Cleaning House & Moving the Blog

You know I love to move. So, this time I'm moving my blog. I've been cleaning and post-nesting..lol. This blog has been moved to a new address.

Oak Blossoms Academy
My Personal Blog has moved to Oak Blossoms

Free Handwriting tool

I wanted to note this free site. It makes different kinds of handwriting sheets in the Zaner-Bloser font. You can do manuscript or cursive. You can choose different grade levels (thus different size lines). There is a great spelling worksheet maker, too.

Mutant Daisy

This shows the top of the daisy.













Isn't it cute. It makes a little heart.








The boys are always outdoors and finding things. It's been a blast this year. We moved to my parents house and they have 5 acres. I hope I can photo document more of it this next year.

My mom loves daisies and the animals don't. So, they are all over the property. Yesterday they found this lovely mutant daisy. It seems to be two daises that grew together. So the top bends over. There isn't a bottom, just two sides. We tried to show the side. I know it looks like the bottom, but it isn't. It has two sides that look like that.

The Prophet Grade 7 (Updated 7/12/2009)

I cannot believe he is going to be in Grade 7 this year. He has been doing so well this year. I'm very proud of the changes he has made. We are trying to follow The Well Trained Mind approach. But, he hasn't quite made it to Logic stage in many areas. Alas, Susan Wise Bauer does talk about this which is a confirmation of how I have felt all along. Some children won't make it past logic stage. But, they will still get an excellent education. I believe they can still be ready for college if they desire that path. There is nothing wrong with starting college and having to do Pre-Algebra or Algebra. Sure it's nice to skip ahead or not have to even take Math classes. Oh, wait I'm getting ahead of myself. Grade 7 it is.

History

He will be working through Story of the World 3 (1600-1850). He will do written narrations, mapwork, and notebook pages for each chapter.

He will do outlining of each topic from Usborne Encyclopedia or Dorling Kindersley History of the World.

He will keep track of important dates and people in his Book of Centuries.

Supplemental library materials (i.e. books and DVDs) will be available. He will keep track of these on his 6 week planner sheet and Goodreads.

Suggested memory work for the period are Declaration of Independence, First 12 Presidents of the United States, Major Wars for the time period, and Preamble to the Constitution.

I will do my best to create some kind of notebook ahead of time for at least the first term.

If I think it could be done I would consider the Primary resources and Critical Thinking Books, as suggested TWTM. But, I'm not sure if he would be capable of the above work. I think he would love the Critical Thinking books, though. If the budget allows, I might replace some of the work above with those workbooks.

Science

Option 1: I have Apologia General Science already. I will most likely plan this out to stretch over Grade 7 and Grade 8.

Option 2: The Well Trained Mind Suggestions for Biology. They have a lot of fun suggestions. But, I have no idea how he would do with dissections. He has some issues with clean hands.

Option 3: Real Science 4 Kids Biology 1

Language Arts

I like the methods outlined in The Well Trained Mind, but they seem to work at a slower Charlotte Mason approach with my boys. I'm using the the scope and sequence at Ambleside Online for most of our Language Arts planning. As budget permits, I will add in suggestions from The Well Trained Mind, although at lower grade levels.

Writing

I probably won't have a formal writing program for him this year. He should be getting enough writing practice via his other subjects with narrations, copywork, dictations, and outlining.

I would like to have him doing some sort of book reports though. We should be able to develop that through outlining. I might start him on some type of book report form to ease him into it. There seem to be plenty available online.

If he uses Rod and Staff there will be writing exercises as part of the program. He will continue in Italics Handwriting cursive. He just started this year and hopefully he will be able to do some of his work in cursive by mid-year.

Reading

Assigned reading list will come from The Well Trained Mind for the time period 1600-1850 page 353. He will have free reading time, as well.

Grammar

He has yet to study formal grammar. Depending on our budget he will use either Rod and Staff Year 5 or First Language Lessons 3.

