Homeschooling Hands On: Enhancing Reading Program

Out of my five children, I have two children that love to read, and it is very difficult to keep good books in their hands. A few years ago it got to the point that going to the library was a long, drawn out process! Not that I don’t like going to the library with my children, but when you try to look for good books for one child and have a screaming infant or an impatient toddler disrupting your concentration — all while everyone around you is staring at you…well, it makes for a rough visit!  

BOOK LISTS

After a few times of that lengthy production at the library, I finally took the time to do some research for websites that had a list of good books. I found several websites that have book lists for different age levels. Each year from those lists, I make a reading list for my children and this has helped a lot in streamlining our trip to the library to get books every two weeks.

ONLINE RESOURCES

While the book lists have helped to streamline our time at the library, I also found websites that have helped us to get more out of our books other than just reading them. Here are some of the websites that I use either with my kids or for my resource on a weekly basis.

• Book Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they’ve read, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes. Book Adventure was created by and is maintained by Sylvan Learning.
• Book unit studies has a list of books that are “kid-friendly,” enjoyable books. Each of the books has a link that takes you to a lesson plan around that book, and there are comprehension questions, vocabulary, and activities to go along with each book.
• The Children’s Literature Web Guide is an internet resource related to books for children and young adults. There are links to resources on authors, stories online, book discussion groups and more.
• Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas for ways to use them in the classroom, and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes, and professional topics.
• The Best Kids’ Book Site is a fun and interactive site where books, crafts, and web resources come together to give you a great resource. I love using this to find book titles about the holidays, seasons, or countries to go along with our unit studies that we do for history. I used this site to come up with crafts for my kindergartner as we made our way through the alphabet.
• The Read Aloud Handbook is actually a book, but the author has set up a website with all the same information that is in the book, plus new reviews of books that are not in the latest edition of his book. He has a lot of different information on this site regarding reading and books.

Whether you homeschool or not, make reading something more than just reading a book. It’s really worked for us! Happy Reading!

**this post was originally published as one of my contributing articles at Happy to be at Home!

Women History Month

One thing that I enjoy about not being “tied” to a specific curriculum is being able to make and do my own units of study. It is fun to put a different twist on the school day by doing something that is not according to structured lesson plan.  For this month, I am putting together a unit based on a month long event. According to the Educator’s Calendar that I downloaded from TeacherVision, March is Women’s History Month.

So for part of the month, I have planned for my children to learn about important women in history and how each of those women made their mark on history.

The women we are going to be studying this month are:

Sojourner Truth

Susan B. Anthony

Abigail Smith Adams 

Emily Dickinson

Amelia Earhart

Eleanor Roosevelt 

Sandra Day O'Connor

Annie Oakley

Helen Keller 

Betsy Ross

Clara Barton

Rosa Parks

If you clicked on any of their names, you will find that each of these women made their mark on history!   Along with studying these women we are going to learn about the firsts in women's achievement throughout history.

To accomplish our study we will be using the following resources:

History.com's Women History Month Page

Women History Month's page at Infoplease

Time for Kids--Women History Month Page

Library of Congress' Tribute to Women History Month

Scholastic's Women History Page

 

As for books that we will use in our study, I will be picking a few from this recommended list and this list compiled by Carol Hurst.   I will also be looking for books that are about each of the specific women listed above.

Here is what we will be doing for activities; we will be making a poster entitled “Women’s Firsts”. We will also be doing a fact sheet on each of the women as we study them throughout the month.

Nothing extravagant but something that will hopefully be fun and a change of pace for us.

 

2008-2009 Curriculum

After taking the time to share what I am doing with my daughter this year. I thought I would take the time to share what I am going to be using and doing with my 3 older boys.
I have added in a few new items to our learning this year. Word of the Day and Music are new to us. For Music, we will be doing it altogether and will be working on it one or two days per week. The Word of the Day is going to be worked into our daily work and used as part of our copy work exercises for the day.
My oldest son is pretty much a self-learner so he will be doing most of his year on his own with minimum effort from me. I chose what he will be learning along with scheduling it out and he does the work. My other two are so close in age, abilities, and learning styles that I try to work with them together on most things.
History and Science texts are used more as a study guide because we do more Unit Studies and Lapbooks for those subjects. I am still working on age appropriate book lists for all three of them and I will post at a later date.
Also we will be doing Art(weekly) and PE(daily), however, I didn't list them because we do these things altogether and as time allows for them.
#1 son--Grade 7:

