Because I can...

Becca is sitting next to me on the couch, reading Ramona the Pest. On her own.

Sylvia read two Level 1 Barbie books this morning, almost completely on her own. She kept bringing the book over to me and asking, "What's this word?" and I'd tell her, and she'd wander back to the chair, reading the sentence aloud again. I was flabbergasted, especially since this is the same Barbie book we bought Becca last year and were pleasantly surprised when she read the whole thing (3 Level 1 books and 3 Level 2 books) on her own, only needing help with proper names. And a mere year later, Sylvia can read some stories from it!

Sylvia also has been enjoying sitting in on our math lessons. We're stepping back and using Right Start level A, a K level curriculum. I want Becca to loosen up and have fun with math so she can truly master the basics. Anyway, it's all very simple and fun right now, and Sylvia likes to sit and listen and participate. She can sing all of "Yellow is the Sun," Right Start's song for remembering numbers from 6-10.

I'm pretty proud of both of my girls!

Recent Becca and Sylvie-isms

A "Becca": It was way past her usual bedtime on Saturday (Feb. 28) and I was trying to do a few things on the computer. She was supposed to be lying down on the couch and going to sleep, but she was too full of energy. The lights were out, when suddenly she says, "Is today February 28?" Close to the end of my patience, I replied, "Yes it is." She exclaimed, "Then tomorrow is MARCH 1!!" Frustrated, I gave one of those silly hyperbolic parental responses: "Yes, but if you don't go to sleep, it'll never be March! It'll stay February forever!" A little voice responded from the dark beyond the computer screen's light, "No it won't." (In case you don't already know, she's excited about March because her birthday is coming up.)


Now a "Sylvie": Becca was doing some school work and Sylvia went into the kitchen to look at the US map. I went in to throw something away and Sylvia said, "Is this Tennessee where we live?" and pointed to TN. So I said yes, and then she pointed to Georgia - "And this is Georgia where Grandpa lives?" "Yes." "So when we went to visit Grandpa we drove from Tennessee down to Georgia (and she traced it on the map)." "Yep, sweetie, that's right!" She paused for a moment and then pointed at the western part of the map: "I don't want to drive over to Nineveh!"

Math - really?

As far as I know, Spectrum workbooks are generally well-regarded and considered to be at grade level.

We were out shopping this weekend and I was browsing workbooks at a bookstore. You may remember Becca's and my recent math troubles - we kicked and fought to get 3 units into Singapore 1B before throwing in the towel. Well, I picked up a Spectrum grade 1 math workbook and flipped through it. I turned to the final test, over the whole book, and realized that Becca could do all of it. She'd complain and it might take her all day to do it, but she could do all of it right now. I was shocked - I am shocked. All my garment tearing over math, and she's actually already learned at a very advanced level.

Hmmm... maybe I can chill a little.

Baaa.

So, I was sitting in the lobby of the gym, watching Becca in her class and managing a wiggly Sylvia on my lap. I had already noticed the older woman across the room, engrossed in a book whose title I couldn't make out without my glasses. I tend to keep to myself and Sylvie's self during these classes. Something about the world of mothers in real life just repels me. I can chat online all day, but I never get beyond one or two words in person.

The woman to my right stood up and repositioned her chair to get a better look into the gym. Every parent in there furtively crowds around the meager opening, craning their necks to peek into the forbidden world beyond. After years of free range, we were suddenly relegated to a bare waiting room with flimsy plastic chairs, only a few of which afforded a glimpse of our young ones in their exertions. I heard the woman speak, directing her words to the elderly reader across from me: "Is that book...?"

"Oh, it's Edgar Sawtelle, the one about the dog."
"From..." Don't say it. Don't. "Oprah's book club!" Inwardly, I emit a pained groan. I suddenly want to stab myself in the eye with the DS stylus.

Seriously. Woo hoo, Oprah got Americans to read. Problem is, nobody seems to know what to read unless Oprah tells them. Does anyone browse the library anymore? Do a little independent research? Or do they just wait for the next episode of Oprah's book club?

And I wonder why I don't make an effort to befriend everyone in the lobby. Sometimes I think that Sylvia affords me more intelligent conversation.

My version of the "breakfast board" and how to motivate a 5+ year old

I'm spreading this all around right now. A WTM board member shared her blog and a fabulous idea called a "breakfast board." I finally got it together and made one and took pics. Do you know that this is probably the first voluntary project I've done on a trifold board? Anyway, on to the good stuff:

First off, thanks to Johanna at this blog http://stopforflowers.blogspot.com/2...for-those.html for inventing and sharing the "breakfast board." I finally decided to get my act together and put one together for the girls, so here's my version. The flash is obscuring our "weather frog." There are 2 velcro dots there to attach today's weather squares (in a bag taped to the back of the board). The purple pockets hold a couple of Latin flashcards and a couple of history review cards. I have a poem for memorization/review, a tens/ones bag, hundreds chart, coin bag, assorted shapes for Sylvia, a clock, calendar, map (for continent practice) and the yesterday/today/tomorrow strips. Oh, and a month/season spinner!



I have to say that the girls raced to get started this morning just because of this board, so I'm already impressed!


