My Oldest's 3 Grade Curriculum

November 15th, 2009

I do have other children.  You know, besides the 2 youngest cutesy pies that tend to steal the show. 

When I took those pictures of the one month old and the 2 year old, I also took pictures of the other 3 doing their school work.  While looking at them (and realizing that I haven’t talked about actual school work since… when?) I thought I would let you in on what we’re doing.  And I have a couple of how-I-do’s on my 3rd grader’s work, but that’s for another day.  Today I just wanted to “write to remember” what we were doing at this point in our homeschooling lives.

I’m an eclectic homeschooler.  I’m not sure I would be (though probably, knowing me) if money weren’t an issue, but with lots of hand-me-down stuff, a little online research for scope and sequence (homeschool speak for what they should be learning when), a lot of real life learning, and a few supplemental dollar store workbooks and coloring books (oh, yes, I did just say that!) we have a plan for the year.  Or at least for the moment.

  

TheOldest is officially in third grade.  Officially, as in that’s what I wrote on the forms that I turned in and he will be taking the state mandatory test in the spring.  However, since we don’t follow a pre-printed curriculum I did do some research on what he should be learning this year, but mostly, I continued along with where we were.

Spanish.  All I’m using is a workbook from Wal-Mart.  It’s bright, it’s colored, and it’s very basic.  He was ready to learn the actual words before now, but he wasn’t ready for all the writing that came with the book.  So, we’re working through the workbook this year.

Grammar.  I had some hand-me-down worksheets from somewhere.  I don’t have any idea if the grammar we’re doing is 1st grade, 2nd grade, or 3rd grade.  No idea.  What I do know is that he hasn’t mastered them yet, so we’re covering them.  One day at a time.  Nouns – proper and common, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, pronouns, possessive pronouns, capitalization, the basics.

History.  I have a hand-me-down book (and teacher’s guide), but didn’t have the money for the workbook (which makes me sad, but has worked out just fine).  This book covers early American history.

Science.  We’re doing complete unschooling on this one right now.  More about how we’re unschooling later. 

Reading.  He has actually chosen chapter books to read now.  I really never thought this day would come.  His current reads include Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All and The Dangerous Book For Boys.  His required reading is his history book (see above) – I assign between 2 and 6 pages a day. 

Math.  Again we use hand-me-down worksheets.  Because of this, again, we don’t have any idea if they are geared more towards 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade.  And once again, we just do the next thing.  I have looked at some sequencing sites online (plus a little common sense) so I know we need to do addition, subtraction, and are now introducing multiplication.  I will note: math has always come easy to him so I only included worksheets that move pretty quickly through each new concept with only the occasional review sheets added in.  As we did more regrouping (formerly known as carrying and borrowing, by the way) I realized he’s needing more practice.  I also realized he needed much more work with flash card type simple math problems such as 2+3, 6+5, you know, memorization kind of work (to make the regrouping easier). 

Handwriting.  Hoo-wee – handwriting’s the new reading.  Oh my goodness.  I have him write each day, more and more – he now fills out all the language arts worksheets, spanish worksheets, math problems, and just recently I’ve added a requirement of 5 complete sentences a day.    And this amount is our absolute limit – oh.my the fussing that accompanies this much writing.

Writing.  I’ve been working with him on organizing his thoughts, picking titles, and staying on topic.  More on this in my upcoming “how I do” post.

Geography, Social Studies, Current Events, Health.  These all fall into the “learning never stops” category for us, much like science.  He’s very interested in these things and we keep him up to date with news and allowowing him to research his interests.

We’ll, hopefully, be looking into practice tests for the state mandatory test before too long and, yes, I will be “teaching to the test” for this phase in our lives. 

Did I miss anything? 

What are you teaching your 3rd grader?  I’d love to know!

You Capture - Real Life

Okay, I’m late to I Should Be Folding Laundry’s You Capture blog party.  So, what’s new?  And I may be sent home from the party because technically Matt captured this picture and not me, it is called You Capture, but oh well, right?

I realized I’m always about being real, this is not new, but when I looked back at those loose-tooth pictures of MyMiddlest, I saw me.  Also not new - my hubby takes pictures of me quite frequently.  What is new is that I would show you an unedited, unposed, full color picture of me.  With no make up.  Not ready to leave the house.  And I normally abhor pictures like that.  But this one struck me. 

Because I’m smiling.  And I look happy.  Because I was happy.  And it doesn’t seem as though I am thatenough lately.  The weather was beautiful and all that tooth pulling was cracking me up. 

So that’s me.  Up there, not all dolled up.  Just me.  In real life.  Now the true challenge is to capture that joy and pour it out much more often.

