God's World- Book Review

Book: Science and Living in God's World
Publisher: Our Lady of Victory

I ordered this book for kindergarten science.

Positive: The only positive aspect I can think of in regards to this material are the good intentions that probably went into creating it. The goal was to write a science book that would draw children in to the marvels of God's creation and His Goodness.

Negative:

• The topics included in this book are lightly touched upon and too broad
• The illustrations and pictures are not well done
• Requires kindergardeners to do simplified crossword puzzle, some activities are way above level K
• Few to little explaination
• Parent would probably have to do most of the writing for fill-in-the-blank exercises

I could find no practical use for this book in our home. The exercises are not realistic for children of this age and there are no experiments. It does not contain much in the way of information either. It does not offer any supplemental reading which might have redeemed it's usefulness. Weak science books like these make people think that Catholics are afraid of science or have some kind of disdain for it. I would also say that if you are not already teaching your child that this world is God's wonderful creation and the study of science is to know more about this wonderful world that God made for man, then as a Catholic, you may already be failing to understand the purpose of science. I think that is kind of expected for most Catholics to know and pass on to their children already.

Overall, I would say this book is not worth the investment. It would be better to find alternate materials or borrow books from the library.

Beginning to Teach Reading

I have mentioned before that I have always wanted to homeschool my children. We also do not watch regular television or subscribe to cable. I have tried to create a home that is a not only peaceful and God-serving but also a place where the children can learn. I really want our children to love to learn and appreciate the beautiful and amazing world that God made for them.



It all started with Boo, of course, because he is the oldest. I began to teach him shapes, colors, counting. I would never get him to sing the alphabet until he was 3 or 4 though. When he turned three, I bought one of those Hooked on Phonics early learning packages. It contained a book and a CD to learn the names of the letters. I thought that the songs were pretty stupid, even painful to listen to but he liked it a lot. But that is not what helped him learn the letters.



The Hooked on Phonics book contained a book of bubble letters that you were supposed to color and decorate. I took that one step further and cut them out and hung them on the door by which we exited our apartment. Each day we would review the letters that he colored on the door and when he learned one, we would add a new one. Sometimes I would give him a quiz, so in order to leave the house to go out and play he had to "unlock" the door by telling me the letter names. I did this both with capital and small letters, until he knew them all.



Book had learned all of his letters by the time he was 3 1/2. Beyond that there was not much more to teach him. He began to get bored again and wanted to spend the day doing whatever I was doing.



I have always been an early-bird when it comes to home education, so that winter I ordered much of the kindergarten curriculum that I wanted and began to look through it. I tried to begin him with Seton Kindergarten Phonics and had no success.

I looked through different recommendations and stumbled upon Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Once we got past the discipline issues- not wanting to sit still, thinking that getting up during a lesson was acceptable, we were fine. I cannot describe the amazement and wonder which I watched my son learn to read through this book. I began the book about a month before he turned four.


We needed a lot of review at first and I wanted to take things at a leisurely pace. But here we are almost a year later, I am 6 lessons away from finishing this book. My son is not yet 5 years old and he is beginning to learn to spell, without being formally taught. He is figuring out for himself what letter words begin with and even standing over my shoulder when I am on the computer, trying to read what I write. He can read Bob Books, Dr. Seuss-type books, like Go Dog Go and Hop on Pop. I even hear him in the car, trying to read signs and billboards.


So that is where we are, almost two years into this journey. We're going to be using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading next. Beyond that, I have not decided what to use, but we will be gradually moving on to more challenging books. I am looking ahead with anticipation of progress to be made and teaching our second child, Meenie, to read!