A Good Book List

A friend shared this list with me, and I can't help but posting it for whoever is interested. It is from the Classical Christian Educations Support Loop. The list contains books with a Judeo-Christian world view, recommended by the contributors to be of good literary value. I was happy to see many of the titles we are reading for Sonlight on the list. I also found more that I would love to share with my children. The list is broken down into levels, and next to the title and author it indicates if the book would be a good reader (for the child) or a read-aloud (for the parents to read to/with their children)

Here is the link to the Classical Christian Education Support Loop List

Bible Time

One of my favorite times of our homeschooling day is our opening time where we do our Bible devotional. We are currently working through Leading Little Ones to God (I highly endorse this devotional, it explains things in terms that they totally get, it also reviews the concepts and then continues to build on those concepts)

We will read a Bible passage, review our AWANA verses, and usually pop in our CD of children's hymns as we progress onto our seatwork. Usually while I am reading the lesson the kids will pull out their dry erase boards and draw. Here is Jack's picture of "Jesus" that he doodled the other day. It's just too awesome, I had to share.

Pat and Nat

Jack is reading his 1st "real book". It is a story you may be familiar with, it is Pat the Rat and his long time friend Nat the Cat. They are both fat and they like to sit on mats and wear hats . . .you get the drift. For you Sonlight users, it is the 1 Readers, You Can Read It Book 1.

Roman Food

Well, at least according to the recipe in our Living Long Ago book. It was bread, soaked in milk, cooked in olive oil, and served with honey. Everyone liked it. I was glad I tried it.

Explode the Code Phonics

I found this information on the Sonlight Forums and I thought I would post it here, for my benefit of reference as well as for others. I use some of the ideas already, like writing in the answers when my ds5yo gets tired of writing, or letting him just tell me the answers. Stickers would be so much more fun though!

I'm on my third child using ETC, and I thought that I would share some of the tricks that have made it more fun for us:

1. If the child is on the young side, it is OK to skip the writing stuff.

2. Using colored pencils or crayons to fill in the answers brightens up the book a lot.

3. Stickers (or stamps or colored pencils or markers...) can be used to fill in the little boxes. (Some of the questions are mark the yes box or the no box, others are mark this box if this is the right sentence.)

4. On the page where the child fills in the blank using words from the word bank. You can use a crayon to mark a different color in each blank and then have the child circle the right word in that color instead of writing the word in the blank. (See #1)

5. On the spelling pages, you can use letter stickers, letter stamps, or just take dictation. (See #1)

6. ETC does not work for every child, and if it is not working it is OK to drop it and try something else. (...and it is OK to come back to it later if you want to.)

Trying to Schedule and Organize Homeschool

Over on the Sonlight boards (which I frequent almost daily) there is a thread on sharing your schedules. I know everyone must handle their IG differently. I really messed myself up this year by starting with Core 1 before realizing that Core K was the better choice for us. I retained my Core 1 Science, but didn't start until a few weeks later when the IG (which was delayed) arrived.I love the Core 1 Bible so I stuck to that.Plus we have a few other things added in.

Basically, that removed any chance of operating off of a cute little IG, and I had to find a different solution.Here is what I do:I obtained a blank schedule from:
http://www.donnayoung.org/

This website is jam packed full of resources for homeschooling and beyond. On that blank template I pencil in the plan for the week. I typically have about 3 weeks filled out at a time.The pencil is handy because some days my son will forge ahead into more math pages, other days we will skip a chapter in the read alouds because I a baby woke up or we need to go to the pool with some friends. I just erase and add it to another day.We are about 6 weeks into homeschooling, but in various different spots in the IGs. So I wanted a way to make the schedule more permanent, in case years from now we have to prove what we did our first year of homeschooling.

While I love the working template from http://www.donnayoung.org/ , I needed more space for my permanent copy. So I found another great template on a different website:http://corefoundations.wordpress.com/schedules/

The schedule lets you list the books you used, and fill in the blanks. She also has a generous space for notes. The best part is you can basically do the copy and paste thing and most of your hard work is done.

Unfortunately I am not computer savvy enough to figure out how to post it here, so if you want to see it leave a comment in the comment section, or you can zip over to my yahoo group and join. I have it stored under the files there.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SonlightCoreC_or_K/

Our first day back at homeschooling went pretty well, after the seatwork and the read alouds, we did a train craft with juice boxes and construction paper. Jack had to stop to let his dry, and Laura stopped her train craft after she suffered an ankle injury. Yes, an ankle injury during craft time.

Week One Completed

We made it through one week of homeschooling. Whew! Only 18 or so more years to go! We'll see what God has planned in the long term, but so far, so good.

We have worked through issues like schedules, schooling with the babies, coordinating certain subjects with naptimes, and many others.

The only thing hanging over my head and clouding my brain at this time is the Core Level selection we have. I am considering backing up just a bit for Jack, and trying to mash the easier Core K with the slightly more challenging Core 1. I also have the Core P4/5 from our previous adventure with homeschooling. I think the History and Geography will be a combination of these cores, covering as closely as possibly to the Core 1 objectives. It should be interesting to see how it all pans out. I am confident we can still get all the Cores in for Laura, and the advice on the Sonlight forums seems to point us to starting with Core K for the both of them. I ordered the IG and hope to be able to acquire the books from our fabulous library.

We rounded out the week with a trip to the Columbia Zoo today. It was a lot of fun and we surprised the children with lunch at Fuddruckers . . . a favorite restaurant of ours from VA that is not in Augusta, GA. They were excited when we pulled into the parking lot and they started remembering what it was. Laura asked if we could invite "Michael, Hailey, Katie, and Katie Lynne" (her friends from VA) to "meet us halfway" at this South Carolina location for lunch someday. We told her that would be quite the drive for all of them.

We didn't bring the camera (a slight oversight while packing) so no cool pictures, maybe next time.

The kids really enjoyed painting their boxes. Apparently they are "Let's Go! Carts" from one of their favorite PBS shows, and I really *should* know what they are talking about.

I tried really hard to have them keep the boxes outside, but they were worried about them being ruined in the rain, and they loved them so much. I let them come inside. Right now they are up in Jack's room, and they are still playing with them.

One day Mommy will announce that the time has come for the boxes to take their rightful place (the trash), or perhaps I'll use this opportunity to venture into recylcing here in GA. Then the boxes will go on to a better place!

Box Day Part 2

On Saturday we organized the books, I let the kids help me organize the books, then they carted the empty boxes out front to paint them. All in all, a fun day, but I'm glad its not everyday!

BOX DAY!!

The Big Box came today . . or rather the three boxes, we kinda ordered a lot of stuff. I get carried away sometimes . . .

Unfortunately all I have been able to do so far is to check to make sure everything is there. The day was also full of:

A visit from one set of grandparents

Lunch with above mentioned grandparents

Refinancing mortgage on house

Volunteering to read a story to Jack's PreK class

A possibility of working tonight (got put on call)

And currently. . .a fussy baby girl who does not want to be put down long enough for mommy to look at the books.

Homeschooling!

For those of my dear family and closest friends that do not know that we have decided to home school, we have! I am both very excited, and somewhat anxious about the endeavor, but in the end I believe it is the best decision for our family.



So John and I have spent the last couple of weeks researching curriculum, checking "Top Ten Lists", compiling what we think is the best for our first year. Here is what we came up with. (Looking at the list, I know it is too much stuff, but we don't have to do it all in the first year. A lot of it is assessing to see where the kids fit to start off. Material that is too challenging will be moved to next year, while material that is too easy will be saved for James and Megan.



Here is what we have come up with:



Jack: (5yo Kindergarten)

1. Reading: Sonlight Readers K, Explode the Code, and Teach Your Child to Read 100 Easy Lessons


2. Language Arts: Sonlight LA K


3. Math: Singapore KA and KB


4. Science: Sonlight Science 1


5. History / Geography: Sonlight Core 1 Introduction to World History


6. Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears


7. Music: Music Ace Deluxe


8. Bible: Sonlight Bible 1 (Leading Little Ones to God)

Laura (6yo 1st Grade)

1. Reading: Sonlight Readers 1 or 2


2. Language Arts: Sonlight 1 also Growing with Grammar


3. Math: Singapore 1


4. Science: Sonlight Science 1


5. History / Geography: Sonlight Core 1 Introduction to World History


6. Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting


7. Spelling: A Reason for Spelling


8. Music: Music Ace Deluxe


9. Bible: Sonlight Bible 1 (Leading Little Ones to God)

We also hope to do activities at the YMCA, AWANA, Children's Choir, and piano lessons in the fall.