Friday, August 24, 2012

Weekly Wrap-up: We Love Spelling!

See this?


It's a handful of homemade cards each written in crayon on half an index card, a paper bag, and a cheap timer from the dollar store.

Know what it is?

Would you guess an awesome spelling game that Toa of Boy asked to play twice?

The game, called Rotten Egg, came from this book...

Which is a part of this Logic of English curriculum...

which is a combined spelling/grammar/handwriting program. Which we are loving!

(The nerf guns didn't come with the curriculum. We had to purchase those separately....but we are using them with the curriculum!)

If you're curious, the book is divided into 40 lessons, each with three parts. We generally do one lesson part a day. (Or at least that's the goal.)

The first part of each lesson introduces three new phonemes with all their sounds. Did you know "ea" is used to spell three sounds? There are some nice speech and sound exploration exercises. We spend a bit more time than other families might on the speech component, since there are still come sounds Toa struggles to produce clearly. The teacher guide has really neat tips on being aware of tongue placement in the mouth and what exactly the mouth is doing to form the different sounds. I know many parents might not need this info, but it's been gold for us!

Also included in the first section is the introduction of at least spelling rule....which I swear is NOT the same useless, more exceptions than regular spellings, type rules I remember from school! First, their is a section in the workbook of words that follow the rule. The student reads the words and tries to deduce what they might have in common. There are some teacher prompts to guide them through this process. THEN, after they have pretty much figured out the rule for themselves, then they are given the rule. The rule for the lesson we are currently working on says, "We often double F, L, and S after a single vowel at the end of a base word. Occasionally other letters are also doubled."

Now, at first, that seems not so useful. It doesn't have a catchy little rhyme for one thing. But, after having been LIED to all my life with 'rules' such as, "When two vowels go a-walking, the first one does the talking, and it says its name," I'll take honesty over inane jingles any day.

The second part of the lesson is the introduction of the 15 word spelling list. It's pretty sweet and straightforward. We like short and sweet. Each spelling word has a brief list of related vocabulary words which we read aloud, discuss, and sometimes act out. (Cliff, with cliffs and cliffhanger, was part of this lesson's list. You know those had to be acted out. It was practically a boy mandate.)


The third part of the lesson has grammar, dictation, and a brief composition exercise.

And of course, fun, fast past game options and other review options are included in each portion of each lesson.

That's it! No useless, repetitive worksheets. No mindless busy work.

Last week, we did a review and assessment over the first four lessons. That's 60 words. Want to know how many Toa marked for review? Four. And, get this, he *voluntarily* marked those four words for review. We didn't sit down and give him a 60 word spelling test. He might have ran away and joined the circus if I tried that. We just did a brief dictation exercise of 15 short two or three word phrases that very cleverly and sneakily happened to use almost every spelling word once. He had NO problems with the dictation exercise. The few misspellings he made as he was writing, he noticed on his own and self corrected. (Ok, with the exception of that sneaky 'ea' in 'clean'. That one needed pointed out to him.)

But, when presented with a list of the sixty spelling words, he was able to read the list and self-identify the words he had trouble with. How many 9 year olds are given the opportunity to do that?

Oh, and we practiced those 4 words the next day by laying side by side on our backs on the living room floor, crossing one leg over one knee so that one foot was suspended in the air and then sky-writing the word with our toes. 

Source: http://www.sxc.hu/

Check out what others are doing this week on Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!


Sunday, August 19, 2012

Random Thoughts on a Sunday

(Brilliant title I know.)

--"Where is my chipmunk?" is a perfectly normal question on a Sunday morning in my house.

--I spent the Sunday school hour playing with play-dough.

--Preschool conversation:
Teacher: "I need you to be a person and stop running."
Child: "Can I please be a dragon?"
Teacher: "Ok, you can be a dragon, but you can't go flying around the room like that. It's not a safe way to play."

--I spent the last fifteen minutes of church time being a shark on the playground. The equipment was a ship you see, and a little boy was walking the plank. Walking the plank is just no fun unless there is a shark in the water.

