Summer is on the Horizon

We are in the home stretch! Only 9 days left of school and in 4 days my youngest turns 6 (where does the time go...eeek!). Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating with our dreams of summer. Texas has experienced a ton of rain these past few weeks and the weekend forecast just calls for more. It is times like this that I'm thankful I have no idea how to cook anything on a grill :)  

This past week in pictures:

                       

                        

We haven't picked up an ounce of after school work, but I am planning out summer lessons in any spare time I can find. We will probably slowly add in school work rather than take any time off this summer. My son has a trip planned with his father this August and back to school preparations may force us to cut the summer short. However, I'm hoping to school right through June and July without many interruptions.

I searched and searched and I could not find a planner that inspired me. Well, not one below $50. As a single mom, that is just out of my reach right now. So... I decided it was time to join the digital age.

Welcome to the line up.... Microsoft OneNote! I love that I can create a separate tab for each curriculum and then further outline plans for each week. The fact that these aren't dated makes it super easy to just pick up right where we left off. It also means that I don't have to rewrite a ton of plans if one week we only get to math and language arts.

I still love the feel of pen and paper, though. I may just create my own planner/journal of sorts to keep track of what we actually accomplish each day. I love any excuse to buy a new notebook!

How was your week? Any special plans this summer? Will you school through the summer or take time off to recharge?

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Beginning of the End

It's that time of year! The school year is winding down, field trips are happening, and field day is just around the corner. I love this time of year and am counting down the days until summer along with my children. I can't wait for days spent by the pool and lazy movie nights.

However, I am also in full planning mode for this summer! So far I've nailed down:

History - I've decided to use Story of the World: Ancients by Susan Wise Bauer this summer. I'm assuming we will make it through the first 8-10 chapters only, but it is an easy read aloud that we can continue throughout the next school year.

Bible - The kids have fallen in love with "What's in the Bible" and I am trying to look for ways to flesh it out over the summer. Right now we just watch the videos, usually once a week or so, and then discuss what they've learned. I would like to include some activities, memory verses, or tie in daily Bible reading.

Math - Monkey is going to work through Singapore 1A (already started) and 1B Intensive Practice this summer. He seems to do better with fewer, more difficult problems than a page of drill. He will also continue working on his math facts through XTra Math. I have no idea what Boots will be doing this summer... sigh.... She loves worksheets, but hates for me to actively teach her. She is my highly independent child. Both kids will continue working through Life of Fred.

Handwriting - Both kids will be learning cursive this summer!! I don't know if they share my extreme enthusiasm for cursive, but Monkey and Boots have shown a lot of interest. I've taught them each to write their first and last names, but we will use New American Cursive from Memoria Press to work through cursive in a more systematic fashion.

I'm still contemplating adding back in a phonics/spelling curriculum, but I haven't decided if it will be worth the time. I also want to add in a writing curriculum or start copywork and narration work. Monkey also needs a grammar review as that is emphasized at his school.

Now I just need a spiffy new planner to write it all in!

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Weekly Wrap-Up and a Much Needed Update

Easter with family and friends

Working with the kids after school has proven to be a challenge. As the year has progressed, more homework has come home and the difficulty level has really ramped up. I've decided to hold off on all formal home lessons until the summer. I will write a post detailing our summer plans as soon as I make some final decisions on the curriculum we will use. Boots would love to do "school work" all day while Monkey would rather spend the day at the pool. Balance is my goal for both kids this summer.

Monkey was prescribed glasses and was found to be very (I mean we had no choice but to upgrade the lenses to lessen their thickness!!) far-sighted. He broke them less than 2 months later, but thankfully they were able to be repaired. I learned to keep a back-up pair! He also has to wear a patch 2 hours a day.

Patch Time

Broken glasses with the note from school

He devours comics, graphic novels, and non-fiction picture books.

Level H!

Boots has gone above and beyond any reading expectations I had for Kindergarten and is almost at a 2nd grade reading level! She loves chapter books and is currently waiting the next Eerie Elementary book to come out.

She loves "teaching" her stuffed animals to read and making lists of her things to-do each day.

I introduced "What's in the Bible?" videos to them and they have become a big hit! We will definitely continue through the series.

We also had plenty of snow (for Texas) this winter!

What I'm Reading:

AHA by Kyle Idleman - I'm only a few chapters in and I can already tell this will be one of those books that changes my relationship with God forever.

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig - I can't wait to dive in to this with my children over the summer. I love that this book is simple, step-by-step, and full of reassurance for a parent that very little experience with Shakespeare.

Boots

Monkey

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2015 Reading Challenge

This year I am participating in my first Reading Challenge. I used to be an avid reader, but my interest has dwindled over the years and I find it hard to find books that truly capture me from cover to cover. However, this year I wanted to not only motivate myself to read more, but also broaden my horizons a bit (young adult fiction is still ok for late 20's right....).

This is what I am currently working on:

Trilogy: Divergent series by Veronica Roth
        I have finished Divergent and Insurgent and only have Allegiant left to read in the series. I absolutely love this series so far.

A book that became a movie: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
       I have not seen this movie, but the previews intrigued me. So far I am hooked. Little clues are slowly unraveling which keeps you reading along to find out what happens.

A book with a one-word title: Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst
      Emotions and I do not have a good relationship. I tend to explode on my children the most and then feel horrible after. This book is helping me to make imperfect progress.

A book you started but never finished: Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
       Started this book about two years ago and it keeps getting put to the side for the next shiny book. I'm hopeful of finishing it soon.... hopeful...

What about you? Do you participate in reading challenges? Any suggestions for books I should read this year?

