Chalk Dust and All About Spelling

I’m not sure where Jodi is.  There is a gal who looks a lot like Jodi in our house.  Thinner, though. 

She actually began planning for the 2011-2012 school year. 

Jaw dropping.  I know.

Not only did she initiate the quest for the perfect curriculum; but she also prepared the garden soil for its first planting this past weekend.  Sprouts are growing according to a schedule in the green house.

A miracle has occurred.

Whoever this new woman is, I hope she stays -- she is getting a lot done around the Granola home. 

Perhaps Jodi read Miss Nelson is Missing.  Thankfully, Viola Swamp isn’t the substitute.  However the replacement is on top of her game. 

And so is her son.

Introducing the newest graduate of All About Spelling Level 1.

I will admit that many parts of Level 1 were a review from our Saxon Phonics days.  I don’t believe it was a wasted review. 

In fact, our review of All About Spelling Level 1 solidified what Asher already had in his bag of tricks, and it reinforced some of those crazy phonetic concepts that were precariously hung in the vault of Asher’s memories (and mine, to be quite honest.)

Due to planning for next year . . . perhaps knowing that a homeschooling convention is just around the corner (hello curriculum hands-on fun fair), has made me my “double” plan ahead. 

I was overwhelmed by the choices at the homeschooling convention last year . . .

Should we score a babysitter during the convention this year, I want to be prepared.  I have toyed with the idea of mapping out the booths we should visit. 

All About Learning Press won’t be at our homeschooling conference.   That’s ok, though.  It is already in our home to stay. 

Asher loves it.  It works for us. 

Now sometimes I tweak individual lessons.  For example, Asher would much rather write his words out than move the magnetic tiles. 

And rather than use a pencil and paper, our eye doctor has recommend that Asher use a chalkboard to help with letter reversals. 

The chalkboard doesn’t encourage nice and neat handwriting, but the sound and texture of the chalk meeting the chalkboard has given his brain a peg with which to hang his letters on . . . and the letter reversals have stopped. 

This week we will begin All About Spelling Level 2.

I have most of my supplies, including What Am I?

But I need to order Queen Bee.

Here is what we are going to be learning next.

• The open and closed syllable types
• How to divide words into syllables
• How to spell multi-syllable words
• When y can say /î/
• How Silent E can make a vowel long
• The vowel-consonant-e syllable type
• Two spellings for the sound of /z/
• The two sounds of long u
• The difference between hard and soft c and g
• Ways to spell long e
• That English words don’t end in i, j, u, or v
• The most common way to spell the sound of /er/
• When to use oi/oy, aw/au, and ow/ou

Asher already knows many of these concepts.  We will be revisiting previously learned concepts.  There is a part of me, the completive part of me, that wants to skip all of this . . . you know . . . to keep up with the Jones’. 

But what is best for my child?  Mastery.  Working at his pace for fluency.  He is already a grade ahead of his age. 

Why rush the school years?  Keep reminding me of that.

How do you tweak your All About Reading?  What tricks do you use to make your curriculum do-able for your child?

Elementary Round Up: Week 18?

School was pretty light this week, with plenty of fun moments. 

Like a memorable trip downtown to see the Superbowl 46 festivities . . .

And a field trip to celebrate Groundhog’s Day . . . with Gabe’s cousins.

Though I must admit, seeing a puppet emerge from the ground to discover his shadow just isn’t quite the same as a real animal.  But I suppose you do what you gotta do when the groundhog decides to stay in hibernation on his one famous day of the year.

In the classroom,

Yes, in the real classroom . . . we did school.

For starters, Gabe and Ezra got back to basics by learning some new vocabulary with Wordly Wise.

The boys made squids to send off to Jelly Telly.

We studied some history. And colored Babylon.

I cleaned our white board.  Here is a trick for you.  If your dry erase marker has become so dry that it won’t erase . . . ahem . . . then scribble over the old marking with a fresh pen. 

The result is a white board.

I was surrounded by Indians and knights this week.  The costumes were pretty amazing . . . and all made out of paper and tape.  So they were kind of delicate.

By the way, this is Gabe’s “new” smile.

And of course, Bible with Grapevine Studies . . . (four more days left to enter the Grapevine Study giveaway!).

And you can see what Naomi did here.

There you have it for Tot School, Preschool, Kindergarten and Second Grade! 

