Junior High Junction: 5th Grade Curriculum Choices

Welcome back to the Junior High Junction! Last week I shared Mikaela's month-in-review. This week, I'm going to share a little about Eli, my 5th grader. I know Junior High is typically 6th-8th grade, but I am going to count Eli as a Junior Higher.

Here is Eli's curriculum list for 2016:

Math: He just started "Life of Fred: Fractions". He enjoys it so far! The chapters are humorous to read, and the problems to solve at the end of the chapter are fun. After "Fractions", he will move to "Decimals and Percents". The goal is to complete these two books by May.

Grammar: Eli has been using IXL online for grammar. I have him work 15 minutes a day on grammar. He can choose which category he wants to work on, and when he masters it, he can move on to the next. He has worked on Latin roots, alphabetical order, adjectives and adverbs, and subjects and predicates so far.

Penmanship: Eli uses "Cheerful Cursive" to learn cursive. It is geared toward younger students {my 2nd grader is also using it}, but he has such trouble with handwriting that it works well for him.

Writing: We are reviewing Here to Help Learning, an online program that teaches the writing process through funny videos and hand-on activities. We just started last week, but it is a lot of fun! We do this twice a week.

Science: We are not doing a formal science curriculum right now. We are doing Nature Journals. Each child has a sketchbook, and we are reading through different books on nature - trees, birds, insects, weather. Right now we are learning about trees. Each day, we read a little and then draw in our sketchbooks - the inside of a leaf, deciduous leaves vs. evergreen leaves, the root system of a tree. He likes to draw, and is learning a lot right now. {I would like to get a multi-age science curriculum for K-8th...}

History: We started using BiblioPlan: Ancients last week, and all of the kids love it. We have the BiblioPlan Companion and The Story of the World Volume 1 as our spine. There is map-work, copy-work, vocabulary, timeline, and fun projects to do each week. There are also extra literature suggestions, and I am going to have him read two for each unit {a unit is around 5-7 weeks}.

Bible: Eli has been using his Faith-Builders Bible this week {review item}. He likes the way it reads - the New International Readers Version. He also has a Bible journal that he writes in each day and is reading through the New Testament. We are starting Grapevine Studies {review item} next week that will take us through the New Testament. He is in Bible Drill at our church, and he has memorized tons of scripture, the plan of salvation, and key passages. We also do memory work at home. Right now, we are working on Matthew 5:6-15.

Reading: We are going to review a literature kit for Memoria Press in the next few weeks, and the book he will read is "Robin Hood". He also loves to read for fun. Some of his favorite series are Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, Captain Underpants and Baseball Card Adventures {which are actually really great for history lessons}.

Eli's hobbies are building Legos, drawing comics, and shooting his BB gun. He loves to play baseball, kickball, dodge ball, and ride his bike and skateboard.

I would love to hear your junior high curriculum choices.

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FIAR: Madeline {Link Up}

This week, Mercie and I "rowed" the book "Madeline". This is a story we have read hundreds of times before, but I knew she would love to "row" it. We didn't go all out for this book. There were so many different directions we could have headed! I have found that she enjoys "rowing" books much better when we keep things simple.

The things I wanted to make sure we do with every book are our "country" pages. She has a world map in her FIAR binder, and we always find the country that the story takes place in. Then, she turns the page and there is a blank world map. We find the country again, color it, and label it. She then turns to the individual continent maps and we find the country again. It really helps her with understanding where the country is located.

We will do a vocabulary page each week. I find three words from the story and help her look them up in her children's dictionary. She writes the word, the definition and draws a picture.

We will also do a reading comprehension page once a week. It may be a story summary, character analysis, or graphic organizer. I think it's important to introduce her to these concepts in a gentle way.

Here is what we did for the story "Madeline".

Monday, we used our maps to find and label France. We then put a star sticker where Paris is located. She colored the flag of France.

Tuesday, we talked about the appendix being an organ in our body, since Madeline had to have hers removed. She colored a worksheet of the major organs in the body, and we discussed the function of some of them. She couldn't believe how small the stomach is!

