Week in Review: April 18-22, 2016

This week flew by, like all other weeks. The weather is getting beautiful, and we are spending more and more time outside. We will be going home to Louisiana in a few weeks, and the kids are getting homesick! I am looking forward to spending time with my parents, who will be home from Nicaragua for a few months.

Family Learning:

In BiblioPlan this week, we talked about the Law and the wilderness - when Moses and the Israelites wandered in the desert. We talked about the Tabernacle, the items inside of it, and the way it was set up. The kids drew a diagram of the Tabernacle for their notebooks, and Eli made a Tabernacle out of Legos.

We also completed a map and added to our timelines.

In science, we learned about food chains and food webs. We defined our vocabulary words, read an extra book called, "What Are Food Chains and Webs?" This book was very interesting and will be an asset to our ever-growing living book library.

I had the kids draw their own version of a food web:

 

We read more in our Billy Graham biography and about our composer, George Handel.
 

Individual Learning:

Mikaela, Eli, and Mercie are all using Learning Language Arts Through Literature. What a great program! It includes copywork and dictation, light grammar instruction, literature selections, spelling, and so much more. We are really happy with this curriculum.

Mikaela is using Writers in Residence and loving it. I'm planning to start Eli on it soon.

In math, Mercie is learning how to read a clock, Eli completed Chapter 1 in Rod and Staff math, and Mikaela is on Chapter 8 in Principals of Mathematics, learning about ratios and proportions.

Mikaela is reading "King Arthur" and is almost through with the literature guide from Memoria Press. Eli is reading "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" for LLATL.

Silas and Titus had fun this week learning about the letter X and God's treasure - the Bible. I wrote about it in THIS post.

 

Silas is moving right along in Math-U-See Primer, and he is on lesson 16. He loves MUS! He is learning to add small numbers, reading 3 digit numbers, and writing from 1-20. He has trouble with the numbers 12-19, for some reason! We are in between lessons 22 and 23 in Foundations A {Logic of English}. We have been playing games and reviewing the sounds he has learned so far. He loves to play "Go Fish" using the letter cards and sounds. {"Do you have a /t/?"} He even read a few short words, like "dog", "pig", "sit" and "top".

I am pretty happy with our progress this year! I'm already "planning" next year, but we are going to finish what we are using now! The only thing I will have to buy is Writers in Residence for Eli and a new math for Mercie, as she is almost through with Singapore 2B. Mikaela will also need her own science, and I am currently looking at a few from Master Books.

How was your week?
 

Ancient Egyptian Paddle Dolls

We finished Week 7, and Unit 1, in BiblioPlan: Ancients this week, and we haven't completed any craft projects. I decided that we would make an Egyptian Paddle Doll to conclude Unit 1. My kids do love making things, especially toys.

Paddle dolls

What you need:
cardboard
paint or markers
yarn or string
wooden beads
hole puncher

Step One: Cut the cardboard into the shape of a paddle.

Step Two: Paint the cardboard to look like a doll - the bigger end on the bottom, and the smaller end on top. I had the kids try to paint Egyptian designs on the doll, but ultimately I let the project be totally their own.

Step Three: String wooden beans on strips of yarn or thread. Tie them well, so they don't fall off!

Step Four: Punch 4 or 5 holes around the head of the doll, and tie the beads on the doll.

Step Five: Admire your new paddle doll! {And try not to break her...}

We love such simple projects! Hopefully, the kids will remember a little about Ancient Egypt when they look at their dolls.

How I Plan for BiblioPlan and Why We Love It

Many of you know that we have been using BiblioPlan for the past 5 weeks. We are really enjoying it! If you don't know what BiblioPlan is, it is a complete lesson plan and book list for a 34-week, literature-based study, for Kindergarten through 12th grade. We are using the Ancients: Ancient and Biblical History from Creation to the Fall of Rome.

What we love about BiblioPlan is this:

• family learning - all ages can participate at their own level
• literature based
• very Charlotte Mason friendly
• includes geography and mapping
• includes a timeline
• suggestions for hands-on activities {although we don't do many of these}
• Biblically based
• planning is basically done for me

The spines for this program are the Ancients Companion {a beautiful textbook with lots of pictures and interesting facts. It doesn't read like a textbook to me.}, Story of the World, Volume 1, the Mystery of History Volume 1, Journey Through the Bible, and the Bible. You do not have to use all of the spines; in fact, it is suggested not to use them all, but to choose the ones which suit your family. We are using the Bible, the Companion, Story of the World, and Journey Through the Bible. I have a few extra resources, like First Civilizations, a Cultural Atlas and the Holman Bible Atlas, for my oldest daughter to use.

There are suggested literature readings for each unit, like "The Golden Goblet" and "Timna". We haven't read many of these, but I do intend to start reading one per unit. We have almost completed "Timna".

Planning the week is super simple! The Family Guide - which is the book of plans - is laid out very well. The 34 weeks are divided into 5 units with 5-8 weeks each. Each unit has pages at the beginning with books lists, resource lists, and memory work options. After those pages, each week has a 2 page spread, with plans for 3 days. This is very doable, although some weeks, we use this for 4 days.