--Unsoftened cream cheese is stronger than the motor on my handheld mixer.

--Sunday afternoon naps are wonderful.

--I have the best husband in the world.

--When I have the Willy Wanka theme song stuck in my head, it can get unstuck by a loving family member playing a youtube Abba video.

--Manwich over homemade mac n cheese is pretty good.

--I don't eat nearly enough vegetables.


--Facebook Timeline stinks. I didn't want it. I don't like it. And I can't do anything about it.

--No, I'm not boycotting Facebook over it. Let's not talk crazy.


Weekly Wrap-Up: Going for the Gold

I missed my opportunity to link this to the weekly wrap up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, but I'm going to blog about it anyway. Go me!

 (After I had my post written, it got delayed in actually being published to my blog because I don't know how to get photos from the camera to the computer. So, this post is now written about events that took place two and three weeks ago. Don't be confused about the first sentence. We aren't STILL watching the Olympics.)

The last two weeks of school can be summed up in a question Toa of Boy asked. "Mommy," he said, "why did you make us start school early if we were just going to stop and watch Olympics?"

Good question. It has a perfectly reasonable answer. Poor planning.

Moving on....here's what we DID do.

I printed out a metal tracker worksheet from education.com.  I had to sign up to have access to the worksheet, but it was a pretty painless sign up process. Toa of Boy and Sweetling were both really excited about it!

We watched the opening ceremonies together. During the parade of nations, each of the kids had an inflatable globe. They raced to find the nation marching in before the next nation was announced. Nice geography lesson!

Each day, we checked on which events had awarded metals and wrote down which country got the gold, silver, and bronze for that event. This was a nice daily spelling lesson for Toa of Boy. And, since the webpage only showed the flag of each country who had medalled, Sweetling got to impress us all with her flag recognition skills. (Hovering the computer cursor over the flag brought up the athlete's name and the country's three letter Olympic abbreviation.)

We recorded the events every day, all twelve or so hours. Then I'd fast forward through most of it, and we'd watch a few things that were of interest....spots about London, stories of athletes, a sampling of the different events.

And of course, despite Toa of Boy's claim, we did do some regular school....just not nearly as much. We managed to squeeze in a couple of lessons for each child each day. (Except the days after the women's team and women's all-around gymnastic finals. No school happened those days. Only gymnastics viewing did.)

Check out the cool cell diagram Toa of Boy made out of wikisticks--

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Toa of Boy's Portfolio 2012-2013

Language:

Toa of Boy aquired an astonishing understanding of the grammar of the English language this year. I'm so proud of him. Last year, his crowning achievement was to overcome his awkwardness about lingering speech differences and to become comfortable verbally expressing his thoughts in complete sentences, especially in settings outside the family. He achieved that goal, and this year, I thought we might do some remedial work in basic sentence structure. He blew past what I thought was a good goal for him and went on to master grammar to a level many 6th grade students would do well to achieve. Not only did he learn the eight parts of speech, he became an expert at doing four level sentence analysis--first identifying the part of speech of each word of the sentence; second identifying the subject, the verb (linking or action), the subject compliment, direct object, or indirect object; third identifying prepositional phrases; and lastly identifying clauses. Beyond just a academic exercise, we engaged in many discussions about how this knowledge was applied in how we spoke, in the texts of books we read, and in other contexts as it became relevant.

I include typical examples of his written book work, though I feel it was the intangible ongoing discussions that provided the most evidence of his incorporation of his new knowledge. (Click on any image to display a larger version.)

This is a page of simple pronoun identification at the beginning of his Michael Clay Thompson grammar book---

And this is the post test at the end of his grammar book--


A sample of a very basic sentence analysis when he was first learning the skill--

And a more complex sentence (parts of speech identified on the first line, use in the sentence on the second, prepositional phrases on the third line, and clauses on the fourth)--

Bible: 

At church, Toa of Boy moved on the the next level of the Awana program this year and completed the first book of the Truth and Training Series. This involved memorization and recitation of longer Scripture passages as well as a few additional assignments, such as making a poster or writing a letter to a missionary. At the end of the year, he received a ribbon for the successful completion of the Truth and Training Level One. 

