Summer break

What is your favorite month? Fred and the girls were asking that question. Fred says December because he loves the Christmas season. Arielle said April because she likes spring. My best time of year is not the spring, that's for sure. That's when we try to finish up school, plus work on getting the portfolio together before we meet with the evaluator, plus finish up 4-H projects for the Fashion Revue. On top of that, this year I was a census worker. It has been a crazy time.

On Friday and Saturday last week I attended our annual local homeschool convention. These two days encourage and invigorate me to keep pressing onward in teaching my girls at home. Every year there is a speaker that really speaks to my heart or I find a book or curriculum that stirs me. This time, I found both.

Andrew Pudewa lectured on teaching children to write. For me, this has been the hardest subject to teach. This man is the director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. He gave us some tools to use when we are teaching that are especially helpful for reluctant writers--those children who continually say, "I don't know what to write." I bought a book that uses his methods called All Things Fun & Fascinating: Writing Lessons in Structure and Style. In the fall, I will report on how this is working for my girls.

My other big find was Gladys Hunt's Honey for a Teen's Heart: Using Books to Communicate with Teens. Honey for a Child's Heart is the classic many homeschoolers use for reading lists, and this one has that feature as well. But it also talks about how to use good books to help us talk to our kids about ideas, values, and issues. There are even mother-daughter reading lists. Arielle is always asking me to read books that she has enjoyed so we can discuss them. Usually I just don't have the time to read all that she recommends. Maybe this book will give us a place to start.

I ran from the homeschool convention straight to the girls' fashion show. In the new profile picture the girls are modeling their 4-H entries.

This blog will take a break until fall when our new school year begins.

The Home Stretch

Now that we are already mid-March, I feel the pressure to complete projects and see where we are lacking in our educational program before the year ends. We've done some good things this year, but we also have some gaps. But it is so hard to press more into our schedules, especially when the girls have Guinea Pig Fever! Yes, they have those tiny, cute pets now and are just fascinated with them. We have them in the school room so the critters will get a lot of attention, but we will be in the middle of a lesson and when one of the piggies squeaks, the girls jump out of their chairs to see what happened. It's hard to get back to adverbs.

To finish up the year, Arielle has a research paper to complete, besides her last book to read and write about for literature class. Liana has not read as many books as I would have liked, and we still need to do some civics and health lessons, as required by our state. I wanted to do more poetry, especially with Liana, and we didn't go around the world in 180 days, as our geography program is called. We only got as far as China and India. So I am a little discouraged about what I know we cannot complete.

I think I will focus on what we have accomplished and how the girls have learned and grown this year.

Hard Work

Long time, no write. Our days are getting longer and schedules tighter. This homeschooling has become hard work! Oh, we've had our difficulties in the past. Teaching Liana to read was no easy task. But we had a little break the first of this school year. Each girl settled into a routine with a minimum of struggle and complaint. The past couple of months, though, the pace has quickened and it's become HARD! Not so much for the girls as for me.

It's Arielle. She has a lot to learn and I need to teach her how to work independently without relying on so much hand-holding from me. She needs to step it up a notch, but I have to show her how to do this. She started work on a research paper on the plight of Native Americans post-Civil War. There is plenty of information available, but she must learn to organize her thoughts and her writing. I think it is harder to teach a child to write than to read.

Arielle also has work to do for her literature class. She is reading a historical fiction book on the Nez Perce Indians and then she has to take the heroine of this book and write a series of correspondences with the fictional character Johnny Tremain--who lived a hundred years prior! The two characters will be pen pals and through the letters Arielle has to reveal the plot of both books. How can I help her if I am not familiar with the books? That means lots of research on my part to talk her through some ideas.

Arielle just finished Teaching Textbooks 7. The last set of lessons have been difficult. This program is set up for the student to work totally independently. But what happens when she just doesn't understand how to work the problem? There are solutions, but just because the child listens to the explanation doesn't mean she really knows the material. So day after day I sit through her lessons and re-learn math. We are on to pre-algebra now. It is all coming back to me! Actually, I liked algebra, so I hope I can convey a little enthusiasm to the child who "hates" math. (Isn't this mental gymnastics good for a senior brain like mine? Maybe I will fend off Alzheimer's!)

We need to spend more time on Spanish. We're only in Unit 3 of Rosetta Stone and the vocabulary is increasing rapidly. My need to see it on paper is hindering my progress. I wish there were supplemental lists of vocabulary to study. I tried making lists for Arielle and me, but that was extremely time-consuming.

So we move forward into this foreign territory of middle school. I love it though. I told a friend of mine who is also homeschooling that I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. Her only comment, "Interesting..." Maybe she doesn't agree. Peace comes when you are completely in the center of God's will. So for now, this day, that's where we are.

Arielle as Louisa May Alcott

Arielle had her second literature class this week. She finished her book Invincible Louisa on time, but since she ended right before Christmas, it was difficult to get her to begin writing the three page report. What kid wants to do homework over Christmas break?

It isn't the mechanics of writing that challenges Arielle. She is fine with grammar and sentence construction. The problem is getting her to put her thoughts and ideas in logical order. She also wants to make her composition as brief as possible. I'm sure it is just a learning process and maybe if I compared her writing to another child's of her age, I might find she is doing quite well.

As she wrote and re-wrote, I helped her to take her good ideas and arrange them to flow smoothly. She was frustrated with me. But I reminded her how lucky she is to be able to compose on a computer because when I was young I had to write and re-write with pen to paper and if I made an error, I had to start again. I'm sure I never did as many drafts as Arielle did, though. By Wednesday morning, she had written a great paper.

