First month of school - Fall 2019

We did school up through the middle of July, then took a break for summer day camps, VBS, cousin camp, doctor appointments, and a family vacation to Garner State Park.  It was all a lot of fun, but by the time it was all over, I think we were all ready to slow down and just be at home and settle back into a regular routine.

After 5 weeks, I can say that I'm very pleased with how things are going.  We've kept a lot of the routine the same, but we've also changed up a few things.  One thing that I've planned into the schedule is to take a week off every 4-6 weeks to allow for a bit of rest, field trips, or catching up on other things.  We're staying home most days, reserving the evenings for extracurricular activities.  It has been really refreshing to know we have all day at home!

First, an overview of our daily schedule, then a summary of the different subjects and curriculum we're using this year.  At the bottom you'll find some pictures of some the experiments and activities we did as well as a list of the books we've read aloud.

We start with Spanish immediately after breakfast to make sure that we actually get around to it every day (lesson learned from past failed attempts!)  This takes about 30-45 minutes of video and oral exercises.  Next, while everyone is still together, we read some Texas history.  After that, the two teens are dismissed to do the rest of their work independently (memory work, geography, math, grammar, spelling, writing, science, and programming).  Meanwhile, the four younger ones and I work on astronomy.  Then child #3 (11 years) is dismissed to do his independent work (memory work, geography, math, and writing).  I spend the rest of the morning working one-on-one with the three youngest (ages 5-9) on memory work, geography, math, handwriting, reading, writing, and spelling, encouraging them to do what they can on their own.  

During lunch, we often watch a video related to our science studies.  Read-aloud time (or "story time") is one of the favorite activities and comes right after lunch.  This usually lasts about 30 to 45 minutes and includes several picture books related to Texas, astronomy, and community helpers, as well as a chapter from the Life of Fred series and a chapter from a novel (the sequels to the Little House on the Prairie series).  Then I take a one hour break to take a short nap and reset before going back out to finish up any leftover work with the younger ones and help the older ones with any questions they have.  Meanwhile, five of the six kids take turns practicing piano.  

Then we gear up for evening activities : 3 drama classes for 4 kids takes up two evenings a week, and horse riding lessons takes up a third evening.  To prevent excessive stress (for me), I planned out a 6 week rotating menu with easy to prepare meals on those evenings when supper needs to be early.  I try to do some dinner prep around breakfast and lunch times and/or assign various jobs to various kids.  I consider that part of their education too, and most seem to be eager to help and to learn to cook.  

Fridays are only a half day of school.  We only do Spanish, math, and science activities or experiments.  The rest of the morning is devoted to changing all the sheets and cleaning the house.  Each of the kids have a section of the house to clean (rotating every week) with a checklist telling them what I expect them to do in order to earn their full pay for the job.  While they are cleaning, I take one child with me to pick up groceries at Kroger (thank you ClickList!!) and run any other quick errands.  After lunch, I take them all to the most wonderful piano teacher in the world and go home for a couple of hours of rest and getting things ready for the next week of school.

Overall, I'm pleased with how things are going so far.  After much trial-and-error over the years, I've found curriculum that I really like and that works for us.  And I've found a schedule and routine that works well to keep us from getting burned out.  With six kids now in active schooling, it does take more of my time during the daytime hours, which limits my time available for working on the computer.  But that can be a good thing too. :-)  I'm learning a lot along with my kids as I work through grammar, science, Spanish, and pre-algebra with them.

Here's a rundown on what we've been doing this session of school:

We are using the Bob Jones Distance Learning for homeschool Spanish 1 curriculum.  This includes a textbook, an activity book, and most importantly a set of DVDs with a native speaker as the teacher.  My two oldest children and I are working through the lessons, but I make the younger ones sit in on the videos to pick up what they can.   I thought the price for this course was reasonable ($79 for a 13 month rental of the DVDs, plus the textbook, one activity book, a teacher's manual for the activity book, plus the course handouts, notes, and schedule.)  I like that the curriculum includes a focus on learning Bible verses and faith-related vocabulary in Spanish, as well as the motivation for learning Spanish as a opportunity to minister and witness.  We have plenty of encouraging friends at church who are native Spanish speakers on whom we can practice. :-)

For Texas history, we are going through the curriculum "The Texas God Created, " which presents the history from a Biblical worldview.  We started out with some basic geography ideas.  Next, we discussed the different geographic regions of Texas.  Now we have begun discussing some of the native tribes of Texas.  I supplemented the geography section with some work on state symbols and some map skills.  I've included some Texas books in our after-lunch read-aloud time.

