Seven Pillars Academy

Week 2

2011-08-13T05:06:00.000-07:00

It has been another good week here at Seven Pillars Academy. Read on and find out what we learned and did!

One thing I wanted to mention at the beginning was the addition of this clip chart that I read about on some first-grade teacher blogs. I thought I would try it out during our school and was amazed at how well it worked! We do have some temper tantrums based in frustration and perfectionism, as well as some disrespect directed at Mom/teacher, and I was interested to see if this strategy, developed for a large class, might also work with only two students. It has pretty well nipped our problems in the bud, as well as improved our whole school day!

I used two plastic clips that I already have and personalized them with ribbon to distinguish whose clip was whose (Emily Anne's is pink and has white daisies, while Will's has a soccer-ball design). Every day, they both begin in the middle of the chart with the green Ready to Learn section. Diligent work, good attitudes, encouraging or helping others, etc. moves their clip up a section, while disrespect, less than diligent work, complaining, tantrums, etc., moves them down a section. I don't say anything to redirect behavior, I simply unobtrusively go to the chart and clip up or down. It is simply amazing to see how the kids can redirect themselves without my nagging or lecturing them. Those students whose clips are in Outstanding by the end of the day get a treat from the Smartie Pants jar, which right now is filled with Jolly Ranchers and Twizzlers. To keep their interest, I think I'm going to happen to vary the treats. I've thought of a certificate for Pajama Day and will have to come up with some other creative ideas. Feel free to share if you have any!

BIBLE

We reviewed our anchor memory verse, James 3:17. Everyone has it pretty well memorized now. We also studied Psalm 1 this week. I read it aloud three times on Monday and again on Tuesday, when the children drew a picture illustrating part of the Psalm. Here is Will's picture.

The tree on the left illustrates a person who does not love God and His law, while the picture at right demonstrates someone who does. I loved how he contrasted them! Notice the fruit and the streams of water.

Emily Anne's tree is also fruitful and near streams of water. We had a little lesson on the spelling of psalm! We continued reviewing James 3:17 throughout the week and worked on memorizing parts of Psalm 1.

LANGUAGE ARTS

This week Emily Anne and Will flew through handwriting/copywork. Will was working on Os and As, while Emily Anne was practicing her cursive on Psalm 1 throughout the week. In Spelling/Phonics Emily Anne worked on words with oo, silent consonants l and gh, and ways to make the o sound (au, aw, o, ou, al). Will is still whizzing through his Phonics. In addition to our Phonics lessons, he read Jan Can, Pat's Cats, and Pop Does the Bop (which he thought was hilarious). He also surprised his daddy by reading Go, Dog, Go in its entirety one night at bedtime! Go, Will Go!

Emily Anne reviewed pronouns and verbs in First Language Lessons this week. It is great how much she has retained from last year! While I work on these short lessons with her, Will usually listens to books on CD. This week he listened to Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones (too funny), Flat Stanley, and Stanley in Space.

We also began memorizing our first poem this week, "The Land of Nod" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Emily Anne's writing this week consisted of narration and dictation from selections from Mr. Revere and I by Robert Lawson. I was planning on using this book again when we get to the History chapters on the American Revolution, so I am glad she got a little introduction to it here. I heard her telling an unsolicited narration of her selections to Will one afternoon, so she must have enjoyed it.

On Friday we finished our first literature read-aloud, The Stories of Don Quixote by James Baldwin. I was really surprised how much they enjoyed this book, found it funny, and would allude to it throughout the two weeks in which we read it. I feel awesome getting a version of a classic under our belts! I think it is awesome that they will understand the allusion of tilting at windmills now.

MATH

Math improved dramatically this week for Emily Anne with the implementation of the clip chart. She did a complete 180-degree turnaround in her attitude toward math, especially the 100-problem fact sheets. She now looks at them as an opportunity to be clipped up on the chart. Consequently, her time and accuracy have improved! Math this week for her reviewed adding numbers, even and odd numbers, and adding with regrouping. Will is also flying through his math. On Monday we created a bar graph of the extended family's trucks, cars, and bicycles.

We also continued reviewing counting and numbers, ordinal numbers, and left and right. Here is Will sorting and creating number towers with snap-on blocks.

Will also had his first assessment in math on Thursday. He scored 100!

HISTORY

We studied Chapter Two of The Story of the World this week: Protestant Rebellions. We learned how William the Silent helped his country of the Netherlands fight back against the persecution of the Catholic Philip II of Spain. To get an idea of what the Netherlands were like, we read Katje, the Windmill Cat.

It was based on a true story of a cat and baby who survived a flood when a dike broke. The kids really enjoyed this story.

The second section of Protestant Rebellions dealt with Mary, Queen of Scots. Emily Anne read part of a biography of Mary by Emily Hahn.

We also did a craft project from The Story of the World and made our own tartans, which the kids loved! We cut up an old flat sheet and got sponge brushes in 1", 3", and 4", as well as fabric paint with three different colors for each child. They then created a pattern with the thin, thicker, and thickest brushes. Here they are painting their vertical lines.

Here are the tartans with the patterns completed, both vertically and horizontally.

The kids loved wearing their finished tartans. We learned that Scotsman would use their "belted plaids" for everything, even wrapping up in them as blankets to sleep.

We also instituted two components of memory work to History this week. On Mondays when we do map work of the current chapter, we will also be filling in blank US maps with the states and, eventually, the capitals. This week we just filled in the states we knew by memory and then used maps to fill in the rest. Here is Emily Anne with her completed US map.

The other memory work we began is memorizing the US presidents and the years of their terms. We started at the beginning with George Washington (1789-1797). We'll add a new president in order each week.

SCIENCE

We continued studying about energy this week in Physics, using the worksheets on CD from God's Design for the Physical World. We completed an Energy Conversion Chart where an object was listed and we filled in the initial energy type and the final energy type. For example, the initial energy type for a stove is electrical, and the final energy type is heat. I adapted this activity for Will by asking him the types orally and writing down the answers for him.

