Lessons learned from our first week back in the homeschool saddle

1.  I love Sonlight's language arts program!  We used a Sonlight Core last year, but this is our first year to use their language arts.  I know how to write, but teaching it is another matter.  I love that they lay it all out for you and connect it to the readers.  They also give schedules for both Grammar Ace and Wordly Wise (we're doing Grammar Ace together and Monk and Twinkle Toes are doing Wordly Wise 6 and 4, respectively.) 

2.  I'm not sure if the switch to Teaching Textbooks for math was worth it or not.  So far, neither of my kids has cracked a CD.  Maybe that's because it's still just review.  Speaking of review, all three kids forgot a lot of math over the summer.  I'm kicking myself once again for not making them review their math, at least periodically, all summer long.

3.  I'm so glad I added science for Twinkle Toes and art for both Monk and Twinkle Toes!  They have more time in the day than I thought they would and have had no trouble getting everything done.  I alloted one hour per individual study block, but art and reading are only taking 30-40 minutes.  Math and science are taking closer to the full hour. 

4.  We're all enjoying our read-alouds and readers- thank you, Sonlight!  We've been consistent with the timeline and map activities this week, unlike last year.  We read for about 45 minutes in the living room then move to the table where we spend 10 or so minutes on map and timeline and then 30-40 minutes on language arts. 

5.  This is the first year I've done dictation with the kids.  My older two are doing well, but my 7 year old is really struggling!  In addition to Sonlight's weekly dictation assignment, we're doing daily dictation exercises from Spelling Wisdom book 1.  I know it's doing them all a world of good.  It's helping my older two pay closer attention to punctuation and occasionally they find a word they didn't know how to spell.

6.  My wonderful planned pre-school activity stations are not working for Louie.  She's almost 23 months, so maybe it's an age thing.  I'm having a really hard time keeping her quiet while the older kids are doing school.  We're having our read-aloud time while she naps in the morning.  (I dare not drop her morning nap, then what would we do?)  I'm so grateful for the nice fall weather we're having!  I can always just send my pre-schoolers outside to play.  Of course, sometimes I happen upon scenes like this one...

Yes, that is a snake wrapped around Prince's head.  (Measle has given her little brother a new nickname.  He's now called Prince and Louie is Queen.)  And, yes, Queen is wearing her birthday suit- her favorite outfit these days.  At least she wasn't in the sandbox.

So, how was your first week?  What have you learned?  Any tweaking going on?

More of why I love Sonlight!

I shared with you recently what I love about Sonlight homeschool curriculum.  

In a nutshell:

1.) I love that Sonlight allows me to learn right alongside my kids by reading books we love together.

2.) Sonlight's emphasis on real books rather than textbooks and workbooks means I spend less time grading and more time enjoying my kids.

3.) Sonlight's unique Core program allows me to homeschool my kids of different ages together rather than separately which fosters togetherness in our family- one of the main reasons we chose to homeschool in the first place.

So, what endorsement could I possibly have to add to that list of glowing recommendations?

We received our Core 3+4 books in the mail about 2 weeks ago and since then I've been in major homeschool planning mode.  Our schoolroom has been reorganized, our read-aloud area prepared for big and little kids, and all non-Core subjects integrated into our Sonlight instructor's guide.  I planned for us to start school Monday August 23rd, but my girls (9 and 7 yrs old) begged me the other day if we couldn't start just a couple of weeks early.  "Please Mom, can't we start school early?"  I was like, "Oh, I guess so, if you really, really want to." 

I always hated school.  I remember many a day of looking out my classroom window and daydreaming of what I'd do when school let out.  I can't tell you what a joy it is homeschooling my kids with Sonlight!  Not only do I love all the great books and the ready-made schedule, but I love that my kids love it!  I love that they actually enjoy school, well maybe except for math :). 

So, I've done something I never thought I would do.  I've become a Sonlight affiliate.  What that means is I feel so good about endorsing Sonlight homeschool curriculum that I now have a link in the side of my blog to Sonlight.  I'll earn a small commission on every purchase made through that link, but mainly I just wanted to be part of the Sonlight family.  I also have a special incentive for those new to Sonlight.  You can save $5 off your first purchase of $50 or more when you make your purchase through this link to Sonlight and I'll earn rewards points for friends I introduce to Sonlight.  Sonlight offers more than just their fantastic Core and Newcomer programs.  They offer the best of homeschool resources, including Teaching Textbooks and Rosetta Stone language programs.

Whatever curriculum you're currently using, I encourage you to at least go to Sonlight's website and check out their fantastic Core programs and hard-to-resist 18 week money back guarantee.  Sonlight even allows you to pay for your curriculum over 3, 6, or 9 months.  If you're ready to take a look around simply use the button below or in my sidebar to get started.  To save $5 on your first purchase of $50 or more you can either use this link to Sonlight or enter my rewards ID at checkout:  CS20287340.



Whatever you decide, happy homeschooling.  For us, we're getting started a few weeks early this year, because... well, because my kids want to.

Getting started with a field trip!

This year the kids will be studying American History with Sonlight Core 3+4.  While I've been in homeschool organizing mode the girls have been checking out our books for the year and begging me to let them get started early.  Twinkle Toes (9) is already half-way through with Om-kas-toe, her first reader for the year and we've read the first couple of chapters in The Story of the USA.  Since we have such a wonderful historical museum right down the road from us, we decided to get started this week with a field trip to see how the Native Americans in this part of the country lived. 

Here they all are excited to be at the buffalo display.

In the background is a display showing a couple of Native Americans carving a buffalo.  The Indians used every part of the buffalo and depended on the buffalo for their way of life.

The woman on the screen is demonstrating how the Indians used the buffalo's bladder to carry food or water after blowing it up and cleaning it out.

Now, that's a BIG headdress!

The girls and I enjoyed seeing baskets made by the Hopi Indians. 

This Native American trader pulled his wares behind him.

And that concludes our first field trip of the year.  We'll head back to the museum and take in the Pioneer Town exhibit when it's time to study the Western Expansion period of American History.  Our local museum also has a big exhibit on oil and gas exploration.  Can I just say I love that Sonlight makes learning history so fun that my kids want to start school early?    

Next week we're heading to Indiana and I'm hoping we'll have time for both the Children's Museum in Indianapolis and the Creation Science Museum near Cincinnati.

Homeschool Planning

My friend Roan at Joyful Always has inspired me to do a little more in depth planning for the upcoming school year.  We're both using Sonlight and I really liked some of her ideas, especially having to do with reorganizing the Sonlight binder.  Those of you who use Sonlight probably do so because it practically eliminates the need for planning- and it does- so that begs the question of why I felt I needed to micro-plan our school year.  Here's what I've done and why.

1.  I bought 36 colorful tabs and divided our school year into eight week increments.  Behind each week's tab is everything I need to smoothly manage our homeshcool for that week.

2.  I love Sonlight's instructor's guides!  This is largely why I switched to Sonlight.  They are very structured, but at the same time leave room for customization.  Because I have two advanced readers doing Core 3+4 this year, I've added readers and read alouds to our curriculum.  (I added these from the individual Cores 3 and 4 so that we will have a more complete American History experience.)  The instructor's guide provides room for me to write in our reading schedule for these books plus I was able to add our Science and Art schedules in the "other notes" section.  By the way, thank you Roan for introducing me to Donna Young homeschool resources.  I had been going through the Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science textbook making myself crazy trying to break it down into daily lessons when I discovered someone more experienced than myself has already done this!   Twinkle Toes will be studying Nutrition 101:  Choose Life next year and each weekly lesson can be easily divided into two days.

(Our school schedule is heavy on Mondays and Tuesdays since we have no outside activities on those days.) 

I also printed the Apologia General Science schedule from Donna Young and placed it in Monk's folder.  So, why did I feel the need to also write it in our Sonlight binder?  I want to have a master schedule that the kids and I can check for all their subjects.  I love that their Grammar Ace and Wordly Wise assignments are already included in the Language Arts instructor's guide.  And it was easy to add in their Spelling Wisdom since Sonlight provides a space for Spelling already. 

The only subjects not covered in our Sonlight binder are Math and Greek.  I didn't feel the need to add these because they are so straight forward.  The kids do one lesson in Math each day until test time.  The kids work two pages of Greek each morning at breakfast.  It's that simple!

