1st Weekly Wrap-Up for 2013-2014 School Year

We had such a relaxed first week of lessons!  I only scheduled 3 subjects for each to ease our way back into learning mode!  Having a few weeks off in July to play computer games, Minecraft, vacations,  & veg are finally over.  I always feel that when we take long periods of time off that the house just doesn't function properly & the kids get on each others nerves.  The kids were anxious & fully ready to start with their new lessons.  We have quite a few new programs we are going to use this year!  We will be schooling from August-June, taking July 2014 off, then continuing on.  Maybe I won't feel as rushed or behind if we try to school year-round.  I basically set our school year to 6-9 weeks ON with 1 week OFF to chill or vacation.  Right now we are looking at 42 weeks with breaks scheduled....but I have wiggle room for sick days & spur of the moment off/fun days!

So this is how & what we did this 1st Week:

Flower started her 1st week with Teaching Textbooks Alg.I.  She did lessons M-Th and then on Friday she started going through the beginning of algebra on Khan Academy, XtraMath, & Life of Fred Math.  So far, she really likes TT.  She likes the way the narrator teaches & explains. It doesn't take her that long to do a lesson, maybe 30-40 minutes.  I assume as the year progresses it may take a bit longer.  Flower did mention that the first lesson of TT is where she left off last year in Saxon 8/7.

She started Lightning Literature 8 reading "A Crazy Tale" in Stories & Poems.  She completed LL7 for 7th grade and this was one of her requests to continue with.  She starts Treasure Island this coming week!

  

America the Beautiful is new to us this year!  I had bought all of the History of US books for her to use but the minute she spotted America the Beautiful at our homeschool store, she was sold!  Flower will be doing American History lessons 4 days a week.  The 5th day left for any projects, crafts, extra reading, and documentaries.  I am going to have her work through the Hakim History of US books while reading America the Beautiful, also.  She enjoyed reading about the early natives of America & the different Indian tribes this week.  She is keeping her History Notebook from last year to record her outlines and writings in.  We will continue to model the WTM style of logic history!  We have a ton of American History readers....I have some that she will be required to read but there are just so many to schedule in.  I want her to just enjoy the reading aspect since this is her favorite subject!  

We will start Science Fusion, Analytical Grammar, & IEW writing this coming week!

Thumper was sooo ready to start some of his reading books that I have stashed away for him to use this year!  He loves, loves the Billy & Blaze series!!  (I need to get a couple more to complete it)  His reading is just flourishing and I am in awe over his vocabulary!  I will have him keep a more formal reading notebook (3 ring binder) to track his books this year and to add narrations, drawings, & activities. He read Billy & Blaze to Nana this week & to me.  We did drawings & narrations to start with.  He doesn't like writing his narrations but we will slowly break that this year.  Thumper will move into Writing With Ease 2 this coming week & that should help with some insecurities.  We will be using Logic of English Essentials this year....which will cover his grammar, phonics, spelling, dictations, & vocabulary.  We started this week with reviewing the phonograms A-Z and going over phonemic awareness.  He's ready to begin Lesson 1 Monday!

We continued with Math Mammoth....we started MM1 in the middle of last year.  So we are starting MM1B and I'm hoping to get through 2B by the end of June 2014! 

Our daily math schedule looks like this:

• Mon-Thurs:  Saxon Math Drill sheets or flash cards, Evan Moore Daily Math 2, Calendar, Math Mammoth lesson 2-3 pages with manipulatives.  (We don't do this all at once in one sitting.  While I'm working with others, Thumper starts his facts drill & daily math sheet.  Then we come together for calendar & MM lesson)
• Fri: Life of Fred (he is almost finished with Cats) He would do LOF everyday but I try to just schedule it on Fridays and maybe one more day in the week to break things up a bit.  We play Right Start math games on the topics we learned that given week....we also play games for review!  If I'm working with the girls & he has nothing to do, I will get him on ixl.com where he practices math skills.

We used First Language Lessons 1 with Thumper last year.  It worked out nicely and he is so proud of his memorization of 4 poems.  I will be pulling some grammar & poetry memorization from FLL2 to add to LOE this year.  Thumper did not want to skimp out on poetry.  His attitude this week for school was bright except in some math areas.  He just dreads doing math most days....but we work through that by adding games & LOF.  He is my language kid all the way!!

Bambi had such a turn around this week!  She was ready, ready, ready!  This was her first time with Teaching Textbooks as well.  She did great!  She is doing Math 6 and I've set up a pretty detailed schedule for her to follow when doing her lessons.  I'm usually right around her while she's working on TT math.  This is the math she wanted to use....I, on the other hand, wanted to use Math Mammoth.  So we compromised and came up with this:

Mon-Thurs.:  XtraMath drill & TT math lesson.

Friday:  Math Mammoth lesson on what she learned in TT that week (she placed in MM 4, but we use MM 5 too), XtraMath or Saxon drill sheets, Life of Fred for fun, and in the afternoon we will play math games.

(We purchased Math Bands for memorizing multiplication.  She wears one bracelet each week for her to practice.  Then I quiz her on it at the end of week & if she masters it, she gets a new bracelet for the following week)

Here are my Guidelines for the girls to follow when using Teaching Textbooks:

1. Set up lesson paper in 5 subject notebook. (date, lesson #, topic)
2. Watch lecture
3. Read over lecture in the workbook & write down any math vocab.
4. Do practice on paper then plug answer in computer
5. Do problem set on paper then plug each answer in computer
6. Mom checks gradebook

**If you make a mistake, re-do 1st before watching explanation.  ALWAYS watch explanation of missed problems**

Bambi will be using Logic of English Essentials, too. This week we did the same as Thumper and reviewed the phonograms A-Z & awareness practice.  She's got it down pat and ready to go!  She will only use the phonogram & advanced spelling portion of the book.  She will keep a spelling notebook (binder) for each lesson.  I printed out and coiled the pdf of the Advanced Spelling List with 15 words.  I also made a little spelling box for her to keep track of each week's spelling words.  There is a review tab & master tab (similar to AAS that we have used) I purchased the Spelling Journal for her to keep up with, too.   Here is how I think our LOE days will go:

Day 1:  Work w/Mom: Intro & practice phonograms, Explore Sounds, Spelling Rule/Spelling Journal as needed, Dictate 15 adv. spelling words & analyze.

Day 2:  Review phonograms w/ Mom, write spelling words on index cards while sounding the word out & file them in Spelling Box under "review words" tab.

Day 3:  Go over Rules, phonogram dictation practice w/Mom, practice the words by writing descriptive phrases w/2-3 spelling words.  Write as many as you can.

Day 4:  Practice writing the spelling words divided into syllables, mark vowels & underline any words that have 2 letters working together.  Beside each marked word, write the whole word in cursive.

Day 5:  Phonogram Quiz, Spelling Quiz, and optional games.  For words missed, rewrite the missed part in a different color.  Keep missed spelling cards in the review section of your box & file the rest under "mastered words" tab.

Jr. Analytical Grammar was a hit this week!  I was unsure how she would like it, but she did really well.  That was one of the first things she completed each day.  On Monday, we watched the JAG Unit 1 Lesson on the DVD together....then she was on her way with an exercise each day.  We would check it together and on Friday she had a test.  She missed a couple but still hit the Mastery level!  Yay!!  Hope this keeps up!

Bambi read about 2 American Girl books this week & Sarah Plain & Tall.  I haven't quite finished with planning her literature list for the year.....I don't think I'm going to do that either.  We have a lot of great history readers to go along with her Ancients this year.  I will let her choose some and I will schedule some.  We are going to try to do Figuratively Speaking this year for Literary skills and she will keep a reading binder to add her summaries, dictations, & activities in.  I will be making a list of the readers on our blog that she uses as she reads them.  We may throw in some Classical House of Learning Literature guides....they coincide with her SOTW readings!

This coming week for our second week of school she will start IEW SWI B with sis, Story of the World Ancients with Human Odyssey Vol. 1, RS4K Chemistry & The Elements, literature, & I THINK that's it!

We will start Spanish, typing & computer skills, logic, PE & Health & Cooking, soccer, Music, Art & Life Skills in September!! I want to actually get some of these extras going this year!  Life just gets too busy sometimes but I don't want to skimp out on such needed skills & opportunities!