We also drew energy chains for a coal-powered power plant and for riding a bicycle. Here are Emily Anne's energy chains:

There was also a quiz for this information, but I thought it was too difficult (the books is ranged for abilities from 3rd to 8th grade), so we completed it as we talked about each question. I think we all (me included!) learned a lot about energy this week.

Now, I have to find the energy to plan, organize, and make copies for Week 3 at Seven Pillars Academy!

Week 1

2011-08-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

This post is the first of what I hope will be weekly recaps of what happens in Seven Pillars Academy. Overall, our first week was great! I will organize this summary by subjects.

BIBLE

This week in Bible, we practiced memorizing our anchor verse for our homeschool: James 3:17.

We said it aloud three times each day, and by Wednesday Emily Anne had it memorized. Will was able to say it by himself on Friday, and was reciting it in the kitchen on Friday afternoon. We are trying to allow these qualities of wisdom to guide our interactions in school, and there were several instances during the week when I was able to compliment the kids on being peace-loving, considerate, or submissive.

HANDWRITING/COPYWORK

Emily Anne worked on her cursive handwriting by copying James 3:17. Will worked in his Handwriting book. By the end of the week, I had moved him along a few lessons because the book started out with practicing various strokes. He had already done handwriting in 4K, so we skipped ahead to the lessons with letters and words. He was happier with that.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Language Arts this week was mostly oral although it did incorporate a small bit of workbook activity. It focused mainly on forming the plurals of words and also reviewed the definition of a noun. I really like First Language Lessons because of its emphasis on auditory learning, which is definitely where EA's strengths lie. While Emily Anne is doing Language Arts, Will would work on some typical kindergarten workbook pages to underscore his Phonics and Math.

WRITING

Emily Anne worked on narration and dictation in Writing with Ease. The selections this week were from Grimm's fairy tales, and a difference this year is that she reads the selections aloud herself. I like this, as it gives her practice in fluency. During Emily Anne's writing time, Will is listening to Easy Readers on CD and following along in his book. This week he listened to Little Bear Finds a Friend (twice), Biscuit Finds a Friend (He didn't like this one as well because it didn't have page-turning cues), Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp, and A Bargain for Frances.

SCIENCE

The beginning of the week focused on Nutrition, and the kids colored in the Food Pyramid and learned about food groups, as well as kept a fruit and vegetable diary through the week. By mid-week, I had gotten Emily Anne's syllabus for her co-op Physics course, and we began to study Energy. When I read them the chapter on Energy in the textbook, both Emily Anne and Will said that they had learned about potential and kinetic energy from Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, one of their favorite shows on PBS! On Friday Emily Anne read Will a picture book on Energy from the library, and they watched a very brief clip on potential and kinetic energy from Bill Nye, the Science Guy that I found on Youtube.

I am trying to get more physical education in the children's curriculum. This week we focused on sprinting, which consisted of my timing them while they ran from the walk to the wall of the backyard. They loved this and asked to do it every day.

MATH

I am so glad that I decided to use Saxon Math 1 with Will instead of Saxon K. He is certainly up to the lessons and declares them to be "Easy!" after each lesson.

Emily Anne's Saxon 5/4 is also going well, although by Thursday she was dawdling excessively over her Math Facts Drill. I bribed her on Friday with the promise of a Math-Facts-Free day on Monday if she did a good job on her addition drill, improved her time, and did it with a good attitude. It worked! I do like how 5/4 emphasizes math vocabulary in the worksheets.

Emily Anne asked to bring Britney to school and created a desk for her on the steps. Will then created a G. I. Joe school. Do you see the pencil in Duke's hand? There is obviously not a dress code for G. I. Joe school. Both made math worksheets for their doll/action figures.

SPELLING/PHONICS

Emily Anne is in Lessons 26 & 27 in Spelling Workout C. Her tips this week dealt with vowel pairs that make a long-vowel sound and the different sounds of oo. She can do Spelling on her own, so Will and I usually use this time for Phonics. He has blown us all away with his reading this week!

We knew that he was reading more, but it was only with structured reading practice time that I have seen how much he knows. We began with Lesson 27 in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading with short-vowel words. We go through the brief lesson and then usually follow up with his spelling the lesson words on a small whiteboard with magnetic letters, which he usually enjoys. He asks to read the Bob books, and he read all twelve of Set 1 by Thursday of this week! I am going to have to get the other sets much quicker than I thought. I really like Bob books because they follow along with the phonics lessons in OPGTR. He also read another phonics reader on Friday that I happened to have, as well as a book that Emily Anne wrote for him.

HISTORY

History was a blast this week! On Monday I read through the information on "The Holy Roman Empire" while the kids colored the picture of Charles V. Tuesday's information was on "The Riches of Spain," and they colored a picture of a conquistador, which was right up Will's alley. On Wednesday they did map work, which consisted of coloring in the countries that Charles V ruled, the countries that Frederick and Philip II ruled, and the route from Spain to South America.

To explain the idea of the $500 billion dollars in gold and silver that conquistadores took from South America, they did a measurement activity on Thursday. They found things around the house that were 1 mm (grains of salt), 16 cm (a toy tank), 4' 2" (Emily Anne-approximately), and 8'5" (approximate measurement from floor to ceiling) and then filled in a key to see the distance covered if you had 500 billion of that object. This activity made the abstract concept of 500 billion more concrete for them.

On Friday, we made Spanish doubloons by tracing circles on cardboard and covering them in gold foil wrapping paper. They then used pencils to trace designs on them. The designs on the "coins" didn't show up in the picture, but they were varied--horses, roses, WWII soldiers, Civil War Soldiers. I guess they didn't think to put Philip II on them!

Then then played the game outlined in the Story of the World activity guide: "Steal the Spanish Treasure." It was a combination of checkers and Battleship, and the kids really liked it. They played it twice so that each child had the opportunity of being the Pirate, and then they played again that afternoon.

Here Will the pirate has just stolen the gold off of one of Emily Anne's consquistador's ships!

