Teaching Littles and Cosmic Yoga

Last week we started doing something different in school. Normally, I spend the morning teaching Asher and Savannah and then when they move on to their Independent Work, I work with Rosalynne and Gabrielle before making lunch. Last week we officially started "Teaching Littles" which all the kids seem to enjoy. Once or twice a week, I let Asher and Savannah pair up with one of their younger sisters and teach things that they have mastered.

This is something entirely new to our homeschool. Asher and Savannah have naturally taught their sisters things, but now they are actively working to teach skills or information. One day Asher might work with Gabrielle on colors and shapes, while Savannah works with Rosalynne on the alphabet and phonics. Then the next time the kids pair up, they switch partners and teach different things. Asher works with Rosalynne while Savannah works with Gabrielle.

Each lesson lasts about thirty minutes and the topic varies. I make sure to include something "hands-on" during the pairings, too. So far, the favorite activity has been a sink/float experiment in the kitchen sink. I also have the "littles" pick two books each lesson. This is nice because reading out loud is not something we practice every day, but it is beneficial for all the kids, and encourages reading across the board.

In the hustle and bustle of family life, it's easy to miss how influential children can be on one another, so this new pairing is truly a delight to see. Asher brings his active personality, going from one activity to another with a selection of sound effects, while Savannah brings her cheerful, singsong personality humming a tune or creating a song as she encourages her sisters.

We have a pretty full day until around lunch, by which time I am typically done "teaching" for the day. Once Asher and Savannah complete their independent work (Teaching textbooks, copywork, worksheets, activities, reading/writing), then the kids spend the day playing together, going outside, and doing crafts or on the fly experiments. With homeschooling, it would be pretty easy to let them have a lot of screen time, so I try to avoid it whenever possible. Normally, that means that I entirely forget our television exists during the week.

Besides incorporating teaching their younger sisters information, we have started incorporating a much more consistent PE "program" into our day. Whenever possible, the kids would play outside for at least thirty minutes to an hour each day. Sometimes the weather is too cold or blustery to warrant that kind of activity, so we would run around the house. Certainly the kids get exercise, but finding activities they can all do has become difficult. Fortunately, Trevor found Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube, and the kids absolutely LOVE it! Asher prefers to do the Darbee Hiit's exercises first thing in the morning, then listens to the story while the girls do Yoga.

I have to say, I am truly enjoying this addition to our day. Jeremiah loves watching his siblings while they exercise (or sometimes he is even still asleep in the cradle), and by the time they have all finished exercising, usually around 7:30, I have breakfast done and ready to plate. Cooking while they are all in the kitchen/dining room can be a difficult and slow process, and this has proven to be an accidental solution to that problem as well as a PE element they all enjoy!

Overview of Materials and Where the Red Fern Grows Unit Study

Hey Everyone! I know, it's been quite a while. We have had a very busy year, and unfortunately, keeping up with the blog fell by the wayside for a time. BUT, hopefully I will be able to get it back up to date....and keep it that way! I have had a LOT of people ask me what we are doing this year for school and how we are doing it, so this post is devoted to briefly talking about the various materials we are using and what we are doing with them.

This year our curriculum is from Timberdoodle, a Christian Homeschool company. They don't sell lesson plans, at least not in the same way that other companies do. They select some pretty fantastic homeschool materials (that come with their own plans) and form them into grade packages. We LOVE Timberdoodle materials, but we have found that depending on how we plan our year, we are doing a LOT more writing and worksheets than the average student. That's not a bad thing, but it is something we will likely change for next year.

For Spelling we've been using a program called Spelling You See. I have noticed progress, but next year we will probably try Sequential Spelling, a program that might fit just a little better with our homeschool. For Geography, which we have just completed, we used Exploring God's World which dealt much less with people of the world and community (like our last few programs) than it did about the Earth itself. We took an in-depth look at Volcanoes, the Atmosphere, Plate Tectonics, Oceans (and currents), and the Earth's Core.

We have been doing intense grammar studies using First Language Lessons for Grade 4. It is a really involved program, and the kids have learned so much more than basic grammar. They are diagramming rather long, elaborate sentences (stuff I didn't learn until college!) and the activities are broken down in such a way that I know the kids are learning the material. They have also been studying poetry, the breakdown of syllables, parts of a sentence, punctuation...pretty soon we will be starting our unit on letter writing, too.

Asher finally convinced Savannah that
Comic books are cool!

For Reading the kids have been doing a multifaceted program. They have been using Pilgrim's Progress, Pathway Readers New Friends and More New Friends, and they have been picking chapter books and novels each week to read independently and write a book report each week about their reading. These books are their own selections and range from Children's Classics to modern literature. Savannah is quite taken with Nancy Drew, Monster High, Babysitter's Club, and Harry Potter while Asher leans towards books like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Bernstein Bears.This means by the end of the year, they will have completed nearly 40 book reports! Next week we are preparing to begin a Unit Study using the novel Where the Red Fern Grows. Once we start this unit study, the kids will be taking a break from their weekly book report.

This semester we have also started a family Read-Aloud series. We read from the Chronicles of Narnia daily and are in the fourth book of the series. The girls typically play with mega blocks or color while we read Narnia together. Right now we are reading The Silver Chair and should be finishing it shortly. Our Unit Study will include assigned independent reading, chapter questions, section quizzes, and a variety of activities, whereas our read-aloud series is much more relaxed. I will read a chapter or two aloud to the kids and then I will either ask questions about the chapters or we will just discuss the reading and what we think will happen next.

Lego creations are a favorite
pastime in our home.

The kids are working through Teaching Textbooks Grade 4 this year. Math is definitely not their favorite subject, but they are doing very well. It is a computer based program, so other than checking their grades and answering the few questions they have, their Math is independent work. We are still working through Life of Fred. We are finishing the tenth book in the elementary series. LOF is fun, and the kids really enjoy it. I don't think of it as Math, as much as it is Logic, and I'm on the fence if we will continue it next year. We may use it at a slower pace next year, just because the kids enjoy it so much.

For Science we are using the Apologia text Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. The kids are really enjoying this text, which, as you might imagine, focuses on Ocean animals. We are beginning the last section next week, and then we will complete our Ocean Box Project (with all the creatures we've learned about) and doing more of the experiments that just weren't feasible in the winter. The kids LOVE Science, so it is never a chore to get them to do extra reading or activities for it.

We are about twenty-five weeks into our school year at this point. The year has gone very smoothly despite the move and unexpectedly taking over a month off to welcome Jeremiah into our family. We have about ten weeks left of school so we will be done around the same time Public school students complete their year.

So - in a nutshell, that's what we've been using this school year.