I look through the week's plans on Saturday. I use a highlighter to highlight which books we are going to read and which activities I plan to do. I may write in a few notes, like "copy-work" on Day 1, "notebook page" on Day 2, and "vocabulary" on Day 3, just as a reminder to do them. {Vocabulary is not listed; I use unfamiliar words and words the kids should know.}

We do not do a lot of the extra activities, as most of them are craft projects that will be thrown away soon. However, this week one of the activities is to make a Backgammon game board. I think we will do this because it will be useful and will be played by the kids. If we do an activity like this, we will do it on Friday when we have no readings.

The maps are in a separate book, and I make a copy for all five of the kids to use. I don't expect as much from my 3 and 5 year olds as I do from my 10 and 13 year old, but they do participate.

We also use the timeline, but we don't use the provided images. I have my kids draw pictures instead. I think this solidifies the events and people in their minds more fully.

After reading each book aloud, I ask one child to narrate. They don't know who will be asked to narrate, so this ensures that they all pay close attention. I read shorter passages for my 8 year old, and I ask my 5 year old questions to help him. For example, I read the Bible first. After a short selection, I will ask my 8 year old to narrate what I read. Next, I may read from the Companion and ask my 13 year old to narrate. After we have some discussion and maybe a notebook page, I read from Story of the World and ask my 10 year old to narrate. It works out well.

Our literature readings, such as "Timna", take place after lunch or before bed. Everyone enjoys this time. I allow them to draw, color, play Legos, or do something else quietly while I read. I don't ask for narrations after this reading time.

It may seem like a lot of reading, and sometimes it is, but it never takes us more than 30 minutes to finish the reading portions. I break it up with narration or a notebook page or map, and I don't expect my two littlest ones to sit through the entire reading. I let them draw or color while I read, or play with Legos.

And the planning never takes more than 10 minutes! I love how it is so well laid out and planned for me. All I have to do is pick and choose what we want to do and make a few copies of the maps or timeline.

BiblioPlan is working for our family, and I am so glad I found it!

Week in Review: Feb. 22 - 26, 2016

We had completed this week of homeschool in North Carolina! We are still trying to get used to a new area - find libraries, grocery stores, parks, and fun stuff. We did an entire week of school though. I always find it easier to do school when we are not "home" {Louisiana}. So many people and activities vie for our time and attention, and it really distracts us. When we are away from "home", it seems we complete much more in school and have more down time.

We finished Week 4 in BiblioPlan: Ancients this week. I cannot tell you enough how perfect this has been for our family so far. Being able to include everyone at their own skill level is just wonderful. We learned about Abraham this week. We read about him in the Bible each morning, and then we read from other sources - Story of the World; the BiblioPlan Companion; and Journey Through the Bible. We had some good discussion, and although we have read this story many times, we learned some new things. For instance, Abraham's father, Terah, worshipped idols and was probably an idol-maker {according to Jewish tradition and other historical writings}. Sarai was even named for a false god! We also learned that Ishmael is credited with being the father of Islam {which I already knew, but the kids didn't}.

The kids made a notebook page on Tuesday about Abraham. I don't give them any instructions; I only give them the topic or theme. I asked them to make a notebook page about Abraham with some interesting facts. That was it. I am including a picture of all 4 of their notebook pages to show how different they all are and how all ages can participate.

{Top Left- Silas, age 5; Top Right - Mercie, age 8;

Bottom Left - Eli, age 10; Bottom Right- Mikaela, age 13}

We had a creative writing or copy-work assignment on Wednesday. Mikaela had to pretend she was a news reporter, reporting on the birth of Isaac. Eli and Mercie did copy-work from the different reading materials.

{Mercie's copywork  - The Abrahamic Covenant}

On Thursday, we worked on our map, mapping Abraham's journeys. Even Titus wants his own map to color, and he does a pretty darn good job. I am glad that even my Kindergartner and 2nd grader are getting mapping practice, even if they don't quite understand. We also added to our timelines.

{Eli's map and Mikaela's timeline}

We did not do science this week, as we are waiting on a new curriculum to come in. It's Christian Kids Explore Biology, and everyone will be participating in this! I am so excited to incorporate family-learning again, and I would love to have as many subjects as possible be completed together. So far, it's Bible, History/Geography, and now Science.

Mikaela worked in Principals of Mathematics and Easy Grammar each day. She is still reading and journaling through "It Couldn't Just Happen!" She and Eli started a new review product on Thursday - literature guides from Memoria Press. She is reading "Door in the Wall", and he is reading "Robin Hood".

Eli is reading and working through Life Of Fred's "Fractions" book. It is very easy for him, and he breezing through it. He and I work a lesson a day in Rod and Staff for grammar, and we do most of it orally.

Mercie has been working on multiplication and division in Singapore math. I also ordered the "Littlest Math Book" from The Thinking Tree for her to use, and she loves it. It starts out pretty simple, with addition and subtraction facts, but she has completed nearly half of it! She is also working through Rod and Staff grammar orally, and she completes a page in her Fun-Schooling Spelling Journal and her cursive workbook daily.

We are reviewing a phonics curriculum with Silas that we are both loving. It's Foundations A from the Logic of English. It's a multi-sensory approach to phonics that is absolutely working for him. I am so excited and so pleased with it! He is also working through Math U See Primer.

We had a pretty quiet week this week, and I enjoyed it! How was your week?