The four younger ones are learning astronomy with Apologia's "Exploring Creation with Astronomy".  We listen to the audiobook while looking at the pictures and diagrams in the textbook.  Then we do some notebooking activities to go along with what we read/heard.  These include Scripture copywork, vocabulary crossword puzzles, and "mini-books" in various forms where the kids write down facts that they've learned.  So far, we've learned the names of all the planets (in order), and learned about the sun, Mercury, and Venus.  I've supplemented with some YouTube videos and songs.    I also include some astronomy-related read-alouds in our post-lunch storytime.

The two older kids and I are working through Apologia's General Science course.  This course is designed to be a transition between the elementary level books in the Young Explorers series (such as the Zoology and Astronomy courses we've done) the high-school level work they'll be required to do in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.  Every day there is a reading assignment from the textbook and guided note-taking in a student workbook.  The workbooks are colorful and interesting, but not babyish.  There is also a USB drive with videos covering the same topics as the text.  There are usually one or two experiments to conduct for each chapter and instructions and forms for creating formal and informal lab reports.  And there is a test at the end of each chapter.  The kids are finding that it takes about an hour a day to complete the assignments, which is a bit longer than they are used to.  But I think it is a good way to transition to the more difficult science they will encounter in upper level classes.  I really, really like the way that Apologia approaches everything from a Biblical worldview and teaches to think critically about what they are learning.  I looked at several other publishers of science courses and settled back with Apologia as being the best fit and most economical for our family.  The Bob Jones courses looked interesting, but cost $300 for a one year rental.  Apologia cost about the same, but I own the videos and all the materials and can reuse them for younger children.

We are all working on memorizing Jesus' "sermon on the mount" from Matthew 5-7 as our pastor preaches through it.

We are also memorizing a poem a week from Texas Mother Goose by David Davis.  These are familiar poems rewritten with a Texas twist.  Fun!

We continue to LOVE the Math-U-See program by Steven Demme.  I highly recommend it!  My oldest is skimming through pre-Algebra while the others are working there way through the lower levels, mastering addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

The three older kids are now in level 3 of Grids for Kids (the grid-style logic puzzles).  Instead of making them do one every day, I've cut it down to just 2 a week.

I started child #4 and child #5 on level 1, but it quickly proved too frustrating for child #4, so I dropped it for him.  It's taken me a while, but I've finally learned that tears mean it's time to back off immediately!






Instead, I found this cool game called "Cat Crimes".  It uses the same logical thinking skills, but is more hands-on.  He immediately latched on to it and asked to do it even on days when it wasn't on the schedule.  He's gotten to where he can figure out the answers on his own.

This is our third year of doing the Fix It! Grammar program from the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).  The two older kids (and I) are working our way through this.  It teaches grammar through the process of editing a story with built-in grammar errors.  It also doubles as handwriting/penmanship practice because we have to copy out the corrected story sentence by sentence after we mark and correct the errors.

For spelling the older three kids are using IEW's Phonetic Zoo.  They don't care for hands-on stuff, so I just make them write out their new words, plus the little jingle for learning the spelling rule for the week.  Then I quiz them orally every day.  This seems to be working well for us.  Much better than our brief attempt at Spell to Write and Read last year.

Child #5 is working her way through All About Spelling Level 1.  I had tried this with some of the older kids and they hated the hands-on nature of it, but this one likes it. I am spending time with child #4 beefing up his reading skills before we work on spelling.

Child #6 is my last child to learn to read.  We are working our way through All About Reading Level 1.  This is my first time to use the curriculum and so far it seems to be a really good fit for this child.  He is very eager and cooperative and looks forward to school time.

Child #4 is working his way through All About Reading, Level 2. Though he has always been a willing reader, it has not come as easily for him as for the others.  I've tried many different things over the past 3 or 4 years.  I hesitated to invest in AAR because of the price and I was afraid this child would think the activities were too babyish.  But he seems to be enjoying it and does cooperate most of the time.  If I had it to do all over, I would have started with this curriculum.

