This is the girl

This is the girl who is turning 5 today. She is growing up way too fast. 5. It's just a number, but it seems like 5 has magical qualities that define the end of babyhood and the beginning of being a "Kid". For her, it is a happy occasion. She is growing up, making new friends, experiencing new things. For me it is bittersweet. It is the end of something wonderful and tender, and the beginning of something else with just as much promise to be wonderful and tender in different ways.



This is the girl who is turning 5 today. She's sometimes been a Daddy's girl, and other times been a Mommy's girl. But she's always been "our" girl. She brought a touch of pink and ruffles into our lives. From tiny satin crib shoes to shiny patent leather shoes we've watched her grow from a baby into a beautiful little girl.



This is the girl who is turning 5 today. She loves animals, baby dolls, princesses, dollhouses, and dress-up. But she absolutely adores dogs. She has mamma dogs, daddy dogs, and baby dogs. Leashes, dog beds, and cardboard dog houses litter the floor of her room.



This is the girl who is turning 5 today. She loves a fairy tale ending. She got so excited about a wedding we were about to attend she just bubbled over and said enthusiastically, "I just can't wait to see love's first kiss!" Her innocence is so sweet and I long to keep it that way. To protect her from the harsh realities of the world.



This is the girl who is turning 5 today. No longer a baby, but my girl, she will always be.

More Science

The kids are just having the best time this year with their sciences! It seems like we're doing experiments, building contraptions, or testing theories several times a week.

Yesterday Gavin built an Inertia Zoom Ball:

Two 12-foot strings, with handles tied on each end, are run through a "zoom ball". The zoom ball is made by cutting the ends off of two 1-liter bottles and then taping the tops together so that there is an opening at each end. Players stand at opposite ends holding the two handles. When one player opens his arms this action forces the zoom ball to the other end of the strings, and vice versa. It was actually pretty fun and we experimented with ways to make it faster--of course.

Earlier this week when Ben was learning about the lungs Gavin helped him build a lung model. With a balloon dropped down in the opening of a plastic bottle and a "mock diaphram" taped across the bottom of a cut bottle, he can make the balloon 'lung' expand and deflate. (I love this picture, because even if you can't see his face you can still tell his is smiling just by looking at his eyes!)

FYI, if your interested, we are using Sonlight Sciences K & 2 and NOEO Physics II.

Cotton Ball Racing

Sonlight has revamped their elementary science programs recently and they now include a lot of activity suggestions to extend or enhance the lessons. Yesterday, after reading with Ben about how our lungs work I saw the optional activity was a Cotton Ball Race. A race? As soon as my boy saw the word RACE he was looking for the cotton balls!

The object: Outline a two lane race track on the floor or table. Then, using a straw or paper towel tube, try to blow your cotton ball across the finish line first.

We took it one step further and talked about the force blowing creates since this went perfectly with Gavin's science lessons as well. I had both boys hypothesize about which device would blow the cotton ball the fastest: The paper towel tube or the drinking straw.

Ben's hypothesis: The paper towel tube will make it go the fastest because it's BIGGER!

Gavin's hypothesis: The straw will make it go faster because it pushes the air into a smaller hole creating a stronger force when it comes out.

On your mark...

Get Set...and Go! Let's Go Racing Boys!

The straw was the clear winner, hands-down! Luci raced the winner! After watching the first race this girl knew to choose the straw!

And...the story would not be complete if I didn't tell you that, in his usual manner, Gavin had to find a way to make the cotton balls even faster. It worked too! He connected two cotton balls with an axle and put a "paddle" in the middle to catch the force of the air.

Building Accountable Kids

Over the course of this blog I have mentioned on a few occasions that we use a program called Accountable Kids and each time I mention it I am always asked what it is. The simple answer is that it is a great way to keep up with children's responsibilities in the home and to create a system of rewards for work completed. The complex answer is that it is so much more! It can be used to target problem behaviors, build self esteem, help children with working toward goals, and encourage saving.

