2011-2012 Homeschool Grand Reveal

I know you have been waiting with baited breath to see what Kingdom Arrows has put together for our 2011-2012 school year!  OK, maybe not.  But, I have!  Here it is.  Of course, you know that a list like this does not come together without much prayer, research, consulting friends, speaking with curriculum writers, etc.  This process of planning my school year usually takes about 2 months. 

*GASP*

But, for me, and other moms who shall remain nameless, it is almost a hobby, and an enjoyable way of life.  It is also one of the many reasons I wanted to homeschool.  I know there are certain curriculums whose goal is being able to "open and shoot."  And, I wanted you to hear it from me, that is GREAT.  I am thankful those Christian writers and developers are out there.  Many people don't want to pull it all together, or they have more than four children, or they need to work part-time while they homeschool, or they are a single mom, etc. So, these companies are meeting a valuable need in our homeschool community. 

But, here are the plans for Kingdom Arrows.

Kae-Kae, grade 8, 13 years old

• Sonlight, core 200- Church History and Literature.  This is OUR FIRST HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT!!  Under our umbrella school, we can count this as high school world history.  Sonlight has a weak writing component, but Kae-Kae is so strong in writing, since doing IEW for six years, we will just be doing some additional assignments.
• Latin Alive, Book A- OUR SECOND HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT!  I tried teaching the first lesson and threw in the towel.  I bought the DVDs, and that was a good plan.
• Singapore Math- Lord willing, books 4A-6B, over the next 15 months.  Remember, we have had a crash course in math this year, leaping from second grade Math-U-See up to Saxon 7/6.  Thanks to Dawn, as I was thinking about starting pre-alegebra this fall, I decided to schlep over to the Singapore website and see what in the world was such a big deal about this curriculum.  Well, (hanging head), I realized that being one-third of the way through Saxon 7/6 got us to the end of Singapore 3B.  Yep!  Those Asian countries are serious about their math.  So, we are doing a double tap year to plow through all this math and get Kae-Kae ready for Algebra next fall.  Oh, I and I will let you in on a secret- it is going to be Video-Text Algebra.  Go check it out, it may change your life.
• Rainbow Science-finish year one and do as much of year two as we get to before high school science.  This is a well-written course, and is stretching Kae-kae more than any other science course I have seen.  She reads it and usually can't answer the questions, so I skim it and we talk through it.  The whole first semester is physics, which is an entirely new area for her.  Also, the teacher's guide is thorough and I recommend it.  This is written to be a seventh and eighth grade curriculum, and I believe it. 
• Continue working through Phonetic Zoo- A
• Extras- The Thinking Toolbox, Analogies 1 and 2, 4-H, nature journaling, weekly art lessons
• Continue with flute, piano, and begin ballet again.  Kae-kae earned one of two partial flute scholarships for the fall at the college where she takes lessons! 

Joy-Bug, grade 3, 8 years old

• Josuha through  Malachi and Ancient Greece, from Simply Charlotte Mason
• Right Start Math, level D
• Institute for Excellence in Writing- starting her on the Unit 1 and 2, Key word outlines, etc.
• All About Spelling, finish level 2, go to level 3.  I am now an affiliate, so click through on my side-bar to purchase it and I make a little egg money.
• Animals and Their Worlds and other nature journaling, weekly art lessons
• Speedy Spanish
• Pinao, Ballet, 4-H

Gracie-Girl, grade 1, 6 years old

• Josuha through Malachi  and Ancient Greece, from Simply Charlotte Mason
• Right Start Math, Level B
• All about Spelling, finish level 2
• Animals and Their Worlds and nature journaling
• Speedy Spanish
• Ballet, 4-H

Little Guy- 4 years old

• Animals and their Worlds and Nature Journaling
• Whatever his big sisters do!
• Soccer

Share your post with our Great Reveal Blog Hop all this week! This blog hop is co-hosted by Olive Plants.  She has a fun giveaway this week, too.  You do not have to have a blog post to participate!

Heather

What is By My Bed

Well, it is that time of year again.

This is next to my side of the bed. 

Curriculum planning for next year.

I am on a time crunch since I am going to the Atlanta Curriculum Fair in 3 weeks with Dawn.  Since she is also known as Curriculum Ninja, I have to be well versed in all the possible curriculum for Rome and Greece, you know I have to hold my own:)

But, this is sick....

That is right, THREE versions of The Odyssey, and I don't even like Ancient Mythology.  Although, Penelope and Telemachus have grown on me.

So, since I am stuck in B.C. right now, what are your favorite resources for teaching third grade and under about Rome and Greece? 

I will let you in on a little secret, I almost bought a curriculum from a new company I just learned about.  I really like their reading list, but then, I wanted to use Harmony Art Mom for picture study/music study, REAL Chemistry for Kids for Science, a different poetry book for poetry, All About Spelling for Spelling, and well.... then it was not worth the $75 to have it all mapped out for me. 