At home, Toa worked on a study of the first half of the Old Testament. We read a section of the Bible together daily, and then Toa completed an exercise in a workbook originally marketed for sixth grade.

A typical lesson in Genesis--

And a typical lesson from 2 Kings--

Vocabulary and Spelling:

This year, we continued to work through the Sequential Spelling program. I include two samples of his work, one from the beginning of the year and one from the end of the year. But again, I feel like his biggest accomplishment was not as easily quantifiable. First it was outside of the spelling lesson, in his own initiative to seek help in spelling a word as he was writing for fun. At the beginning of the year, we would work through the process of spelling an unfamiliar word together. Towards the end of the year, he would ask how to spell a word. I would, in turn, ask him how he thought the word might be spelled. More often than not he could puzzle it out on his own, with minimal direction or assistance. I find that to be a more satisfactory benchmark than the two sample pages included here.

For vocabulary, we studied Michael Clay Thompson's Building Language, which introduced basic Latin roots and some common words which stem from those roots.

Writing:

This year, Toa of Boy really wanted to pursue independent creative writing. I let him run with that goal, and he produced page after page of his own 'chapters' in a story. While his writing still needs proof-reading and editing, for us, the achievement of this year was for writing to move from a school subject I was mandating, to something Toa was excited to engage in. Despite the errors in spelling and grammar, his stories had a clear framework with a sequential plot, a conflict, a protagonist, an antagonist, and a clear resolution at the end.

Reading:

Toa of Boy continued to develop as an independent reader this year. Not only did he check out and read many library books on his own, but we took time daily for a shared reading time. During this time we read more challenging chapter books together, taking turns reading sections aloud and discussing the story and characters as we read. Titles that we read in this manner included The Monster in the Third Dresser Drawer, James and the Giant Peach, How to Eat Fried Worms, and The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

Each week, he recorded the book he had been reading and a few sentences about his book in a literature journal.

This is his first journal entry of the year--

and one from later in the year--


Math:

We skipped third grade math and moved immediately into a fourth grade math textbook this year. It was a decision that worked really well for us. Toa of Boy does not do well with the 'spiraling' approach of some curriculum. While he, like everyone, needs some review from time to time, lessons that begin each day with nothing but review immediately lose his interest. However, when he is immediately given something new and challenging, he is excited and motivated and applies himself to master it. This year, we worked most of the way through a 4th grade math text. We took extra time in the middle of the year to learn and practice multiplication facts which were new to him. To do this, we suspended our regular lessons for a few weeks and spent extra time with manipulatives, flashcards, and games. From there we moved on to multiplication of two digit numbers by a single digit and then multiplication of two two-digit numbers. We covered short division and long division, both new concepts for Toa, and did some geometry, including finding area and perimeter. We ended the year with an introduction to fractions.

Chapter 2 Review--

Adding unlike fractions--


History:

This year was Toa of Boy's first exposure to a formal study of American History. At co-op, he took a class titled "Native Americans and Pioneers". The class completed lessons and hands on projects on the different Native American people groups, the exploration and colonial period, and the Westward Expansion. At home, we covered from the late 1800s through to the beginning of WW2. We used the PBS series America: The Story of US and the Time Traveler series from Homeschool in the Woods to provide the frame for our study. We supplemented these resources with many library books, hands on-projects, and field trips.

One of our favorite units for the year was a study about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. We read You Wouldn't Want to Work on the Brooklyn Bridge and we did projects and activities out of Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build, and Test. We took a field trip down to the Purple People Bridge and viewed the Roebling Suspension Bridge. Finally, Toa built his own popsicle stick trestle bridge. 

Throughout the year, Toa completed an extensive timeline of the major people and events we were studying.
At the end of each shorter unit, he put together a small project for inclusion in a large lap book.

