Homeschool Wrap Up Week 27

 Week 27 in Our Homeschool

Bible: We completed 4 lessons in the 10 Minute Bible Journey.

Read Aloud: We read 4 chapters in the YWAM Biography on Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I have studied Laura Ingalls Wilder quite a bit with my daughter Chelsea and have read the books numerous times myself as a young girl and aloud to the children. We even had an opportunity to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder homes and museum in Mansfield MO 12 years ago.  But we have never read this book before and was very excited to have an opportunity to review it!  We are also reading The Silver Chair in the evening and just finished DragonQuest.

History: We watched one episode of Drive Thru History Acts to Revelation.  We also read lessons 22-24 in MOH Vol 1.

Science: We did an activity on Finger Prints from Lesson 12 of Apologia Human Anatomy and also completed the notebooking activities.  We also did a STEM challenge on Making Your Own Droid (started but not completed.)

Poetry: Our missing Memoria Press poetry books arrived at the end of the week so we had a chance to read through The Pleiades and to study the vocabulary.

Art: We did lesson 4 in our review of ARTistic Pursuits Art of the Ancients book.  This week's assignment was to do a clay sculpture of a figure.

Individual School 2-7th

Emmie did 4 lessons in Singapore Math Dimensions.  She also completed the unit on Migration in Homeschool Complete.

Lily completed 4 lessons in Math Lessons for a Living Education and worked on IXL Language Arts.  She finished reading Chapter 8 in Little House in the Big Woods.

Christian and Anthony completed 4 lessons in Rod and Staff Math.  They also completed Step 13 in AAS Level 6.  Christian and Alex have to have Hunter's Ed by April 1st, so I spent a lot of time this week going through the Hunter's Ed course on CD (it's about an 8 hour course) with him so he will be ready to take the final test.  We used our language arts time and some time in the evenings so no language arts lesson this week.

Other Activities this Week

Monday was my baby's birthday!  Emmie wanted to eat inside McDonalds for her birthday.  Not that we never eat McDonalds because we do sometimes but we never eat inside (If I'm going there it's because we are on our way somewhere and in a hurry.)  So Chelsea and Liam met us there for lunch.  It was SO COLD that day!  We couldn't even take off our coats while we ate.  The lady that took our order heard me saying something about it being Emmie's birthday so she brought her a little dessert made out of a cookie and some ice cream.

The girls had gymnastics that afternoon.

Our inside cat Sally somehow got outside.  We finally found her outside the back door after supper that night.  She was sneezing and awfully pitiful.  But after a warm blanket, pillow,  and some spoiling she recovered from her trek into the great outdoors.

Tuesday the boys had Trap.  The sun was out so it was a little warmer.  But even in all my layers I was cold by the time it was time to go.

Wednesday we had Kid's Club and Children's Choir.

Thursday Emmie had dance.

Friday Lily had piano.  We received a package from Stopmotion Explosion to review.  My living room was then taken over with LEGO and different back drop pieces.

Saturday Alex and Christian were supposed to have their first Trap Shoot but sever weather was being forecast so it was cancelled.  Nicholas was a State Record Book finalist for his 4 H Technology and Engineering Record Book and was scheduled for an interview in Little Rock on Saturday morning.  When they left the weather was not awful just thundering a little bit.  About 15 minutes after they left it started pouring down rain and the wind was blowing.  When they arrived in LR 2 hours later, tornado sirens were going off there and they had to spend some time in the restroom of the 4 H office building.  Once the all clear sounded he was able to go ahead with his 10 minute interview and by the time they were getting ready to head home the weather had cleared and it was 75 degrees outside.  We never got the tornado warnings here. 

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Tweet

Homeschool Crew Review: Homeschool Complete

I first heard about Homeschool Complete a few years ago when I saw some reviews on their Kindergarten Complete program.  At the time I thought it looked great but did not need a Kindergarten curriculum.  I had no idea until they appeared on our vendor list this year that not only do they offer complete curriculum for grades K-4, they also have other products. I had a really hard time deciding what my first and second choices would be for a review product and finally decided to choose Second Grade Complete  to use with my 7 year old daughter.  We received a downloadable version of Semester One of Second Grade Complete to use and review.

The Homeschool Complete curriculum is written by Debra Arbuthnot, a homeschool mom with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and 27 years teaching experience in public and private schools. In addition to complete curriculum for K-4, they also offer Unit Studies for K-6, Reading Curriculum, Bundles, and Resources.