As I have been writing this post this morning, Joel has played a game with each of the kids, and they are playing each other now!

LITERATURE
This week I was reading aloud Stories from Don Quixote by James Baldwin. Emily Anne and Will have loved hearing how silly Don Quixote has been! We should finish it next week.

First Day of School!

2011-08-06T02:48:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome first day of school at Seven Pillars Academy! Here are Emily Anne and Will with their schultutes for their first day. You can read more about the schultutes here.

Just so you know, Seven Pillars Academy doesn't have a uniform requirement! They just wanted something special for the first day of school, and right now, these outfits seemed cool to them!

Here they are digging into the goodies inside. It was so nice to actually be able to surprise them with something.

Once the excitement of the schultutes was over, we moved on to school. We practiced memorizing James 3:17, and Will had first pick of school subjects since it was his first day. He chose History, and the kids colored a picture of Charles V while I read to them about the Holy Roman Empire. We moved through subjects steadily, with no complaints--oh, that every day was like this one!

The workboxes worked very well, and Will surprised me by how well he stayed on task with his subjects! Here he is working on handwriting. He doesn't look too happy there, but it was just a weird photo.

Here he is in the reading corner listening to a book on CD while I was helping Emily Anne with Language Arts. The book was Little Bear Finds a Friend, and he loved it! When he was finished, he asked if he could listen to it again tomorrow.

Here is Emily Anne working on her narration for Writing.

All in all, it was a great day, and we were eager for the next day of school. We were blessed with a great start to the new homeschool year!

Curricula Fair!

2011-07-31T06:20:00.000-07:00

I am excited about this year of homeschooling and feel pretty settled about our choices.

We will be delving into The Story of the World, Vol. 3: Late Renaissance and Early Modern Times.

History is Emily Anne's favorite subject, and we have loved Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of the World. Will will be officially joining us this year on our journey of history. Both kids are really excited about making their own tartan in Chapter 2!

Susan Wise Bauer will also be making an appearance in Seven Pillars Academy through Writing with Ease, Level 3. We have really enjoyed the thorough but gentle approach of writing in this curriculum. She is narrating well (although we often have to prune details) and is doing dictation well. Last year, IEW was offered in co-op, and we did it along with Writing with Ease, Level 2 at home. Emily Anne really did not enjoy IEW, and she enjoys writing and goes through reams of paper writing unassigned stories every day. I did not want her to get a bad attitude about writing this year and think that since she is strong in the humanities that she will pick up on organization well without IEW (which I do think is a strong program for those children whose talents are in areas other than writing). A bonus feature of the Writing with Ease books are the selections that Susan chooses for narration; they have piqued Emily Anne's curiosity and led us to books we might not have read on our own. I am excited to hear that Susan's writing program for logic-age children will be available soon!

After reading through The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos for two years, we did topic studies last year, using For Instruction in Righteousness by Pam Forster. This year I felt led to do a study of Psalms and Proverbs and will be studying a different psalm or proverb each week. Emily Anne's cursive copywork will come from these psalms and proverbs. I made my own with a free cursive font.

Emily Anne will be starting Saxon Math 5/4 this year. The format is different from the earlier Saxon volumes, and I had a little trepidation about this change. I have sat down with it, though, and have seen that it is not really different in practice that how we were doing Saxon 3. It helps to know that I can always fall back on the Dive teaching videos if this humanities mama needs help!

Emily Anne is working through the rest of Spelling Workout C and D this year. She was not too enthused about the alien grasshopper on the cover of C! I have to say that at first, I was not very impressed with Spelling Workout A & B, but now that I've reread The Well-Trained Mind and have been writing the Spelling Tips in our Spelling section of the Language Arts notebook, it is going much better.

Emily Anne will be taking Prima Latina through our co-op this year. Joel took Latin in high school, but I've never had the opportunity to learn it. I am exicted to learn along with Emily Anne!

Science will also be taken through co-op. I am so thankful that I do not have to teach science! I would not enjoy setting up those experiments! This physics class will be using God's Design for the Physical World.

Grammar will be learned through First Language Lessons, Level 3, another offering by Peace Hill Press. We will be starting diagramming this year, and I know how nerdy this sounds, but I can't wait!

Will is starting off math with Saxon Math 1. He is so excited to start math and says it is his favorite subject.

Phonics will be accomplished with Jessie Wise's Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and Bob Books. OPGTR worked so well for Emily Anne, and I am eager to start reading with Will!

I've decided to use Zaner-Bloser Kindergarten for Will's handwriting. I had tried various things with Emily Anne before hitting upon Zaner-Bloser with her cursive learning last year, and it seemed to work best with us.

Emily Anne and Will will also be taking Art at co-op; it will be Emily Anne's third year and Will's first. Emily Anne will be taking her second year of piano lessons, as well.

We are looking forward to a wonderful year!

Schoolroom

2011-07-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

While the kids were occupied this week at art camp, I used the opportunity of rare time to myself to organize the playroom. I started with the bulletin board. I kept the blue gingham background and added a fun polka-dot border I got from the dollar store a while back. I put up last year's picture of the kids and added the border around it, too. I used some of the back-to-school printables from Birds Party again to decorate the board. I don't think you can read it in the picture, but one of them beside their picture reads, "Teacher's pets!" Also on the board is a border-framed verse: James 3:17. This verse is the anchor verse for our homeschool. The cards on rings on the side of the board are the review cards for each year of History. We will be adding more for The Story of the World, Vol. 3 this year. There is space below the verse for other learning reminders; in later pictures you'll see a strip of the American Presidents, one of the kids' memorization projects for this year.

Here is a picture of the bulletin board above the kids' workboxes. Each subject's work is put in a drawer, and the velcro number is put on the drawer. Once the work is completed, the children can put the number on the workbox grid on top of the workbox tower. By the end of the school day, all the numbers are off the drawer and on the grid. They can tell at a glance how much work is left for them to complete each day.