Science:

Although we started out the year with Education Exploration, it quickly became evident that the Elementary level (billed for K-3) was too basic for him. So we ditched that curriculum and moved on to Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy. This was a perfect match. We liked reading the text itself together, but Toa especially loved the hands-on learning projects--

from using a magnifying glass to study the heat and strength of the sun's rays--

to dropping rocks to make craters in a pan of flour dusted over with cocoa.

It was a great way to learn about our solar system.

Music:

This year, Toa of Boy participated in two children's musicals through our church. He formed part of the choir for the Christmas musical and during the spring musical, he had a minor speaking part. That was a huge step forward in confidence and speaking clarity for him!

Art:

Toa continued to hone his skills as a budding young artist. We used many wonderful art lessons from Deep Space Sparkle to guide our home art curriculum.

Two of my favorites were a Statue of Liberty drawing and watercolor---

and a winter cardinal project (which first involved taking a walk around the neighborhood together to take turns photographing bare tree branches silhouetted against the sky)

and then painting our own cardinals against a background of sky and branches.


Physical Education:

Toa continued in his physical education class at co-op and also in his twice weekly Tae Kwon Do lessons. This year, Toa tested for and advanced two belt levels and is currently a high blue belt, a step more than halfway between a beginner and a black belt.


Sweetling's Portfolio 2011-2012

Writing:

 In keeping with her own goal of becoming a professional writer, this year Sweetling made an in-depth exploration of the genre of script and screen writing. She pursued three main facets of research and learning. First, throughout the year she read many trade books about writing in the film and television industries, including Small Screen, Big Picture and The Essentials of Screenwriting, to name a few examples. Second, she attended several workshops about professional and fan writing at a few different conventions. These included “Characterization , “Writing a Winning Script”, and “How To Write Good Fanfiction”. Lastly, she experimented with her own fan fiction, screen writing, and story boarding for animation. 

Here are a few examples of her work in those genres.

Screenwriting:


INT. ARCENAUX RESIDENCE- CLAUDE'S BEDROOM
                                                           
MRS. ARCENAUX and MR. ARCENAUX are comforting a crying YOUNG CLAUDE ARCENAUX (7YO girl). In Claude's room there are numerous pictures, drawn by her, of a brown-haired girl with a braided ponytail wearing a red sports jersey and navy blue sweatpants. Young Claude has a plush version of this girl that she is holding.
                                               
MRS. ARCENAUX
Oh, don't cry, Claude. There's nothing to be afraid of!
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
I don't want to go to the hospital!
                                               
MR. ARCENAUX
It's not so bad, Claude! Papa had to do the same thing when he was a kid. And, look! I'm perfectly fine!
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
Well, of course you'd say that, Papa! You just want to cheer me up! Have you ever thought that maybe I don't want to go to a gastoeterogoli-
                                               
MRS. ARCENAUX
Gastroenterologist.
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
Yeah! That!
                                               
MR. ARCENAUX
Oftentimes in life, we have to do things we don't want to do, either. But you gotta keep trucking on, like-
                                               
Young Claude holds up her plush girl.
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
Like Kumi?
                                               
MR. ARCENAUX
Yes! Like Kumi!
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
Kumi never gives up! Right, Maman?
                                               
MRS. ARCENAUX
She never, ever, gives up.
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
Even when bad things happen, she's never sad! She's patient and waits for things to get better! Right, Maman?
                                               
MRS. ARCENAUX
She's never, ever sad.
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
And she's always so calm and gentle! Right, Maman?
                                               
MRS. ARCENAUX
She is always, always calm and gentle.
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
When I grow up, I'm going to be just like Kumi!
                                               
MR. ARCENAUX
She is a good role-model.
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
Papa, was Raincloud Restaurant on when you and Maman were kids?
                                               
MR. ARCENAUX
Yes, but I don't think it was popular until we were teenagers.
                                               
MRS. ARCENAUX
I remember watching it with my little sister, Aunt Zoé, when I was in high school. She was only three years old!
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
Do you think it'll still be on when I grow up?
                                               
MR. ARCENAUX
That wouldn't be unlikely.
                                               
YOUNG CLAUDE
When I grow up, I'm going to become a voice actress and play Kumi! But not in Japan, even though it’s made there- here, in Quebec! You think I'll be able to do that?
                                               
MRS. ARCENAUX
I think so, Claude.

