Ramblings...

As part of my tweaking last week I redid our learning poster. I got the idea for a learning poster from Brightly Beaming Resources, but haven’t stuck to it very well. Hopefully with these changes I can actually stick to it. The poster was originally designed to go with Brightly Beaming’s Prep Curriculum, but I wasn’t really feeling it. I did like having a letter to focus on weekly, as well as the shape/color/number learning. I just needed to do it in a way that works for us.

So here is the original poster:




And here is the revised one:



I’ve gotten rid of the weekly theme, vocabulary word, and nursery rhyme. Instead of those we have our weekly poem, and our monthly virtue. Along with the virtue there is a weekly quote, the quote won’t always tie into the virtue, instead it would act more as food for thought. This learning poster will be for both boys to use as well *unlike the previous learning poster*.

I’ve dropped the letter of the week and have made a phonics section. It will feature a weekly letter for Child #2, but we will be focusing on the letter sound as well. I found these awesome phonics cards at our base bookstore. On the front they have the letter *upper and lower case* along with a picture of items that have that letter sound, then on the back there is a list of words with that sound as well.

For Child #1 I’m using the combination cards, which also feature words on the back that he has to read to me each day. To further help Child #2 learn the letter sounds and recognize words I’ve also added the words to a small dry erase board. He reads them with us every morning to help him hear the weekly sound in the words, and of course get a jump on the reading process.

I use to do this with Child #1 as well, we kept the small board on our front door, and before we left the house we would read the words. The words would either have the same letter sound or they would belong together some how *like family members, or rooms in a house, etc.*.

Also on the board is a math section. I’m going to alternate every week between numbers, colors, and shapes for Child #2. For Child #1 I made sheets with addition and subtraction facts on them, and he has to read a new sheet everyday.

So far the poster is working out great. The boys enjoy doing each piece, and Child #1 really loves reading the words with his brother. He gets to help his little brother learn while showing off what he is capable of doing, and while they are busy at work with their learning poster I can actually get breakfast cooked. It’s great!

So we have come to the end of our first full “official” year of homeschooling. Since our last post on our weekly plans we have finished up the Saxon Math 1 materials, which marked the end of our formal “regular school” lessons. We are still doing school, just not as intensely.

We’ve gone over some of the lessons in First Language Lessons, we are currently memorizing the first poem, and Child #1 has almost completely learned it.

We took a few days off from schooling just to enjoy a break and have some none school fun.

We picked back up today with six spelling test! Child #1 did amazingly well with them just by sounding out the words. The test were taken from the first grade spelling list on THIS website, which I found thanks to my friend Wendy over at Athena Academy. The list are easy to use and allow us to pick and choose which ones to use based on where we are phonically.

Speaking of phonics, we also started our one phonics lesson a day right before our short little break. We are using Saxon Phonics 1, and we had already been using it at the start of our term back in September. We stopped using it because Child #1 had already learned a lot of the material previously and I thought it would be best if we just focused on applying those concepts to actually reading. This way we were doing more than just a dry and sometimes boring formal lesson.

That made our work load a lot easier and Child #1 has done very well with his reading. Now we are using these lessons to teach phonics concepts that may be a little more difficult *mostly for the ease of spelling in the following year since he can, almost/always, figure out the words while reading on his own*. Saxon Phonics deals with actually learning spelling rules, so my hope is that spelling complex words will be a breeze once the boys have mastered the “rules” of the game so to speak.

For the rest of the week we are going to continue chugging along through First Language Lessons, Saxon Phonics 1, and hopefully *weather pending* we will enjoy a field trip as well.

We will work in some Math and Science starting next week, once I figure out exactly what those lessons will encompass and how we are going to work them in. I’m not shooting for anything formal outside of our phonics work, but I want to keep the material fresh so when we move back into the intense phase of schooling things flow smoothly.

Homeschooling poses its challenges we have learned that over the year, but the challenges bring with them a lot of enlightenment as well.

We accomplished a lot this week, but did not get everything that was planned done, such is the life of a homeschooler. Things don’t always get finished when you planned, but we are able to get to them the following week. On Thursday we enjoyed having The Spouse home with us, so we didn’t do any school that day, which put us behind in some of our lessons. On Friday we started to experience the rain that never seemed to end, which prevented us from going out and finding something to explore. Instead of exploring the outdoors, we explored books inside the comfort of our warm home. One of the books we enjoyed was Ten Apples Up On Top!, which Child #1 read to all of us while we enjoyed a snack. It is always so wonderful to hear him read, he is getting even better at it with each passing day.

Now onto our upcoming week:

Monday: Lesson 4 in First Language Lessons
Three lessons in Saxon Math 1
Continued talk on Dinosaurs


Tuesday: Lesson 5 in First Language Lessons
Three lessons in Saxon Math 1 *this will bring us up to date so we can finish up our “school year” when we originally planned, allowing us a much needed break.
Discuss Modern Mythology *when I say modern mythology I mean the mythology of present day religions*.


