May Lesson Plan Goals

I realized this evening (April 30th) that I hadn't really sat down with Lesson Plan Goals for a while. So here goes.

Nathan:
Reading/ Phonics: ABeCeDarian B-1 Unit 2 -4
Math: Touch Math Module C
Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears, finish the book?
Bible: Weekly Bible Lesson reading and marking Golden Text and Responsive Readings, also marking 2 citations for Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
History: Babylon and the Bible : Esther through Daniel
Science: Garden
Art: See the Light chalk art project and watercolor mixed media project

Most of Nathan's goals come from review Crew products. I will also leave room for his Montessori work on fractions. I need to finish his 3 part cards on plants and history cards on Babylon.

Cameron:
Reading: Continue reading Phantom Tollbooth with Daddy
Math: Math Mammoth Green Series plus some A+ Tutorsoft or Math-u-See
Computer Science: Continue work on HTML with blog page Goal
History: Battles of the Bible Notebook from Hands of a Child with Story of the World Volume 1 reading to coordinate
Art: See the Light chalk art, and mixed media plus creative lettering project (possible cover for above Notebook)
Bible: Weekly Bible Lesson with questions from Auntie and continue reading "A Proving Ground" with coordinating verses
Penmanship: Copywork from Bible Lesson

Again, a lot of this is Crew products, but also stuff we had put on hold and need to get back to. Since co-op is almost over for the year, we will have more school time at home to catch up and get back on track before July rolls around and Mommy is gone for 2 weeks.
So this will be what is on tap four days a week for the next month. 3 of the Wednesdays we have co-op and them we will finish the month off with 5 days a week to get caught up. (I don't expect them to do every subject every day).

Hopefully we can keep calm and carry on as the saying goes.

Thinking about college at an early age with College Common Sense

My boys are only 7 and 10 so the idea of college isn't a focus yet, although we have talked about it some, it seems so far off. That's what I thought until I started watching videos and reading the lessons of  College Common Sense. The program is designed with late elementary, middle school, and high school activities so no matter where your children fall in there will be something they can learn from the program
Honestly as I watched the videos and read the lesson plans as part of Going to College and Paying for it Online Video and Workbook and the free online Lesson Plans, I see benefits to the program as the boys get older. Cameron is 10 so he is only 6-8 years away from college and who knows what programs will be available for him then, starting to keep track of things he does and possible scholarship opportunities. The investment of $50 for the program is just that an investment in your child's future education, especially if college is on the horizon.
Do terms like FAFSA, Grants, and Scholarship make sense to you or do they terrify you? If you aren't sure what these terms mean or what to make out of them, this program will help you and your children.
My boys are working on their 'about me' books and are keeping a binder to add activities and scholarship opportunities to as they grow and get closer to college age. They have even asked about College Savings Plans, which to me shows that they are listening and picking up bits and pieces. While neither one of them are looking forward to 4 more years or more after high school, they both see value in learning and understanding what is ahead.
I hope to instill a love of learning in my boys and giving them a glimpse of what is ahead can help.

Click to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew

Lesson plans made easy

I have found a great way to lesson plan during the holiday season and really any season.

Yes it is that simple.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a Dailies section that has a little of everything. Currently I use Spelling and Grammar daily, the  Daily Math twice a week, Daily Writing at least once a week, and This Day in History a few times a week. I also pull our History and Science from SchoolhouseTeachers.com.

I use The Old Schoolhouse Planner which is a benefit of SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Currently I am using the 2 Child Weekly Schedule for the boys, but am considering going to the 3 child version and including Mommy's Blogging, devotionals, reviews, etc.. so it is all on one page. 

I love that I can print what I need and fill their folders easily. The Planner pages can be printed  or saved as a separate file  to save paper.

I can use SchoolhouseTeachers.com as a guide for History lessons from a Classical History Approach.


Since we have fallen a bit behind I have found I am needing a little more in lesson planning and will be adding a subject by subject guided planner and a workbox planner. I am going to make a blank template so I can remember all the pieces I want us to at least have available each week using a combination of Charlotte Mason approach as well as workboxes and foundational including Montessori. I am a very eclectic educator, I can't imagine if I was actually in a classroom what it would be like. 