Finding Our Groove

Finding a groove for after school work has not been easy. Homework, friends, outside obligations, and general free play time leaves little time left in the day for any extras. However, we seem to have found the right mesh of time and curriculum at this point*.

*Meaning I will not be surprised if I am back to the drawing board in a few months. 

Working on Life of Fred together

The biggest change has been throwing away all of the math workbooks and trusting Life of Fred as our only math curriculum. My kids absolutely love Fred, but I always felt it was light on math and left it as an occasional "fun" math. I've finally let go (who says we have to work through math in a traditional way!) and the kids and I are finally enjoying math time again. I hope to work through the first 4 books of the series by the end of summer and then re-evaluate. Monkey will probably continuing moving forward, but Boots may need to start from the beginning again to make sure her math skills are solid before proceeding on in the series.

Both kids moved up in reading levels this week!

I also threw all phonics/spelling curriculum out the window. I still think All About Spelling is a wonderful solid curriculum, but it just isn't necessary for my two kiddos. Monkey has proven to be a natural speller. He is a visual learner and simply recognizes correct spelling from all the reading he does. Boots was frustrated with the slow pace of the program and just wanted to spell the words she needed for her notebook writing. She writes all the time and just asks for a spelling if she is unsure. I did add in a handwriting workbook for both kids as I do value neat handwriting.

Other than that, we are just reading, reading, and reading some more. I read to them and they read to me. Greek Myths is a favorite around here right now and we just started the Wizard of Oz.

Painting is easily their favorite thing to do

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2015 - Reflecting and making a new start

Merry Christmas! 

WHOA! Where did 2014 go?! I feel like it blew past in the blink of an eye. However, I love the start of a new year. We have the opportunity to clean the slate and begin anew. We are taking this time to re-start here at home. New curriculum, new schedule, and new attitude (hopefully!). First, I want to reflect on what did and didn't work in 2014 so we move forward more wisely this year.

So, let's begin with what didn't work this past year:

Outdoor time with his new bow

• Any mom assigned work before dinner. This just didn't happen at all. Monkey was wired from sitting still all day and needed to go outside and play for a while. Homework from school gets done right away at the kitchen table with a snack, but anything beyond that waits until after dinner. 
• Heavy oral curriculum. While I love New Franklin Arithmetic's way of teaching math, Monkey just couldn't focus long enough to get through the lesson. He knew the material, but would zone out halfway or turn every question into a discussion about superheros. Math started to slip and we weren't getting anything done. 
• Phonics instruction with Boots. Make that any instructional time with Boots really. Anytime I think I've figured out what level of instruction she needs, she makes a leap ahead and is bored once again. She hated the phonics-based readers I gave her to practice. She wanted to read "real" books. So I made her a list of books and she has taken off. I do explain the phonics behind any word she doesn't know, but she rarely stumbles and is up to reading Frog and Toad books at the moment. 

Now for what did work in 2014:

• Reading aloud daily. Monkey and Boots loved to be read too. I noticed so much more retention from read alouds this past year than anything else we were doing. I've added in some history and science books to our reading basket and it has been a big hit all around.
• Teaching spelling as needed for writing. We started off last year with All About Spelling, but I dropped it and started addressing spelling as needed. This has worked wonderfully with Tank and Monkey. Both of my children appear to be natural spellers at this time and I don't want to bog them down with unnecessary extra work.   
• Dedicated art time. Both of my children love art time! Anytime I bring out paintbrushes and watercolors, they are ready. I don't follow any curriculum or dictate what they create at this time. I'm more interested in exposure and working their creative juices at this time. 

Watercolor painting

We have a few new things that we've added in for 2015 that are already big hits around here, but I will talk more about that in my next post. 

What worked or didn't work for you in 2014? Will you be making any big changes in the new year?

One Month Down

The first full month of school is done! I can't believe how fast this past month has gone by. October is one of my favorite months and I am already in high preparation mode. I have a tutu to make this weekend and I will pull all of the Halloween decorations out of storage. Pinterest has become my best friend for the next few weeks :)

Not much afterschooling has happened around here. I was pretty sure we wouldn't get to too much work this early in the school year. We are adjusting to the new schedule and amount of homework being sent home. I must say that I am very impressed with the little amount of homework that is sent home with Monkey. Last year we were so overwhelmed with daily homework that any extra work was pretty much impossible. I am confident we can now alternate school homework days with afterschool work without feeling overwhelmed throughout the week. Tank is dying for more work at home as she blazes through her homework. I am still adamant that Kindergarten homework is ridiculous. She brings home a few pages of coloring or cut and paste work. However, she does it all joyfully so I will not cause any ruckus over it.

Monkey has already done reading level testing in his classroom and is at a solid 2nd grade reading level. According to him there are two other children in his reading group and I am really satisfied with the level of reading material he comes home with. Tank will most likely start bringing home simple readers next month, but is already demanding her own reading material. I despise most early readers so this is slightly a challenge for me. Monkey shares my distaste of easy readers and pushed through to quality books quickly. However, Tank struggles with phonics and needs some confidence building books. I may try out some Dick and Jane books as they are very repetitive, but filled with simplistic vocabulary.

Even though we haven't done any math work at home, Monkey and Tank have been having some very interesting conversations about math! They have figured out that place value understanding makes it very easy to add larger numbers. 20 plus 20 is easy if you understand that 2 tens plus 2 tens is 4 tens. Monkey has mastered this concept up to the thousands! I am so proud of my little mathematicians and love seeing the hard work I put in constantly reinforcing place value.

Other than that we have been doing a lot of this: