Category Archives: Weekly Update

This week we wrapped up our study of Prehistory. It feels good to move on to the next unit!

Here’s a glimpse of what our week looked like:

— We finished up our Latin alphabet review, covering P, Q, R, S, T, Ū, U, V, X, Ȳ, Y, & Z.

— We watched two documentaries about the Ice Age. The first was from our local library, called “America’s Stone Age Explorers.” Lillia really enjoyed watching this film, and it was a nice supplement to the material that covered in Mammoth Bones and Broken Stones, which we read last week. Later in the week, she watched “Stone Age Atlantis,” about a lost part of the European continent that has been given the name “Doggerland” by modern researchers. This is a fascinating topic, and one that is of great interest to me, personally. I think that the end of the last Ice Age must have been a very interesting time to be alive. The climate was changing dramatically, and some land areas, like Doggerland, disappeared in the course of one human lifetime. Nothing gives me chills like the thought of a drowned forest at the bottom of the North Sea. It’s no wonder, really, that so many of our earliest stories and myths are about floods! Click here to watch “Stone Age Atlantis” on YouTube.

— We worked on pluralizing with the -es suffix.

— We reviewed cursive letters A, B, & C, and learned D.

— We learned a lot from Life of Fred: Cats this week, including how the Pacific Ocean got its name, the nature of obligate carnivores, pattern recognition, germs, and determining the cardinality of various sets. This week Life of Fred also included “A Row of Practice” at the end of several chapters, which is great for reviewing the addition and subtraction skills we’ve learned in these first three books.

— We learned about three new birds this week from The Burgess Bird Book: the Song Sparrow, the White-Throated Sparrow, and the Fox Sparrow. I’m so fond of Thornton Burgess’s writing. He manages to include a lot of accurate information about the animals in his stories, while still making the tales compelling and endearing.

Some photos from the week:

Lillia working hard (not hardly working).

Why not do your work in rainbow order?

Keep the baby happily distracted with snacks.

Wow! We’ve completed six weeks of homeschooling! This was supposed to be our last week studying Prehistory, but there are still some materials I want to share with Lillia, so we’re going to extend it for another week. I had originally planned to have six units, lasting six weeks each, for a total of 36 weeks (or 180 days) because that is the number of “regular school” days. But, what difference does it make if we go longer? None. We are the captains of this ship.

Some highlights from our week:

— We started Life of Fred: Cats, in which we learned that the Big Dipper is an asterism (a pattern of stars that is not an official constellation), and that addition is commutative but subtraction is not.

— We read some library books about Prehistory, including An Ice Age Hunter by Lucilla Watson, The First Dog by Jan Brett, and Discovering the Iceman by Shelley Tanaka. This last book, about Ötzi (a 5,300 year old frozen mummy found in the Alps in 1991), gave us the opportunity to see how theories about the past change as new evidence comes to light. We have learned a lot more about Ötzi since Tanaka wrote her book in 1996, but I still feel the book gives a lot of valuable information about Ötzi’s life, and about life in general during the late Stone Age. We also read Mammoth Bones and Broken Stones, by David L. Harrison, about human migration to North America. I also have a library video about the major theories regarding the peopling of the Western Hemisphere that I hope we can watch next week.

— We learned cursive “B” and “b” (again), and are still having great success with the New American Cursive program.

— We learned the Latin letters H, Ī, I, K, L, M, N, Ō, and O. We’re looking forward to moving beyond the alphabet and learning some new vocabulary words next week.

— We finished the first week of our new language arts program. Two days this week Lillia had to read Aesop’s fables aloud and then draw a picture to go along with the story. This is a different, slower approach to doing narrations, an activity she has resisted in the past. But, being able to paraphrase something that you read or hear is an important skill to learn, so I am pleased that this program will help her to do it with more confidence.

And, what does the baby do all day? It occurred to me that this is a blog about our little one, too, because he is also learning. He is a very busy boy, and his play is his work. During a typical day, and besides climbing on every piece of furniture we own, he…

…has sensory experiences,

…makes works of art,

…and, plays.

I may be almost a week late in writing this post, but better late than never (or so they say). Because I am pressed for time, I will be brief.

Here’s what we covered this week:

Reading: We’ve worked through the first six chapters of Anooka’s Answer. Because I couldn’t find a study guide for this book, at least not one that I liked, I made my own. I based my study guide on the the ones offered by Memoria Press, because I thought they were very comprehensive, including sections for learning new vocabulary and questions to aid retention, as well as opportunities for discussion and enrichment.

Click here to see my study guide —> Anooka’s Answer Study Guide Ch 1-6

Writing: I decided to use a combination of two writing programs that are similar in nature. Classical Writing Primer has quite a bit of religious content, which is fine, but we are taking a more secular approach to homeschooling. So, for weeks that are focused on Bible passages, we will be substituting work from Primary Language Lessons. I think the two programs are very compatible, in terms of their approach to the material and their overall style.