Wednesday: Lesson 6 in First Language Lessons
Two math lessons in Saxon Math 1
Play Date
Finish up our discussions on Dinosaurs


Thursday: Lesson 7 in First Language Lessons
Two math lessons in Saxon Math 1
Finish up our discussion on Mythology *books we are currently reading will be read until we have finished them*.

Friday: Two math lessons from Saxon Math 1
Possible Field Trip

Our week has been fairly productive. We have covered the first three lessons in First Language Lessons, with me changing up a few of the sentences in the book. It discusses common nouns in the third lesson, it makes the point of mentioning a family is a mother and a father. I took the time to state that families come in different combinations, some kids have two moms, some have two fathers, and so on. Those kids are still brothers and sisters, their family just looks different than ours. Aside from making that one little change the lessons have been quick and easy. The boys both took part in the second lesson on illustrating the poem we read, and they really enjoyed it. It also tied into the Science lessons we did the week before on butterflies.

We got through six lessons of math as well. For now we are covering addition and subtraction, as well as money *identifying pennies, nickels, dimes, and dollars, along with their worth…quarters aren’t included in the lessons but we have covered those on our own*. There is also some time telling to the hour and the half hour. Lastly we have done some measuring with a ruler *more will be done at the end of the week*.

Our mythology reading is coming from THIS book. We will also tackle reading Say Cheese Medusa and Stop That Bull, Theseus both from Myth-O-Mania. These books should offer a fun alternative to learning about myths versus the usual text that is rather boring in the eyes of a small child.

For Science so far we have watched Dinosaurs Alive, as well as read The Big Noisy Book of Dinosaurs and watched the accompanying DVD.

Aside from the general subjects we also enjoyed a nature walk, some time playing soccer at a nearby field, and some park fun. So far things have gone really well and the rest of the week is looking like it will end on a very lovely note.

So what is on tap for this week? Here is a quick run through of our plans.

Monday: Two math lessons from Saxon Math 1
Lesson 1 in First Language Lessons For The Well-Trained Mind (Vol.1 Level 1)
Greek and Roman Mythology using books from the library that I will share later and online resources.

I picked First Language Lessons up from the BX a few days ago. Just on a quick glance the lessons seemed easy to implement into our day. We are heading to the end of our first full year of home schooling, so I don’t want to take on anything to heavy, but I still want the boys to continue learning through the summer. First Language Lessons will allow us to spend a few minutes everyday tackling one of their 100 lessons, which will get their feet wet before getting heavy into Language Arts lessons when we start back up in September.


Tuesday: Two math lessons from Saxon Math 1
Lesson 2 in First Language Lessons
Dinosaurs using materials from Enchanted Learning and supplies currently on hand.


Wednesday: Two math lessons from Saxon Math 1
Lesson 3 in First Language Lessons
Modern Day Mythology using internet resources and books currently on hand


Thursday: Two math lessons from Saxon Math 1
Lesson 4 in First Language Lessons
Continue discussion on Dinosaurs, with hands on activity

Friday: Two math lessons from Saxon Math 1
Field Trip To Be Determined

…to go over plans and supplies and see what I want to add and what I want to continue using. We haven’t hit the one year mark yet, so I think we are doing good with getting through our first official year of home schooling. There are things I want to change. Right now we are focusing on Phonics and Math more than anything else, and some days we may just watch an educational video, do flash cards, and goof off. Which I am allowing partly because Child #1 is already ahead of where they say he should be, and because Child #2 actually listens to Child #1 and picks up the things he tells him. Come September though I want to have worked out some of the major kinks (mostly getting me to bed at a decent hour so I can get up at 7am and get our day going, and get through all our lessons), and be serious about this. With The Spouse on board he expects certain things to get done now and that accountability on everyone’s part will be awesome and needed at times. Anyways here you go…

Homeschool Revision:

Phonics: Saxon Phonics 2
Language Arts: Harcourt Language Grade 1
Handwriting: Writing With Ease Level One Workbook

Math: Saxon Math 2

Science: R.E.A.L Science Level One: Life, Earth and Space, and Chemistry
Science: Houghton Mifflin Science Grade 1

Social Studies: Harcourt Horizons
History: History Odyssey Level One: Ancient, Middle Ages, Early Modern, Modern Times
History: A Little History Of The World

Art: Artistic Pursuits Book One Grades K-3

Music: Guitar Lessons

Physical Education: Karate

Japanese Studies: Teach Me Japanese, Teach Me More Japanese (the second part of the Teach Me series), plus other books on Japan

Sexual Education: OWL (Our Whole Lives) Grade K-1

Religious Education: Various UU materials and open honest discussion with the boys. This will be a more in depth subject with actual materials when they are older.