In our home we believe that each member of the household has a responsibility to participate to the best of their ability in the daily running of this household. We have divided responsibilities into two groups. One of those is Family Service and the other is Compensated Chores.

Family Service includes things like picking up after yourself, keeping your own areas neat and tidy, personal care, feeding pets, and helping at mealtimes. We think that doing these things are the responsibility of anyone living in our home. Just like each of us has responsibilities in our home we also have privileges that we enjoy because we are a part of this family. For our children some of these privileges include a Wii, a computer, and a television. Each day the children start with three sets of Family Service Responsibilities: Morning, Day, and Evening. At the completion of each set they have the chance to earn a "Ticket" that is worth 30 minutes of video games, computer usage, or television.

Compensated Chores includes additional jobs that are assigned to the children according to their ability. They might include vacuuming, bathing the dog, dusting, or taking out trash. Each child has 5 of these chores, one for each day of the week. When this chore has been completed they earn a "Bonus Buck" which is saved and later exchanged for an actual dollar. They each have goals that they work toward, saving for an item that they have their eye on. This also eliminates the "will you buy me something" plea in Wal-Mart each week!

Now, the "accountable" part of both of these groups of responsibilities stems from the fact that I do not nag them, remind them (except for my youngest who is still learning), or give a bunch of chances to get it right. They know what is expected of them and have been taught to do their jobs correctly. Sloppy or incomplete jobs are not rewarded.

There are a couple other aspects of Accountable Kids that we utilize when we find it necessary. One of those is the "Privilege Pass". This card is used when we need to target a specific negative behavior. That behavior could be anything from getting out of bed at bedtime to interrupting adults when they are talking. We talk with the child about the behavior and then find a suitable "privilege" that we are going to attach to this behavior. Each day, if the child has successfully completed a full day NOT giving into that negative behavior, he can earn a Privilege pass. For example, my oldest son had a problem intruding on our conversations. Whether it was to input his own opinion about what we were discussing or ask questions, the fact was that he was constantly intruding in matters that were not his to discuss. So after battling with him for months on this we decided to use a Privilege Pass to target this behavior. We established that on any day that he was able to refrain from interrupting our conversations he would earn the privlilege to assign one of us (mom or dad) to complete one of his chores. He liked this idea immensely! The first few days were rough, but after a week or so he started having successful days--and my husband and I both had to unload the dishwasher a lot! We are no longer using the Privilege Pass for this behavior, but we are still seeing the results: He thinks before he speaks now!

The last aspect of Accountable Kids that we occasionally use is the "Best Behavior" card. If one of our children is having trouble behaving appropriately (and by this I mean being argumentative, fighting with siblings, being selfish, etc... ) we begin to look for the good behavior. When we "catch" them being good, working well with a sibling, sharing, and working out problems without fighting we reinforce that good behavior with a "Best Behavior" card. This card can be exchanged for a variety of things depending on how we set it up. In the past we've allowed it be exchanged for a family board game, a movie night, or some other family event.

Accountable Kids is an investment that we have found invaluable for our children! If you think a system like this would improve things in your own home I encourage you to check out AccountableKids.com.

(The Accountable Kids package includes a book that explains the program and the way the creators intended it to be used. However, we've used Accountable Kids in our home for about 2 years now and over that time we have customized it to fit our needs, so what you read here will be slightly, and maybe in some cases a lot, different than the book. Ultimately, isn't that what we all have to do, though? Mold and shape things to suit our own family's needs. Also, I just want to say that I am not being paid or compensated in any way by Accountable Kids for this post. I just wanted to share what works for us!)

Volcano Experiment Take 3 (or is it 10 or 20)

The boys and I have done the erupting volcano experiment (aka: baking soda and vinegar) so many times now I've lost count! Today, after reading a science lesson about volcanos, it was Luci's turn. She made her volcano using clay, a very small baby food jar, and a pie pan.