He has had a difficult time with doing lots of handwritten work. I think he might find diagramming a huge chore. We are changing our plans to Winston Grammar for now. I think the more hands on approach would serve him better. Plus, it's one of those non-leveled programs and he appreciates that.

Spelling

I would prefer to use Spelling Workout D, but that is depending on budget/VA. If that is not an option, he will do studied dictation. I will pull the studied dictation from his assigned readings.

He may do both. I prefer a workbook because of the new baby.

We are going to try Spelling Power instead. I prefer curriculum that is reusable and can last a few grade levels. I can use Spelling Power with all the children and it lasts for all grade levels. There seems to be a little bit of prep, but it shouldn't be too overwhelming.

Math

He worked very hard this year to get through two years of Math U See. He is catching up wonderfully. He has been in school twice. Those two times were very different from Math U See and we had to literally start over the last time. They used Everyday Mathematics which did not work well for him at all. Our goal is that he makes it to Algebra during High School.

I would like to see him get through MUS Epsilon and most of MUS Zeta this school year.

Optional Resources

Field Trips
YMCA
Critical thinking press Mind Benders: Warm Ups A1, A2, A3, A4
Typing Program

The Peacemaker Grade 4

He is doing quite well this year. He needs to work on his confidence a bit. He is finally reading chapter books and I think that will help a lot this upcoming work. I really need him to be more independent.

History

He will be working through Story of the World 3 (1600-1850). He will do written narrations, mapwork, and notebook pages for each chapter.

He will keep track of important dates and people in his Book of Centuries.

Supplemental library materials (i.e. books and DVDs) will be available. He will keep track of these on his 6 week planner sheet and Goodreads.

Suggested memory work for the period are Declaration of Independence, First 12 Presidents of the United States, and Major Wars for the time period.

I will do my best to create some kind of notebook ahead of time for at least the first term.

Science

I'm really considering having him do Life Science with his younger brother. The two of them really need to do more together. I think it could be a fun bonding experience for the two of them. They are both hands on learners. I just need to come up with something fun. I'm not sure how fun option 1 would be. This is another thing I'm waiting on budgeting to resolve. Bigger budget means more pre-packed experiments.

Option 1: The Well Trained Mind suggestions for Life Science. DK First Animal Encyclopedia, Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia, and Laurie Carlson's Green Thumbs. Use these with the notebooking method suggested in TWTM.

Option 2: Real Science-4-kids

Option 3: Homemade Lessons using some KONOS units and library supplements.

Language Arts

I like the methods outlined in The Well Trained Mind, but they seem to work at a slower Charlotte Mason approach with my boys. I'm using the the scope and sequence at Ambleside Online for most of our Language Arts planning. As budget permits, I will add in suggestions from The Well Trained Mind, although at lower grade levels.

Writing

He will continue with Italics Handwriting. I would like to see him to start some cursive this year.

He will do copywork from his literature selections. Once he is comfortable with copywork, he will move onto studied dictation.

Budget permitting, I might purchase Writing with Ease level 2. If so, I will nix the previous copywork plans. They are included in WWE.

Reading

Assigned reading list will come from The Well Trained Mind for the time period 1600-1850 page 79. He will have free reading time, as well.

He will probably have some type of memory work for each month. Poetry or speeches from the time period are suggested in TWTM.

He will do a short period of oral reading for a parent. We need to keep up with him and make sure he is doing well.

Grammar

I'm not sure if he is ready to study Grammar yet. At least the diagramming part. It might be too much work for him. If budget permits I might try First Language Lessons 3.

I do have First Language Lessons 1 & 2. I could pick and choose some basic lessons to give him a start on Grammar. Then allow him to perfect the skills of narration, copywork, and dictation.

Spelling

I would prefer he use Spelling Workout B. I would like some workbooks this upcoming year. If the budget does not permit than spelling will be picked up as part of copywork, narrations, and dictations.

