Just an FYI...

I thought I should make this clear...

Whenever I post about our curriculum, I am including everything that I have planned.  I love to plan, and I always plan wayyyyyyyyyyyy more than we have the time, inclination, or motivation to actually do.  The good thing is that there is always something to fall back on if something falls through.

So, I just thought I should let you know that we are, by no means, doing all of the things that I planned to do in this post.  There really just isn't enough time in the day :)   The huge emphasis in our homeschool is reading aloud (followed by narration), spending hours out of doors, and free and independent play.  Everything else is just gravy!

The things we have NOT done yet this summer are...

Discovery Streaming Elementary Spanish...I'm not sure why we haven't done this...it's easy and fun.  I guess the main reason is that I don't like for the kids to watch tv during the day, especially during the summer, so I'm just not turning it on at all, even for school. 

Sequential Spelling...I decided to give O(7) a break from spelling this summer, so we'll begin this again in August. 

Typing...O loves this, but we are waiting to start again in August.  She is really looking forward to getting back to this. 

Woodworking...It's wayyyyyy to hot to do woodworking during the day around here.  This will be a fall and spring activity. 

Meet the Masters...I just can't seem to get this going.  I really want to, but I haven't made it happen yet.  I can't remember my password, so I guess getting a new password is the first step...

The things are ARE doing this summer....

We do fun art and science projects outside almost every day.  These activities are very simple, fun, and quick.  We basically do the same things that we love every summer, and the girls look forward to these specific activities.  

They swim, play, and "cook" on the beach for hours.  They love to lay in the water and listen to me read and read and read.  

We've done a few cooking projects, but nothing major.  We'll do more of that in preparation for O's upcoming birthday.

We've played a few brain games, but we haven't played games everyday like I'd hoped we would.  It turns out that I love the games a lot more than the kids do!  Although, they enjoy them once we get going :)

The girls love Life of Fred, and we read about 3 chapters per week.  The main thing "school" thing we are doing is reading and narration.  They both are excellent narrators, but neither of them enjoy it very much, unfortunately. 

Summer School is Fun!!!

Our girls might groan when they say that they have summer school, but it's all for show because we have nothing but fun!

We spend our mornings on our tiny beach...lately, they've loved making "potions" with shaving cream, food coloring, water, and sand.




I suggested placing cardstock on their shaving cream/food coloring mixture to make prints, but they were not interested.


They've painted Van Gogh inspired canvases (and then painted their bodies before jumping in the lake).


We've had TONS of fun exploring the properties of goop (cornstarch and water).


E(4) learned how to kayak by herself.


We've painted with popsicles (food coloring and water).  It didn't work that well, and they much preferred using their popsicles to "cook" on the beach rather than paint.


And we've read lots and lots and lots of books!

(Now that dropshots is up and running again, I'll be back to blogging on a weekly basis!)

2nd Grade Curriculum

I've had lots of questions about the curriculum we use over the last few months, and it's much quicker to just write a post for everyone to see rather than answer individually. So, I'm going to briefly tell you about the curriculum we have used for O(7)'s 2nd grade year along with links (when possible).   I hope this will help those of you who are making curriculum decision for the 2014-2015 school year.

English Language Arts

We used First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind (Volumes 1 and 2 combined).  We started this book during O's 1st grade year.  She liked it at first, but didn't like it towards the end.


First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, Volume 3-  We started Volume 3 in February, and O LOVES it!  She said every lesson is like playing a game.  We have the teacher's edition and workbook.  The lessons are quick, easy, and fun.



Writing with Ease, Volume 2-  O was not enjoying this book by the end.  However she loves Volume 3 which we started in February.





We are reading the Little House on the Prairie chapter books together.  I read 2 pages, O reads 1, and we go back and forth.  She reads very well with these books, and she loves them, but she is intimidated by the length of the books.


O(7) reads books of her choice from the Reading A to Z library.

Both girls record their thoughts in calendar journals weekly.  These journals are calendars that have just enough room to write a sentence or two.  I'd like to write in them daily, but it usually only happens once or twice a week.  The girls tell me one thing about their day, and I record it in the journal for them.

Reading selections from Ambleside Online

Spelling-  O really doesn't like Sequential Spelling lessons, but she has made a lot of progress since starting.   I recently purchased the dvd, so that she can type her answers on the laptop.  Hopefully, she'll like it a little better since she'll be able to do it independently.


Typing

O(7) recently started a typing program,and she LOVES it!




Math

Rightstart Math Level C.  We LOVE Rightstart Math!!!!!   O is learning math extremely effortlessly, and we are all having fun with it!

Challenging Word Problems-  O completes several word problems per week from this workbook.


Handwriting 

O is learning cursive using Handwriting without Tears.  She is completing this workbook independently, and she is doing a great job.



History

Story of the World, Volume 2.  Both girls love SOTW.  We usually read one chapter per week and complete the mapwork from the workbook.  The girls occasionally color the pics from the workbook, but we rarely do the extra projects.  I doubt we'll order the workbook for 3rd grade.