Wednesday, we defined her vocabulary words {appendix, solemn, and crank}. Then she used her Animal Encyclopedia to draw a picture of a tiger in her Do-It-Yourself Zoology journal. She wrote a paragraph about tiger cubs.

Thursday, she made a collage of healthy food that she cut from magazines. We talked about the different ways to stay healthy - eating right, exercising, brushing our teeth and taking vitamins.

On Friday, she did a character analysis on Madeline. I found this worksheet in the FIAR Notebook Builder.

She has been working on multiplying by 4's in math. She also works in her Spelling journal and on cursive daily.

We started BiblioPlan this week, and we all do it together as a family. She has enjoyed it so far and accomplished much more than I required. We also did some nature study in our sketchbooks on trees.

Thanks for linking up last week!

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Do-It-Yourself Zoology {The Thinking Tree}

Sarah Janisse Brown has many "do-it-yourself" books. These books are all virtually the same on the inside, with lines for writing and boxes for drawing. The only difference is the cover. There are books for cooking tips, scientific discoveries, biology, and more. I am reviewing the zoology book today.

 

My 2nd grader, Mercie, uses this book weekly. We use Five in a Row for her main curriculum. Every week, she writes and draws about an animal featured in the book we read. She has an Encyclopedia of Animals that she uses to find information about the animal. She reads about it, then draws a picture and writes some interesting facts.

For example, when we read "The Story About Ping", she read about ducks. When we read "Grandfather's Journey", she read about song birds. And when we read "Madeline", she read about tigers.

This journal could be used in a variety of ways. Your child could use this as a once or twice a week animal science curriculum. You could have them find information about particular animals, then transfer that information into the book. You could do like we are, and keep a watch for animals mentioned in your books. You could just let your child use this whenever they felt like learning about animals.

The pages are great. They are all different, so you don't feel like you are doing the same pages over and over again. There is plenty of room for writing {and lots of lines} and blank squares for drawing.

You can find this, and the other do-it-yourself books, on Amazon!

Check out Sarah's website, Dyslexia Games!


If you want to read more about The Thinking Tree, visit Linda and her link-up!

Blogging Through the Alphabet: N is for Nature Study

 

Nature study is something we have always done in our family, but it is not something we have made a regular part of our homeschool week. That is something I am making an effort to change.

What is nature study? One definition is "the practical study of plants, animals, and natural phenomena, especially as a school subject." I would agree with this meaning one hundred percent.

We are outdoor people! We love to be outside. Everyday we go outside and play, explore and learn. I don't always make nature study a "school subject", as that would take the fun out of outdoor exploration. I do, however, seize opportunities to explain things or ask my children questions. "Why is the bee moving from flower to flower?" or "Why do leaves fall off of trees?" are examples of questions I have asked. More often than not, they surprise me with their answers! They have picked up more information than I realize, and their observations are often accurate.

When we are outside, we take the time to notice the different birds singing, the butterfly fluttering through the yard, the ants marching in a straight line, the way the flowers are blooming. We love to watch the clouds move and try to make pictures out of them. We watch the squirrels running and jumping from tree to tree, the birds hopping around looking for bugs, our cats prowling and pouncing in the yard. We examine the budding leaves and flowers in spring, the dry, crispy, fallen leaves in autumn, and the evergreen trees in winter. I try to point out anything I notice, and my children follow suit.

 Sometimes, however, I do make nature study more formal. We made nature bracelets one day, and the kids really loved that! I wrapped packing tape around their wrist, sticky-side up. We walked around, picking up leaves and flowers, feathers and pebbles, and the children stuck their treasures to their "bracelets".

We make bird feeders out of different materials: pinecones and peanut butter rolled in bird seed, painted tin cans, or store-bought wooden ones the kids paint. They love to feed the birds and watch the birds as they eat!

We have had scavenger hunts with items found in nature: find a yellow flower, black bug, bumble bee, piece of bark. There are many free printable scavenger hunts for nature walks.

We will sit and listen to the birds, trying to distinguish which birds are singing which songs. We have several bird guides that we use to identify the birds in our yard.