Here is a little corner for independent work. This desk was one that I used when I was little. Blank notebooks are housed in the open space, and the little yellow bucket holds bookmarks. My favorite Mary Engelbreit prints that hung in my classroom grace this little nook.

We are so blessed to have so many shelves and cabinets in this room! The top shelf houses math manipulatives and magnetic letters for Will's phonics lessons. Curricula and baskets with flash cards and my office supplies (post-it notes, thumb tacks, reward stickers, rubber bands, etc.) live on the next shelf. The third shelf down is divided into history resources and literature. The counter holds binders for various subjects, the electric pencil sharpener (We finally have one that works this year!), the hole puncher, and the printer.

Here is our curricula for 2010-2011. You will notice a lot of resources from Peace Hill Press. I don't know why The Story of the World wasn't up here on the shelf; I think I was using it to track down extra reading for the history chapters.

Here are the binders ready to collect work!

This table is where the magic happens! I have my laptop set up for lesson planning using Homeschool Tracker.

Here are the school supplies organized and ready to go on the lazy susan.

Here are the shelves on the other side of the TV. The top shelf is the teacher's shelf that contains portfolios from past years, old lesson plans, and books on homeschooling. The Science shelf is the next one down, with science books, field guides, bug collecting equipment, and the microscope and slides. Art supplies and art books are on the next shelf, along with a bin for educational games like Quiddler. The counter holds a listening station for books on CD (We really like the stories of Jim Weiss) and classical music (Beethoven's Wig are favorites at our house . . . and in the car!). There are also paper trays for notebook paper, handwriting paper, and construction paper.

We use these stepstools we got from Target to reach things on the higher shelves.

Here is a photo of the whole shelving system, including the Quantum Leap Globe (a gift from my sister and much used!), as well as the Wii (perfect for PE on scorching hot or rainy days!).s

Here is a favorite part of the playroom / schoolroom--the reading corner! Joel made the rain gutter bookshelves at my request last year, and they are my favorite thing in the whole room! I love being able to put out the books that go along with what we're studying in history and science for the week! Having the covers facing outward really sparks the children's curiosity and desire to pull a book off the shelf. Some of Emily Anne's artwork hangs above the bookshelf; I think I'll have to add some of Will's recent masterpieces to the collection. The comfy beanbags can be moved around easily, too.

Here are the windows and window seats around the rest of the playroom. The windows let in a lot of light, and the drawers in the window seat hold toys. We have stored the cushions in the attic for right now because the window seat level is the perfect height for setting up battle scenes of toy soldiers and creating card-stock bands (complete with drum sets) for Barbies. I love the windows, but they don't allow for much wall space for posters and such. In a few years when Emily Anne reaches logic stage, and we add a timeline to our history study, I imagine a timeline stretching along these windows.

More windows, with the white board and dog crate for our Goldendoodle in the corner.

A shot of the workboxes and french doors into the screened porch. Addie is the official Seven Pillars Academy mascot!

This beautiful oak tree can be seen out the playroom windows. We're hoping to do put up some feeders and do some backyard bird watching this winter. Joel added the stepping-stone walk this summer, and I added hostas and coleus. They're growing well although you can't see them well in this picture.

Another view of this side of the schoolroom . . .

and one with the dog crate slid out of the way to allow access to the white board.

An inspirational quote for the first day of school

We'll see if the schoolroom stays clean for the first day of school on Monday!

Art Camp

2011-07-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

The kids just finished up Art Camp today, and it was a wonderful week! They were so enthusiastic every day and couldn't wait to get to Art Camp each morning. They had a brief show today at the end of the week, and Joel and I were so impressed with the variety of media used and with the skills learned.

This is Will holding his name in calligraphy. They had practiced all week writing the alphabet and Bible verses with a real calligraphy pen and ink. I thought Will did a good job, considering that he is still working on manuscript handwriting.

This was Will's watercolor rendering of a lake scene. I was blown away by the trees and reflections in this piece!

This was Will's project of pomegranates in soft pastels.

This was Will's acrylic piece of mountains with a field of tulips. I love the perspective of the piece and how his flowers look more like wildflowers in the foreground. Each student's personality really came through their work!

Here is Emily Anne in front of her display table.

This is her bulletin board above the display table.

Emily Anne used soft pastel crayons on these pomegranates. I'd like to hang these in the kitchen.

Oil pastels were used on the flamingos.

Emily Anne's watercolor rendition of the lake. Beautiful reflections!

Gorgeous mountains with a sea of tulips by Emily Anne.

The students also transferred line drawings to rubber, carved out a stamp, and coated them with ink to make stampings. This horse was Emily Anne's creation.

Will's flamingos

They also carved and painted. Will's shark started out as a rectangle of a material like styrofoam.

Emily Anne's Irish Setter--You can't see it from the picture, but the texture on the ears was wonderful!

Their talented art instructor's name is Debra Carmona. You can visit her website here. Emily Anne has taken lessons with her for two years now at Co-op and will be continuing lessons this fall with Will in his first year of Art. We are so blessed to have her expertise available to our children! This week's camp was a fun and intensive time to enjoy a variety of projects in a relatively short amount of time. They both thoroughly enjoyed their time there!

Schultute!

2011-07-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

The kids have been at art camp all week, so I have been using my time in preparing for school, which we'll begin on August 1. It is so darn hot here that it is too miserable to do anything outside, so we're starting early so that we can finish the school year earlier. I love the flexibility of homeschooling!

One of the projects that I've been working on this week is a schultute. I have seen these around the web and thought that they would be a great way to get this school year off on the right foot. I was helped out with a lot of inspiration from the Internet. I used a couple of sheets of poster board I had and decorated them with some gingham ribbon and some cute printables.

The cute gingham tags that you see are free printables from Birds Party. They are so cute. I've used them to decorate school binders, too.

In addition to school supplies (pencils, erasers, new scissors, crayons, and the ultra important colored pencils), I included some school-themed candies.

The idea for these pencils came from The Blackberry Vine. She used a roll of Rolos, but I couldn't find them, so I used canisters of M&Ms I find at the grocery store checkout line.