The four younger kids are practicing their penmanship with Handwriting Without Tears.  The youngest is working on printing, while the others are practicing cursive.  Except for the youngest, I don't assign handwriting everyday because they have other assignments that require practicing penmanship and I get too many complaints if they think they have too much writing to do.  I've experimented with other handwriting programs, but I keep coming back to this one as the best fit for our family.

This is our third year to use IEW for writing (composition).  The first year I used their Student Writing Intensive DVDs where Mr. Pudewa teaches the kids how to write according to his system.  The second year I used one of their thematic writing books (for US History) to guide us.  This year, at least for the two oldest, I got brave enough to branch out and create my own writing assignments to coordinate with our Texas history studies.  The kids know the system now, so it's been a relatively easy adjustment.  I love this program because it takes away the frustration of the blank-page syndrome and the accompanying complaints of "I don't know what to write."

Child #3 struggled last year, so I tried to pick a theme I thought would be more intrinsically interesting for him.  I'm using IEW theme-based book on Rockets, Radar, and Robotics.  So far, it has been going well.  The book slowly introduces the dress-ups (which my child already knows), but doing them more slowly is lessening the frustration factor and allowing him to be able to do most his work independently and with a better attitude.

Now that I finally found a writing program I like, I am starting off some of my younger children in it at a younger age.  My 7- and 9-year olds are beginning the writing process with People and Places in Our Community.  A gentle introduction into writing!  It is going really well so far.  I serve as their scribe to write down the sentences they compose.  Later, they copy the rough draft into a notebook to create their final draft. It doubles as penmanship as well!

Child #1 is the only one really interested in programming at this time.  He's done a lot in Scratch and Visual Basic.  So now he's giving Python a try, using Creative Coding in Python.

My three older kids are returning for the second year at Drama Kids International, and my very dramatic 7 year old has started her first year.  She is super excited every week to go to her class.  And I am happy that she has a productive outlet for her pent-up drama energy. The older ones have their classes on Monday nights; my husband take them to that while I stay home and read or play games with the younger ones.  Then, on Tuesday night, I take the 7 year old to her drama class while daddy does various things with the rest.

The oldest five continue to enjoy piano lessons every Friday afternoon.  I know their teacher must be excellent because they are all always eager to go to lessons and there are never any complaints about practicing.

We changed our schedule for horse riding lessons from Friday mornings to Thursday evenings.  This is giving my husband a chance to take lessons, which he has been wanting to do for a while.  It also gives us a chance to go as a family to this activity.  And it give me back Friday mornings for a half day of school!  Win-win-win.  I'm taking a break from riding for a while, so I help my smallest rider groom and tack up and then work on some kind of schoolwork while they ride.  Three kids are riding and three find interesting things to do around the barnyard.

In their free time, various kids will read, draw, play outside, build & invent, play with legos, play computer games, or watch creation-based educational videos.


Now, a few pictures from some of science activities:

Solar system snack plate

melting butter with a magnifying glass

solar eclipse cookies

soaking a coffee filter in rubbing alcohol to see how a black water based marker is really made up of all the colors of the rainbow

Discovering what the sun does to colored paper.  The darker spots had opaque objects on them blocking the light.

Making craters in a bowl of flour (while learning about Mercury)

Demonstrating how lava (butter) runs down a mountain (flour) and then hardens as it cools (while studying Venus).

Learning how radar works...putting color coded sticks through the holes in the top of a box to determine the height (or depth) of whatever was inside the box.  Then coloring a chart accordingly.  This was to simulate using radar to "see" through the clouds on Venus and map its surface.

One of the poems we memorized from Texas Mother Goose by David Davis was called "Breakfast with Humpty Dumpty".  After he fell off the wall, "all the ranch cowboys and all the vaqueros got a big breakfast of juevos rancheros."  So, we had some for breakfast supper.

Exploring telephones throughout the ages

My amazingly creative and inventive engineer-to-be made a record player out of wood blocks, paper, cardboard, and a sewing needle.  Yes, it actually works!

Here's a rundown on the Texas-related books we've read this term:

Texas Aesop's Fables

by David Davis

A number of fables, familiar and unfamiliar, retold with a Texas setting, characters, and dialog.

L is for Lone Star

by Carol Crane

A beautiful alphabet picture book.  Short rhymes for each letter, with further information in the sidebars.

H is for Howdy and other Lone Star Letters

by Eva Freeburn

I loved this Texas alphabet book! Fun and whimsical.

Celebrating Texas

by Trisha James

A good picture book giving information about various famous Texas landmarks, symbols, and customs.

Texas Facts and Symbols

by Emily McAuliffe

Another picture book describing Texas symbols.

Drawing Texas's Sights and Symbols

by Elissa Thompson

Just as it's title says, this is a book that gives tutorials on how to draw various Texas symbols and landmarks, such as the Alamo, the state seal, and bluebonnets.

USA Travel Guides : Texas

by Ann Heinrichs

Just like the other books in this series, we used this one to travel around Texas and learn some interesting facts.

Pecos Bill and Slue-Foot Sue

Retold by Virginia Schomp

One of several Pecos Bill stories we read.  This is a longer version, but with lots of detailed paintings.  My oldest child had fun retelling this one as one of his writing assignments.

Pecos Bill : Colossal Cowboy

by Sean Tulien

A graphic novel version of the Pecos Bill legend.

Pecos Bill

by Eric Blair

An easy reader version of Pecos Bill.

Desert Rose and her Highfalutin Hog

by Alison Jackson

Desert Rose can't get her hog to cross a river, so she asks various Texas animals to help her.  Finally the armadillo agrees to help start a chain reaction that gets them all moving.

Gullible Gus

by Maxine Schur

Gus has a problem.  He believes everything he is told.  To find a cure, his friends send him off to a town full of liars until he can finally listen to a story and say "I don't believe it."  This contains several tall tales in one.

Kick the Cowboy

by Joe Gribnau

Kick is a talented cowboy, but becomes arrogant and mean until a little girl stands up to him.  My oldest daughter had fun retelling this one as one of her writing assignments.

Tumbleweed Baby

by Anna Myers

The "Upagainst" family finds a baby in a tumbleweed one day.  But she is so wild, they aren't sure they can keep her.  One by one, she wins over everyone except the youngest, who is adamantly opposed to her.  Until the very end.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

by Anne Isaacs

This was my favorite of all the tall tales we read.  An English widow inherits a ranch in Texas where everything grows bigger and faster.  She and her maids love living there... until a long string of bachelors show up at her door, trying to court her.  She tries various strategies to get rid of them, until finally she finds the only one she wants.  Very sweet.

And the astronomy-related books...

There's No Place Like Space

Trish Rabe

The Cat in the Hat takes the children on a tour of the solar system, including a mnemonic for remembering the names of the planets in order.

Starry Messenger

by Peter Sis

The story of Galileo.  Very detailed drawings in the style of the time.  You can read just the main text for a shorter, more streamline read-aloud experience.  Or you can slow down and read all the sidebars that add extra information (but they are often in cursive or fancy script that makes it a bit harder to decipher).

I, Galileo

by Bonnie Christensen

Another simple picture book biography of Galileo.

Galileo and the Stargazers

by Jim Weiss

Very good audiobook by Jim Weiss telling the stories of Archimedes, Copernicus, Galileo, and others as they studied the heavens and battled the prevailing theories of their times to reveal the truth of the planets and their orbits.

Space : God's Majestic Handiwork

by Institute for Creation Research

A brief page for each planet and other things in the solar system, plus a critique of the evolutionary ideas of the origins of the universe.  Written from a creationist worldview, this is a refreshing change of pace from the usual astronomy books.

every color

by erin kono

A white polar bear in the Artic is bored with seeing everything in his world only white.  He longs for more color.  He goes for a trip around the world and sends home a postcard from each new place full of color.  This is good, not only for learning about all the colors, but also for introducing famous world landmarks.

Summer Color

by Diana Murray

Two children discover all the colors of the rainbow around their home on a hot summer afternoon at their home.  And after a thunderstorm, the discover an amazing rainbow itself!

Book related to our community...about building houses...

Building Our House

by Jonathan Bean

I just loved this book!  It's an amazing picture book based on the author's experience growing up as his parents built their house on their own land, mostly by themselves, while expanding their family as well.  This is one of those books where a lot of the story is told through a careful observation of the pictures as well as reading the words.  Highly recommended!

The Little House

by Virginia Lee Burton

A little house way out in the country wonders what it is like in the city.  As years pass, the city grows and grows and ends up surrounding the house.  Then the house is neglected and abandoned and longs for the peaceful countryside that used to surround it.  Finally, one of the descendants of the house's builder moves the house back out to the country and restores it.

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

by Virginia Lee Burton

Mike Mulligan believes his old-fashioned steam shovel is still useful, even though most others have been replaced more modern machinery.  He sets out to prove her worth and finds a permanent place for both of them.  We have read this many times before, but after this reading, my younger boys spent several days under the trampoline building a city and digging a cellar with their toy excavators.

Book related to our community...about snowplows and machines that build roads...

The Road Builders

by B. G. Hennessey

A nice picture book about the various types of equipment used to build roads.

Katy and the Big Snow

by Virginia Lee Burton

Katy is a big tractor and snowplow who works for the city of Geopolis.  She's too powerful for the normal snowfalls, but is the hero of the city when a big snowfall covers the city.

Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?

by Brianna Caplan Sayres

A cute story about different types of digging machines and how they might act if they had mommies and daddies who tucked them in at night.

Book related to our community...about books and libraries...

Waiting for Biblioburro

by Monica Brown

A little girl in a remote village in Latin America is thrilled when a traveling library man comes to her village with new books to borrow.  He travels with two burros named "Alfa" and "Beta".  After he leaves with the promise of returning, she eagerly longs for the day he will return and writes a book about him.  This was a fun complement to our Spanish class as well.

Library Lion

by Michelle Knudsen

One day a lion wanders into the library and enjoys story time with the kids.  He returns each day, much to the dismay of one rule-keeping employee.    When a misunderstanding causes the employee to banish the lion, everyone is dismayed and the library is just not the same until the employee apologizes and invites the lion back.  Excellent story.  Clever writing.

Miss Nelson is Missing

by Harry Allard

Miss Nelson's class is obnoxious, rude, and disrespectful and Miss Nelson can't seem to control them.  Then one day, an ugly and mean substitute appears.  The frightened class straightens up, but wonders what happened to their sweet Miss Nelson.  Finally she returns and they keep up their good behavior, never realizing that the mean substitute was really Miss Nelson in disguise.

Book related to our community...about airplanes and pilots...

The Flying Hockey Stick

by Jolly Roger Bradfield

A boy with a vivid imagination takes a trip around the world on a hockey stick, powered by a fan and all the extension cords from his neighborhood.

Airplanes

by Byron Barton

A typical Byron Barton picture book.  This one all about airplanes.

Amazing Airplanes 

by Tony Mitton

A cartoonish style picture book about airplanes.

Making Paper Airplanes 

by Amber Lovett

Simple instructions and pictures about how to make a basic paper airplane.

Book related to our community...about trains...

The Little Red Caboose

by Marian Potter

The little red caboose is discontent to always be last until one day he is able to keep the train from sliding backwards down the long tall mountain.  I read this one a LOT to my oldest kids, so it was fun to read it again to my younger ones.

The Little Engine That Could

by Watty Piper

The classic story of the little blue engine that could.  I think I can. I think I can.

Tootle 

by Gertrude Crampton

The young train engine Tootle has gone to the school at lower Trainswitch to learn how to be a great engine.  But he struggles with learning the number one lesson all engines must master : Staying on the Rails No Matter What.  The townspeople help him learn that the best place to be is on the tracks, rather than cavorting around the meadow.

The Caboose Who Got Loose

by Bill Peet

Another story about a discontented caboose.  This one finally got loose from its train and stuck in a tree, where it lived happily ever after.

Choo Choo

by Virginia Lee Burton

In this one, it is the engine who is discontent and wants to be on its own.  But after a long joy ride, it discovers that it is better to be content with the job it has.

And our just-for-fun read-alouds:

Life of Fred : Goldfish

by Stanley Schmidt

The 7th in the Life of Fred series, a ridiculous story about a five year old professor of mathematics at Kittens University.  These are actually math books, but the kids like them just for the story.

Life of Fred : Honey

by Stanley Schmidt

The 8th book in the Fred series.

In the Land of the Big Red Apple

by Roger Lea MacBride

I thinks this is the third in the series about the growing up years of Rose Wilder, Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter.