Closing First Semester in Brady Bunch Homeschool

In November we celebrated Thanksgiving. The girls did some Thanksgiving themed work and the same week we also celebrated Little K's 3rd birthday!

T and H finished up their first All About Spelling books. I HIGHLY recommend AAS for struggling spellers/readers. It is an amazing program. T started with level 1 and H started with level 2. They do NOT recommend starting any higher than that, no matter the students age. They know what they're talking about.

I've had these magnetic letters for a while that K is playing with in the picture below and one day I got the idea to only pull them out when I'm doing AAS with H or T so she can do her own "spelling" at the same time, and therefore, enable me to work with H or T. She wants to be included as much as possible, and keeping things only for certain times keeps them more exciting. So she can look forward to "spelling" time with her big sisters.

Mid-December was the week was the last week of co-op for the semester. H created a lego city for her final geography project. The picture does not do it justice. She even had little pieces of trash in her dump. She did a great job.

H also finished her second book in the Circle C Adventures Series. She earned another Pizza Hut coupon for a free personal pizza!

T's reading has been improving so much! Dad had a chance to listen to her read one day and he was pleasantly surprised with her improvement since the last time he'd her read. Reading has been a struggle for her. At the beginning of the school year she was reading quite below grade level, so we went all the way back to first grade phonics/reading. She's worked extremely hard over the last few months, working on phonics and decoding skills. She is almost finished with the last first grade reader, and I was going to buy the 2nd grade next, but her reading has improved so much that I thought we'd pull up the third grade to see how she did, and sure enough, she could read it! This was HUGE! So, I gave her the San Diego Quick Assessment (a very simple, quick, basic assessment of reading level) and she scored at a 3rd grade reading level. I then went on to have her read the first 400 Fry's sight words (the most common words in reading and writing that students should be able to read automatically) and out of 400 she only missed 38, which is a 90.5% accuracy rate! Again, this is HUGE!

MK is plugging along in pre-algebra and grammar. She also read Island of the Blue Dolphins. She looks forward to going to the co-op each week and has some good friends there. She is about to celebrate her 13th birthday, which blows my mind. We've switched MK's curriculum a few different times this semester, but we seem to finally be in a groove. I realized online learning does not work for our family (which is pretty ironic since we utilize so much technology in our home).

Little E has taken off with her reading. She impresses me daily. She is also recognizing most numbers up to 100, which actually baffles me, because she tends to learn things before we actually get there in the curriculum. We were at the pet store and she started reading the numbers next to all the fish tanks. It must be Starfall. No seriously, I don't know where she learns half the stuff she learns. I'll take credit for teaching her how to read, but the rest of it she just picks up. I'm not an un-schooler by any stretch of the imagination, but I can totally see why un-schoolers un-school when some kids are really just self-motivated learners. Little E is one of those kids that is very easy to teach. If she wants to know something, she asks, and then she remembers what answer you gave. She reminds me so, so much of MK at this age.

H's completed work for first semester (Bible, language, reading, math, spelling). I couldn't bear the thought of just throwing all the hard work away without at least taking a picture of it.

T's completed work for first semester (language, reading, math, spelling): 

Lastly, we celebrated CHRISTMAS! We are now taking a break and will resume in January. The break is nice, but I will be excited to get back into our groove again too.

May you be blessed in 2015!

Weeks 9 & 10

We are into our second quarter now! The girls continue to make amazing art at our co-op. I'm so thankful for the art class. I'm not very artistic, so I love that they get an outlet every week to be create beautiful masterpieces.

(sun in T's eyes)

H finished her first book of the year, The Long Ride Home. She also wrote a book report. I emailed the author to tell her how much we are enjoying her book and H was very happy to read her reply. I love it that an author took the time to write us back.

We also went on a field trip. The girls and I had so much fun. I love spending this time with my girls.

I got a bit behind in my posting because we took an impromptu fall break between weeks 9 & 10. Now that we are back in school mode I will stay on top of posting. I'm primarily using this blog to document our year so that at the end of the year I can turn the blog into a yearbook of sorts. I am loving this whole homeschooling thing even more than I thought I would. We have our good days and our bad days, but being able to do the thing I love most (teach) with the girls I love most just can't be beat. I am so blessed. God is good. All the time.

Week 8-Almost Finished with First Quarter!

We are almost finished with our first quarter! I can't believe how fast time flies. Finding curriculum for MK continues to be a struggle. We've tried so much, and just haven't found the right fit for her. The latest adventure was Switched on Schoolhouse. I paid almost $300 for 3 subjects, and it's just not working for us. Sadly, I can't re-sell it. I vow to never buy curriculum again that you aren't allowed to resell. I am putting M back into Saxon math, which she did the last 2 years at school. H already uses Saxon. I have experience teaching it as well, and the spiral approach works well for my girls. I regret not just going with Saxon from the start, but now I know! Stick with what works!