Perfect, right? I remember in my sorority we use to have a Smart Cookie Award. I don't know why I haven't thought of this before! The Busy Budgeting Mama helped remind me. For my tags I used the cursive font I use for Emily Anne's handwriting/copywork and more of the printables from Birds Party.

The English teacher in me had a little problem with the creative spelling in this tag, but it was too cute to resist. This idea came from a great teacher's blog, Fabulous in First.

These bookworms are my favorite. What could be better than sitting in a cozy corner eating candy while immersed in a great book? The original ideas came from Sweet Serendipity 23.

I apologize for the poor photography in this post. Photography is not my strong suit anyway, and I was hurriedly trying to take pictures before I had to hide the schultutes and pick up the kids. We'll see if they stay hidden until Monday morning. I'll try to take photos of the kids with them before they rip into them!

Emily Anne's 2010-2011 Art Portfolio

2011-07-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Emily Anne's favorite Co-op class is Art. She loves it, and I am pretty impressed with the artwork she produces. Emily Anne & Will will be in the same Art class this year, and they are both looking forward to it. We are so blessed to have their Art teacher, Debra Carmona, in our Co-op. Lest you think that my child is a prodigy, take a look at Mrs. Carmona's other students' work on her website.

Here is a portfolio of Emily Anne's work from this past year:

Horse in pencil

Rose in oil pastel crayons

Teddy Bear in watercolors

Unfinished lion cub in colored pencils

Sea Turtle in watercolors

Clownfish in mixed media

Ice-Cream Cone in pencil

Splatter-Paint with Butterfly & Flower in watercolor and Sharpie

Oranges in colored pencil

Emily Anne's 2010-2011 Reading

2011-06-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

It has been such a joy this past year to see Emily Anne's ability to read and love of reading grow. The following list is a compilation of the books that she read over the course of the year. Some of the books were self-selected; some were assignments for HHE Co-op Courses, and some were assignments I made for her to go along with history.

• Who in the World Was the Acrobatic Empress? The Story of Theodora, Robin Phillips & Jeff West (History)

• The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Chandler Warren
• Tonight on the Titanic, Mary Pope Osborne
• Viking Ships at Sunrise, Mary Pope Osborne (History)
• The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island, Gertrude Chandler Warren
• Who In the World Was the Unready King?The Story of Ethelred, Connie Clark & Jed Mickle (History)

• Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock, Carolyn Keene
• The Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle
• The Boxcar Children:Yellow House Mystery, Gertrude Chandler Warren
• Stories of Knights, Jane Bingham (History)
• A Light Kindled: The story of Priscilla Mullins, Tracy M. Leininger
• A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time, Mary Pope Osborne
• Buffalos Before Breakfast, Mary Pope Osborne

• A Crazy Day with Cobras, Mary Pope Osborne
• The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
• The Boxcar Children: Mystery Ranch, Gertrude Chandler Warren
• Leprechaun in Late Winter, Mary Pope Osborne
• Chanticleer and the Fox, Barbara Cooney (History)
• Hour of the Olympics, Mary Pope Osborne
• Dragon of the Red Dawn, Mary Pope Osborne
• The Courage of Sarah Noble, Alice Dagliesh
• Who in the World Was the Secretive Printer? The Story of Johannes Gutenberg, Robert Beckham (History)

• Blizzard of the Blue Moon, Mary Pope Osborne
• The Boxcar Children: Mike’s Mystery, Gertrude Chandler Warren
• You Wouldn’t Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus: Uncharted Waters You’d Rather Not Cross, Fiona MacDonald (History)
• Christopher Columbus, Tanya Larkin (History)
• Columbus, Ingri d’Aulaire (History)
• The Boxcar Children: Blue Bay Mystery, Gertrude Chandler Warren
• Shooting Star: Annie Oakley, the Legend, Debbie Dadey
• Who in the World Was the Forgotten Explorer? The Story of Amerigo Vespucci, Lorene Lambert (History)
• Henry the Navigator, Claude Hurwicz (History)
• Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels, & What the Neighbors Thought, Kathleen Krull (“Joan of Arc”) (History)

• The Boxcar Children: The Woodshed Mystery, Gertrude Chandler Warren
• A Lion to Guard Us, Robert Clyde Bullard
• Little Women (abridged), Devra Newberger Speregen
• Louisa May Alcott: Young Novelist, Beatrice Gormley
• Cuckoo: A Mexican Folktale, Lois Ehlert (History)
• Aztec, Inca, & Maya, Elizabeth Baquedano (History)
• Back to School (Rachel Yoder), Wanda E. Brunstetter
• Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World, Paul L. Maier (History)
• School’s Out (Rachel Yoder), Wanda E. Brunstetter
• Henry VIII, Frank Dwyer (History)

• Out of Control (Rachel Yoder), Wanda E. Brunstetter
• A Medieval Cathedral, Fiona Macdonald (History)
• Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Pope Osborne (History)
• The Planets, Gail Gibbons (History)
• Galileo, Leonard Everett Fisher (History)
• Stage Fright on a Summer Night, Mary Pope Osborne (History)
• The Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare,
Diane Stanley (History)
• New Beginnings (Rachel Yoder), Wanda E. Brunstetter
• Roanoake, The Lost Colony: An Unsolved Mystery from History, Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple (History)

2010-2011 Read-Alouds

2011-06-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is being able to read aloud to my children in such volume. I've always enjoyed reading aloud, and I love the shared experience of discovering new people and places with my children through books. The following list is a compilation of books that we read last year. The impetus to read them came from a variety of sources: Emily Anne's interests, favorite books from my childhood, books with rich language and vocabulary, and selections in Writing with Ease which piqued our interest and made us want to read the book in its entirety. Those books marked History were books recommended in The Story of the World or that went along with the time period we were studying.