We have lots of books on trees, plants, animals, insects, and weather. I bought the children each a sketchbook, and we are reading through these books one at a time each day, and drawing diagrams, labeling the parts of plants, and writing information in our sketchbooks. We are doing this in lieu of a formal science program right now.

 

 

 

 

Nature study can be experienced in a number of ways, and no way is right or wrong. Do what is right for your children, their ages, and their skills. Even something as simple as a leaf or bark rubbing can be nature study. You could have your child draw the parts of a leaf, the parts of a tree, or the parts of an insect. You could go outside and count the bugs you see in the grass. You could examine the parts of a flower or observe one tree every day for a year. The possibilities are really endless.

I hope I have given you some ideas for implementing nature study in your homeschool.

Linking up with Meg and Cristi and Blogging Through the Alphabet!

52 Lists Project: Week 5

We are on week 5 of the 52 Lists Project, and this week we must list the things we are grateful for.

 

Wow, this list could be never-ending for me, because God has blessed me abundantly and beyond measure! Let me try to pare it down...

salvation
forgiveness
the hope of eternal life
a beautiful, comfortable home
central heat and air conditioning
running water
electricity
pantry, refrigerator and freezer full of food
closets full of clothes and shoes
washing machine and dryer
two nice vehicles
my hard-working husband
my 5 wonderful children
the spiritual gift of teaching
the ability to stay home with my kids all day, every day
my prayer-warrior parents
bookshelves full of books
enough Bibles in our house for every family member
my family's health
living close to my extended family
homeschooling
children who bless me daily with hugs, kisses, and words of affirmation
a husband who supports homeschooling 100%
the ability to travel with my husband
church family

There are so  many more things I could add to this list! I am so grateful everyday for my Savior, who has blessed me with every blessing I could imagine.

Linking up with Chasing Slow!

Homeschooling When...You Move Around A lot

My husband is a tie-in foreman for pipeline construction. His job requires us to move around. A lot. Most of his jobs last anywhere from 2-8 months. They are usually more than a day's drive from our home in Louisiana. He works 6 or 7 days a week, 12 or more hours a day, so if we want to see him then we travel with him.

We've been doing this for around 7 years now. We have been to numerous states {some more than once!} and made many friends along the way.

Is it easy? Not always. It's not fun to uproot our family several times a year. It's not fun trying to find a furnished house or apartment to rent while we are away. It's not fun to be away from our family, friends, church, and house for extended periods.

Is it worth it? Absolutely. It would be torture to not see my husband for months at a time, not to mention him having to be away from us! I firmly believe that our family should be together, all the time. Therefore, we travel with him. Several times a year. To many different places.

Back to the topic... How do we homeschool when we move around a lot? The easy answer is - we take our books with us! It's not so simple, though! With 5 kids, it's not feasible to pack a ton of curriculum, books, manipulatives, educational toys, puzzles, maps, globes, games - you get the idea! We usually have a limited amount of cargo space - my husband's truck and my Yukon XL. Loaded down with five kids and two adults and plastic tubs of stuff and more stuff and even more stuff!

I don't take every piece of our curriculum when we travel {and yet, I always come home with way more stuff than I brought...hmm...}. It's hard to pare down the essentials {because I want to bring it all!} and there is always something I really regret not bringing with me {which is why we have double and triple of a lot of stuff!}.

I am going to share my tips and advice for homeschooling when you travel a lot.

1.) Find the local library. This is so important, that I usually google the library in the town we will be in before we even get there! Some states require different things to obtain a library card - always find out those requirements before you go. Having a library card makes it so easy when you need a book for school. Plus we never pack any books {other than curriculum books} which saves space! The kids love going to a new library for the first time. We always make friends with the librarians, too. That way they are more forgiving when we check out, oh, 40 books a week, or make use of the inter-library loans, or {gasp} tear a page out of a book!

2.) Find local museums and exhibits. We always make use of the awesome field trips available! Sometimes there are little hidden gems that are a lot of fun and educational. It feels like a big vacation sometimes.