5 days of Lesson Planning…a month long theme

I love planning lessons around a single theme, this was a lot easier during the preschool/kindergarten years, but it is still possible.

With our year sketched out, I can take it to the next level.

Our main theme for June will be Creation Week through the Great Flood. We will be incorporating art projects, scripture, Bible stories, science,  math, and poetry together. I am an eclectic homeschooler so I use a little of everything, but unit studies seem to work and really make lesson planning a lot more interesting.

For unit studies or monthly themes I like to use a curriculum map with the center point being the theme or topic. I can use it for a whole month or a week either way.

Here is the break down:

I start with the theme  CREATION WEEK

then I pull out the concordance and find all the scripture verses,

next I try to find elements of math that can be worked in as story problems or living math.

Living books other than the Bible or stories within the storybooks we have on hand are listed under reading/ literature.

A subject I will admit weakness in is science so I try to find science related activities, thankfully with the Creation Week through Flood there are enough science topics to incorporate.

Geography is usually pretty easy if the theme is location or history based.

Arts and crafts making it fun for the boys so even if it is just a coloring page. I love doing crafts but have found we can overwhelm a unit with too many crafts so I try and limit it to no more than 2 a week‘

Don’t forget to  check out the rest of the crew’s 5 days series, click on the picture above to see them all.

Tomorrow lets look at a weekly lesson plan. See you then.

5 days of Lesson Planning: A Year Ahead

This is the time of year we start planning for next year. For us, we homeschool year round, but I tend to really start planning ahead in early May so I know what to look for at curriculum sales.
Several years ago I saw a you tube video where a homeschooler used a large piece of paper folded just right to plan goals for the year.
I am taking a modified approach to that I would love to share Planning a Year Ahead.

I started with a large sheet of paper (16x24 approximately). I folded it length wise four times and then into thirds to create 12 boxes. I labeled each box with the months of the school year starting with June.

Once all the boxes are labeled I start adding in the plans for each month in pencil.

I list math goals (4 lessons in the month of June), our history/geography theme, and reading plan (summer reading program)

For July I listed the 2 History based units we will focus on along with an idea for a month of Math review and our summer reading program.

For August I have some fun crafts and activities planned so I listed those in their subjects.

I am continuing to fill in the chart for the coming year as we finish up this year and reflect on what has worked and not worked.  I am writing everything in pencil and using  post-it notes for thoughts and curriculum questions I have ahead.

The next step is to break down the units.Watch for tomorrow’s post about lesson planning and unit studies.

 

Tools to knowing and learning History #blogboost

History isn’t a huge thing  for us, but we do have some things we love to help with History.
1. Hands of a Child Lapbooks and Notepacks.  We have used several History Lapbooks as well as our current project the Summary of Modern U.S. History Notepack.
2. Creek Edge Press cards. We are using the Geography and Culture program program currently and will be ordering the Ancient History cards for next year. I love the command cards that fit into Montessori style environment.
3. CurrClick teachable moments monthly calendar. We usually get an email near the end of the month for the next month. It is always full of unique facts that we can use to add some fun to our history lessons.
4. TruthQuest History, a wonderful tool to help with lesson planning , selecting books and movies, and lessons surrounding history and what we need to know.
5. The Bible, we are planning next year’s history program based on The Bible and Ancient History. I want the boys to have a strong foundation and understanding of History from a biblical perspective.
6. The flexibility of homeschooling allows us to also use resources like this day in history and significant anniversary events.
What are your favorite resources for history in your homeschool? Check out what some of my crewmates said HERE

Week 9 of the #homeschool year, what is in store this week?

I haven't done a lesson plan post for a while so I thought I would share what we have in store this week.

Cameron will be working in Time4Learning on his Language Arts, this seems to be a good fit for now.. Last week he actually scored a perfect 40 in one of the sections (he had been scoring 35 out of 40 as he was having the program read passages to him rather than reading them himself).  He will also continue with Math-U-See Foundations unit 13, we are working on multiplication so I will also have him do his math drills in BigIQKids.  On Monday he will have his usual Scripture assigned copywork, this week the verse is: Isaiah 45:22, although I'm not sure if I will have him do the King James version or the Contemporary English Version that is listed in his lesson for the week. I'll have to think about that one.