Maybe it is not my bookshelves that are sick, maybe it is me?  I guess being a curriculum junkie could be worse.  Oh, and sweet hubby, can you bring that bookshelf home from work?  Six bookshelves in our home are not enough.

Remember the Crowe's Nest Media giveaway, Your Backyard DVD.  Click here to enter.  Also, a discount if you purchase before Saturday, you can buy it for $12 with the code, "Tweet."  This would make a GREAT Easter goody, it is focused on the creator and taking dominion by learning to identify 18 feeder birds. 

Heather

March Musings

Well, I have not been posting about much except Drawing with Children and Nature blogs.  I wanted to give you a peep into my life to see what we have been up to.

I asked Dan to pick up Les Miserables for me at the used bookstore, since I finally finished David Copperfield.  It took me 6 weeks to plow through those 853 pages, so I thought I would try something new.

This is what he brought home...

However, NO ONE TOLD ME IT WAS 2.75 INCHES THICK.

Then, there is this....

That would be TWENTY PAGES I have printed off from The Handbook of Nature Study.  Barb must LOVE Spring.  She has made so many cool resources, many of them free, and I am wading through scheduling them.  I am trying to be really diligent to do the art and composer study.  I usually let that one slide.

I also was sick of having to find a new Mary Kay consultant all the time, so here ya go, I am now a consultant,
Mary Kay. 
There is a free Virtual Makeover.  Also, free shipping and gift with at least a $40 purchase.  I am assuming much of my business will be online, so I am offering some incentives!

I have also been lesson planning for next year and the summer.  We basically school year round, where we do something a little different in the summer.  Our summer this year will be 6 weeks long and we will start school the third week in July, Lord willing.  The oldest daughter has decided she wants to do Shakespeare in the Summer.  I made that up, so don't google it.  We are using the Ambleside list for Shakespeare so we will spend 2 weeks per the three Shakespeare works for 2011.  I am knee deep in Henrry V now.  I found the best book, No Fear Shakespeare!  It has his and modern translation side-by-side.  I also have on order Brightest Heaven of Invention, in order to help me figure this out.  I have not taught Shakespeare beyond the grammar level.  Keep tuned in for whatever comes of Shakespeare in the Summer.




The last do-dad I have decided is to start a 4-H club in the fall.  We are going to be "general" and have all ages kids from 4th grade and up.  It is going to be family integrated so all the other siblings can come.  I really want my kids to get practice on Public Speaking, Demonstrations, Fair Exhibits, etc.  This is a little more like "school" than we have done in the past, and I think they will grow alot.  I will keep you updated on what this looks like too!

What have you been doing in March?  Is yours running away with you?  Are you interested in Shakespeare in the Summer?  What about a blog hop for it?

Heather

Lent 2011

We are a Protestant, Evangelical family that observes Lent, to some degree for the last several years.  This has helped our family prepare mentally and spiritually for the most important day of the Church Calendar, Easter.

Usually we start off on Fat Tuesday with some special kind of pancakes.  This year it was BLUEBERRY!

On Ash Wednesday, we try to go to a lunchtime worship service.

Click here to see what our family has used the last few years for Lent study.  This works great for all aged children and is easy to use. Great for homeschooling families or families that want to begin family worship.  This year I have decided to skip the coloring the tree part and we made our own tree.  I got 40 sparkly eggs from the Dollar Tree that had ribbons tied on.  Everyday of Lent we will put an egg on our tree while we do our study.  Remember, Sundays don't count, since they are "Little Easters" anyway!

A few other things we do during the 40 days are make or buy yummy pretzels.  We usually have a little bowl that we collect a special offering in and after Easter we give it to a special ministry or mission. 

On Good Friday, we put a black tablecloth on the table and early Easter morning, I replace it with a white one. 

Kae-Kae is starting her third year of wearing a black bracelet to remind her of Christ's sacrifice during this time.

How do you celebrate Lent?

 

Heather

Christian Worldview Reasons for Nature Study

Kingdom Arrows and Gracie Girl have been given a very unique privilege, our picture is one of the pictures chosen for Photo of the Week at the Handbook of Nature Study Blog, click here and scroll down to see her!  She would LOVE to hear some Comment Love!

Now, I don't usually write 2 serious posts back to back, but I have been wanting to explain our reasoning for Nature Study. Many homeschoolers think it is just a nice little extra or something to just do when your children are younger.  So, I want to present some thoughts about that, and shake your tree a little.  Again, I am not trying to produce guilt or say that you have to do Nature Study, I just want you to think intentionally about including it or not including it.  Sometimes we don't include something just because we don't even think about it as an option. 