Teaching Toddlers

November 12th, 2009

I’ve been asked before how I teach my littles.  And when I start.  Well..  I have no hard and fast rules.  And they’ve changed often.  But there are a few constants I follow.  I don’t start until they really want to start.  With MyOldest that was really, really late.  As in, I was still pushing him to do any kind of work after I had enrolled him (and then brought him home from) public school.  Granted, we put him in kindergarten at the young age of 4.  He just wasn’t ready.  A year later he was barely ready.  But because he’s the first and I was determined that he would look good in homeschooling for my sake I continued to push (I’m sure I still am and will regret this as well when I look back in a few years).  But that’s a different post.  With MyMiddlest I pushed less, but still didn’t really know what I was doing, what to look for.  By the time MyPrincess let me know she was ready, I was a little more prepared.  First of all, let me say, just because she joined us at the table at the age of 2 does not mean your toddler is ready.  My first two were not.  She just was.  And I’m sure that’s because she watched her two older brothers “do school” and she wanted to be a part of it.  So, I figured out how to include her.  And the other day when BigMan was begging to “do my school” (for weeksnow, by the way), I realized he really is ready to officially join us.  Yes, I know he’s 2 1/2.  I would never suggest your children should be “doing school” before they are potty trained, but hey, who am I to hold back a child begging to do school work.  Little does he know, he’ll be begging to not do school before too long!  So, while winging it with his work the other day I thought I’d let you in on what I do.

I found one of ThePrincess’s worksheets on opposites.  I cut it up a bit to make it easier.  I usually hit the basics and things I know they’ll want to do.  I draw colored lines and tell him to cut on them.

I let him cut them with no expectations of how he should cut at all.  No matter how it looks – it’s a “GREAT JOB!”

Then I explained that one was up and one was down.  I asked him which was which. 

Then I drew squares on the worksheet for him to glue within.  And explained again which side was up and which was down. 

And let him stick the picture on.  This age is all about following directions, knowing colors, learning opposites, building fine motor skills (cutting, gluing, picking up little pictures), and having fun.  With the emphasis on fun.  If he doesn’t want to do something we don’t do it.  He can wander in and out as often as he wants.  With no pressure what so ever.

 

Here’s another worksheet I made up on the fly.  Simple shapes.  I said things like, “Point to the little circle, find the blue crayon, color the little circle blue.  Are you sure that’s blue?  You’re right, it’s that one instead.  Great job!!”  And then I showed him what “tracing” was and asked him to “trace the black circle.” 

He was so excited to be a part of the school day! 

I say again, MyOldest wasn’t even ready for this level at the age of 4.  MyMiddlest wasn’t really either.  They just weren’t.  And your little ones may not be either.  This is just if you have a little one begging to do table work – it’s to give you an idea of how I get started.  If yours are not asking to be a part of school time, then just let them be kids, let them play, enjoy those carefree days, and don’t worry!

Teaching Toddlers

November 12th, 2009

I’ve been asked before how I teach my littles.  And when I start.  Well..  I have no hard and fast rules.  And they’ve changed often.  But there are a few constants I follow.  I don’t start until they really want to start.  With MyOldest that was really, really late.  As in, I was still pushing him to do any kind of work after I had enrolled him (and then brought him home from) public school.  Granted, we put him in kindergarten at the young age of 4.  He just wasn’t ready.  A year later he was barely ready.  But because he’s the first and I was determined that he would look good in homeschooling for my sake I continued to push (I’m sure I still am and will regret this as well when I look back in a few years).  But that’s a different post.  With MyMiddlest I pushed less, but still didn’t really know what I was doing, what to look for.  By the time MyPrincess let me know she was ready, I was a little more prepared.  First of all, let me say, just because she joined us at the table at the age of 2 does not mean your toddler is ready.  My first two were not.  She just was.  And I’m sure that’s because she watched her two older brothers “do school” and she wanted to be a part of it.  So, I figured out how to include her.  And the other day when BigMan was begging to “do my school” (for weeksnow, by the way), I realized he really is ready to officially join us.  Yes, I know he’s 2 1/2.  I would never suggest your children should be “doing school” before they are potty trained, but hey, who am I to hold back a child begging to do school work.  Little does he know, he’ll be begging to not do school before too long!  So, while winging it with his work the other day I thought I’d let you in on what I do.

I found one of ThePrincess’s worksheets on opposites.  I cut it up a bit to make it easier.  I usually hit the basics and things I know they’ll want to do.  I draw colored lines and tell him to cut on them.

I let him cut them with no expectations of how he should cut at all.  No matter how it looks – it’s a “GREAT JOB!”

Then I explained that one was up and one was down.  I asked him which was which. 

Then I drew squares on the worksheet for him to glue within.  And explained again which side was up and which was down. 

And let him stick the picture on.  This age is all about following directions, knowing colors, learning opposites, building fine motor skills (cutting, gluing, picking up little pictures), and having fun.  With the emphasis on fun.  If he doesn’t want to do something we don’t do it.  He can wander in and out as often as he wants.  With no pressure what so ever.

 

Here’s another worksheet I made up on the fly.  Simple shapes.  I said things like, “Point to the little circle, find the blue crayon, color the little circle blue.  Are you sure that’s blue?  You’re right, it’s that one instead.  Great job!!”  And then I showed him what “tracing” was and asked him to “trace the black circle.” 

He was so excited to be a part of the school day! 