3.  My crazy friend Roan also convinced me to move all the wonderful study notes included in our Sonlight instructor's guide up to the weekly tab that the book will first be utilized.  This was a tough decision for me and half-way through I was regretting it.  Now I think I'm glad I did it.  Here's why:  Sonlight has provided incredible notes and resources that I didn't fully take advantage of last year.  Whenever my kids would read a book that I hadn't read, I would use their discussion questions to test reading comprehension, but I didn't use the notes Sonlight provides for the books that we read aloud together.  I also didn't use their maps since I found it hard to thumb through and find the appropriate map at the end of the study notes for each book.  I ended up using a book of historical maps that I already had and could keep within easy reach.  This year I want to take full advantage of all that Sonlight has to offer including all notes and maps.  I think if everything I need for the week is right there behind its tab, I'll be more likely to make sure my kids are getting the most out of each reading session.

And finally, with a new baby on the way in October (or I can always hope for September), I want our school days to be so streamlined that the kids can figure out what they're supposed to do next without me.  I'll be here, but I may not always be available, if you know what I mean. 

I also took advantage of Donna Young's wide selection of planners to write out a daily schedule for each day of our week (they're different because we have piano on Thursdays, Bible study on Wednesdays, etc.).  I've placed these schedules at the beginning of our Sonlight binder and also in each child's folder.  Hopefully with our weekly and daily schedules, we'll always know what we're supposed to be doing when!

Thanks, Roan for inspiring me to plan ahead.  I've had so much fun going over everything we're going to study next year that I'm ready to start school right now!  I really can't wait!

Read-aloud time activities

Last year was our first year for an extended read-aloud time each day.  An hour and a half is a long time for my kids to sit still and I don't tolerate fidgeting very well.  So, after reading that Kimberly at Raising Olives allows her kids to do hand-work during read-aloud time I decided to test it out.  The only problem was my kids don't do any hand-work!  After some experimenting I learned that tracing and drawing something appropriate to our lesson did not interfere with the listening comprehension of my 10 and 8 year olds.  In fact, this really allowed us to kill two birds with one stone since I decided half-way through the school year that each child would make a portfolio.  So while I was reading Master Cornhill, my kids might be drawing the life-cycle of the plague virus (from The Story of the World Activity Book) or tracing and coloring a picture of the Old London Bridge (found on the internet).  This helped my kids to sit quietly and still during read-aloud time and it gave them material for their portfolios.  This year we're studying American History and so far I've just purchased one drawing book.  I'm on the lookout for additional activity books though if you know of any good ones.

Remember the Alamo?

And since Twinkle Toes and Measle are learning to knit this summer, they will also be able to do hand-work during read-aloud this year.  With a little brother coming in October they should be quite busy with baby knitting projects until then.

Last year Louie (21 months) was napping during read-aloud time, but this year she'll only nap in the afternoons.  So I've been brainstorming about how to keep Louie and AB (4) quietly while we read.  Louie is blanket-trained, but I've never tried keeping her in one place for an hour and a half!  Last year AB was allowed to quietly work puzzles or play learning games.  This year I'm wondering if I need to set up stations as other multi-level homeschooling moms have done.  I'm not sure yet how formal these "stations" will be, but I wanted to show you some of the games.  Tara at Too Many Kids in the Bathtub made these games and my little kids love them!

Louie needs to work on her counting skills.  She kept going along behind AB and adding feathers.

I'm sure there are many ways you can play this game.  I just put all the pictures in a pile and

let the kids choose pictures to cover up the shapes on their shape cards. 

Another shape game.  The pictures go from easy to difficult and show how rearranging shapes makes different designs.

This is supposed to be a color sorting game, but Louie wasn't quite following it. 

You could also sort the buttons by shape.

This is a variation of the picnic game.  What is it about play food that kids love?

Pattern making is fun with rainbow road.

Who needs 9?  At least they'll know their numbers through 8 with these nifty number puzzles.

Here's the picnic game as it was meant to be played.  Match the foods

to their corresponding picnic blankets.

And here they are- all the little kid games, puzzles, and activities tucked away in the cabinet under our read-aloud shelf.  When Louie has blanket time she gets to have a game or puzzle on her blanket with her.  Maybe we'll have to break every 30 minutes or so to change out the activity. 