• Betsy Ross: Designer of Our Flag, Ann Weil
• Raiders of the North: Discover the Dramatic World of the Celts and Vikings, Fiona MacDonald (History)
• Favorite Medieval Tales, Mary Pope Osborne (History)
• Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, Tomie DePaolo (History)
• Finn M’Coul: The Giant of Knockmany Hill, Tomie DePaolo (History)
• The Road to Oz, L. Frank Baum
• Castle, David MacAulay (History)
Augustine Came to Kent, Barbara Willard (History)
• Ginger Pye, Eleanor Estes
• Genghis Khan, Demi (History)
• Ten Kings and the World They Ruled, Milton Meltzer (History)
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis
• The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks

• The Return of the Indian, Lynne Reid Banks
• Beorn the Proud, Madeleine Pollard (History)
• Alfred the Great, Mary Fitt (History)
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz, L. Frank Baum
• The Marvelous Land of Oz, L. Frank Baum
• The Canterbury Tales, Barbara Cohen (History)
• Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis

• The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History, John S. Major (History)
• Who Was Marco Polo? Joan Holub (History)
• Marco Polo, Demi (History)
• Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, J. K. Rowling
• The Black Death, Diane Zahler (History)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling
• Joan of Arc, Josephine Poole (History)
• Adam of the Road, Elizabeth Janet Gray (History)
• Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, Kathryn Lasky (History)
• Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery

• Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, Edith Nesbit (History)
     o Twelfth Night
     o Romeo and Juliet
     o A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Summary of 2010-2011

2011-06-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

In the midst of summer swimming lessons, Vacation Bible School, Tuesday themed camps, piano lessons, and preparing for upcoming vacations, I've attempted to pull together a summary of what Emily Anne accomplished this year.

ART (Co-op Course; 3rd Year of Study)
• Sketched from models

• Used a variety of mediums, including oil pastels, watercolors, pencils, & pastel pencils

• Experimented with light & shadow

BIBLE
• Completed Topic Studies on Pride, Blame, Selfishness, & Defiance

• Memorized Psalms 1, 8, 23, & 121

• Memorized Methodist Episcopal Catechism (God’s Nature & Attributes; the Person of God)

EARTH SCIENCE

• Identified crust, mantle, inner core, and outer core of earth

• Identified igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock

• Identified how fossils are formed

• Understood basic structure of minerals and gems

• Understood basic plate tectonics and formation of mountains

• Studied volcanoes, earthquakes, and geysers

• Studied planets, moon, and stars (participated in portable planetarium presentation from STARLAB from the SC State Museum)

• Studied atmosphere, air, weather, and climate

• Identified stratus, cumulus, and cirrus clouds as indicators of weather

• Studied weather and wind, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes

• Studied ocean currents, waves, and tides, along with ocean floor and ocean zones

HANDWRITING
• Completed Zaner-Bloser Handwriting 2C

• Formed letters correctly

• Wrote with good shape, size, spacing, & slant

HISTORY
• Completed The Story of the World, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages (From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Rennaissance), by Susan Wise Bauer

• Listened to readings and wrote narrations of each section of the 42 chapters; some of Emily Anne’s favorites were:

o Eric the Red Discovers Greenland

o Joan of Arc

o The Princes in the Tower

o Ferdinand & Isabella Unite Spain

o Christopher Columbus and His New Discovery

o Gutenberg Invents the Printing Press

o Elizabeth Becomes Queen of England

• Listened to additional read-alouds that tied into various historical periods (See Reading Log)

• Read additional chapter and picture books that tied into various historical periods (See Reading Log)

LANGUAGE ARTS
• Studied Grammar through First Language Lessons, Vol. 2 by Susan Wise Bauer, the topics of which included:

o Memorized State of Being, Linking, & Helping Verbs

o Commas in Dates & Addresses & in a Series

o Contractions

o Adjectives & Adverbs

o Conjunctions

o Memorized the Prepositions

o Synonyms & Antonyms

o Direct & Indirect Quotations

• Reinforced these Grammar Topics through Copywork

• Memorized the Following Poems:

o “Ooey Gooey”

o “The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson

o “Persevere”

o “After the Party” by William Wise

o “The Vulture” by Hilaire Belloc

o “The Secret” by Emily Dickinson

o “Who Has Seen the Wind?” by Christina Rossetti

o “The Owl & the Pussycat”

o “The Duel” by Eugene Field

MATH
• Completed Saxon 3

• Struggled with Math Facts using flash cards and computer games for reinforcement until we began reciting them (Emily Anne is definitely an auditory learner!)

PIANO
• Learned treble and bass clefs

• Learned counts of quarter, half, whole, and dotted half notes

• Accomplished playing with left and right hands in a variety of songs

• Scored Superior at Hartsville Piano Festival

READING/LITERATURE
• Increased fluency in reading aloud

• Continued to use phonics knowledge as word attack skills

• Increased speed in silent reading

• Enriched vocabulary in silent reading and read-alouds

• Exposed to a variety of literature (biography, nonfiction, fiction, poetry)

• See attached Reading Log

SPELLING

• Completed Spelling Workout B

• Completed through Lesson 24 of Spelling Workout C

• Continued applying phonics rules to correct spelling of words

WRITING
• Completed Beginning Institute for Excellence in Writing Course

o Learned to replace weak words with stronger ones using a thesaurus

o Completed the process of key-word outlines, rough drafts, editing, and final drafts for fables and nonfiction paragraphs

o Practiced combining sentences using dependent clauses

o Enlivened writing by adding adverbs, adjectives, and

• Completed Writing with Ease, Vol. 2 by Susan Wise Bauer

o Progressed from writing short copywork sentences to longer ones containing direct quotations

o Progressed from writing very short sentences from dictation to two or more sentences from dictation

o Progressed from narrations of one or two sentences to paragraphs

o Wrote many unassigned, creative pieces

Library Book Sale

2010-10-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

Emily Anne and I hit the local library book sale after dropping Will off at preschool today. We scored some great classics at great prices and also helped out our great library! Children's hardback books were fifty cents; paperbacks, a quarter! We came home and displayed our finds on our rain gutter bookshelves.

Here are some books that will be great for American history next year.

I was excited to find some of the books of the Narnia series, especially as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be coming out as a movie soon. I will be on the lookout for the other books to fill out the series.
This book will be great for Biology.

Emily Anne was excited to find these classic books about horses. We read Misty of Chincoteague this summer, and she's very excited to have her own copy of this favorite. She's also looking forward to reading My Friend Flicka.

I thought these books would be good for Emily Anne in a few years, but she surprised me by sitting down with the Nancy Drew and reading a couple of chapters this afternoon. I remember devouring these mysteries when I was young, but not quite as young as Emily Anne!

We thought this book would be good for Will and also good for later this year in history when we cover the Middle Ages in Britain.

Emily Anne is a huge fan of Cynthia Rylant's Mr. Putty and Tabby books, so we thought Poppleton might be good, too.

Here are some great classic read-alouds.

I am really excited about this book. It is a poetry textbook from the 1920s and is labeled with the second grade, just right for Emily Anne.

Check out the endpapers! I love the silhouette of the children on a flying carpet and the implication that poetry can take us to other lands!

Here is the title page.

They included "Winken, Blinken, and Nod", along with a charming illustration.

I'm looking forward to reading these poems, perhaps at a weekly tea. Aren't new books fun?

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Week 5

2010-09-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Week 5 at Seven Pillars Academy was kind of slow, due to Emily Anne's stomach virus. It was a more laid-back week, concentrating mainly on read-alouds.

Bible: We continued with stories from The Child's Story Bible. They focused on Paul's travels.

Earth Science: In the midst of a unit on Rocks & Minerals, we continued reading aloud The Magic School Bus's Rocky Road Trip. We alternated the reading, with Emily Anne reading aloud the "reports" that Ms. Frizzle's students wrote.

Language Arts: We continued reviewing and memorizing poems. So far this year Emily Anne has memorized "Ooey Gooey", The Owl & the Pussycat", "The Swing," and "Persevere."

Literature: We continued reading aloud Augustine Came to Kent.

Boxcar Children: Emily Anne had a project to do on the first book in the Boxcar Children series. She chose to do a "Book Sandwich" where she commented on the different elements of the book on a different ingredient of the sandwich. The top of slice of bread included the tittle, author, and illustrator. Emily Anne summarized the book on the lettuce leaf. The tomato included the book's setting, and Emily Anne drew a picture of the boxcar in which the children lived. The meat of the sandwich discussed the main character, and Emily Anne chose to write about Henry, the oldest brother. The next ingredient asked what in the book made the reader smile and say "cheese." Emily Anne wrote about when Benny requested a small skinny tail for his stuffed animal so that he could pull it. On the onion students were to write about what was sweet or tearful in the book. Emily Anne described the scene where the children met their grandfather and found that he was kind and not mean, as they had feared. Emily Anne explained what she liked about the author's style on the bottom slice of bread; she enjoyed the action and the way the siblings took care of one another.
She will have a reading comprehension test on The Boxcar Children on Monday at Co-op.

Beginning IEW: Homework for Beginning IEW including reading a short passage about gardening, choosing three words per sentence, reworking those three words into new sentences, and coming up with a summary of the passage. In addition, she added the dress-up of using hundred-dollar words to replace one-dollar words.

We're looking forward to more exciting learning experiences next week. . . and to better health!

2010-2011 School Year

2010-09-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

So, I can finally catch my breath and try to update our year so far. Will is in 4K, and Emily Anne is in second grade. We all go to the Hartsville Home Educators Co-op on Mondays, where Will participates in preschool classes and Emily Anne is taking Beginning IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing), Earth Science, a class on the book series The Boxcar Children, and Art. I teach an Advanced Grammar course for high-school students.

The other four days of the week Will attends 4K preschool at a local church (EA also attended 3K & 4kK preschool). EA and I delve into her subjects after dropping Will off and are often continuing them after lunch from about 1 to 2. Here are her subjects this year.

Bible: We are still reading through (3rd year now) The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos. Emily Anne and I have learned so much by going through the Bible from beginning to end. We are in the New Testament now and will be finishing this study soon. I plan to then go on to a Biblical Character study using Doorpost's For Instruction in Righteousness. I'd like to see an emphasis on application in our daily lives and also some practice in looking up Bible verses. Emily Anne is also participating in Joy4U choir at church and has a Bible verse to memorize each week for that program.

Earth Science/Astronomy: Emily Anne is taking an Earth Science course at Co-op, and we are supplementing those classroom activities with additional reading from the library and The First Encyclopedia of Our World. We just finished studying the earth's interior (core, mantle, crust), and her dad helped her complete her homework assignment of creating an edible model of the earth! They used a red, chewy Dots candy for the core and positioned it inside a marshmallow mantle. The whole thing was dipped in melted chocolate chips and cooled for the earth's crust. We are currently studying rocks and minerals and are reading the Magic School Bus chapter book Rocky Road Trip.

Handwriting: We are attempting cursive writing this school year and are using Zaner-Bloser's Handwriting 2C. So far this program has been reviewing proper formation of manuscript letters, and I've been pleased with how conscientious she has been about making sure that she is forming the letters correctly.

History: History is Emily Anne's favorite subject, and we are continuing to use Susan Wise Bauer's wonderful The Story of the World. After studying Vol. I, The Ancient World last year, we are studying Vol. II, The Medieval Ages. We have covered a review of the fall of the Roman Empire, The Early Days of Britain, Christianity Comes to Britain, and The Byzantine Empire. For each section of each chapter, I read aloud the information from the text, and then Emily Anne orally answers some questions and then tells the information back to me (narration). We alternate her writing the narration and my writing the narration. I am determined to add more of the great hands-on projects this year. During the chapter on The Early Days of Britain, we made Celtic battle-axes and a dragon brooch for Emily Anne's cloak. I couldn't find the blue face-paint (left over from old Halloween costumes) so that they could draw the blue spirals that Celtic warriors drew on their faces to terrify their enemies. The red hair was pretty authentic, though.