Bible:**Bible Class Books
**list of Scripture to memorize
**Character Building
**Christian History
Math:
**Finish Grade 8th Math
**Pre-Algebra
**Consumers’ Math
English/Writing:**Word of the Day
**Journal Writing
Reading:**Fundamentals of Literature--BJU
**Poets Study
**Select Reading List—Book Reports and Comprehension QuestionsSpelling:**Spelling Connections Grade 7
**Spelling Connections Games
Handwriting/Copywork:**Donna Young's Penmanship
Science:
**Earth Science
History:**World Cultures
Music:
**Ambleside Composer Study
**Learn Music Notes


#2 son--Grade 5:
Bible:
**AWANA
**Character Building
Math:**BJU Math Grade 5
English/Writing:
**Scott Foresman Grade 5
**Journal Writing
**Word of the Day
Reading:**BJU Reading Grade 5
** Select Reading List—Book Reports and Comprehension Questions
Spelling:
**Spelling Connections Grade 5
**Spelling Connections Games
Handwriting:**Cursive--Handwriting for Kids
**Donna Young's Penmanship
Science:
**Investigating God’s World—Grade 5
History:
**Abeka New World Geography
Music:**Ambleside Composer Study
**Learn Music Notes


#3 son--Grade 3:

Bible:**AWANA
**Character Building
Math:**Finish LifePac Math Grade 3
**BJU Math Grade 3 or 4
English/Writing:
**Scott Foresman Grade 3
**Journal Writing
Reading:
**BJU Reading Grade 3
** Select Reading List—Book Reports and Comprehension Questions
Spelling:**Spelling Connections Grade 3
**Spelling Connections Games
Handwriting:**Cursive--Handwriting for Kids
**Donna Young's Penmanship
Science:**Understanding God’s World—Grade 4
History:
**BJU Heritage Studies Grade 3/4
Music:
**Ambleside Composer Study
**Learn Music Notes

Homeschooling Little Ones--Pre-K/Kindergarten Curriculum

In my series, Homeschooling with Little Ones, I have covered my game plan with a new baby, keeping toddlers occupied, training of toddlers and my daily routine. I am going to close the series with giving you an overview of what I am going to be doing with my daughter(will be 5 in December) this school year. Last year we worked on getting this preschool list accomplished, along with fun and playful activities.

To start out our year, we are going to focus on a different letter of the alphabet. I haven’t decided if we are going to do a letter per week or every two weeks. I also haven't decided if we are going to go in ABC order because some letters are easier to write/trace than others. I am going to be doing some of the activities that I found at Letter of the Week along with other activites that I have linked below.

Here is a list of the different things we are going to study with the alphabet…

A= Apples, Angels, and Ants Lapbook
B= Birds, Blue, Bees and Butterfly Lapbook
C= Circle Shape Book with C Words, carrots, caterpillars , and cars
D= Dogs, Ducks, and Dolls
E= Earth, Eggs, and Elephants
F= Fruit, Fish, Flowers, Feathers, Flag, fire safety, and Frogs
Visit a Fire Station, Collect Pictures of Flowers
G= Girl, Green, Grapes
H= Heart, and House
I= Ice Cream, and Indians
J= Jewelry, Jello, Jumprope, and Jungle
K= Kites, King, Kangaroo, Kindness, Kitchen
L= Ladybugs, Lions, Library and Lambs
Visit the Library
M= Music, Monkey, Money, and Manners
N= Nursery rhymes, Nurse, and Neighborhood
O= Oceans, Orange, Owls, and Opposites
P= Popcorn, Pizza, Princess, and Penguins
Q= Queen, Quilt, and Quiet
R= Rainbow, and Rocks
S= Senses, Stranger Safety, Strawberries and Stars
T= Trains, Tiger, Tomatoes, and Teeth
U= Umbrella, and Uncle
V= Violets, Vacation, and Vegetables
W= Winter, Whales, and Wagon
X= Xray, Fox, and Box
Y= Yellow, YoYo, Yarn, Yogurt
Z= Zoo, Zebra
Visit the Zoo

Along with the alphabet, we are going to do unit study/theme units at Reading A-Z which will cover Math(shapes, numbers), Language Arts, Handwriting, and Science. (There is a required free membership in order to see all their pages.)