Joining in with:

• Preschool Corner
• Weekly Wrap-Up

What did you learn this week?

Bible Timeline Giveaway

It has been said, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  Studying history is necessary to avoid repeating past mistakes.

While I largely agree that a working knowledge of our forefathers is a catalyst to improve the quality of our future,  being able to understand how world history and Biblical history merge into one true timeline provide the only accurate account of historical events. . . . the development of mankind and society.

An organized timeline is a valuable resource to understand the course of mankind as it allows us observe how humankind chose to obey . . . and disobey the commands set before him by God. (See Deuteronomy 11)

Such a timeline exists, and I am so thankful for Grapevine Studies for creating it.  I think it is Asher’s favorite Bible study thus far.  Having this beautiful wall timeline will be an asset to future Grapevine Bible studies.

Last week, we began our journey of capturing the large picture of Biblical history.  You might say that we are learning history thrice. 

We briefly study each major biblical event and draw it in our three-hole punched bible timeline. 

Later, Asher and Ezra have take our “class study” and transfer their stick figuring onto a 10-foot long timeline. 

The third step is to place our world history onto our biblical timeline. Here we see how these normally separated facts really exist to fully develop an accurate worldview.

Grapevine Studies has created both and Old Testament and New Testament Timeline Study.  You can also purchase a blank wall timeline. 

Win one Teacher and Student Wall Timeline in ebook format or a physical copy mailed to you directly.  Enter on the blog by using the Rafflecopter giveaway. 

Since once again my attempt at using Rafflecopter didn’t work on my site, please just leave a comment to win!  (I don’t have the energy to re-type all of the requirements.  But I sure would appreciate a follow, a tweet, a fan, or a subscriber.  If you did any of those give yourself an extra comment!)

Giveaway ends February 8, 2012

Elementary Round Up

Our school days have been accompanied by copious amounts of tea.  But the reason why is for another post (a weight loss post).

What have we done?

Legos.  When my mom bought the boys’ Christmas presents at the Lego store they handed her two empty boxes.  We took those boxes to the Lego store this week, and the boys happily filled the boxes creatively so as acquire as many parts as possible.  There inspiration came from The Lego Ideas Book.

Little Passports:  Japan

 Save 10% on Little Passports with code "LPJAN10"!

I will be posting about our trip to Japan in February, but here is a sneak peak at what we ate. 

Handwriting Without Tears

All About Reading Level Pre-1

We tackled one of the suggestions in the extension activities and Gabe made letters in a salt box. 

And while I am on the subject of Gabe, he also did a lot of Grapevine Studies Old Testament Bible Timeline lessons with us.  (Giveaway coming soon! Use code  JANFS to receive Free Shipping! ) He is very proud to be a big boy. 

Play Time:  not a spectator sport (in Gabe’s eyes)

And now for Sir Honey Ezra . . . haven’t heard that name in quite some time.  Sigh.  My boy is growing up. 

Abeka Math K

All About Reading Level 1

We encountered our first road block.  After four days of diligent work, sticker rewards,  and snuggles on the couch . . . we finished the reading page.

My inclination was to try and push him through his lesson the day that we initially began this page.  Maybe I should have.  But I didn’t want to risk damaging his love for All About Reading. 

So we stepped back.  We broke the lesson down into stages. 

And we conquered. 

History:  The Story of the World

We saw how Biblical History easily fit into World History . . .

. . . which tied in quite nicely with that new Bible Wall Timeline we are creating. 

Gym:  Basketball

Let’s pass the ball to Asher.

Bible:  This young man is adoring our timeline study of the Old Testament.

It is really helping to organize all the stories that float around in his head.

We have been plowing through All About Spelling. 

We started at the beginning of the program, so that we were familiar with the program and to make sure that we hadn’t missed any fundamentals.  It isn’t uncommon that we do three lessons in a sitting. I imagine once we move to book two that this will change. 

Teaching Textbooks 3

Of course . . . there were some fun moments.  Lots of tweeting moments while we studied birds with Apologia’s Flying Creatures of the 5th Day.  But you would have to follow me on twitter to hear what bird calls we were checking out! 

This little girl is moving!

Gabe has figured out that Naomi likes to push him.

What a patient basketball fan this girl is!

A busy day is ended with a nice nap in a fort before Awana.

What did you learn last week?