Part of her assignment was to dress in a costume portraying her character and give an oral presentation to her class. We looked at pictures of Civil War era attire for women. I fixed her hair in a severe bun and she wore a button-down blouse with one of my long skirts. She was perfect for the role! But she wasn't happy and would not let me take her picture. After all, the outfit was not "cool."

With her sour attitude, Arielle went to her class. She came home glowing! Her teacher said she did very well and that she wrote an excellent paper. Good job, Arielle!

Happy New Year!

We were back to school today after a wonderful Christmas break that was relaxing and fun. In the past I did not allow the girls to take off the whole week like public school kids do. It seemed foolish to waste time when we could be clocking our days. We would fulfill our requirements by May and start an early summer. But as the girls get older I think they need this winter break. I think I did too. We had a successful first day back.

The girls' older sister who is a hair dresser cut Liana's long, long hair yesterday. Liana looks adorable! We joked with her that she looks like a new girl (and maybe she lost the attitude with the hair?) We could only hope. If today is any indication, yes, she did. She was cheerful and worked hard with any complaint. At one point I asked her to do an assignment that usually would follow with her whining, but no, not today. Right before Christmas she finished an adapted version of Oliver Twist and today it was time to choose a new book. Even that decision is often accompanied by moans of anguish and thumbing through the choices to make sure the book isn't too long and has large print and pictures. Today I gave her a stack of suggestions and to my amazement she chose the longest one--On the Banks of Plum Creek. I am excited to read this book again myself! Either Liana reads her boo aloud to me or she reads alone, but I pre-read so I can ask her questions to make sure she is comprehending. So in any case, I will be hearing this book again--one of my favorites from childhood.

Now Arielle was another story today. Her literature class meets on Wednesday and she is down and out about the report she has to do on Invincible Louisa. Writing just does not come easy for her. I think it really bothers her that she can't just breeze through a report because other subjects are not challenging at all for her. So poor Arielle was at the computer much of the day, writing, editing, and re-writing. Her reward for finishing will be to read anything she wants for the next couple of weeks, her choice entirely.

I wrote about Teaching Textbooks the last post. We are about ready to order the next in the series for each of the girls. Pre-Algebra costs $184.90! Wow! That is not in the budget. I just bid on a used one on ebay.

Teaching Textbooks

I've had mixed feelings about the popular math computer program, Teaching Textbooks. Arielle completed the sixth grade program last year and I thought it seemed very simple. She didn't seem to be challenged at all. It was easy for me because I just let her do the lessons on her own. I didn't pay much attention to her work, but could check the gradebooks each day. I felt kind of guilty. Arielle MUCH preferred this to Saxon Math that she had done previously, so reluctantly I ordered the next program for her.

In a few more weeks she will have completed Teaching Textbook's 7th grade program. This time I am not allowing her to do the lessons on her own. I sit with her every day. The lessons are becoming increasingly more difficult and Arielle really has to think. She is doing a great deal of work with percents and decimals. I also ordered the just published 4th grade program for Liana last spring. It is not as advanced as the Abeka she did last year, but with her learning style, it is perfect for her.

Here is what I like about Teaching Textbooks:

Every lesson begins with a lecture only a few minutes long. It doesn't really take long to teach a new concept. There are practice questions and then about 20-22 problems to work. The authors use a spiral approach so there is lots of review every single day. There is a good balance of challenging problems and easy problems. This is especially good for my easily frustrated child, Liana. The easy problems build confidence too. The voices of the men speaking are friendly and helpful. I think that's important because the girls are listening to these guys every day. On the 4th grade level there are periodic drills in addition and multiplication. These drills are in an exciting format, kind of like a game show. Liana, who despises timed drills, doesn't complain too much about these.

I've noticed something interesting watching Liana work on her math. She hardly ever uses paper! Even with addition and multiplication problems with carrying, she does them in her head. She even does borrowing mentally! She looks at the problem on the screen and then she types in each number as she completes each computation, from right to left, just as if she is working it on paper. Even when the problems are written horizontally instead of vertically, she can still do them without paper. She is learning math in a whole new way. I never could do any math in my head.

Because we worked on math all summer, Arielle will soon be ready for the next program--Pre-Algebra. And Liana in just a few more weeks will begin the 5th grade program. I am ordering both from Teaching Textbooks.

New Week, Bad Start

The girls' school work has been disrupted over the past five weeks because of Fred's injury. We left in the middle of the day to pick him up from his school and then had to resume in the afternoon. We had Thanksgiving the next week, along with out-of-town guests and lots of cooking and cleaning and shopping. But here we are in a new week! Fred finished his classes and besides, he's driving now! I had big plans for the girls in getting back to our routine.

But Liana is growling. Arielle is grumbling. They are bickering. It's impossible for them to learn when they are in that frame of mind. Lord, help! I throw up my helplessness in this situation to heaven. Then I remember the book my friend Leslie let me borrow. A book we didn't even look at yet because we have been too busy.

The book is called Poetry Speaks to Children, edited by Elise Paschen. It comes with a CD of poems actually read aloud by the poets. I bring down the little CD player and open the book. (Amidst sighs from Arielle. She says she hates poetry. Liana, however, looks a bit interested.) We begin. We read a couple of the poems ourselves, written by some poets I don't know, but they are cute children's poems. Then we listen to the CD and hear the author's intended rhythm and cadence. We hear Robert Frost's actual voice reading his beautiful poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." And then another poem about a wolf reading fairy tales at night in a pine forest. Then, we begin school. Both girls are calm. Liana's blanket of frustration has lifted. Poetry certainly speaks to this child.