Any kind of Reading Readiness will be from reading lots of library books together and Starfall. Towards the middle of the year, I will be working more with Phonics, sight words and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Bible will be activities from Bible ABC's, Awana, and ABC Memory Verses. We will also be working on character education thru books and activities. We will also be working with learning the fruit of the spirit.

Aside from the learning page for Handwriting, I will be using tracing exercises in jello, finger paints, sand, and whipping cream and also using tracing sheets from handwriting worksheet generator and worksheets to help with word and letter spacing and handwriting for kids.

Here is a list of other early childhood resources.

**Stay tuned for our journey thru the curriculum...our accomplishments, our skips, and our additions to our fun filled year.

Homeschooling with Little Ones--The Routine

As I continue my home schooling with little ones series, I thought I would give you a glimpse of what my daily routine looks like.

Please understand that this is more of a routine than watching the clock for the next time frame.

Here is our routine (the times are approximate):

7am~~I am up to get hubby’s lunch made and to get him out the door by 8am.
8am~~Breakfast and morning chores. It doesn’t happen every day, but I try to get my shower while the kids are doing their chores!
9am~~Start school (sometimes, like Mondays, start time doesn’t happen till 9:30)

Morning school time runs till 11am. During those two hours, I work/play with my little ones while my older ones do independent work. Independent work is studying AWANA verses, Math work (unless it is a new concept then it waits till the afternoon), Spelling work, and Creative/Journal Writing.

11am~~Noon “Recess time” There is another home school family on our block so the kids get together to play for an hour before lunch. If the other family is having a coop day or is gone I use the time for us to take a walk, or to play games in the backyard!

12:30pm~2:30pm Afternoon School/Quiet Time. This is when my little ones are napping. The older ones do a ½ hour of quiet reading. I am able to work with my older ones on school work. We either check or do Math together. We do Science and History together. Usually we are all done by with everything by 2:30pm sometimes it ends up closer to 3pm.

3pm~~Kids do their afternoon chores before having their free time. I take the time to get dinner prepared, work on laundry, and/or have more time with my little ones.

6pm~~Dinner time. Hubby has just come home by this time so I love to have dinner done and waiting on the table for him when he arrives home.

After dinner, each of the older kids has an “after dinner chore” that needs to be done before they are allowed any more free time. This also allows everyone’s food to settle before more play or a family walk or bike ride.

7:45pm Bedtime routine starts. Routine consists of baths, if needed, pajamas on, snack, daily Keys for Kids, and prayer. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are “bath nights” so bedtime routine usually starts around 7:30pm.

Kids bedtime is 8:30pm, however, the four older ones are allowed 5-15 minutes of reading time before lights are out. The amount of reading time is based on whether or not they got to bed on time or not. If it is after 8:30 before they are in bed then their reading time is cut short.

It doesn’t always happen but hubby and I usually try to get to bed around 10pm. By this time, both of us have relaxed enough from our busy day to actually go to sleep. We also have had time together to talk about our day and any problems that we need to work on together. We even take time to pray together.

So there is glimpse of what a “typical day” looks like at my house.

You probably are wondering why there is no specific time for blogging or household management (cleaning, pay bills, laundry, grocery shop, etc.) to get done because I don’t have any set times to do these things. I usually only do a school schedule four days a week so that gives me one day to get all my errands and grocery shopping done. My hubby only gets paid twice a month so there is only 2 days each month that I pay the bills. Cleaning and laundry get done during the daily chore times or on Saturday mornings. As for blogging, I work on that during quiet time or at the end of the day when the kids are in bed. Saturday or Sunday afternoons are my “planning” times, that is when weekly menus and blogging topics are decided.

To find out what works for others, head over to Rocks in My Dryer!

Here is the previous post of this series....Part 3 of Homeschooling with little ones

Homeschooling with Little Ones--Part Three

I have been doing a series on homeschooling with little ones. I was going to discuss my schedule that I do with my pre-k/kdg. child, but I will get to that in the coming weeks. This week, I want to back track a bit and talk more about those toddlers!