Nathan's week will play out a little differently as he had a minor crash with Daddy and the riding lawn mower... We will be doing more motor skill activities as a kind of physical therapy to deal with a sore shoulder. He will also be working on Spelling in BigIQKids. and money in  Math-U-See  Introduction. I am also introducing him to a new (to us) phonics and reading series that he seems to be enjoying. Last week we did the first 2 stories in the primer book and he stayed on track so I'm going to keep on moving us through. The first book is" Join the Circle" from Scribner Reading Series  and I have the workbook to go along with it, however we are not writing in the workbook we are just doing the exercises verbally. (I want to pass the set on to a friend when we are done with it)

I am also going to have all 3 of us working on Visual Latin. I worked through the introduction and first unit myself last week as a precursor to introducing it to the boys.

So that covers Monday, Tuesday , and Thursday activities. Wednesday is co-op group so we don't do a lot of school time mostly a quick activity on BigIQKids and Friday Mommy gets to go to Women of Faith in Portland so it will be Daddy School time (in other words, lets play outside in the shop and build stuff)

#Homeschool #Workbox Planning Box

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This is part 2 of my revamp of the workbox system we worked with last year. I have a hanging file folder for each subject : Math, Grammar, Science, History,  and Bible.  Inside each folder is the booklet, master copies, etc.. for the coming weeks  that I need to copy or use for their folders.  I have made notes on their lesson plans so I know what book I need to pull out.   The boxes are small and portable which is nice but also means I still need to store the books for later use.

I hope this will help me stay ahead of what is coming up. I have sorted books and printables into 2 boxes like the one pictured (I would have preferred these to be color coordinated but they were given to me.. I think I will add something green to Nathan's just so I know which box goes with which boy).

One of the things I am most excited about this system is the flexibility. I am only committed to about 3 weeks in the box so if something isn't working I haven't over planned and can adjust things as needed.
I am also using a lot of Avery Note Tabs this year. I can write notes on the clear part and have the tab sticking out of the book. I am also putting lines note post-its on the cover of books that have more than one unit within them. so I know when I am done with 1 unit I can move it to the next file it needs to be in.

Lesson Planning Count Down

So I realized today I have 2 weeks (actually less) until we start back to school... My lesson plans are mapped out as a guide but not finished.
Today I'm lesson planning and doing it here on the blog.

August 1st will be the beginning of the school year for us.
Here is what I have planned:

Cameron:
Monday: Scripture Verse, Math-U-See Review lessons 19/20 in foundations, Animal Classification Review and Notebook set up,  Read Animal Book from Basket and fill out Book Form, Phonics and Grammar (????)

Tuesday: Journal Prompt from 730 Journal Prompts (Two for Every Day of the Year) : August 2nd: "What is your favorite cool drink in the summer? Explain how to make it." , Math-U-See Lesson 20, Animal Activities, Read Animal Book from the basket and fill out Book Form (I'm going to make a themed form if I can't find one is a book), Phonics and Grammer (Primary Concepts Activity Board)

Wednesday: Journal Buddies,  Math-U-See Lesson 20,  Game Day : I Spy Animals, Phonics and Grammar : Primary Concepts Activity Board for review.

Thursday: Journal Prompts: 730 Journal Prompts Aug 4th "Would you rather be a starfish or a seahorse? why?", Math: Elephant game from Linking attribute Elephants,  Animal Notebook page for Elephants, Read an Animal Book from the Basket, Grammar (Montessori Sentence diagrams,)


Nathan:
Monday: Morning Message, Scripture Verse (Copywork), Math-U-See Foundations lesson 13, Introduce K-W-L (still looking for a small science journal),  Harvest unit

Tuesday: Morning Message , Phonics Activity Board, Math-U-See lesson 13, Magnetic word wall activities with word families, Harvest Unit

Wednesday: Morning Message, Math-U-See Lesson 13,  Word Families Readers, Harvest Unit

Thursday: Morning Message, Elephant Math Game with Cameron, Harvest Unit, Word Family Games


There , ok that wasn't so bad... I now have it written down and can start filling the folders.  I picked up a multi-colored file folder pack at Walmart the other day so I could pull the blue and green folders out for the boys. I am keeping the black ones for myself but the turquoise and red will go to Mike for the shop files.