Their battle faces are scary, arent' they?

This week we studied the Byzantine Empire. Along with the text chapters on Constantinople, The Just Empreror Justinian, the Empress Theodora, and the Eastern Church, Emily Anne has been reading aloud to me a biography on Theodora, Who in the World was the Acrobatic Empress? She has loved this book, and I wish there were more than four books in the series.

This picture shows Emily Anne coloring in the borders of the Byzantine Empire on her map for this chapter.

Will is showing off his Justinian and Theodora paper dolls modeling the soldier's uniform and wool spinner's clothing before they became Emperor & Empress of the Byzantine Empire. Will loves any kind of hands-on project that has to do with soldiers!

Emily Anne's version of Justinian & Theodora shows off their royal clothing.

While waiting for Emily Anne to finish coloring her dolls, Will built this Byzantine palace. Do you see the red and blue thrones in the top of the palace?

Justinian and Theodora are ensconced on their thrones after their coronation!

I am continuing to read Augustine Came to Kent, which we began in the chapter on Christianity Comes to Britain.

Language Arts: We are continuing are work in the second half of First Language Lessons. Most of these lessons are oral, and it is a great fit for Emily Anne, who is really great at memorization. She can rattle off the definition of a noun, the definition of a verb, and chant the list of being verbs and helping verbs. We are currently working on commas in a series and abbreviations for titles of respect. In addition to these lessons, we are continuing to memorize poetry. Her Beginning IEW class has a list of poems for memorization. We have memorized so far: "Ooey Gooey," "The Owl & the Pussycat," "The Swing," and "Persevere." Some of the poems on the list we learned last year, so I may be supplementing some poetry (I'd love her to learn "The Duel" about the gingham dog and the calico cat!).

Literature: I am trying to provide a variety of literature for Emily Anne. I have tied some of our literature to History. As I mentioned before, I have been reading aloud Augustine Came to Kent, which would be way above her reading level, but supplies some detail to augment our study of history, as well as introduces her to vocabulary and sentence structure. I am trying to find biographies and nonfiction for her to read aloud (so that I can help with unfamiliar names and places and to help with her reading fluency) that tie into our history, too. In addition, she is reading chapters in the Boxcar Children books on her own. She has had a vocabulary test in her co-op class and will have a comprehension test in the next co-op class. She will also have a creative project due the next class. We'll be deciding on a project and completing it next week. Before bedtime we have read aloud a biography of Betsy Ross and are currently reading Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes.

Math: We are using Saxon Math 3 this year. We are still in the section that reviews concepts from last year, so Emily Anne is doing great. She still panics when I pull out the timer for the drill worksheets, so lately I have been just timing her without her knowing it. She does great and finishes within the time frame as long as she doesn't feel pressured by the timer running down.

Spelling: This subject Emily Anne does pretty much on her own. She has such a good memory that she doesn't have much trouble with spelling. We are using Spelling Workout B, though, to solidify those phonics rules into spelling rules. This week she studied spellings for words with long-i sounds.

Writing: We are using Writing with Ease 2 by Susan Wise Bauer this year to help with narration, summarizing, copywork, and dictation. I love how it provides excerpts from classic literature to use with narration. In addition, Emily Anne is taking Beginning IEW at co-op. She is practicing outlining short passages in this class. Emily Anne loves writing and often writes stories on her own time. Emily Anne has also been writing three thank-you notes each day this week for presents she received at her Tea Party that you can read about here.

Well, now that this week is over, it's time to start planning next week. When is my planning period?

Controlling the Clutter

2008-08-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today's Heart of the Matter meme asks us for ideas of how we deal with clutter.

If my sister reads the title of this post, I know that she will simply laugh and laugh. She is an organizational diva, and, you see, I am clutter challenged. Once in our childhoods I paid her to clean my room. I have forgotten what I paid her, but I do remember that she said that it wasn't enough (and, of course, it wasn't).

In spite of my innate messiness, however, I have found a tip or two that has helped to corral the clutter, paper clutter, at least.

In my years of teaching and now my first as a home educator, I have found that notebooks are wonderful! I used notebooks to organize papers for each course back when I was teaching, and I have naturally gravitated toward them as we begin our homeschool journey. I love that you can customize the covers and spines, create your own organizational system within and so easily pull out and put back papers (especially with those handy page protectors!). Right now we have three big notebooks at our house.

Within the Harris Home Planner are various sections to help organize our life and home. This notebook contains my calendar, printed out from Outlook in weekly format for several months at a time. Also included from Outlook is a printout from our Contacts, which is our address book. There is a section for our monthly budget, which my husband wishes I would be a little more diligent about updating. I've included a grocery checklist and space for menu planning. The biggest help in clutter control, however, are a collection of page protectors at the back of this notebook where I can stick those flyers with information that I need to save and that would otherwise stick on my fridge for so long that I would get so used to seeing them that I would overlook whatever they were about!

The next notebook is the Seven Pillars Academy notebook. This notebook has dividers for each subject that we study, as well as a section for our homeschool co-op information. I have printed out the lesson plans that I keep on HomeSchool Tracker, but you could cut down on papers even more by not printing them out.

The final notebook that we use is Emily Anne's notebook. I resisted the temptation to create a cute cover for it and let her color her own. We have this notebook divided by subjects, too, and each completed worksheet or page goes in it.

For a review of a book on clutter, Nancy Twigg's From Clutter to Clarity, visit my other blog, Busy at Home.

Inaugural Post

2008-08-28T03:40:00.000-07:00

This post is the first one on the new blog designated for our homeschooling experiences. Busy at Home is my other blog, which was a conglomeration of homekeeping, home decor, spiritual posts, and homeschooling. I am testing out a new blog to see if I can keep up with two separate ones.

We have just begun our homeschooling experience, and I am leaning toward a Classical Approach, having read The Well-Trained Mind and loving it. So far it's going well, although I wish that I had put a little more thought into planning and goal-setting for Will.

I will eventually set up a sidebar with the children's pictures and curricula.