and Then There Was School Stuff

I’ve been MIA for a while, particularly from this blog. In fact, I was thinking I might be finished with blogging. It’s something you have to do because you enjoy it, at least that’s why I do it. It’s not about fame and fortune but about sharing what we’re up to in our homeschool and sometimes, our family life and I don’t care about becoming famous. What I do care about is recording a few things for my kids to look back on and hopefully sharing some useful tidbit here and there for those of you who are also parenting and/or swimming along in the homeschooling currents with us. Maybe I’m not quite done after all.

This year Martina (and yes, I called her Minerva for a while thanks to a few creepers but I just can’t do it anymore) will be in 4th grade. We are moving away from a Waldorf focus, though not completely. What’s working for us right now is doing a lot of reading aloud in the mornings, music after lunch, then math and science, then hand work while we listen to audiobooks. Our days are fuller than they were and that’s part of advancing through the grades. I try not to answer the telephone until we are finished and often ignore my needy husband when he shows up in the midst of read-aloud time. We really do need to stay on-task this year.

In short, I’m feeling the pressure! Martina does well on the annual standardized tests required by state law each year and I want her to have that back-pat each summer. Regardless of my lack of enthusiasm for hoop-jumping, it is what it is: validation.

What are we reading aloud? So far our topics to cover are these: Vikings; the Middle Ages; English; Math; Science; Handwork; History; Nature Study; Foreign Language; Poetry; Local Geography; Zoology; Norse Mythology. Sounds like a lot, eh? But I’m not finished! We have a co-op where I teach and the Martian attends classes. I will be teaching Beowulf for Middle Grades and Norse Mythology for little people. My child will be in: Beowulf!; Girl Scouts; Celtic Choir and; Creative Gaming. Then there are the extra-curriculars! Piano; Ukelele; Recorder; dance; horseback riding; 4H.

Whew! It sounds like an awful lot and I think parents with school kids have a gigantic load what with school, homework and then soccer and PTA? Why do I think that? Oh yeah, I did it for a long time…yes, Kindy through a UNC degree for my eldest. I can’t see that either way is easier, except in specific ways that are so different they don’t even merit addressing. Parenting and schooling a child are work and no matter how you it, it’s hard and rewarding and wonderful.

Links for specific tomes are in the sidebar, listed by Grade Level and Subject.

 

Weekly Phonics Lesson

Each week I’ve been using 3 phonogram cards from the Writing Road to Reading as the basis for a phonics lesson for my daughter. I take those 3 blends, this week they were: or; wh; oa, and use words with those blends to make up a poem or little story. Sometimes they are embarrassingly bad but Martina doesn’t notice. She loves the pretty picture and the slow way we move through our daily lessons.

If there is room, I write the poem on the chalk board, if not, I draw the picture with chalk and write on a white board (a paint board really). I underline the blends we are studying in the poem.

Each day, for the first 3, we review a sound. On the 3rd day we go over all of them and read the story. On day 5, she copies the picture and story into her MLB.

We are going to leave this block for a while at the end of this week. When we start up again I will incorporate grammar lessons into this as well as the phonograms.

 

Bible Unit, Joseph interprets Pharoah’s dreams

Old Testament MLB

For our unit on the Old Testament I read stories from our children’s bible. Martina never wants me to stop reading because she loves the stories. When we get to Thursday, I ask for the story she wants to draw and write about in her MLB.

She chooses her story and I read it from a NrIV so that she can hear the full text of that story.

We get out the block crayons and I draw first and she copies what I’ve drawn into her book. Then she free writes her own retelling. We have tried various layouts for her handwriting. She is not yet confident enough to write on one line and so I’ve done the blue, green and brown lines for the sky, grass and earth. While that is a pretty way of doing things, I often don’t have time to line enough paper for her lengthy tomes. Yesterday I gave her some 2nd grade writing paper and it worked beautifully. The lines are the proper size for her handwriting, there are 3 lines for writing on: sky; grass; earth, and so that’s what we’ll use. She did a full page, front and back. We taped it into the MLB so that it’s hinged on the side and can be read and reread.