Virtues: The Virtues Project has info on teaching virtues to kids and that is where I got the idea to include a virtue for every week that we would discuss and go over. You can click here, here, and here to find out what items we will use. Aside from those we will also use fables and other stories that demonstrate the various virtues.

History twice a week, Social Studies twice a week. Covering two lessons a week in each subject.
Art twice a week covering one lesson a week. First part of the lesson will be the teaching part (on Monday), second part of the lesson will be the activity that ties into the lesson(on Wednesday). Some weeks if there is a holiday coming up Art will be based on that holiday and not come from our curriculum book.
After Grade 2 we won’t be using a phonics curriculum it will be strictly Language Arts.
Saxon Math works for us and it is easy to use. It also goes all the way up to High School Math (Algebra 1 and 2, Advanced Mathematics, Calculus, and Geometry).
We will have other materials and books to supplement these things, these will just act as our foundation for each school year.
Japanese Studies will change when we PCS, it will then become the study of whatever country we end up at, unless we end up back in the US then I’ll figure it out from there. Hahahaha.



Phonics and Handwriting: Monday- Thursday
Language Arts: Monday-Friday
Math: Monday and Wednesday
Science: Tuesday and Thursday
Social Studies and Weekly Virtue: Monday and Wednesday
History and Geography: Tuesdays and Thursdays
Art: Monday And Wednesday
Music: An hour with an instructor and 30 minutes of practice at home on non lesson days
Physical Education: One hour twice a week and then 30 minutes of practice at home on non lesson days
Japanese Studies: Fridays
Sexual Education: Fridays
Religious Education: Two Sundays a month

Ok here is our schedule time wise:
730am: Breakfast
8am: Get ready for the day
830am: Outdoor time (weather pending, if it is too hot or raining then we will stay inside and play)
9am: Phonics, Handwriting, and Language Arts
10am: Break
1130am: Lunch
12pm: Quiet Time
130pm: Art and Snack
2pm: Math/Science
230pm: History& Geography/Social Studies & Weekly Virtue
3pm: We Are Done!!

So it looks like our “school” day breaks up to about 2 ½ hours, 3 ½ if you add in the hour of practice that will take place at home (but that will only be on days when there are no lessons to attend). I think that is plenty and honestly some days we will probably get done with our work sooner than what I plan. But we do need a plan we can adhere to rather closely. I had made one at the end of 2008 and it was similar to this, but this seems far more doable and allows for plenty of none “school” time. This of course is just the Monday-Thursday plan.

Fridays will go like this:
730am: Breakfast
8am: Get ready for the day
830am: Language Arts
9am: Japanese Studies
930am: Head out for our Enrichment (the way things are going it looks like it will be either an ASL class or something to do with Japanese culture *either a craft or a field trip of some sort*)
12pm: Lunch *either with our friends or back at home, just depends on how the day goes and what we did that day*
1230pm: Quiet Time
130pm: Sexual Education and Snack
2pm: We Are Done!! Until Monday!!


I know folks will look at this and go “It’s so structured and school like”, and you know what that’s right it is. And there is a reason for that! We need structure in our home. We are the kind of folks who if we don’t have a schedule or a plan then chances are nothing will happen. We will sit back and chill, enjoy some movies, and surf the net. And while these things are great to do (I LOVE our lazy Sundays, and how we randomly clean the house while enjoying movies, and burst of excited playing), there are other things that need to be done. Our home school is school/academic focused because the main reason, the first and foremost reason, I ever even thought about teaching the boys was because of education. I care deeply about educating my children and don’t want to trust anyone else with something as important as my children’s education and minds.

I get that the unschooled thing works for some folks, but it doesn’t work for me. I’m all good with it at the age Child #2 is. It makes total sense to me at his age, but for Child #1 it doesn’t. He is at the point where we need to have things ironed out, planned, and structured so things get accomplished. Especially with the whole host of things life can throw our way I want us to have a plan in place so we can easily get back to our routine when duty calls, or someone gets sick, and so forth. We’ve had a lot of crazy things happen this first year of “active” home schooling and the one thing it has shown me is how unbelievably important a routine/schedule is to our schooling. We need this in order to handle the things that will get thrown our way.

For those wanting to know what grade we will be doing next year it will be more of a 1st/2nd grade thing. As for Child #2 he will keep working on the Preschool curriculum I found online, and going along for the ride. He is already saying the alphabet with a few missed letters (but he is only 2!) and he is counting to 10 for the most part with a few missed numbers like with his alphabet. He is also able to point out the parts of his face/head, and a few other body parts as well. So I’m pretty confident that he will do well this upcoming “school” year with the preschool work. I don’t foresee me starting Kindergarten work with him when he is four like I did with Child #1 (not any sit down work anyways), but time will tell. We will just take it day by day.


I think that is pretty much it. I know this is kind of long and rather sporadic, but I’m using this as a place to work out details. You all just get to witness the process LOL. So until my next set of ramblings folks…insert witty comment here.