nature study

For part of our science next year (which is only a week and half away... yikes!), we will be doing nature study.

I found this book....
Handbook of Nature Study
while looking through the Ambleside Online book lists. However, I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to use the book until I found this blog... Handbook of Nature Study. My plan is to participate in the challenges that are listed there. I love the thought of getting us outside more. Not that we're not outside a lot... but outside, taking the time to observe the nature that is around us... even in the city. It's amazing how much can be found in such an urban environment. Right now, on one our potted plants on our back deck, we are watching caterpillars grow! We found the eggs on a leaf one day, watched them hatch and are now watching the caterpillars grow larger by the minute (or so it seems). The kids love checking on them multiple times a day (plus doing a head count to make sure we're not missing anyone!).

If I was questioning that a nature study would be something the kids would enjoy, I got my answer this weekend. We were at Crystal Mountain and while there, we went geocaching. The kids found such greater treasures than the caches as we trekked down trails and up the ski hills. They asked me to photograph some of their favorite finds.

The bark on this tree...
a bee on a thistle...
a monarch caterpillar...
and a frog in the creek...
Next week I'm going to the art supply store to buy sketch books for all of us to use as nature journals.

I really can't wait!

art 08/09

Okay... as you can probably tell by my previous posts, my "style" is changing a bit this year. I'm letting go of my previous "school at home" homeschooling method and going for a more "joy of learning" philosophy. Don't get me wrong, you can still love learning in a "school at home" scenario, but I'm finding the we, as a family, are really enjoying a more relaxed framework when it comes to school.

I used to think that I needed to schedule in artist studies. I went crazy trying to find the right curriculum and such. I never really found one that was right and I would beat myself up about it. But then I began to realize just how much my children had absorbed from our frequent trips to the Art Institute. They had developed relationships with the various pieces of art, and through these relationships, they had begun to seek out more information about the artist, the history of the piece, the style, etc. They had done all of this because they loved the piece and it brought them joy. It was so amazing to finally step back and realize what had happened. I'm pretty sure most of the curricula I was considering wouldn't have brought them the same delight as our trips to the Art Institute did.

So, instead of lesson plans and such for art appreciation, I bought these instead...
Can You Find It?
Alex LOVES I Spy books so I thought this could be fun for him.

The following books look like a lot of fun..... mysteries, spot the differences and great pieces of art! I think we'll really enjoy these...
Art Fraud Detective
The Great Art Scandal

In addition to these, we may continue with the art classes the kids are currently in. If not, we'll continue working our way through our Atelier Art program. We'll also continue visiting the Art Institute as well. I have some special art appreciation things lined up for Clara that I will post later in a separate post. Clara has her own special little plan for next year that I'm very excited about!

More later!

math for 08/09

Okay.... I'm a bit behind with posting my plans for next school year (which shockingly enough, starts in a month!). So, here's the plan for math...

Clara will be starting a formal math program again. I will use Math-U-See for both kids. Clara will be starting Alpha...
and Alex will be continuing on with Gamma (he's about halfway through it)....
For mental math, we will be using....
Ray's New Primary Arithmetic

For additional challenge problems, we will be using....
Primary Challenge Math

Whew... looks like lots of math, huh? Well, it doesn't stop there. I've become math obsessed ever since joining the Living Math yahoo group. I joined it after I purchased Julie's Primary, Cycle 1, Unit 1 lesson plan to go along with Story of the World Vol. 1 which we will be using for history.

I've been picking up a few books for this along the way. I just got this book...
Mathematicians are People, Too
It looks really interesting. It's on my bedside table to start reading... but I haven't started quite yet.

I also purchased...
The History of Counting

In addition to these, I have begun a quest to track down the now out of print books from the Young Math series (thanks Tracy... lol). I received a few from used book sellers lately.

Roman Numerals
Spirals
Mathematical Games for One or Two
Graph Games

So far I have read them all except the Mathematical Games book. The explanations in them are wonderful. I can't wait until the other ones I've ordered arrive.

One last thing (okay.... there will never be a "last thing" with my seemingly unending quest to acquire math materials, but we'll go with it for the purpose of this post)... for my construction loving son, I got this...
K'nex Education: Elementary Math and Geometry Kit

I know, I know... like I said earlier... lots of math... but the plan is to incorporate it more into our daily life instead of always being a stand alone subject.

I promise not to wait another month before posting again! :-)

*** Edited to Add Another Book I Forgot ***

The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat
Seems like a very cool math story book... the kids are pretty excited about it. They're very intrigued by the "mathematical cat".

Okay... I think that's it! :-)

my loose plan for language arts...

I'm having to get a bit more serious about language arts when planning for next year. The kids did well on the LA portion of their CAT tests, but they were their lowest scores. So, here is my loose plan...