3.) Pack only the most-used manipulatives. It is so hard for the decide which manipulatives I will bring. I usually pack counting cubes and bears, pattern blocks and cards, and letter and number tiles. We use these quite often, especially with Silas in Kindergarten and Mercie in 2nd grade. I would never have enough room to pack everything we use, so I paid attention to what we pulled out the most and these made the cut. You could always use dry beans or pennies!

4.) Find the local thrift store. I don't pack any board games, but I do allow room to bring some home. We always hit the local Goodwill store or thrift store and usually hit the jackpot on 99 cent board games. We bought a {brand-new} "Name That State" game and "Geografacts" game in the last place we were. These games are at least $30 on Amazon! We also find lots of educational books - kids dictionaries, Spanish words, atlases and more for around 50 cents each. {This is why I always go home with more than I bring...}

5.) Use a curriculum that doesn't require many extras. This is the first year that my kids aren't using the same core curriculum. It was a shock when I had to pack everything up {I bought it while we were on a job}. I won't make that mistake again! Eli, my 5th grader, is using Heart of Dakota's Bigger Hearts for His Glory. His books would fill up an entire plastic tub by themselves! That is not feasible for traveling, so we will be doing something different when the time comes to travel again. I really want to combine them for history, science, and geography again, as it not only makes traveling easier, it makes homeschooling easier.

6.) Use e-books. While I don't have an e-reader or even a tablet {double gasp!}, my oldest daughter has a tablet that was given to her. I will put a lot of her required reading on the tablet to cut back on books that we must pack. If your children like using e-readers, you could do this to save space.

7.) Use the Thinking Tree Journals! These journals don't take much space, and all they require to use them are library books. Talk about saving space!

Homeschooling when we travel so often isn't easy, but keeping my family together is important! I hope this helped someone in my situation.

Junior High Junction: Month in Review {January}

Welcome back to the Junior High Junction. Thanks for linking up last week, and I hope to have even more link-ups this week!

This week, I'm going to do a month-in-review for January. Mikaela is in 7th grade, and here is what she has been up to this month.

Math: She quit using Khan Academy in lieu of a textbook/workbook curriculum {her decision}. She started using Principles of Mathematics by Katherine Loop. This math book has a Biblical worldview, which is kind of strange for a math textbook, but Mikaela enjoys it so far. It is challenging in some areas, and some areas are easy review {which she really likes}. There are real-life examples of how and when you will need to use math in your life, which is great because she doesn't like math, and this shows her that she will, in fact, one day use it! The first week she made an abacas. We didn't follow the directions exactly; we just used what we had on-hand. It works, though, and she {and I} learned the correct way to add and subtract numbers in the thousands on the abacas.

Science: She has been reading "It Couldn't Just Happen", which is a book based on creation science. She also follows up in her Fun-Schooling Journal with activities that I list for her - copy-work, drawing diagrams or pictures of the things in the book, spelling words, and writing interesting facts. She is enjoying it. She's learned about the planets and stars, fossils, why dinosaurs could have disappeared and other interesting facts. She loves this book, and complains that I don't give her enough to read every day. But I want it soak in!

History: She has finished up the first book in America the Beautiful. We will not move on to the next book yet, as we are going to start BiblioPlan this week!

Grammar/Language Arts: This is one area that we have been weak in. She uses Daily Grams and Easy Grammar daily, and she works in the Spelling Time Journal several times a week. We don't have a writing program, but we start reviewing one for the Crew on Monday. We have never done a formal writing program, so I'm excited. We also start another review item, a literature kit from Memoria Press. These two elements added to her week will be a big burden off of my shoulders. {Why are we always worried our kids aren't "doing enough?"}

Electives: She has not been doing her Art Lessons, and I want her to pick them back up. She does cook and bake often, which I count as home-ec! She loves making jewelry and key-chains {check out her page - KK's Korner - at the top of my blog}, and she even made few bottle-cap magnets!

Books Read: Some of the books she read this month are:
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
The Death Cure by James Dashner
The Eye of Minds: The Mortality Doctrine by James Dashner
Bound for Oregon by Jean van Leeuwan

I would love to hear what your junior high students have been up to this month!

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