American History-  We are studying American History through reading the American Girl books.  After we read the AG books, we read other books from the same time period.  We also complete craft and cooking projects from each time period.  This has been LOTS of fun, and we all love it.  I know that the girls are learning and loving history when I overhear them having conversations with each other about the Revolutionary War and Civil War.

reading selections from Ambleside Online

Science

REAL Science Odyssey-  We are studying Earth Science this year.  I really liked this program last year, but we are going to try something different for 3rd grade.  It's just not flowing for us this year.  The projects are fun, and the kids are learning, but something about the format (and I'm not really even sure what) just doesn't work for me.


We have been studying pond/lake life through reading several books and studying our lake.  We all loved Among the Pond People and Pond.






weekly nature walks and nature journals

Music

O takes weekly online piano lessons that my mom facilitates.

We listen to Maestro Classics daily.  We all LOVE Maestro classics.













Spanish

Elementary Spanish classes via Discovery Streaming
Professor Pocket cds
Spanish books and other Spanish music cds



Art

I have tons and tons (way too much) of random arts and crafts materials that are available to the girls at all times.  I am amazed on an almost daily basis by their creativity and levels of concentration and independence as they create with these materials (with no outside influence from me).

I have a 3 year subscription for Meet the Masters, but we haven't used this yet...maybe we'll start this summer.

We've studied several specific artists on Fridays with our group, and we read books about specific artist fairly frequently.  We also have several art memory and card games that we play periodically.




Latin

We love Song School Latin, but we don't get to it as often as I would like.



Geography and Culture

We are studying Russia, Ukraine, and Poland via our cultural exchange packages.  We also enjoy geomaps, google earth, our talking globe (the girls love dancing to the national anthems), and our wall map.  We love the Children Just Like Me books.









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I'm working on posts describing our upcoming summer school curriculum, O(7)'s upcoming 3rd grade curriculum, and E(4)'s upcoming 5K curriculum.

It's a Good Thing She's Homeschooled!!!

It's a good thing that my sweet O(7) is homeschooled because she spends much of her school day dancing, spinning, twirling, cartwheeling, back bending, skipping, scootering, climbing, and jumping!


I'm so happy for her that she has the freedom to move as she learns.  She loves to dance as she recites poetry, and she'll often choreograph dances to go along with specific poems.


As a School Psychologist, I spend a lot of time screening kids for ADHD, so while I'm 100% sure O doesn't have ADHD, it wouldn't surprise me if she were referred for an evaluation if she were in typical school.  (Although she's pretty much a ruler follower, so it's likely she would sit still and quietly throughout the day if she were in a typical school).

So, there's another reason why we homeschool!  "Why?" is a frequently asked question, and the reasons are numerous!!!

Our Week in Review

Finally, after almost a year and a half of homeschooling, I feel like we are really getting the hang of it.  We are finally on a schedule that I love and works well for all of us.  We are getting a lot accomplished and have plenty of time for playing outside and reading aloud.

O(7) enjoyed exploring the continent boxes (Asia and South America).






E(4) loves this magnetic color matching turtle.



E(4) loves the sandpaper letters, and she has gotten good at putting them in order and putting the correct number of bears below each number.



E(4) likes the hammering shapes activity.



E(4) LOVES her writing book!  She loves her schoolwork much more than O does...probably because it's optional for her :)



O(7) takes frequent breaks to dance, do cartwheels, and perform poetry throughout her school day.  During her lessons, she loves to dance and sing out her answers.



Both girls love to work with the pattern blocks.



The girls (especially E) like to draw on the Buddha Board.



O(7) is completing her second year of Rightstart Math, and we love it!  She is now an expert at telling time to the minute...she's does better than I do!



E(4) started matching beads to the numbers this week, and she had fun.  She did well, but she sometimes gets excited and counts faster than her finger can touch the beads :)



We have been studying Van Gogh for a couple of months in our homeschool group, and the girls had fun completing these Van Gogh books this week.



Both girls LOVE the Goobi blocks.



Both girls work with the cuisenaire rods weekly.  O(7) was very proud of her creation!






O(7) spends a lot of time sewing, weaving potholders, and making bracelets.




E(4) uses the moveable alphabet to spell the words from her All About Reading program.



O(7) and my mom are doing free piano lessons online each week, and she LOVES it!


Both girls really enjoy reading a chapter from Story of the World each week.  They color pics from the workbook while I read, and then we do the mapwork together.  They both love completing the mapwork.



In addition to spending about 3 hours a day in our school room, we spent plenty of time outside playing.
The girls love to jump, joggle, and dance on the joggling board.  We spend hours playing in the driveway.  O loves to ride her scooter and bike.  E and I have fun riding the plasma car together, and the 3 of us race together down the driveway.  We also love to go for walks and throw rocks in the lake!









So, here is all the fun we've had.  The thing that hasn't been fun is that the house is always wrecked because I can't figure out how to find the time to clean the house and teach the kids and play outside and read to the kids and cook supper and wash clothes and on and on.