Sonlight 3/4 American History, here we come!

I can't believe June is over and the school year is around the corner again!  I'm so excited that we'll be starting Sonlight Core 3/4 American History in August!  The 3/4 core is a one year condensed version of Intro to American History, but ours is only going to be condensed in time, not scope.  Yes, that's right, I just couldn't pass on all those marvelous books in core 3 and core 4 that we would have missed out on.  I inherited the core 3/4 books from my sister-in-law so I only bought the additional books that I knew we just couldn't live without.  My thinking is this:  My 9 and 11 yr olds are very good readers and even using core 6 this year (a year or two above their grade levels) I added 4 or 5 books to our curriculum.  My 7 yr old will not be reading all the books in core 3/4 with us.  I was hoping she'd be up to it, but we're just not there yet.  She'll do read aloud with us and also read independently the 4-5 books in the core that appear to be closer to her 2nd grade reading level.  I've found a few other picture books and chapter books on her level that will supplement her readings in American History. 

One of the reasons we're so excited to be starting American History is because we're planning a trip to Washington DC this year!  I was able to travel there a few years ago at cherry blossom time and I'm hoping we can time it right so the whole family can enjoy that beautiful sight.  We're shooting for April, but I guess we'll play it by ear.  It's a good thing we're all set for cross-country trips now with our RV!

I've been working on a series of posts on our 2010-2011 curriculum and schedule.  I love reading what others are doing, so if you haven't posted on this yet, please do so.  If you have posted your curriculum for next year, I'd love to have a link to it in the comments section.  I love learning from the wisdom and experience of others!

Our new and improved homeschool schedule, no really

Have you ever been in unchartered territory and felt like you were groping around in the dark trying to find your way? Homeschooling is like that when you first begin.

I have been so blessed by you experienced homeschool moms. You've inspired me and encouraged me and shown me the way. I knew we needed a change, but sometimes wasn't even sure what change we needed.

Making a change in schedule, especially when starting earlier in the morning, isn't easy.

It takes work and determination.

But it looks like this schedule might just be the one that sticks.

I’ve revised our schedule yet again due to some ongoing frustration with finishing up later than 3pm as a result of different activities. The Charlotte Mason method encourages school work in the morning and activities in the afternoon. That sounds ideal, but we didn’t have enough time in the morning. At least not enough baby-free time. So here’s what we’ve been doing lately.

7 am School starts for my 10, 8, and 6 year olds. We quietly congregate in the living room while the 3 yr old and 15 month old are still sleeping. This is when we have our Bible time which includes Sonlight’s Bible reading plan and The Bible Field Guide, Scripture memory and catechism using our TAG books, character training using ATI booklets, and currently we’re also reading a couple of pages of Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. This is my favorite time of the day! My older kids are still sleepy enough that they are quiet and attentive, rather than bouncing off the walls like later in the day. I sit on the ottoman very close to them so I can talk softly and know they are listening. And even though I realize we’ve moved breakfast back an hour, so we haven’t really gained any time, it’s such a great feeling to go into breakfast with an hour of our day already under our belt.

8 am Breakfast- We read an attribute of God each morning (so the littles will have some devotional time) and the older kids work on their Greek while I’m making breakfast. (Our 3 yr old thinks B is called “beta”. Oops, I guess I need to work with him a little this summer!)

After breakfast the 3 big kids get dressed and make their beds and straighten their rooms while I get the younger 2 bathed and dressed.

9 am Individual studies- Math or Reading/LA (In reality they get started closer to 8:45. The two older kids read the same books so while one reads in the morning the other does math, then they switch in the afternoon.)

10 am Read aloud- Sonlight history and literature, Mystery of History, Science. We usually read for an hour and fifteen minutes then the kids have 15 minutes to clean up the living room before lunch. Since this is a long time to sit quietly, especially for my 3 yr old, I’ve started letting the kids work on things while I read. The older ones draw, trace, or color pictures of what we’re studying. Right now it’s knight’s armor for Monk and horses for Twinkle Toes. Measle is on probation because every time I ask her a question she can’t answer it. So she just has to sit and listen. American Boy works puzzles or plays games quietly. And Baby Lu is napping during this time, which is why it can be so productive.