Second Grade Complete is a year long all inclusive curriculum that uses a unit study approach to teaching.  It is a literature based curriculum that covers: language arts, math, science, social studies, Bible, fine arts, physical fitness, and character development.  A variety of activities are included in each unit to appeal to different learning styles.  Each of the units is based on a 5 day school week with activities being planned for 4 days and one open day for activities of your choice.  There are 36 units covered in Second Grade complete, 18 units per semester including:

Semester One

Johnny Appleseed
Maps
Migration
Colonies
Bats
Jackie Robinson
Geometry
Economics
Tall Tales
Northeast States
Endangered Species
Daniel Boone
Health
Rivers
Herbivores
Northeast States
Water Cycle
Thomas Jefferson

Semester Two
Parks
Marsupials
Northeast States
Rocks
Mountains
Susan B Anthony
Reptiles
Landmarks
Rain Forests
Pioneers
Carnivores
Africa
Eyes
Magnets
Cowboys
Butterflies
Missionaries
Harriet Tubman


Second Grade Complete has two parts: Teacher's Manual and Student Workbook.  The Teacher's Manual for Semester One of Second Grade Complete is a 604 page PDF download. The beginning of the guide has introductory material talking about things such as what is covered, teaching procedure, and organization and planning.  Next you will find step by step guided lessons plans for each days lesson including books and supplies you will need.  The student worksheets are also included in the Teacher Manual and answers to the worksheets are found in the step by step teaching instructions.  An appendix at the back of the guide includes a lot of helpful resources including: Bible Verse List,  Game Boards, Literature List, Materials List, Pledges, Recipes, Songs and Poems, Spelling Squares, Tangrams, United Stated Map, and World Map.  The Student Workbook is a 251 page download that includes just the workbook pages.

Homeschool Complete is literature based and there is a variety of books that are suggested to go along with each unit.  You do not need all of the books to complete the unit.  Weekly supplies needed include basic school supplies (paper, scissors, glue, pens and pencils, etc..)  basic office supplies (stapler, hole punch, tape, etc..) craft supplies (watercolor paint, yarn, etc..) plus blocks, dice, and game supplies.  There are additional activities for each week and the supplies for those vary for each unit and activity.


Emmie (2nd Grade) is my youngest of 7 children.  Often when you are homeschooling in a large family you combine as many subjects as possible and the younger children tag along with the older children.  This works well to a certain point but sometimes younger children need activities and lessons that are geared for their age.  That is why I was interested in reviewing Second Grade Complete.  I wanted to spend some one on one time with Emmie working on activities just for her.  If I were just homeschooling 2nd grade and had the entire school day to dedicate just to her, I would have used this curriculum differently.  But having 5 other children I needed to work with as well, we had to pick and choose the activities we wold work on.  We have focused mainly on language arts, science, social studies, and math.

I love literature based curriculum and was excited to see that Homeschool Complete is literature based.  We do a lot of reading and reading aloud in our house and have a lot of books.  We live in a very small town and our library is tiny so we did not have access to all of the suggested books.  But some of the picture books we did not have we were able to access on YouTube and I have bought a few of the recommended books.  Most of the worksheets do not require you to read any certain book.  There are some discussion questions in the Teacher's Manual for the books but if you do not have access to those books you can skip those.

I also love that the curriculum is set up around thematic units.  I think short unit studies can make learning so much more meaningful for young children.  When we did the unit on Johnny Appleseed we read about apples and Johnny Appleseed, made apple prints out of sponges, did a science activity on apples, wrote a cinquain poem, made a graph using tally marks, made a picture graph, and even planted apple seeds two different ways.

During the map unit we loved reading the Flat Stanley The Amazing Mexican Secret, (she even  made Flat Stanley out of clay), completing the worksheets on maps, learning about rulers and scale, practicing measuring, learning about continents and oceans, and playing games based on a grid.

In the unit on migration some of our favorite activities have been learning about why people and animals migrate, working on clocks, and possessive pronouns.  Emmie had to write a sentence using a possessive pronoun on a day we were babysitting and her sentence was ,"Emmie's baby  woke up too early."

Second Grade Complete is flexible and has plenty of hands on activities.  You can pick and choose what activities you want to complete and leave the others out.  You can skip a day and pick it back up the next.  The scheduling is all up to you.  I have seen worksheets in other curriculum that is just busy work for the children but that is not true in this curriculum.  The worksheets are meaningful and teach important skills.  My favorite have been the reading comprehension pages. It is the first time we have used these type of worksheets and though Emmie is not forming her answers in complete sentences, she is paying attention to the reading and able to answer the questions.

I do think that I would prefer the hard copy version of the curriculum rather then the digital.  The Teacher's Manual is very large so I chose not to print it. I am reading it from the computer screen but I would rather have it in a binder in front of me.  The worksheets do have to be printed out for your child to work in.  I think it would be worth the little bit of extra money to have it all printed out and shipped to you.


We love Second Grade Complete!  It is complete curriculum that is fun, affordable, Bible based, and uses lots of great books.

Members of The Crew reviewed other levels of Homeschool Complete and also some of the Unit Studies. To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!

Tweet

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 26

It was a short school week for us.  Monday I had a dentist appointment so the children ended up with a morning off of school.  Wednesday morning they all had dentist appointments (we have an awesome dentist that schedules all 6 at once) and with the drive down and back and it falling on a Wednesday when we have to be to church by 2 we did not make it home until 6:15 that night which gave them another day off. 

Week 26 in Our Homeschool

Bible: We completed three lessons in The 10 Minute Bible Journey.

Read Aloud: We finished Book 4 of The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls.  We started The Sliver Chair and are still reading through Dragon Quest.

History: We watched 1 episode of Drive Thru History Acts to Revelation.  We completed the folderbook activities for lessons 18, 19, and 20 in The Mystery of History Vol 1.

Science: This week we did a STEM challenge on flight from Tied 2 Teaching.  We read an article and answered questions and then followed the engineering process to build our own wooden airplanes out of toothpicks, popsicle sticks, and clothespins.

Art: We did lesson 3 in our new ARTistic Pursuits book Art of the Ancients.  The lesson was on making a clay slab.  Lily did an owl, Emmie made Flat Stanley, Christian made Harry Potter, and Anthony R2-D2.  When the clay dried they went back and used water color crayons to add color, but I did not go back and take photos of them.

We were supposed to start a review of Poetry for the Grammar Stage from Memoria Press last week, but when my package arrived from the post office it was open at the bottom and missing 2 books.  So we are waiting for them to resend the items to me.

Individual School (2nd-7th grade)

Emmie completed 3 lessons in Singapore Math.  We finished the last days assignment for week 2 in Homeschool Complete on maps.  She completed lesson 34 in All About Reading Level 2.

Lily completed 3 lessons in Math lessons for a Living Education.  She worked on IXL language arts 3 days (she likes this much better then her grammar book) and read Chapter 8 in Little House in the Big Woods.

Christian and Anthony completed 3 days of Rod and Staff Math books and watched the video for lesson 11 in SWI A and started writing their papers.  They also completed Step 12 in AAS Level 6.

I need to sit down with my high schoolers tomorrow and see how their work progressed this week.

Other Activities this Week

Monday the girls had gymnastics.

Tuesday Christian and Alex had trap practice.  Nicholas had his first high school soccer team.  After his needing to sit out last year because of the Tim Tebow Law(he could practice just not complete in any games), I was so glad he made the team this year as one of the goalies.  It was an away game (about 2 hours away) so we didn't go but they won 3-1. 

Wednesday was the dentist.  He nicely fixed Christians chipped cap from biting apart two of his Lego pieces (he has been told not to do this again!) while we were there so we wouldn't have to come all the way back at another time.  Then we had Kid's Club and Children's Choir.

Thursday Emmie had dance.  I ended up with a migraine and had to get her out early so I could go home and go to bed.

Friday we had to do the errands I couldn't do Thursday afternoon and Lily had piano.  Nick went to the Winter Jam concert.

Sunday after church we brought the younger 5 children home and then had to head back to town for an awards ceremony.  Nicholas was inducted into the National Honor Society.  He had to have higher then a 3.6 GPA, 3 recommendations from teachers, and fill out an application talking about his community service and leadership activities before being accepted.  We are proud of him for all of his hard work at home, school, and in the community!

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Tweet

Review: Secrets at Cedar Cabin by Colleen Coble

 

 

Book Description

"Her mother lied about her identity and her husband wasn’t who she thought he was—can Bailey even trust herself anymore?
Running for her life in the wake of her mother’s murder, Bailey Fleming escapes to the only place she can think of—a remote, dilapidated cabin in Lavender Tides. Intending to finally get to the truth behind the lies of her past, Bailey only finds more questions when bodies are discovered near her cabin hideout along with traces of a dangerous human trafficking ring. In an unlikely partnership with FBI agent Lance Phoenix, Bailey races to understand the mystery surrounding her life and circumstances before the murderer tracks her down.
Meanwhile, Lance is determined to rescue his sister, Ava, who was abducted after running away from home as a teenager. An unexpected lead brings him to the remote cabin, and he wonders if Bailey—with her suspicious past and strange connections to his sister’s case—is really who she claims to be and if she can somehow lead him to Ava.
Filled with Colleen Coble's custom blend of suspense and romance, Secrets at Cedar Cabin takes us back to the evocative landscape of Washington's coast where nothing is quite as it seems."