I have struggled with a spelling program for years. The first program we did just never clicked with Alex. It seemed random in its word lists... no pattern that we could tell, no explanation of spelling rules, etc. So, last year I decided to go a complete 180 degree turn and go with a program that was very spelling rule based. Man... that one was a train wreck. It was so complicated that I could never fully figure it out. I've since learned that they offer actual classes on how to use their program.... so I don't feel too bad about not being able to figure it out, but that just confirmed that it wasn't for us.

This next year we'll be trying out Sequential Spelling...
I'll be starting with level one and using it for both Alex and Clara.

For the spine of Alex's grammar program, I will be using Rod & Staff grade 3...
We used grade 2 (sporadically) last year... but this year I'll be taking the advice I had read on a message board and doing a lot of the work orally instead of having Alex copy EVERYthing out of the book.

For practice, I'm getting Evan-Moor's Daily Paragraph Editing Grade 2....
Yes, I am ordering one grade lower than what he'll be in.... but he needs the practice and he needs to build his confidence. I figure this is a low stress way to do this. I'm going to get the ebook through CurrClick so I can just print the pages as I need them instead of having to make copies on a copier.

And then comes the part I'm most excited about... I've been working on putting together a living books language arts list for us to use next year. This will serve to be fun, reinforcement for Alex and Clara's only "formal" grammar. This is born from my love of Julie's Living Math site and my dislike of grammar. I needed a way to make it fun... something we all looked forward to instead of dreaded.

I've purchased a couple books so far...Woe is I, Jr.
I've been reading it and so far, I'm really enjoying it. I even learned a thing or two... however, it's hard teaching this old dog new tricks so I still resort back to my old ways... sigh. (I ordered it from bookcloseouts.com for a better deal than Amazon.)
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Why, commas do make a difference!
The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, you can't manage without apostrophes!

Okay... I ordered these from bookcloseouts.com a couple of months ago (although only the apostrophe book is still available). They were supposed to get put away for next year BUT the kids begged to look at them. Well... then it was all over. They LOVE these books! They think they are HILARIOUS! Each two page spread has the same words on each page... only a slight change in punctuation has taken place. The resulting sentence (with corresponding illustration) totally makes sense to them. After reading them over and over that day... they excitedly showed the book to their dad when he got home. They went page by page explaining to him how each sentence changed in meaning due to the punctuation. The books currently live on our dining room table because the kids regularly read them while they eat.

Honestly, it was these two books that inspired me to run with the language arts living books list idea. I had been thinking about it for a while but seeing the way they reacted to these books, I knew it was something I had to try out.

Okay... enough rambling! :-)

(and a big THANKS to my friend Tracy who helped talk me off of my language arts planning ledge I was on last night!)

hi!

I'm still here! I haven't abandoned this blog... I promise!

If you read my other blog (Scattered Thoughts) you know that we've have a rash of doctor and ER visits in the past few weeks. Thankfully, we seem to be through that rough period now.

I have been working hard on my plan for next school year and finally placed a couple of book orders over the weekend. I'll try to start posting about that soon.

I have this weird hang-up that all posts should have pictures. So I'll leave you with a couple photos of my children doing geography today.... LOL!We played a quick game of "find the state" while playing at the park today. This is a pretty fun way to learn the states... it's too bad that it's in a school's playground so we'll have limited access to it most of the year.

Okay... I'm off to bed!

'nite!

Pearl Harbor

Okay... I'm finally getting around the blogging about the amazing event we got to be part of while in Hawaii. We happened to arrive at the USS Arizona Memorial just as they were getting ready to start a special program in honor of Junior Ranger day. I never imagined how "special" the program would be.

Before I get into the program, I thought I would add this quote that I found by Rick Kogan in this past Sunday's Chicago Tribune Magazine...

"History is, of course, available by many means. There are books, documentaries, Wikipedia. But history delivered firsthand is a rare commodity and it packs a punch that dazzles more than the flashiest Web site."

That was so very true that day at Pearl Harbor. No one read a history lesson to the children for that program, they didn't watch a film.... no, they heard the unfolding of the events on the day of the attack by the survivors themselves. It was almost too much to take at times. The attack on Pearl Harbor was something that was in history books... not sitting, living, right in front of me. An absolutely amazing experience. Survivor biographies are on the kids' page.

First the children heard the stories from the five survivors...
After the stories and a question and answer period, the kids received their Junior Ranger badges...
(Clara wasn't happy most of that morning because we had just found out our flight had been canceled and had no idea when we would be heading home... she decided at that moment that she desperately missed our dog, Friday)

Next, they got to have their Junior Ranger certificates signed by the survivors...
They received a packet of information about Pearl Harbor and an orchid to place in the water at the memorial.

Next we watched a short film and got onto the boat to go out to the memorial.

The USS Arizona...
The list of names was overwhelming...

After that we boarded the boat to go back to the visitor center. We made a brief stop at the gift shop to pick up this...
Graphic Library: The Attack on Pearl Harbor
Alex has the one about the Great Chicago Fire so he thought he would like the one on Pearl Harbor as well.

From there we boarded a bus with the other passengers from our canceled flight to be driven around Honolulu while they tried to figure out what to do with us. :-)