11:30 Lunch

12 pm Individual studies and finish any other assignments

This means we should normally finish up by 1:30 in the afternoon. We also read our Sonlight books for a little while most evenings which keeps us from falling behind.

The key to our schedule being a success is starting early, but not too early. I actually tried starting at 6:30 am for a few days back before Christmas, but I kept having to poke the kids and wake them up every few minutes. I decided it was probably counterproductive!

I love several things about this new schedule. First, I love that the kids can take piano lessons on Thursday afternoons and we don’t have to do school when they get home until 4pm. The same goes for Fridays when I take the 3 older kids ice skating in the early afternoon. Second, I love that it frees up my afternoons for a couple of hours!! I have been missing this time greatly! It gives me a chance during afternoon nap time to read, work on my Bible study questions, blog, or run errands (like today since my husband was home). I really don't understand how 1 hr at 7 can free up 2 hrs in the afternoon, but hey, I'm not going to question the math!)

New and Improved Sonlight Homeschool Schedule

Thanks to Kim at Raising Olives who homeschools 9 children using Sonlight and has posted a series on multi-level homeschooling , I have a new master school schedule that should work at our house (for now). We made the switch to Sonlight curriculum this year and the kids and I absolutely love it. The challenge has been for me to arrange our schedule such that the older kids and I can have ~2 hrs per day of quality read-aloud time together, which requires we do this while Baby Lu is napping. She’s not a big napper and only sleeps for about an hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. Add to that our many activities and the kids’ other school requirements like math and language arts and it’s been quite a challenge to fit it all in.

Without further adieu, here is our new and improved Sonlight homeschool schedule.

7-8:00 am Breakfast with American Bible Society daily reading
Morning chores

8-9:15 am Mommy- morning chores and playtime with littles
Mr. Monk- math
Twinkle Toes-independent reading and piano
Measle- violin and handwriting/copy work

9:15-9:45 am Corporate break- outside play weather permitting

9:45-11 am M, T, Th, F Language arts and morning read-aloud time
Bible, Bible Field Guide, Favorite Poems Old and New, TAG memory work
(W = Community Bible Study)

11-11:30 am Lunch

11:30-12 pm Break time for kids

12-1:15 pm Mommy- read and play with littles (when not helping Measle)
Mr. Monk- independent reading
Twinkle Toes- math
Measle- math and vocabulary/spelling

1:15-1:30 pm Short break and clear off tables

1:30-2:30 pm T, W, F Afternoon read-aloud time (Story of the World and historical fiction)
Map and time-line activities
(M & Th Afternoon read-aloud 3-4pm due to ice skating and piano)

2:30-3:00 pm T, W, F Science read-aloud selections

Hooray for Sonlight!

Don't you just love a good project?

We've changed over from Robinson curriculum to Sonlight curriculum and we received a BIG box of books yesterday. I love it already! My favorite part is the amount of time we spend reading together everyday! This curriculum was made for us! Why didn't I know about it before?


Sonlight, in case you don't know, is a wonderful literature-based curriculum that inter-weaves history, geography, reading, Bible, and language arts using texts, biographies, maps, and historical fiction. Each day my kids read for an hour and a half on their own and we read for an hour together. (I love that I have discussion questions for each day's reading so I can make sure they're understanding what they read!) We also spend about an hour and a half on math (Saxon) and 45 minutes on Language Arts. I cannot tell you how much I love the Sonlight core program even though we just started. Last year we read The Story of the World volumes one and two for history. The kids loved it and we all enjoyed the narrative style, but none of us felt we retained it like we should. I tried to supplement with reading from the library, but it was kind of hit or miss. This year with Sonlight we're revisitng The Story of the World volumes I and II since they serve as the backbone of the core 5 program, but this time we're also reading more than 30 books that cover every time and culture. The kids also have map and timeline activities incorporated into each day's assignments. This helps them maintain a sense of the big picture of world history.


So, if you LOVE books like I do, this may be the curriculum for you.


Speaking of books, this is the last day to comment on my book giveaway post for a chance to win a copy of The Royal Attributes of God, a lovely book for children that gives simple explanations and verses from the Bible for 30 different attributes of God. It also has beautiful watercolor illustrations on each page (I am a little biased since my friend painted them.)
homeschool
Sonlight curriculum