Being able to do homeschooling of older children with little ones takes training the little ones that they can not have Mom’s attention all the time. The training that you do with the little ones starts when they are infants and continues as they get older. Once they are toddlers they begin to realize that schedules and routines are just a part of the day.

**the links below in this post are no longer available!**
Over the last couple of weeks, Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood has been writing a series on “Successful Homemaking with Toddlers”. I have enjoyed reading her series because it fully has expressed how I have done my training with my little ones. Instead of trying to summarize it or re-write what she said I am just going to link the series here so you can take the time to read her practical ideas, thoughts, and encouragement. Enjoy!

Successful homemaking with toddlers-Part 1

Successful homemaking with toddlers-Part 2

Successful homemaking with toddlers-Part 3

Successful homemaking with toddlers-Part 4

Successful homemaking with toddlers-Part 5

Successful homemaking with toddlers-Part 6

Successful homemaking with toddlers-Part 7

Successful homemaking with toddlers-Part 8


Part Two of the series---keeping toddlers occupied

Homeschooling with Little Ones--Part Two

Last week, I gave you my game plan for getting back into the “groove” of homeschooling when a new baby is added to the family.

The question to answer this week, “What can I do with that toddler who is pulling at my leg or begging for things while trying to school the older children?”

The best thing that I have found to help with this issue is to make sure that I take some time with them before I start working with the older ones. I get in some snuggle time, or play time with them while the older ones are working on their chores or independent learning time. It makes my toddlers feel like they are not left out of my “radar”.

While I am working with my older ones, I make sure that my toddlers have something to keep them occupied. I usually keep toys in a bin that I only bring out during those times when I need to occupy them while I work with older ones. I let them play in the same room as where I am working with the older ones. This helps in two ways: 1. keeping an eye on them so I make sure that they are not getting into trouble. And 2. it allows them to feel a part of things despite not doing the same thing as the older ones.

If the toys don’t keep them occupied, then I let them sit at the table with me and scribble on paper or if we are doing a project/experiment that it will not hurt them being a part of it then I let them be involved with us.

Another thing that I have done to keep them occupied while schooling the older ones is move everyone outside (when it is not raining)! The toddlers can play in my fenced in backyard and the older ones get to sit in a different place to work on school work. IF it is raining, then I pull out the “rainy day idea box” or look to have fun indoors. In the box, I have other toys that I can bring out(these are toys that they don’t play with that much so it makes for something new and interesting), craft supplies, and books.

If all else fails, I schedule my school time with the older ones during the toddler’s naptime!! The older ones and I can get lots done for school in two hours!!

Part three of the series---training of the toddlers

Homeschooling with Little Ones--Part One

How do you homeschool your kids with having a baby or little ones in the house? Homeschooling with little ones can be challenging! However, having a “game plan” always helps me to overcome the challenge.

Here is my “game plan” with a new baby in the house…

First, I decided when I was going to start school. Do I wait till after baby is born (which was the beginning of November) or do I get a head start? I decided to get a head start and we officially started our school year the week after the 4th of July. Needless to say, my kids were not too happy that they had to start working on school work again especially since none of the other neighborhood kids had started school. However, I told them when baby came they would be getting at least a six week break! They seemed to lighten up on the complaining when I told them that news.

Yes, you read correctly…at least six weeks!! Sometimes I have gone for as many as 8 weeks without doing “formal” schooling with my kids after a baby. It basically is a time of adjustment for everyone. It gives me time to rest after having a baby. It gives me time to get into a routine with a new addition. It gives me time to plan. It gives me a relaxed time with my family without any pressures of meeting any goals. It is also a time where I can fit in field trips, errands, and other things (like read alouds, board games, and art/craft projects) that I normally can’t fit in during our school year. I figure that my kids are learning even by playing Legos or K’nex, watching videos, playing with each other and helping me out around the house that doing “formal” schooling is not a necessity while trying to adjust to the new addition.

Once we get back into a routine, ie knowing when baby is going to take naps or needing to be fed, I start working back in the “book work” starting with Math. You probably are wondering why I start with Math? We start with reviewing basics and work back up to where we were before our new addition. Math seems to be the subject that my kids seem to lose the facts the fastest.

