Memory Monday: Week 5

Inspired by Miss Moe on the Well Trained Mind forums, we've finally set up our memory binders this week. I divide our memory work into two groups:

1. Bible Verses & Poetry - in our SCM inspired Memory Boxes. Each child has their own. (I have one as well.) Things that have value in repetition.
2. Academic Facts & Personal Stuff - things that need to be learned, but not recited forever. (Like one's address or lists of prepositions.) Some things, right now Jonathan's Latin vocabulary, are in the workbox with the text. I have a banded set of daily cards and another banded set for weekly review. Others are going into the binders we've just finished.

So (again inspired by many helpful posters at the WTM forums), I've set up Memory Binders. Mine are pretty simple, the main difference is I wanted to minimize page moving, so I have assigned subjects to certain days. (Easy when following the Latin Centered Curriculum, as subjects already have assigned days.) These are mainly for weekly subjects (science, history, geography, religion), and are in the box directly following our group work.

I let the kids draw a picture on the cover of their binder. I just told them to draw something that made them happy. This is my eldest son's (an island fortress with a volcano):

Section Zero: Our memory board (not pictured, but like this one - which was my inspiration); it is a white board with our current memory work. I will update it every week. It includes things for all the kids, and is reviewed daily (maybe more often as it's in the kitchen). I hope to color code it, when I buy some more wet-erase markers.

Section One: A section for things to review daily. I'm having the kids write their own memory work (except my K'er), copied from the board. I did type the page for map work, as I wanted it spelled correctly and it's a lot of text. (It's more of a checklist to use with our map drawing.) It's red. (Actually the book is Roy G. Biv.)

This is one of the things I typed up. We are learning to draw the world by heart, and this is what I want the kids to sketch from memory. (Sketch, not draw perfectly - see The Core for more information.)

Section Two: Every Monday. We do nature study on Monday, which doesn't have memory work (if it did I'd file it under science), so I'll have the kids review grammar and math. Hopefully getting those facts back into play first every week.

Section Three: Every Tuesday. Geography & Religion (we do history/geography/religion on Tuesdays and Thursdays). When we get the circles & blobs down, the reminder / standards sheet will be moved here for periodic review.

Section Four: Every Wednesday. Science and Latin (I tried to spread out language review. Most of the Latin will go into the same box as our Latin book, but I think some things - probably grammar, will end up here.)

Section Five: Every Thursday. History and (later on) Greek.

 Section Six: Every Friday.  Personal & Safety - name & address, fire safety, name & phone numbers for close relatives, etc.

Section Seven: Extra Paper.

You've probably noticed I don't have any monthly dividers. Mainly because we don't have anything to put in them yet. We school year round, with a 5 weeks on, 1 week off schedule. I'm planning to add a set of sections for "Every Fifth Monday", "Every Fifth Tuesday", etc. I'll probably add those after we finish the first half of the year.

Weekly Report: Week 1 - August 29, 2011

We've (almost - science today) finished our second week back. Overall I'm pleased with how much we've gotten done, despite some very hectic weeks (this week it was the sewer backing up - what fun).


Accomplishments: 

• Jonathan's Latin review is going well. We've dropped back several lessons in Getting Started with Latin and are reviewing 2 (or 3) a day, orally. After wrapping up GSWL, we'll start Nutting's Latin Primer. Jonathan is also reviewing / cementing some math concepts with Math Mammoth. I love that it's independent, but I prefer the length of MEP's worksheets.
• David is enjoying Minimus. He also made a fabulous leap forward with his handwriting. He went from s-u-p-e-r slow and complaining, with poorly formed letters, to a more normal pace and nice, legible writing. He finished cursive for the first 26 phonograms (also known as the alphabet) this week. Friday I gave him a short sentence from his geography to copy, and he did great.
• Andrew is still working on number association. He counts well (in Spanish too) but doesn't yet now the written number. He loves doing school however. We are doing FIAR together (and the older boys usually listen too) and he loves it. We just finished Ping this week. (We use each book two weeks, three days a week, including the Christian Character Supplement.)
• I'm having David & Andrew wash pots and pans in the morning while I work with Jonathan. That is my best idea this year - works great, the pots get clean, and my youngest sons learn how to buckle down and work without big brother's help.
• BFSU (Building Foundations in Scientific Understanding) is loved too. We are doing a fast pace for Jonathan & David, we'll finish the first book this year; and a normal pace for Andrew, finishing about 1/3 of the book.

Vintage Finds:

• Home Geography for the Primary Grades - nice, short lessons that show rather than tell. It included a little paragraph to copy, which is what I abbreviated from for David. (I wrote every other line on a sheet of wide-lined paper, and he wrote below my handwriting.) I had Jonathan copy directly from the printed page, which was a challenge for him. He did the first full sentence. 
• Hurlbut's Story of the Bible - elegant and true to the Bible, but really connects the story together. I only wish the chapters where more consistent in length. You can read it free at Main Lesson, and if you buy it go with Yesterday's Classics (owner of Main Lesson). She has retyped the books, kept the illustrations, and for ebooks, put in a proper Table of Contents.

Changes (You all new this was coming...)

• Writing Road to Reading is being replaced by Spell To Write and Read again. I'm going to make my own charts on the computer to cut down on the kids' writing, and I'll use some ideas from WRTR, but I'm going back to SWR because it's easier to structure. I found the word list in WRTR hard to follow (some words are repeated, some are examples only and not for the spelling book, etc.). WRTR has fewer charts / reference pages, which is one idea a may adapt; it also only repeats some words, not all of them. (SWR does each word twice.) So I'm going to be a SWR heretic. Jonathan will be doing 40 words a week, David 20. Andrew will be doing the phonograms (which are the same). I have the two books coming, but will be looking for some phonogram cards. (Or making some...)
• My MOTH (Managers of Their Homes) schedule has changed almost daily. REALLY frustrating. Splitting myself between two school age, a kindergarten, and a toddler is difficult. I'll try to post it later. Next week I'm going to plan 1-on-1 with the eldest for spelling (dictation) and Latin. For their other boxes I'll be available, and I have a list of activities they can do while waiting for me.

I want to note I'm not trying to spam the Amazon links. When I post products anywhere, I try to include some type of website for more information. And I love Amazon, their prime / student membership, and all the reviews. Plus I have the Amazon Associates wizard, so links are super easy. So I hope they are helpful to anyone who needs them.

I also want to thank the poster on The Well Trained Mind Forums who recommended XrtaMath. It has video instructions and runs the kids through a nice review of basic facts. It's on my list of very helpful websites, along with Spelling City and Dance Mat Typing.

We're still searching for our groove this year, but it was a good week overall.

Andrewisms

These are all from today.

Scene: Mom standing by woodstove when Andrew enters the room.

Andrew: Will you look at my invention. It's a flying house.

Mom: Wow. How do you steer a flying house.

Andrew (after a brief pause): With rockets

Scene: Mom is making.dinner and requiring Andrew to stay on the chair beside her.

Andrew: You're fired!

Later in the same scene Andrew repeats his favorite phrase.

Andrew: I like you when you be nice to me.

Nature Study: Nature Walk

After being sick half the week we finally made it out. We walked around a pond near our house. Total distance: about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. Total time: about 90 minutes. But we had fun. We saw the following:

• A robin.
  
• Several schools of bullfish - under 1" long
• One adult bullfish, apparently protecting the school (that's what I've been told)
• Other schools of minnows - trout or sunfish.
• Sunfish of various sizes - one to four or five inches. A good example of the big fish [trying to] eat the smaller fish.
  
• Cat tale reeds. Clovers.
  
• Places where others had littered (we will bring a bag next time).
• A small turtle (Mom)
• Rocks
• Driftwood (David liked this)
• Andrew says he saw an alligator, which was probably driftwood. There was actually an escaped pet alligator found in the pond several years ago, so its not impossible. He was warning David that the alligator would bite him.
  
• Butterflies: black and yellow.
• Thistles (most of the taller ones had been sprayed)
• Grasshopper (Jonathan and David)

To do next time:

• Bring a bag for trash.
• Bring a small pack with a bird book and maybe a magnifying glass or binoculars.
• Bring the camera.
• Try bringing a sketchbook and some pencils or watercolors.
  

Nature Hour Challenge #3

We stayed in the back yard this time. My kids are young, so instead of drawing we did some leaf rubbings, which they seemed to enjoy. The eldest and I also found a feather for a "feather rubbing". It turned out well on the tip, but the ... stem? ... center was to thick further down. I need to make sure we do out nature hour earlier next week.

Why Do I Need a Math Curriculum

Really? I'm not bad at math - I don't fear it (I'm starting to fear phonics, but thats another post). I'm looking at MEP, and I was reading about Mammoth Math. I just don't think I need a curriculum to teach addition and subtraction. (Yes I was also reading livingmath.net - playing War by adding two cards is a great idea.) I'm not going to teach Algebra on my own, but on the other hand, my brother picked up math FAST when he started doing woodwork. He had a reason to use it.

My son likes filling out workbook pages, but I could get those fairly cheap (or free online), or even make my own. I already have some Kumon books for him - the telling time and I'll get him the counting money one later if I think he needs it.

I guess what's the point of math? Spiral vs. mastery, manipulatives vs. workbooks. If I think about the end goal I want him to take enough math to get into college (or a tradeschool / field / whatever). I also want him to be able to USE math in everyday life - to see its application. Perhaps not love math, but at least appreciate its value.

I want to have more fun I guess - he likes to learn, especially math, and I don't want to ruin that.

Decisions, decisions

Handwriting
After doing some reading, I stumbled onto an e-book available to purchase at pennygardener.com titled Italics Beautiful Handwriting for Children. It moves at a different pace than the Italics Series I mentioned last week, but you can print whatever you need for your immediate family. It has both italic print and cursive. I'm leaning towards buying the e-book instead of the Italics series.

Phonics
There is a post on the Well Trained Mind forums titled "I HATE teaching phonics." I'm starting to agree, and I only have one child actually learning phonics! He knows the sounds but needs a lot of prompting the whole lesson. I tried Alpha-Phonics and the reading lessons from Charlotte Mason, but he doesn't seem to care. This is the one who can build a perfectly symetrical plane / transformer / etc. with his Legos and Knex blocks, but can't be bothered to look to see if its an "m" or an "n" before guessing.

So I noticed "Explore the Code" mentioned, and the fact that it has an online option. We tried the sample lessons, and DS seemed to do better and enjoyed it. I will have to make sure they don't reward guessing, but I think we will sign him up. For $25 (plus a $5 fee) I can join through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op from now to March of 2010. That sounds like a good deal to me! I won't have to beat my head on the wall, DS will learn AND he will think its a game instead of a chore. He can work on his own and I can take a break or spend time with the younger kids.

Joining th Co-op
Since using the Homeschool Buyers Co-op saves me $25, I joined. It was pretty painless, put in your email, they send the standard confirmation email and you click the link to verify. They assure your privacy (actually you don't give much information to start anyway). You can even print (free) or order ($7) a nice student ID card, which might come in handy in the future! Other deals at this time are 10% off Rosetta Stone and an eBook store, which I might check out.