Her brothers, who, like I said, have seen this reaction MANY times could not help but watch again as Luci poured in the vinegar:



And they all delighted over the reaction:

Our Classroom

There's no doubt about it. Homeschooling results in STUFF! It can be hard enough to find a place to store all of the books, papers, and maniuplatives, but then you also have to find a place to work! In our 1300 square foot home space is a commodity that is in short supply and high demand! Our dining room functions as a dining area at meal times and as a school room/home office all other times of the day.
Last summer we installed a wall of cabinets and desks into one side of our dining room to give us dedicated homeschool storage and work areas. Here is a view of our dining room from the kitchen:

With two sets of shelving we can accommodate all of the books for our current school year and have space for our binders, check-in drawers, and printer. The computer center on the right is for the kids (and my husband) and the desk on the left is my work area and computer. The center area provides us with storage space for our frequently used supplies.

The larger top cabinets hold our science supply kits from Sonlight and NOEO, miscellaneous art supplies, and records for our homeschool group. The small cabinets at the top hold CDs, manuals, and various pieces/parts for the computers.

The bottom cabinet houses all of our homeschool games and add-on activities that we use to enhance lessons or, in the case of my youngest, occupy her hands and mind while I'm busy with her older brothers.



And, finally, on the left side at the bottom is a row of drawers. The bottom drawer holds language arts manipulatives such as letter tiles, alphabet bingo, flash cards, and other things. The next drawer up is our math manipulatives drawer where we keep our math flashcards, rulers, scale, counting bears/frogs, etc.... And then there is our supply drawer for everything from glue sticks to pencils.

Here is a look around at the rest of the room...

Our map wall and white board with workboxes stacked on the floor (when company comes, or when we are on an extended break from school these will be stored in a closet):

Our Accountability Wall with the Accountable Kids kits:


Here is another view of the room (from the den):


While a large majority of our school day takes place at the table in the dining room, we also need a softer, more comfortable place to enjoy our Sonlight history, readers and read-alouds. For that we move to the den. I usually have to sit in the middle so that I have a spot on either side of me because it never fails that while I'm reading to one, another will come sit and listen...


Because my middle child has an easier time concentrating away from the noise of our dining room table he prefers to do most of his independent work at his desk in the den in front of the window. This picture also shows my additional bookshelves where we keep our books that are not currently being used. The bookshelf on the left holds four Sonlight Cores while the shelf on the right holds various other books--some of which are not homeschool related.

Time For an Update on the Kids

With our 2009-10 school year going at full-tilt I thought it was time for an update on how the kids are doing and what they are learning. If you've followed any of my posts about our curriculum, our workboxes, or our schedule then you know we are trying a few new things as well as continuing a lot of the great things we were already doing.

PE

One of the new things we have added to our day is PE. Last year I enrolled the kids in a PE class at a local health club, but the 30 minute one-way trip twice a week was wreaking havoc on our ability to get our actual school work accomplished. So this year we are trying something new and so far, so good! Over the summer I purchased the EA Sports Wii Active. It was a purchase made primarily for myself as I was beginning a new workout routine. However, I quickly learned that the boys loved it and it is an awesome way to get in a really great workout. It doesn't work out well for Luci though, since she's smaller and less coordinated. Our Comcast OnDemand service has a "Kids Walk" exercise program by Leslie Sansone though and she has been doing that. Some days all three of the kids choose to walk/run instead and that's great...as long as they are getting some much needed exercise!

Spanish

The entire family is doing Rosetta Stone Spanish this year. This is a really great program for the whole family! We quickly learned that for Ben and Luci the speech recognition aspect of the program was best left turned off for now, but the rest of us are learning to speak, read, write, and listen to Spanish. One day soon maybe we'll all be sitting in our favorite Mexican restaurant practicing our Spanish with the waiters!

Math

Gavin is using Teaching Textbooks again this year. We had such a successful, non-stress, experience with it last year that we decided it was definitely and excellent choice for Gavin. He is already about 1/3 of the way through the 6th grade book (he actually started this book last year). He is making A's consistently on his assignments. I am also having him use a few web resources (such as MathPlayground) to give him extra work in critical thinking, problem solving, and logic.

Ben is using Horizons and is finishing up Level 2. He, as usual, is doing extremely well with math. He seldom ever makes an error once he understands a concept. Right now he is learning line graphs, fractions, and multiplication facts. Like Gavin, he also uses the Math Playground website for some extra practice and fun.

Luci is also using Horizons for her Kindergarten year. She loves the colorful pages and feels really big to have her own math worksheets. Right now she is counting (which is really a review for her), writing numbers, learning left/right, top/bottom, first/last, etc...(which are also a review for her), and beginning to learn about graphs/charts.

Language Arts

I am using Sonlight Language Arts for all of the kids this year. The boys are also keeping journals daily.

Gavin's year has already had a variety of writing assignments. He has written a poem entitled I Am, an essay titled Me, a fictional travel journal of a journey down the Nile River, and a peace treaty for families. I can really tell a big difference in his writing skills now compared to this time last year. Since Gavin is a natural speller we are continuing to use the very easy to use Spelling Power. He is almost finished with level G, which according to the Spelling Power book puts him at about an 8th grade level.

Ben's Language Arts program includes a really great writing tool called "Diamond Notes". It's a really great way of helping kids organize their thoughts so that they can begin writing a well-organized paragraph. He's already read several great books so far including: Prairie School, The Long Way Home, Clara and the Bookwagon, The Long Way Westward, and Keep the Lights Burning Abbie.

Luci is very excited to be learning to read! This week she read her second reader and as she finished her brothers were there congratulating her. We've been playing fun games like alphabet bingo, building words on the Word Whammer, and smashing letter tiles together to "push" our sounds together. She is a very eager reader and I suspect it won't be long before it really clicks for her and she takes off!

Science

Luci's science has been focusing on the weather this week. We've made tornados in a bottle, watched as the cold air in a bottle caused the sides to cave in, used our fingers to determine the wind's direction, and made a weather vane. It's so neat to see the world through the eyes of a little one!

For the first two weeks Ben's science focused on mammals, but surprisingly this week took us on

a short trek through the digestive system before picking up again with beavers! However odd it was, it has at least been interesting!

Gavin is studying physics this year. The focus so far has been on types of energy. He's made a few "gadgets"--some were planned and scheduled, others were self-created and spontaneous. He really loves his science this year. He did last year as well, but this topic just seems to be made for him!

History/Geography/Bible/Read-Alouds

Once again the story here is SONLIGHT. All the way!

Luci is using Core K Introduction to the World: Cultures. This is the second time I've done this core with one of my kids and it is no less fun the second time around. We just finished our first read-aloud, The Boxcar Children, and Luci is totally taken with the story of these children! For history we've been reading about the clothes, houses, and way of life for the ancient Egyptians and Romans.

Ben is doing Core 2, which is part 2 of Introduction to World History. Our first read aloud was Red Sails to Capri. A little bit of mystery and excitement had him hooked each day waiting for more! Now we are reading Ginger Pye and so far he is enjoying this as well. His history studies picked up with the period after Jesus' crucifixion with the rise of Christianity and Islam. One of the books we read from daily, Window on the World, takes an interesting look at different places, cultures, and religions. Each reading includes ways in which we, as Christians, can pray for these people groups.

Gavin is doing Core 6, World History Part 1. Using The Story of the World and the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History we started our study with the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Our first read-aloud is The Golden Goblet, an exciting story of a young boy in ancient Egypt. It's full of intrigue, spying, and mystery...we LOVE it!

Art

Our art supplies just arrived yesterday, so we haven't started yet. But next time I post an update on the kids I hope to have lots of interesting things to tell!

Organizing A Sonlight Binder

One of the first questions many new homeschoolers ask is "How do I organize everything?" And if your a Sonlighter, that question is particularly vexing as you try to wade through the Sonlight Instructor Guides, which can at first seem very overwhelming. There are many ways to organize your materials, and sometimes it's a matter of trying various things to see what works for you. After completing 3 years of Sonlight, this is how I organize our binders:

Along with each complete Sonlight core purchase (except the Pre-K cores) you receive a large 4 inch 3-ring binder. This binder includes a set of divider tabs which are labeled 1-36, one for each week of the school year. Also included are tabs for the study guides that accompany the books.

When I begin preparing for the year I separate all of the instructor guide sheets by week and place them behind the appropriate numbered divider tab. In this way I can have each of my instructor guides (Core, LA, and Science) all in one place. This is the yearly binder.

In a smaller binder I put the appendix and study guide tabs along with the appropriate study guides. This binder is the weekly binder.

In this weekly binder I place some additional tabs (these are Avery Brand and I purchased them at Office Depot--a wonderful place where I can fulfill my deep affection for office/school supplies). I labeled these tabs according to subject: Math, History, Science, and Language Arts. although I don't have an instructor guide for math I still use a math tab. Each week I pull the week's worksheets out of the workbook and three-hole punch them so that they are in easy reach in our weekly binder.

I also included a couple of pocket folders (also Avery, also at Office Depot) for holding our time-line figures and their schedule.

At the beginning of each week I remove a weeks' worth of instructor guides from the yearly binder and then separate them by subject in the weekly binder.

The yearly binder goes up on the top shelf, out of the way, for another week.

Our weekly binders stay within easy reach day after day.

Each day as work is completed it is either placed in the check-in box (if it is something that needs to be graded) or it is returned to the shelf or workbox depending on what it is.

At the end of the day I grade all papers and check workbooks. Once graded, loose papers that need filing are placed in my file box.

When we are finished with the week's instructor guides they are returned (complete with check marks and/or notes to mark our having completed the assignments) to the yearly binder behind the appropriate tab.

(FYI: I am currently using three Sonlight cores, three Sonlight LA's, 2 Sonlight Sciences, and 1 NOEO Science. The pictures used in this post are of Core 2. Each of my children's binders are organized in a similar fashion. The only exception is when it comes to my oldest son's NOEO Science. Since those schedule pages come bound in a spiral form I just have the entire spiral book behind the science tab of my Weekly Binder.)

Our Curriculum

Before schedules, routines, and workboxes can even be thought of there are many curricula decisions to make! Every homeschool parent spends hours perusing the catalogs--both in print and online. And I'm certain that many also spend countless hours researching others' experiences with different homeschool materials. Here are the results of my research...

(This year I have a 6th grader, 3rd grader, and a Kindergartener)

6th Grader

Math Teaching Textbooks 6 along with problem solving games at mathplayground.com
Language Arts Sonlight LA 6, Wordly Wise 3000 Book 6, Keys to Good Language 6, Spelling Power
History Sonlight Core 6 World History Part 1
Science NOEO Science Physics II

Bible Sonlight Bible 6 --Children's Field Bible Field Guide
Electives Rosetta Stone Spanish, Typing Tutor, Guitar

3rd Grader

Math Horizons Math 2 (finishing up) then Horizons 3 the rest of the year
Language Arts Sonlight LA 2Int, Wordly Wise B, MCP Phonics C, A Reason For Handwriting Transition, www.spellingcity.com
History Sonlight Core 2 Intro to World History Part 2
Science Sonlight Science 2

Bible Sonlight Bible 2--The Awesome Book of Bible Facts
Electives Rosetta Stone Spanish, Artistic Pursuits Book 1

Kindergartener

Math Horizons K
Language Arts Sonlight LA K, Get Ready (Set, Go) For the Code, A Reason For Handwriting K, Starfall.com, Draw Write Now
History/Social Studies Sonlight Core K
Science Sonlight Science K

Bible Sonlight Bible K

Electives Artistic Pursuits Book 1