So, this week I ran across this verse:
"Solomon spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall.  He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish."  1 Kings 4:33

Wow!  King Solomon took time from running the country and being the wisest man around to do some Nature Study.

Something to think about.

Now as I was talking to the resident theologian about this, he reminded me that the first Adam had a special job, "The Lord God brought every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens to see what he would call them.  And whatever the man called every living creature, that was his name."  Genesis 2:19  Also, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it."  Genesis 2:15  Being that we are the second Adam, we also have a responsibility to have dominion over all these creations.  One way we have dominion is understanding and knowing about the other things God has created.  Even getting them in order in our mind and knowing an American Goldfinch when you see one can be a way of having dominion. 

I also love the memories my children are building about us as a family doing nature-y things.  To me this is similar to scripture or catechism memory.  When my kids are old and grey and they can remember those verses and questions, I think they will also be able to remember the birds, moon, and snow facts that got stuck in their brains when they were little.  Oh, and then the next step- they get to share that with the next generation and teach what having dominion looks like. 

One of the things that hindered me from beginning nature study was how overwhelming it is.... clouds, trees, stars, mammals, mountains, birds, etc.  How would I ever learn anything more than the 5 birds I already knew?  That is where I would recommend this blog, The Handbook of Nature Study.  I did not know about that blog, so I just jumped in last January with a tree book, some pictures of flowers, a bird book, and Identiflyer, some bird feeders in my yard, and reading every one of the Birding 101 posts here,  here and here.  I started with birds since they are my favorite.  Remember yesterday's post about following your passion in homeschooling?

 This year we are branching out into trees,  ha! ha!  Did you get it?


Please share any secrets your family used to begin the daunting task of beginning Nature Study!

Heather

Free Math Computer Games

I wanted to let you know about a site that my friend Melody told me about. 

It is called Fun4theBrain.  It has online math facts games, and you can turn the volume OFF!  You can choose which function you want to practice, and which set to drill.  For instance, fours and adding. 

Joy-bug has reduced her math drill time by a minute and a half since she started doing Fun4theBrain.

I do require my children to set a timer for 30 minutes anytime they are playing computer games.  If not, they lose their privilege. 

Check it out!

Heather

Holiday Games

In our family, I always give a game to "us" on Thanksgiving Day and it is our Holiday game through the whole month.

I thought I would share what I have bought the last few years and tell you what we have done this year.  I am assuming ya'll can keep your lips sealed since it is a few more weeks until Thanksgiving.









Rat-A-Tat Cat



This is a great game for multi-aged families. You can start at 4 years old, with a few adaptations, and it is even fun up to adults. It can also be played in 15 minutes, right before bedtime, and does not require many brain cells of the adults who are brain-dead by this point.




Blokus
This is one of those mensa games that can be played up to 4 people.  Our littles are able to play with a little help starting at age 6 and up.  The bummer is that only 4 can play, so I opt for a Blokus Fest, where you have 2 games going at once.





Settlers of Catan
This is one of those adult kind of games, which would be for ages 10 and up, and only 4 players.    We also bought the expansion  pack so up to 6 people can play.  We have Catan game nights with friends and everyone loves the mental workout.  You find out who your true friends are with that pesky Robber. 













This year, since our 5 and 7 year old have started actually playing games together, we opted to get individual games.

For Little Guy, 3 years we got Richard Scarry's Busy Town Game
We chose this for its puzzle-like quality and the fact that is has MANY trucks and boy things drawn on it.  It builds a playing mat of 4-6 feet long.















For Gracie-Girl, 5 years, we got Connect Four
This game can only be played by 2 people, but is perfect for my two middles to play.  And, it is a flash-back from the 70's, so what can I say.  My parents never bought this for me, and I always wanted it.....

For Joy-Bug, 7 years, we got Battleship
Another 70's game for 2 players.  But, the girls have played this at friend's houses and loved it.















For Kae-Kae, 12 years, we got Tripoley
This is the game I am personally most excited about, since it is ADULT!  Dan and I love a 1960's game called Rummy Royal and have many fond memories of playing with Roger and Amy, with popcorn and chocolate chip cookie dough, and fewer children, living next door and..... I digress.  But, it is difficult to play RR with only 3 people, you need couples.  So, Tripoley requires 2-10 players, so the three-some of Mom, Dan and Kae-Kae can play after hours. 



So, if any of these sound good, click through on my Amazon site and I can earn a little extra Christmas money!!

Also, please share you favorite family games,  everyone look in the comments for more ideas!


Heather

Mid-Semester Check-In

It is time for a mid-semester check-in. I don't know if any of you homeschool like I do, but by the time I get to the midsemester, I have usually chunked half of my choices, and added in another set of new ideas. Sometimes it is curricular, sometimes it is scheduling, sometimes extras. We are in our eleventh week of school for the '09-'10 schoolyear.

Some things I like:
Tapestry of Grace, Y1, Ancients. A combo of the dialectic and upper grammar level is just what ME needs, including alot of higher order thinking, reading, and summaries. I have been making mini-books for her to lapbook, and we completed her first one. The thinking and accountability questions are perfect for making lapbooks. Lapbooks have become an important part of her therapy, since she does not visualize color or shape.

Daily Paragraph Editing, 6th grade

Daily Geography, 1st grade (we do it one time a week)

Mini-luk for pre-logic- all three of my schoolers are required to do mini-luk at least one time per week. They think it is a game. I bought mine from www.timberdoodle.com

Some things I don't like:
Trying to combine Story of the World with TOG for the little people. My little ones think they should have a read aloud everyday and do something hands-on everyday for what they heard. I don't like many of the TOG choices for lower grammar, and I don't feel there is enough reading for LG.

Not fitting in Science for my first grade science lover. Note, mom is not a science lover so this could be the problem.

What I plan to change:
I have decided to do a broad brush-stoke overview of the Ancients for EJ and LG. This means I will pick and choose what books to read from TOG. I will continue to let them listen to SOTW on CD. Then I am going to also do American History for Primary Grades with the Rea Berg guide and Beautiful Feet Books. I know, I know, I am mixing metaphores, from Ancients to American history, but, it drives me crazy that my first grader has no frame of reference for anything American. This is just cultural literacy. Plus we are hoping to go to Williamsburg, et.al, this spring and I want her to have an idea of what is going on.

We are beginning the Great Science Adventures by Zike and Simpson. Hopefully this will meet the first graders need for science and creating, as this is a lapbook based science program. I let her choose from the eight books and she chose Discovering Earth's Landforms.

Spell to Write and Read is still a part of our family, but I have decided that I am going to continue teaching EJ until we have gotten to the section where she has learned all the phonograms and words up to that level and then I am STOPPING. I know that is not how the curriculum was written, but I dislike giving up 45minutes of my day per child for this program. It is very effective, but not designed for multi-level families. I feel such a relief to know we will probably be done by Christmas. For language arts then, I will require much reading aloud from EJ, combined with copywork and writing. I plan on retesting EJ in the fourth grade to see where the holes are, and at that point we can pick up SWR if needed.

So that is my mid-semester philosophizing, what's your plan??

Jerusalem Experience

In conjunction with our Tapestry of Grace Y1, unit 1 study, we were able to go to the Jerusalem Experience at the Passion Play of the Smokys. It was free and enabled us to make Hebrew costumes, stomp on grapes, make a scroll, weave on a loom, tour a tabernacle and watch Jewish dancing. Everyone enjoyed this field trip and it was the first time we have gotten to go with Maggie, the girl's great-grandma that just moved nearby.

The New Schoolyear

I know my friends have waited with baited breath to see how many MONTHS I can go without blogging. We are well into our new schoolyear (week 5) and have decided to follow HSD, www.oliveplants.blogspot.com lead, and let you know about our new and old (favorite) curriculm.

We are all studing the Ancients. By all I mean me (History of the Ancient World, by Bauer), to ME, 6th grade using Tapestry of Grace Year 1, to the littles using Story of the World by Bauer. ME has 45 min a day to read, and 45 min a day to do all of her work from TOG. I have begun implementing lapbooks in order to record all of the history information we have been accruing. For my glueing/coloring/cutting child, this is a blessing, for the others it is a good part of therapy.

For sixth grade Language Arts, we are reviewing year one of Lively Latin, year 6 of Hey Andrew Teach me some Greek!, Daily Grammar Practice, Daily Reading Practice and our favorite, Institute for Excellence in Writing. I did buy the Level B IEW Continuation Course on DVD, since ME thrives on writing. My favorite additions for the year have to be the Daily Grammar Practice and Daily Reading Practice.

We have a Math tutor a few houses down, who tutors ME and I cook a meal for her family. It is a great trade. We are still continuing in flute and piano.

For the littles, we are using Spell to Write and Read and seeing excellent progress. I am also using Cursive First and this is GREAT for all the reverals and flips of the letters. We are using several other books for our circle time, including Song School Latin, Play and Find out Science Experiments, Mini-Luk for thinking skills, Little Keepers of our Home and Artistic Pursuits.

Our newest change for the year is having 45 min blocks with 15 min breaks. This is for everyone including MOM! I love it. ME is practicing her piano during some, we are doing some of our therapy exercises, I am able to do laundry, make yogurt or granola and even go to the bathroom (definately a privelege for the homeschooling mom). Thanks Tisha for the idea.

The pictures at the top are the Egyptian princess, EJ. Also, our working model of the Nile River, to show how the flooding helps with the farming.