Prose Fiction---

“Hey, Matt! Anyone home? I’m talking to you, buddy!”

It was a cold Monday morning. I was lugging myself to school, with Jason by my side, who spent the last 5 minutes trying to get me to discuss what happened to me over Christmas.

“Jason?”
“Yes, Matt?”
“It was embarrassing, so shut up.”

Before anyone asks, it involved shrimp. That’s all I’m sharing.

“So, Widdwe Mattie doesn’t feel like talking?”
“Jasooon…..”
“Hey, hey, I’m just saying, you mentioning how embarrassing it is makes me want to know more!”
“Jason, I swear, I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER-“

“Hey, Matt!” an all-too familiar female voice cried out. “I see you’ve gotten the smell of shrimp off your body!”

I looked over and saw Sophia, the president of the Sci-Fi Fan Club that I was in, and the other three members, Mia, James, and Lily.

Of course, Sophia would share it without a second thought.

“Oh!” Jason cried. “So you know what happened!”

“Yes.” Lily said in her usual stoic manner. “On December 24th, the Science Fiction Fan Club hosted a Christmas Eve party for members and friends.”

“Don’t go any farther!” I cried out. “It’s embarrassing enough that you guys know!”

“Matt, what’s the harm in telling your friend?” James piped up.

“Yeah!” Sophia exclaimed.

Lily turned towards Sophia and James. “Matthew has requested that we keep the story a secret. It would only be polite to honor his request.”

“Lily, as Club President, I feel I have the right to share a funny story! Now, last month, after the school festival, Mia mentioned that she hated the smell of rotten fish-”

“Cut it out!’

“-but that she loves the taste of shrimp! So, I thought, ‘hey, let’s have shrimp at our Christmas Eve party!’ So I bought some shrimp-”

“Sophia Hall,” Lily interrupted,  “Please stop.”

“And I put it in our fridge at home, but what I didn’t know was that it was broken-”

At this I grabbed Sophia and covered her mouth.


Literature:

Our goal for Sweetling for these year was to continue to develop the diversity of genres of quality books she was reading. Using ideas from The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller, we set a target goal of reading 40 books, with at least 2 books from 10 different genres. Some of the titles and genres Sweetling read included Azumanga Daioh, volumes 3 and 4 (realistic fiction), The Adoration Of Jenna Fox (science fiction), and Can I See Your ID? (informational)

Each week, Sweetling recorded her responses and reactions to her reading in a literature log. Because of her interest in pursuing writing, each of her entries focuses at least in part on the craft the author employed. Here are two samples of her work:

From 8/12:
The book Life As We Knew It chronicles the tales of a girl named Miranda during an event widely believed to be the begging of the apocalypse. In the story, a meteorite hits The Moon, pushing it closer to Earth. This causes the tides to have an even greater influence of civilization, and many are killed. The book focuses on Miranda’s relationship with her mom and her friends, as well as her ability to cope with these harsh events.

The book itself is presented in the form of the protagonist’s diary. It’s very well written and well thought out, and although I disagree with many of the mother’s actions (e.g., she interprets Miranda’s acts of kindness towards her boyfriend, Dan, such as sharing food, as clues that Miranda is sleeping with him, while the mother extends similar acts of good will towards her boyfriend.), this is most likely intentional on the author’s part, as it gives us another reason to sympathize with Miranda. I highly recommend this book.
 From 1/6:
  Spray is an action book by Harry Edge. The premise is that there is a game being played between numerous people to see who can “kill” the most people using their water gun. However, you can only spray someone who is on your target card, and when you spray someone, you get their target card. The story is about three kids trying to win the game.