Secrets of Cedar Cabin is the third and final book in Colleen Coble's Lavender Tides series.  It has all of the elements of a good story: great characters, great setting you can imagine yourself living in, plus mystery, suspense, and romance.  The plot is very complex and it's twists and turns will keep you guessing right up to the end, even after you think you have it all figured out!It is a very suspense filled story with several deaths occurring though none of them are overly gory and unlike many suspense filled novels it is not vulgar.   The element of romance is always a nice addition to the story and Ms. Coble does a great job of adding it in to her books without being overly romantic or inappropriate.   All of the different subplots are all tied up very nicely in the end of the book.  Secrets at Cedar Cabin was a great ending to the Lavender Tides series.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to the FTC regulations.

Tweet

Homeschool Crew Review: Dimensions Math PK-5

We recently had an opportunity to review the newest program from Singapore Math Inc., Dimensions Math PK-5.  The Dimensions Math curriculum was written by teachers and professional development providers.  It uses the Singapore Math approach which emphasizes concrete to pictorial to abstract progression but in an updated and more teacher friendly manner.  Students work through their lessons with the help of five friends: Emma, Alex, Sofia, Dion, and Mei. Each lesson starts with a scenario to help the student think through the concept and review skills. They use a variety of workbook and hands on activities to master the skills being taught.  Our review will focus on Dimensions Math 1 A.

For our review we received 3 physical books:

Dimensions Math Teacher's Guide 1 A
Dimensions Math  Text Book 1A
Dimensions Math Workbook 1A

We also received access to online Blackline Masters which includes printable resources for you to use with your children such as: Number Cards, Number Word Cards, Shape Sudoku, Tangram pieces, 10 Frame Cards, Number Bond Story Templates, and much more.

Dimensions Math Teacher's Guide 1 A is a 230 page spiral bound book in full color. For each chapter in the book you will find Teaching Notes with an overview and materials list, Chapter Opener with suggestions on teaching the lessons and activities, Practice pages showing the pages the student will use in the textbook,  Activities that you can do with your student to practice skills learned in that lesson, and Complete Pages with answers of the student pages.

Dimensions Math Text Book 1A is a 168 page color paperback book.   The text contains many colorful graphics.  At the end of each lesson there is a pencil graphic showing which pages in the workbook correspond with the lesson.

Dimensions Math Workbook 1A is a 170 page paperback workbook that is in grayscale.  After completing the lesson in the text, students complete the corresponding lesson in the workbook.

Dimensions Math 1 A is designed to take a semester to complete.  It covers:

Numbers 1-10
Number Bonds
Addition
Subtraction
Numbers to 20
Addition to 20
Subtraction within 20
Shapes
Ordinal Numbers

There are two reviews in the book.  One comes after chapter 4 and the other after chapter 9.

I have been using Dimensions Math 1 A with my 7 year old daughter as her main math curriculum 4 days per week over the course of the review period.  Each day for math I sit alongside Emmie and we get out the Teacher Manual, Workbook, Textbook, printed pages, and supplies for any activities.  The textbook lesson starts with a picture and a statement about the picture such as: "There are 9 ducks.  5 ducks are in the water, 4 ducks are on land." Then it asks the student to make up other stories about the duck such as, 1 duck is brown 8 are white, 3 have their mouths open 6 do no not, etc.. This is the "think" activity. The next section is "learn." The text shows picture examples of the concept which in this lesson was parts of a whole.  After that is the "do" section where the student completes some questions related to the concept.  In the teacher manual there is an "activities" section listing hands on activities to go along with the lesson such as games like Go Fish For 6 or Under the Cup.  Then you move onto the workbook page that has more questions for the student to answer.

I have been impressed with Dimensions Math.  I like the way the Teacher's Manual is laid out.  I am always a fan of spiral bound books that lay flat and teacher books that have the entire worksheet with the answers included with them.  The instructions are easy to read through and follow.  I like the thought process that the lesson goes through and I think that it is really helping Emmie learn not just that 6 and 3 make 9 but why 6 and 3 make 9.  The activity suggestions are a great way to add hands on learning to math. I like that the children's textbook is in color but still a small paperback book. I worried when we started this that having a textbook and a workbook would be too much or that the lessons would be terrible long, but they have not been.  Emmie has enjoyed doing her math everyday and the lessons have not taken long to complete.

To see what my Crew Mates had to say about Dimensions Math PK-5, stop by the Crew Blog!

Tweet