Some School Updates

I thought I should update on our homeschool days. It has been a couple of years since I wrote about our curriculum. We have dropped some things in favor of delving more deeply into others. I no longer use any complete curriculum as I used to. It has been interesting to see how my confidence in my ability to teach our children has grown through the years of experience. My challenge now is making sure that Henry will have all requirements fulfilled so that he has every opportunity for college. I have never given grades before because they seemed unnecessary work, but I have to begin giving them for Henry. We started with math grades because that is the easiest and the younger boys all liked the grading idea and it has begun a mild though unacknowledged competition. We have begun recording more school work and by the end of the summer I feel fairly confident that I will have things planned out for the remainder of his school days, at least, the bones of it. 

I don't know if I have mentioned the fact that we use computer time as a reward. They only get a half of hour of computer time on the weekend if they accomplish all of the assigned school work. However, they can earn up to another hour by not procrastinating (having each days work done that day) and by doing certain extra assignments. History pages and maps earn them 5 minutes, a two page story including all the dress-ups required for weekly writing assignments earns 15 minutes. A full report, also including the dress-ups and sentence openers, on a topic recently studied (or related to topic studied) in history earns a full half hour. However, time on the computer can also be lost. As with any reward program, keeping track of time earned and lost is a large part of the success and integrity. We are still perfecting the matter, but it certainly has increased motivation and allows for study in areas of interest instead of purely areas assigned.

A desire to get this posted and not forget about it will necessitate my ending now. My computer time is over for the day and the posts I desire to make are many more than I am likely to ever accomplish. This is what I can do and so I will do it. 

And an old picture just because.

DIVE Into Math

Well, it isn't much, but it is an update.  Here is Henry working on his math, Algegra 1, using the DIVE CD-Rom we purchased with our Saxon Math.  I couldn't be much happier about this supplement.  Dr. David Shormann teaches on the CDs and the boys write down everything he does, doing the problems on their own and then seeing if they get the right, everything they are supposed to do. Then they do the lesson in their text books. Not only does he seem to be an excellent teacher of math, but he encourages the boys to work hard and to be thankful. I recommend the program very highly. I bought ours with our Saxon math at Exodus Books.  I will let the children learn on their own from the books until 7/6 books. When Henry is ready for Algebra 2 I will get a complete set again with the DIVE program.  www.DiveIntoMath.com

A Change in Math Curriculum

I have made some changes in our curriculum over the last few months. I am just going to tell you about math today. Henry was maybe 3rd grade when we began using Singapore Math and I loved it. I liked the way it taught me as well as Henry to think outside the box and increased our use of logic. However, when we reached the Primary 6 books we began to struggle. There were many problems I did not understand and to which I could not find answers. There is a great website for help with Singapore, but at the time it was difficult for me to use it and we just went on with what we could understand which was the majority. Then we got past the primary books and into their New Elementary Mathmatics. We struggled with that for several months not understanding the majority. I had been tempted in the past to change math curriculum for Louis and I began doing some research. There is a book store in the Portland area called Exodus Books and they are an excellent resource, not only for books and homeschool curriculum, but for information and reviews as well, here is their review of Saxon: http://www.exodusbooks.com/category.aspx?id=2428. I had always steered away from Saxon because I had heard there was an excessive amount of review and they didn't teach... I don't remember, but the concept in my mind was that it would not teach what I wanted my children to know. I'm sorry I felt that way. I still will use Singapore for the early years, but I will be switching the younger children to Saxon at about 4th grade. Saxon also has the DIVE CD-ROMs available which teach the children their lessons. I bought the DIVE CDs for Louis and Henry, but for Otto I found a used copy of Saxon 5/4 and the lessons are still simple for him. Louis is in Saxon 7/6 and Henry in Algebra. They are both using the CDs and I'm very happy with them. They need every bit of review that Saxon offers. The lessons are longer, Henry has always struggled with focus when doing math, but math is a good basis for other subjects like science and logic-- and discipline, diligence, perserverence...

Be sure you check our the rest of the Exodus Books site. I often look at thier recommendations before going to the library.

Challenges and Blessings

There are challenges to home schooling. There are challenges to living in a small space. There are challenges to having more children than 'the norm.' All of these 'challenges' flood us daily with blessings beyond number. We learn to enjoy each other or we drive each other crazy, but we are together and I think we all prefer it that way. We all need some alone time, but because we all need it, we allow each other to have it. Otto and Solomon both have their desks in Olivia's room. There are many times that Solomon has to come out and sit at the dining table because he is making it difficult for Otto to do his work. I'm confident it won't be long before he learns to focus and work with more diligence. At least, I'll do my best to help him achieve that goal. Olivia is not able to play in her room while they are working (actually when only Otto is working she does sometimes play there quietly). The children are always free to work in another area provided they are not disturbing anyone and they are doing their work. The more discipline they show, the more freedom they are allowed.

Olivia Knits

A couple of months ago, Olivia came to me wanting to learn to knit. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to try to teach her when her hands and fingers are still so small. I also wondered about the balance of her coordiation and patience; would there be enough of both? I decided to give it a try with a lot of warning that it might still be too difficult. It was touch and go for a while, but in the end I was glad I made the attempt. She has put it down for quite a while now probably because I have not been knitting much. When I begin another project, I'm confident she will continue her skills as well.

Pattern Blocks

Solomon is always supplying me the pictures to post on this blog. Most of them are never posted, but here are a few. He has a talent for putting things together in pleasing ways. I will have to update soon on our school work. Most of the things I post are extras the children do on their own; school is more than just book work. I will post soon about our studies with all of the children. Until then...

I love these pictures Solomon and Olivia drew on the white board. I thought I would share them with you. Solomon used his shadow falling on the white board to make the outline of his people (sorry about the glare).