He will keep a list of trouble words. These he will go over at the beginning of each Spelling lesson.

Like his older brother, he will be using Spelling Power at his own level. I'm excited to find a curriculum that can be used by all children. It makes my life easier and it will last more than a year.

Math

He will be moving on to the next level of Math U See. He may need to finish up two levels this year. It depends on what he accomplishes this summer.

Optional Resources

Field Trips
YMCA
Critical thinking press Mind Benders: Warm Ups A1, A2, A3, A4
Typing Program

The Warrior Grade 1

These plans are for our third child. He will be in Grade 1 this year. I'm only listing what I have access to currently. We are waiting to see if we are accepted to a virtual academy. The VA would allow us more curriculum choices, field trips, and to join the YMCA.

He isn't reading yet. We are working on that over the summer. I doubt he will be able to read on his own next year. I'll add easy readers from the library as he develops those skills.

Read Alouds

I'll probably pull read alouds from the booklist for Ambleside Online 1.

Holling C. Holling Books
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
King of the Golden River by John Ruskin
Peter Pan (or, Peter Pan and Wendy) by James M. Barrie (parents may want to read this one aloud to edit, see below)
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
St. George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pocahontas by Ingri D'Aulaire

English/Language Arts

We are following this scope and sequence from Ambleside Online
He will continue to work on phonics till he can read.
Oral narrations of most assigned readings.
Handwriting practice through copywork using Italics or my handwriting.
First Language Lessons 1.

Budget permitting I will purchase Complete Writer workbook 1, Spelling Workout A, Italics A. These would help me tremendously while trying to get used to a new baby.

Math

Math U See Alpha

History

I'm not sure if he will go along with his siblings in History or not. If not I'll probably rely on the Ambleside Online readings. The older ones will be reading through Story of the World 3. I'll do written narrations of his History readings from whichever spine I use. He can illustrate these and put them in his notebook.

Story of the World 3

This Country of Ours

We might do some Memory work for U.S. History. Perhaps work on the presidents of the United States.

Science

Science probably won't be a huge point this year. Reading is that most important point. I know little boys love Science though.

Option 1: The Well Trained Mind suggestions for Life Science. DK First Animal Encyclopedia, Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia, and Laurie Carlson's Green Thumbs. Use these with the notebooking method suggested in TWTM.

Option 2: Real Science-4-kids

Option 3: Homemade Lessons using some KONOS units and library supplements.

2009-2010 Printables, Plans, and Goals TAKE 1

I'm going to start making strange posts to keep track of stuff I would like to plan for the upcoming year. I would like to print off what I need before the actual year, if not just 6 weeks at a time.

I'm going to get more notebooking going this year, too. We end up with scattered papers a lot and no real method to organize them.

I'm posting plans for each child, as well. I'll update them as we go along this summer according to budget restraints mostly.

We are on the waiting list for a virtual academy. So, that will really change how I plan for the year. The VA would allow us to purchase more curriculum especially workbooks that would make things easier to open and go. It would, also, give us the allowance to do some fun stuff like field trips and the YMCA. I will need to keep better track of what we are actually doing including insuring that goal hours are met.

Planning & Goals

I'm going to give the children a 6 week planner sheet at the beginning of the Term/quarter. That way they can do a check off each day. I'm going to use the form from Ambleside Classical. It's on the right hand column of the page and is for Openoffice. It's easy to use it for my own subjects/curriculum. I think I will use the boxes in the right hand corner for keeping track of books read, character traits, or inspirational quotes. If we join the VA, I will include a spot to keep track of hours. They are going to get it printed on their favorite color. The Prophet is red, The Peacemaker is Green, and The Warrior is blue.

Character and Habit Training

I can't believe I'm even considering it. But, we started discussing a chart of character qualities that I printed up. I'm not sharing it because I don't entirely agree with some of the families methods. The boys have responded really well. We did get some character lessons in when we used KONOS, but we haven't used that in the last few years. It's nice to have the chart because I don't think I could come up with a list like that on my own.