This story is not very well written. Following the three kids gets confusing, and naration (sic) is bland.
Spanish:

 During the first day of co-op, Sweetling asked and received permission from the instructor to sit in on a 9am Spanish 2 class. Though Sweetling had not taken Spanish 1, she had independently worked through the Intermediate Level of Power Glide Spanish. Sweetling took notes during class and reviewed and practiced them through the week. The following week, Sweetling asked if she could take the quiz being given to the rest of the class. She was given the quiz, and, after scoring the highest in the class, was offered the chance to enroll as a formal student in the Spanish 2 class. Throughout the year, she was given extra vocab and extra practice sheets to cover any material she might have been lacking by passing over Spanish 1. Also through the year, she simultaneously was enrolled in the middle school Basic Spanish class for the extra vocabulary review and practice. She went on to receive an A for both semesters in her Spanish 2 class and concluded the year with reading a graphic novel adaptation, in Spanish, of Don Quixote. This course will count as high school credit on her transcript.

Geometry:

Sweetling worked through a high school text of Geometry this year. This course will count as high school credit on her transcript. I was especially impressed with her perception, since the text itself was in its first year of print, and Sweetling found several misprints and errors which she emailed the author about. She was able to grasp and master many advanced and difficult concepts, and next year will be moving on to Algebra 2. (Click on the images to display a larger photo.)

Some work from the start of the year...



And some from the end of the year....

 

History, Geography, and Government:

This year, Sweetling conducted an in-depth study on the Industrial Revolution, the turn of the century, The Progressive Movement, World War 1, and The Great Depression. She read Joy Hakim's A History of US, volumes 7, 8, and 9 as her 'spine' books. She supplemented that reading with several documentaries through PBS and the History Channel as well as with historical fictions set in the times. Through the school year, she researched major events and complied an ongoing newspaper with brief articles of the major happenings. Additionally, she was required to research and engage in oral discussions of a few 'controversial' topics with her father, who is quite the history and political buff.

Two pages of her newspaper:

First page:

Page 11--

Science:

This year, Sweetling completed a science curriculum through Education Exploration. It was a physical science curriculum, with an emphasis on practical application of the principles. Though, by her own admission, the concepts covered in the course were not new to her, the application of those principles through construction of projects was a new experience for her.

Her battery powered car:


And her huge balsa wing glider. (I'm showing the picture we have of the glider under construction since I took that photo with a yardstick beside it for scale.):


Music:

Sweetling played the part of a significant character in three separate musicals this year. Two of those musicals were part of a year long Music and Drama class she participated in at co-op. Though she has participated as a choir member in a couple church children's musicals when she was younger, this year was her first opportunity to truly act and sing on stage.  (Picture of one of her musicals follows in the art section.)

Art:

Sweetling developed her skill in a unique manga style art. She utilized a lot of instructional books from the library and studied some work of other manga artists she enjoys.




Her design for a poster safety contest won an award:


Also this year, Sweetling has really delved into the realm of costume design and sewing.

Using an instructional video she found on you-tube, she made her own Haruhi Susamiya costume for a cosplay at the downtown library.


For an anime convention she attended in Columbus, she made another costume, learning to sew from a pattern for the first time.


Without a pattern or instruction, she designed and sewed her own Ferb costume and Ferb wig for Halloween.


 And then she went on to design and sew a 9" plush Ferb doll.



And, in one of the two Christmas musicals she was in, she helped design and sew the four costumes for the Christmas 'stars'.


Physical Education:

While Sweetling has accomplished a lot throughout the school year, I think I'm proudest of her for obtaining her black belt in Tae Kwon Do.  A lot of the components of Tae Kwon Do don't come easily to her, and she really has to practice and train hard to accomplish what she does. To prepare for her black belt test, she went to the dojo 4 days a week for many weeks. She practiced every day at home with additional conditioning exercises. She worked with the Jedi regularly outside of class on her board breaking, because that was something that she has struggled with in the past. On the day of her test, she was the only student in the group of junior black belts who broke every single board on the first try.