I figured I'd also take a couple of pics of my motivational system for Becca. Sylvia just gets stickers on her hand and she gets to pick a treasure whenever Becca does. Every day, after we've completed our school work, Becca gets a sticker on her handy little chart.




Once we've done a full week (five days), she turns the whole sheet in to me and gets to pick a treasure out of the treasure box (they were so excited to see it they couldn't stay out of the pic!).I found the box at Dollar Tree, and I stock it with assorted little goodies from DT or the Target dollar section.



There's puzzles, stickers, temporary tattoos, crayons, cups, lip gloss, jewelry, things like that in there. Becca was pointing out the Strawberry Shortcake lip gloss. She gets very excited about picking a treasure and likes to count how many more stickers she needs before her next prize.

I've been waiting for this!

At last, our human body studies have started! I'm so dorky excited about this - luckily Becca's excited too so at least she's not looking at me like I've lost my last marble.

I traced both girls' outlines on some giant paper last night. Becca's looks strangely alienesque - she's eager to add some hair.




Sylvia had pigtails in and I just couldn't resist tracing them too. If you know Sylvie, you know that that child has a TON of hair! The result is too cute for words:

And here's both together:

We're starting first with the five senses, but Becca's already asking when we're going to add the liver and intestines to their bodies.

Now for a little more news... Sylvia has decided that she doesn't care for preschool anymore. Nothing terrible happened, we just think that she's over the whole idea. She's always been more of a homebody than Becca and more attached to me. I think she feels like she's gotten all she can out of preschool and she'd rather be at home with Mommy and Becca. Since I have no real reason to make her go, I now have two full-time students! Actually, Sylvia's still participating at will. I encourage her to practice a few skills, but her own pace is pretty quick.

Moving right along...

Just a small curriculum update - this is for my records as well!

Becca has completed Handwriting Without Tears' Printing Power book and is working on learning cursive ("fancy writing") with the New American Cursive font. I bought it on Startwrite and have just been printing out individual letter sheets for practice. She's learned how to form the entire alphabet and now we're working on copywork in printing and cursive.

We finished the first grade portion of First Language Lessons just before Thanksgiving and we're on to the second grade part!

We have moved quickly through All About Spelling Level 1 and will complete the last lesson after returning from our holiday break in January. Then we'll move on to Level 2.

We also completed Level 1A in her Singapore Math curriculum and will begin Unit 3 of Level 1B after our break.

Most exciting of all, we're wrapping up our animal studies in science with a little horse fun (we couldn't skip Becca's favorite animal!) and we'll be starting our study of the human body in January! The basic outline we'll be following is in her Living Learning Life Science curriculum, but I'm starting to feel that it's very "light." I have a number of books and plan to supplement heavily, especially since human body studies are a favorite of mine too. Here are some books we'll be adding:

Easy Make & Learn Projects Human Body (Scholastic) - this is going to be SO fun! It says for grades 2-4, but I think Becca will be fine with it.
DK Eye Wonder Human Body
The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia
My Body by Teacher Created Resources - basically we're going to trace an outline of the girls' bodies and then we fill them in with organs as we learn about them. Not as complex as the Make & Learn projects, but great for fun visuals.
Head to Toe Science - full of experiments, on the slightly older side. We'll pick and choose.
Magic School Bus Journey Into the Human Body science kit - At first glance, I'm kind of disappointed by this, unfortunately. I plan to use it, but I'm glad I didn't pay the full $20 for it.
Usborne Science - Science and Your Body, What Makes You Ill, What Happens to Your Food, How Do Your Senses Work - a couple of these are on backorder with Amazon. I love Usborne books.


I'm already starting to scope out curriculum choices for next year. I'm highly reluctant to go with Living Learning for earth and space science for several reasons:
1. I feel that the Life Science is very light and wouldn't recommend it for any older than K.
2. LL does not have samples of the teacher pages on their website.
3. LL has not responded to several inquiries from me about the availability of samples from their teacher pages.

Sorry, Living Learning - you're losing my business.

I have, however, been happy with Pandia Press' History Odyssey. I think it's a great way to make Story of the World even more fun and activity-filled. I plan to go with their Level 1 Middle Ages plan, which also uses Story of the World vol. 2. I will still use the SOTW Activity Guide and pick and choose our activities. I look forward to learning about the Middle Ages! Pandia Press also publishes a science curriculum called REAL Science. They only have two levels right now, so I'm going to go with their Earth & Space science curriculum for Becca's next school year. Hopefully they'll get to publishing Chemistry and Physics soon so I can continue with them if I end up liking their science as much as their history. You can check out their website at www.pandiapress.com.

We'll also go on with First Language Lessons and All About Spelling. I'm going to get the teacher text for Susan Wise Bauer's Writing With Ease and see if Becca places into level 1 or 2. And hopefully we will move along in Singapore Math as well.

All I can say is, thank goodness for income tax returns! I've discovered that they come at a great time of year for curriculum buying.

Tentative curriculum list for Becca's 2nd grade (officially 1st grade) year:

Grammar: First Language Lessons 3
Spelling: All About Spelling 3(?)
Writing: Writing With Ease 1 or 2
Science: REAL Science Earth/Space
History: History Odyssey Middle Ages Level 1/SOTW 2
Math: Singapore 2A/continued Miquon supplements
Art: Harmony Fine Arts Grade 2
Latin: ???