T finished her first book this week! I am so proud of her. I actually cried for a minute after I took her picture. I am also thankful to Pizza Hut who extends their reading program to homeschoolers. T earned a coupon for a free personal size pizza. We will have to go use it next week.

The girls love their art class, and I'm constantly impressed with their creativity and skill.

H is absolutely loving her Circle C Adventures book Andrea Carter and the Long Ride Home. I'm thoroughly enjoying it as well. H will finish it this next week and then she will write a book report the following week. I'm excited to work on some writing skills with her. After that we will continue on with the next book in the series, Andrea Carter and the Dangerous Decision. The author provides free lesson plans and study guides for all of her books on her website. I am eternally grateful. They are wonderful!

I am really loving Rod and Staff math for T. It is thorough, to the point, and provides tons of practice. T's favorite part of math is when she gets to practice on the board.

I discovered Liberty Kids videos on YouTube thanks to the recommendation of a friend. History in the form of a cartoon couldn't be more perfect! Even the little girls were happy to sit and watch. In fact, K didn't want me to turn it off. I definitely recommend it for a unit study or even a "mom needs a break to make lunch" study. You can find some study guides on teachers pay teachers, but most of them cost.

Week 5-Scratch That!

We took this week pretty easy. We got the basics done, but not much else. This week I spent a lot of time in prayer and research regarding curriculum. I've read many times that the first few years of homeschooling you really figure yourself, your kids, and your curriculum out. I'm definitely no exception. Bottom line is, some things weren't working for us, and so they had to change. I decided to change MK over to Switched on Schoolhouse. I think (hope) I will love it. I really felt like Easy Peasy was not a great fit for MK. It was difficult for me to monitor her work, and ensure that she was really learning. With SOS I can see all her assignments, when they were completed, and the grade she got on them. It is automatically graded 90% of the time with the exception of essay questions. MK really prefers to work indepently on the computer, and it works well for her to do so. I searched and prayed all week for a curriculum that would fit both her needs and mine and THINK I've finally found it. We'll see. I'm hopeful.

I really wanted geography and cultures to work this year with H and T. I started off with My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures, and then switched to Easy Peasy Geography and Cultures. After 5 weeks I finally admitted that this is just not working for us. I needed to do something else. My main focus with H and T this year is actually the Three R's, but I don't want to throw history out completely. However, it needs to meet certain criteria. It needs to require minimal, if any, research from me (so I can use my time for the core subjects). It needs to be able to be used with both girls, in different grade levels, and it needs to have worksheets/activities already planned out. So, after debating all week on what to do, I finally decided to just go with The Story of the World Volume 3. I chose volume 3 because it's recommend for grades 3-6 (perfect, right?) and because to be perfectly honest, I've never really liked Ancient History, so my first year homeschooling I would prefer to avoid it (Volume 3 is early modern history). We'll get to Ancient History later when I've got this whole homeschooling thing down. Since SOTW is read like a book, we can all sit on the couch to enjoy it, and on the busier weeks we can skip activities from the accompanying activity book if needed. What I'm saying is, there's no pressure to do it all. I needed the pressure off for history, because reading, writing, and arithmetic are my focus with these girls this year. Those come first. History is an added bonus right now.

Now, on the bright side, I am super-de-duper loving Pathway Publishers reading for T. Her reading is improving greatly. It's absolutely the perfect program for her/us. Finding this program didn't come easily though. I first bought Abeka, sold that, and bought Rod and Staff. We got the R&S over summer and T absolutely hated it. So, I went down a grade level in R&S thinking that might help. It didn't. We had been reading one of Pathway Publishers books over summer for review/practice, and I thought (lightbulb moment) why not just go with the entire Pathway Publishers program since she seems to be doing so well with it (ding-ding-ding)!

I've also been around the block with reading curriculum for H. I originally bought Bob Jones Reading 6. I scratched that and got Rod and Staff's A Time to Plant. We used that for a few weeks and we were both extremely bored. My friend told me about Circle C Adventures. It's a series about a 12 year old girl who loves horses and is figuring out her place in the world. The author has free lesson plans and worksheets on her website. We both absolutely love the first book in the series, The Long Ride Home. H actually said said this week that she couldn't wait to find out what happens next. That, my friends, shows me that this series is the right choice for her.

So, onto a new week. I'm loving this homeschooling thing. I know with full certainty that this is exactly where my children and I are supposed to be. I thank God every day.

Oh, we need some pictures, don't we? I don't have too many, but we did go on a field trip to the ice skating rink. 

And check out this awesome art!

See ya next week!