These free cards might be helpful. I can print them up and insert what they need to work on. But, I wouldn't have them earn anything for them. I can't keep up with reward systems.

History

I'm pretty certain we will use at least Story of the world 3 for the upcoming year. I've never had much luck using the Activity Guides. It seems to slow us down and I end up feeling guilty for not doing activities. Activities that my children never seem to enjoy.


I'm trying to decide if I want to do a History Notebook as described in The Well Trained Mind. My oldest is not fully at the Logic Stage yet and I think it would be to confusing to keep track of.

I have a good size set of History Scribe pages. I plan on printing those out to go along with some of the chapters. If I run out, I think I will utilize the Free History printables here. I like the looks of either the second one down on the left or the top middle one with the timeline. I would like to use google images and pull up images to use for notebooking, as well. I might throw in a few packs of "real" notebooking paper to liven things up a bit.

I've been wanting to start a Book of Centuries for years. But, we start and stop and loose the pages. I like the look of this one. I should probably put it on some nicer paper to make it more durable.

There was a lot of talk on the Well Trained Mind Forums about creating History notebooks. I'm not interested in binding anything. But, I would like to have everything prepared for the 6 week period. Anything that helps with keeping me from having to recall all the steps I want to take. I'm getting way to distracted with having all these kids and now there is going to be a baby. I know Peace Hill Press offers the notebooking pages from SOTW already printed up. We tried those with SOTW 1 and they didn't go over well. But, it's one of those things that I might consider if we join the virtual academy.

I love using these Story of the World planning sheets. I use them more as a log of what we read or notebooked during the week. I don't like planning supplemental materials. We never have the budget for extras. So, we depend on the library. I never know if we will enjoy something from the library or if it will even arrive around the time of study. It, also, lines up the 42 chapters into a "real" school year. I've been using the one for SOTW 2 and it's keeping me on track and giving me some focus.

Science

I would like to do some sort of Life Science with the boys. We did a little introduction a few years back. But, they were really young then. It really depends on my budget constraints. I have Apologia General Science and I might start doing that with my oldest. I can stretch it out over two years.

Read Alouds

I might do notebooks for some of these. Here and Here are some samples. A narration per chapter.

This Country of Ours

Language Arts

Here is the scope and sequence at Ambleside Online.

We use Italics for Handwriting.

We started some copywork this year. I will continue with that for a bit in the summer and pick it up again during the school year. It made a huge difference in handwriting. I like the Italics because the boys are doing better with it. But, there isn't much practice in the workbooks.

I would like to start some studied dictation, as well. I think I might try with the oldest and see how it goes. I think it could do a lot to help with his writing skills.

Grammar

I plan to start with First Language Lessons 1 for The Warrior. He needs to be reading well before we start. I'm looking at Rod and Staff or First Language Lessons 3 or 4, for the older two. Neither have done any formal grammar yet.

Nearing the end of our year

Washington weather is becoming so beautiful. We are not entirely up to where I would like us to all be. But, then again I didn't really have any written goals this year or really any years.

This summer we are going to finish up SOTW 2. I think I'm about done notebooking at this point. I think we will just read and discuss. I'll keep up a nice basket of library supplements.

The boys will continue on in Math since they are both "behind". The youngest will continue with reading lessons. I would love for him to have some basic reading skills since I will be so busy with the baby.

So, I probably won't be posting about our learning too much more. (Not that I've been consistent on that.) But, I will be using my blog to keep track of plans and goals for the upcoming year. We did well with adding more structure into our days. So, I'm hoping I can bump it up a notch this upcoming school year.

How about a May update...

so much for posting more. When do people find the time for that anyway?

So, it's going well. The boys are half way done with their new level of MUS. The prophet should be caught up by High School! The Peacemaker will be caught up by next year. I guess they just needed some time.