I say again, MyOldest wasn’t even ready for this level at the age of 4.  MyMiddlest wasn’t really either.  They just weren’t.  And your little ones may not be either.  This is just if you have a little one begging to do table work – it’s to give you an idea of how I get started.  If yours are not asking to be a part of school time, then just let them be kids, let them play, enjoy those carefree days, and don’t worry!

Already

November 11th, 2009

He’s a month old. 

He’s lost his newbornness.  He’s quit peeling that first layer of getting-adjusted-to-air skin.  He’s lost his cord.  His fingernails are thicker than paper.  He will never have that meconium poop again.  He’s learned how to cry without forgetting to breathe.  He won’t tolerate swaddling anymore.

He’s traded that wrinkly skin that doesn’t quite fit for a robust pink, plump as he can get, creases that are difficult to find the end of, fat rings on his arms, nicknamed “fathead” for those huge cheeks that jiggle when he rides in the van.  He’s outgrown the “newborn” outfits and now is seeing the end of the 0-3 months clothes.  He’s well into the size one diapers.

He’s smiling.  He’s cooing.  He’s stretching his sleep at night to 5, 6, even as long as 8 hours one time.

Shortly after sharing that I was losing my mind one diaper at a time, I did regain my perspective.  Thanks to all of your sweet words, prayers on my behalf, and getting a little more sleep.  The same day that I let you in on my “losing it-ness” a sweet friend called to say that “none of the family is sick, could we please just bring you some chicken fettucine – we won’t get out of the van if you don’t want, we just want to keep you from cooking tonight.”  That kindness was followed shortly by another wonderful friend sending Steven Curtis Chapman’s new album This Moment with the note “Listen to track 7 – I know you will appreciate it.  Share it with other great moms you know. – Joyce”  It took me a full day to get up my nerve to listen to it.  I know, I’m a coward.  But I knew by the title of “track 7″ that I was not going to make it through the song with dry eyes.  Matt sat down with me the next morning and we listened to One Heartbeat At A Time.

One Heartbeat At A TimeSteven Curtis Chapman
Video/Photo montage created by “Ibelong2JC”

 

“You’re up all night with a screaming baby
You run all day at the speed of life
And every day you feel a little bit less
Like the beautiful woman you are

So you fall into bed when you run out of hours
And you wonder if anything worth doing got done
Oh, maybe you just don’t know
Or maybe you’ve forgotten

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

With every “I know you can do it”
Every tear that you kiss away
So many little things that seem to go unnoticed
They’re just like the drops of rain over time
They become a river

And you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

You’re beautiful
You’re beautiful
How you’re changing the world
You’re changing the world

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
Oh, I believe that you
You are changing the world
One little heartbeat
At a time

And you’re changing the world”

I cried.  And remembered what I was doing.  And why.  And thanked my Father for friends who give what they know I need, when I don’t know I need it.

And rejoiced in the blessings that He’s given me.  Even when the level of “crap” that gathers around me hasn’t changed a bit.  But I can rejoice because the eyes that I look upon it with, have refocused. 

On my children.  That are growing older and farther from me every day.

And I rejoice that he’s one month old.

Already.

Why I Homeschool So Soon After Giving Birth

November 3rd, 2009

Several of you commented on my whining post (and I do feel better now, Jules was right, it was cathartic just to write it out, thanks for asking!) about my starting back to schooling as early as I do.  And I didn’t even disclose the fact that I started back at one week post partum.  I did the same thing 2 1/2 years ago when BigMan was born.  It is that I am a little crazy.  It is not so much that I feel like we’re going to “get behind” or anything so noble as that.  I’m not that responsible of a teacher.  It’s more like that we’re all bored out of our minds by this point.  Really.  Remember that stupid to-do list I had for myself, that included such important things like wiping the ceiling fan blades by myself 2 days before delivery?  I was working hard on all that and too outta my mind to teach those young’n's for about a month before TheFinalist arrived (last time I was busy moving into a new house 3 weeks before BigMan’s birth).  So, that sets up much unstructured (read: bored) time for the olders.  Add constant rain that keeps everyone cooped up and you have wall-climbing mind-shattering disasters afoot.  Especially if I do such things as put my feet up.  I take the first week off when my honey’s home (and I’m virtually useless anyway – pain pills, the pain that warrants said pills, letting a bunch of little ones learn about (and fawn over) their newest sibling, you get it). 

TheFinalist at 2 weeks

But when he heads back to work and the mundane returns then it’s time to focus some minds (or lose mine).  It allows me focused one-on-one time with them.  It allows their brains to actually work.  And, let’s be really honest, it takes up a lot of time.  That’s important when you need to sit a bunch and you have a lot of active people.  But fear not, sweet concerned friends, I take it slow, I sit for the duration of the work, and I have no time schedule (in actuality, I should have more, but eh, I’m kind of an eclectic unschooler anyway), and I know when to call it quits for the day.  Besides, schoolwork for us has become a way of life.  Not just school at home.  And that’s nice.  And comfortable.  But thanks for your worrying – it lets me know you love me!