Once we get going on a routine, it looks like this at first….Reading and Math usually ends up only taking us an hour at first to get thru those subjects. Then as the weeks progress we add back in Writing/Language Arts/Spelling, History and then Science. Science is the last of the subjects that I add back in because usually I find it harder to keep up with doing experiments and such. Usually Science is added into the mix at about week 3 of getting back into the school routine.

The bottom line is to take the amount of time that you need to take to get yourself and your family into a routine that works well with everyone.

Next week, I’ll be giving some suggestions as to how to handle having that toddler pulling at your leg or begging for things while trying to school the older children.

Part Two of the series--keeping toddlers occupied

National Library Week

Celebrate National Library Week 50th Anniversary...Take the time to visit your local library this week!!

Don't forget to say thank you to the librarian for the job that they do! :)

Also Share your story as to why you love your library!!

Government Unit Study

After my post from the other day, I decided I would take the time to share more of the websites that I have found for my Government Unit Study.

General History:
Digital History

USA History --links to US History from 1800-1990


General Government:
Government Unit Study

Ben's Guide to Government

Government Unit Lesson Plans

Civics and Citizenship

Kid Info on Government

US Government--Social Studies for Kids

Civics and Government at Scholastic

C-Span Classroom

Government Unit Study Ideas--Reading Suggestions

Mr. Donn's Government Pages

Little Book on Government

Government Unit Lesson Plans

Constitutional Rights Foundation Lesson Plans --free online government lessons

Easy Fun School--Citizenship


Historical Documents:
US Constitution Facts

Chronology of US Historical Documents

Teaching the Constitution

Kid Info on Historical Documents

Constitution Lapbook


Executive Branch--Presidents:
Online Reference of Presidents

Presidents at History.com

American Presidents: Life Portraits

Inaugural Addresses of Presidents

List of Presidents

Smithsonian's Look at Presidency

American Presidency

Kid Info on Presidents

14 Presidents at America's Library

Presidential Elections at History.com

Presidents--Social Studies for Kids

Library of Congress Portraits of Presidents

Presidents and Elections

Presidents Unit Study

American Presidents---PBS

Virtual Tour-White House

White House for Kids

Lincoln Unit Study

Presidents' Day Lapbook

Presidents' Day Activities

Early America--People & Events --learn about the first few Presidents along with other famous Americans.


Legislative and Judicial Branch--Congress & Courts:
Congress for Kids

American Justice System

Kids in the House--Laws are Made


American Symbols:
Liberty Bell Facts

Mount Rushmore--PBS

World Almanac--National Anthem and other Govt. facts

Flag History

American Flag Mini Unit Study

Stars and Stripes

***Looking for additional websites or curriculum geared towards high school....check here!***

Teaching Tip Tuesdays

In my quest to read other blogs, I came across Donna's site--The Helpful Homemaker! She is hosting meme called Teaching Tips Tuesday. I thought I would join in this week with a tip. My tip is "Don't be afraid to use something other than textbooks!" I know that for some, using textbooks are helpful tools! It helps with confidence in knowing that you are teaching your child everything they need to know and you are not missing any concepts.

There is so much FREE wealth of educational resources on the internet that you don't need to use textbooks! I will show you how over the course of several weeks, I will take you to websites that I use to build my home schooling curriculum.

Where do I find what topics need to be covered at what level?

Getting a hold of a scope and sequence chart or charts is important to the planning process. If you were to get a "pre-packaged" curriculum you would find the chart in the teacher's edition of the book. However, when you don't use a "pre-packaged" curriculum, you don't have the chart available to you in order to plan out your schedule for the year. So you need to head over to...

World Book's site and check out their "Typical Course of Study" page. They have conveniently broken down each grade level into links. You can click on the grade level that you are teaching your child and find a wealth of topics that need to be covered for the year. For me, I usually try to cover all the topics listed under the Math and Language Arts sections. For the History, Science, and Health and Safety sections, I try to cover only two to three topics out of each section. The reason why I only choose a few is because I find that the topics for those subjects repeat themselves over the years.

There are other places to find scope and sequence charts. Head over here to my list of sites that I have used to help me put together curriculum for my kids.

Come back next Tuesday for more websites! In the meantime, head over to Donna's for other teaching tips!