Handwriting is going well for both of them. Since, they both finished their books we are finally getting in more copywork. I love copywork. They may not, but it's so useful. I really wish I had been doing more of this all along. Next year there will be copywork for everyone. And, dictation for the oldest one.

The Warrior is really getting into reading. It's given us the opportunity to continue some speech work, as well. I've been hoping he will be reading by September, although I would love if he could "get it" by the time the baby comes in July. But, I may be overly hopeful with the last bit. He is still very interested in writing things down, so I think there is some kind of learning thing going on with using his hands.

So far, the Prophet is a reader, the Peacemaker is visual and artistic learner, and I'm wondering if the Warrior will need to write things down to get it. It's interesting to see how different they are.

We are implementing more of schedule/routine to our day. I've been using the scanner my mom gave me to make little packets of Math work, so they know exactly how much work they have this week. Overall school is going a lot better and we are learning a lot more. So, although I wasn't sure if doing more schoolish type work would go over well...I think we needed some time for it to sink in and find a plan we could take on.

We made it to SOTW 2, as well. We did quite a bit of Middle Ages stuff via KONOS when they were younger. I'm borrowing the book from the library and we are going through more chapters per week than normal. I would like to get into the SOTW 3 and SOTW 4 for my oldest in middle school. So, it seems like we are rushing. But, we are spending greater chunks of time on it during the day. We try to get a History Scribe or other notebook page and some copywork or narrations done for each chapter. Plus, we are reading an eyewitness book and discussing a lot. Things seem to be sticking enough. We dragged SOTW 1 out for almost 2 years and that was way too much.

I went ahead and ordered the new copy of The Well Trained Mind. I don't have a copy, so I always make notes and send it back to the library. But, I really think if this is going so well, that it would be nice to have something to reference back to. It got here right before Mother's Day which I thought was a good sign.

An April 2009 update

I've had the most amazing Braxton Hicks this pregnancy. I feel like I need to keep my legs together at all times. Sitting at my computer desk leaves me a bit breathless.

Neverless there is school getting done!

History

We are just getting into chapter 18 of Story of the World:Volume 1. I've been better at getting to the library and keeping our shelves full. Even our youngest is getting to enjoy history. Since, my 12 year old has little desire to color our 6 year old has taken over coloring sheets. He especially loves the gruesome ones.

Science

For Apologia Science we are just starting the chapter on Mars. The boys are doing narrations for each reading. I've picked up supplemental library books and DVD's for the youngest.

English

The boys have post finished their Italics books for the year. I'm going to wait on ordering new ones till the summer. For now I'm going to really step up the written narrations and copywork. They didn't get much of that at younger stages and I think they need it.

The Prophet is not interested in Writing Strands at all. This is the second year and it's still not going over well. I'm giving up. I've been defeated. I liked it because it was pretty short and sweet. But, he doesn't end up with much writing accomplished. So, I'm having him do typed narrations of History and Science readings. He is doing copy work from his current reading book. He just started the Eragon series. I hope this gets him a bit more interested and comfortable. Next year we are going to start Grammar and cursive Italics. So, I think it would be good to boost his Writing Esteem a bit before then.

The Peacemaker is doing oral narrations, which I write and he copies. I wish this is something I did when he was younger. But, he was in public school for much of that time. They had the children writing in journals and not correcting their work. It was funny sometimes. But, I think it was detrimental for a child who wasn't reading well yet. He is doing wonderfully with his reading, btw. His confidence has soared and he doesn't put himself down when reading aloud.

I'm learning so much about my boys this year. I've been trying to figure out what to do with the Warrior for his upcoming Grade 1 year. It's allowed me to see where we have gotten behind and had to play catch up with the other boys. I've learned to utilize different methods to combine writing and reading skills in with different subjects. I'm getting better at combining children and working with my own "classroom". All in time for a new little one to come in an demand a new schedule.