Latin: We started Latin’s Not So Tough! this week. I purchased Level 2 because Level 1 is devoted almost entirely to learning the Latin alphabet, including quite a bit of emphasis on pronunciation. It seemed like overkill to me, especially since Latin isn’t really a spoken language anymore. Level 2 has a nice review of the alphabet, and flash cards for each lesson. So far, I’m pleased with the program, and hoping to learn Latin right alongside my daughter.

Handwriting: We began using New American Cursive. It seems to be working really well for Lillia. There have been no tears, and she really enjoys the Mr. Meerkat character. A friend of mine suggested that we have her circle her best letter, and I think that has really helped her to feel more positive about her efforts. Not all of the letters come out perfectly, but there is always at least one that makes her proud. Thanks for the tip, Marc!

Mathematics: We finished up Life of Fred: Butterflies. The author of this math program is kind of a quirky guy! But, he seems to have such a sincere desire to pass on his knowledge. He made a series of videos for public access TV about a decade ago. In these videos he talks about many things, but mostly they are centered on what it means to be a “Well-Educated Person.” I feel a little uncomfortable watching them, but I am really fascinated at the same time. He has many interesting things to say about life and learning.

I’m sure I missed some things but I need to be brief. It’s almost time to write this week’s update already! Probably the coolest thing Lillia did in “school” last week was to sew a pillowcase! She has been having sewing lessons with my mother on Tuesdays while I am in class. Lillia seems to be a quick learner — I was always a terrible sewing student.

Here she is with her finished work:

It’s the end of the fourth week, and now we’re really finding our groove! After lamenting to a friend (and former homeschooler) about my daughter’s lack of internal motivation I was told that, if I was patient, Lillia would become the student I want her to be. I think my friend was on to something, because this week Lillia really stepped it up, in terms of cooperativeness, quality of work, and enthusiasm. I don’t think we had a single meltdown all week.

Even though she struggled to master cursive “b” she persisted until she got it right (there was a bit of resistance, but nothing like a temper tantrum). She seems to think that my criticizing her work is a reflection of how I feel about her, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth! However, when I made her erase the ones that came out poorly, then showed her what was wrong, she was able to do a much better job (and, I think, was secretly proud of herself).

As her teacher, I have to be objective, and be willing to point out her mistakes, even while the mom in me wants to coddle her and tell her that her work is perfect every time. How do you deal with the parent/teacher dichotomy?

Highlights from this week:

Reading: We’re still working on Anooka’s Answer, by Marjorie Cowley. This is a story about a girl living in Europe during the last glacial maximum (ice age). She discovers a hidden talent for creating figurines from clay, but this practice is prohibited for women in her tribe. Lillia seems to like it.

Writing: We didn’t do any formal writing this week, as I am still trying to choose which program to use. I have four to choose from, and they are all very different. I plan to decide over the weekend, and start a formal writing program on Monday. We are still doing our drop-down webs for history.

Spelling: We have been working our way through McGuffey’s Eclectic Spelling Book. I will have her do little sections daily until we get to a point where she gets a certain number wrong (maybe 3 or 4?), and then we will actually do a formal study session. So far, the words are so easy that she hasn’t gotten any wrong, but the words do get harder. My husband and I had a great time quizzing each other on the later lessons.

History: We just finished our first history “spine,” Voyages Through Time: The Beginning, by Peter Ackroyd. Overall, I liked this book. It did a nice job of covering the Earth’s history from the Big Bang through the Ice Age. There were moments when the writing was almost poetic, but then times where it was quite dry. I wish he had written more consistently in the “narrative” voice, instead of trying to be so scientific. Also, the illustrations were TERRIBLE! Now, this is purely based on my opinion, and what I look for in an illustrated children’s book. What I really want is beautifully rendered watercolor illustrations. I detest computer generated graphics, which is what was used for this book. I actually didn’t really show the pictures to Lillia because they are so uninspiring. Would I use it again? Maybe. But, I would probably just use Jennifer Morgan’s series, which cover roughly the same material, but are so eloquently written and beautifully illustrated. The only reason why I didn’t use them is because Lillia has already read them many times.

Mathematics: We’re still in Life of Fred: Butterflies, but I have ordered the next book since we are almost done with this one already! I cannot praise this series enough. Lillia loves it, and even I have learned a lot from it. This week, we covered the concepts of ordinal and cardinal numbers, and orthogonal (ex: perpendicular) lines. I love that she is learning all of these concepts in such an organic way, through Fred’s life and adventures. All of the math that she learns makes complete sense in the context of the story. It’s never arbitrary. Seriously, this is an amazing math curriculum.

Science: I decided to switch gears and just spend this year doing a combination of life science and astronomy. We are reading the Burgess Bird Book for Children and recording what we learn about each bird in our science journal. This week we learned about the wren and the English sparrow. I just received my astronomy curriculum from Memoria Press this afternoon. I haven’t had a chance to really look it over, but I will certainly write more about it in the future.

On a side note, Lillia is thrilled because she has been cast as an angel in this year’s Nutcracker performance at Moco. She’s going to be busy with two dance classes plus the Nutracker repertory class, but she seems to be having fun. And, unlike last year, she isn’t exhausted in the afternoon when it’s time for practice. Getting the amount of sleep she needs, eating when she is hungry, and having time to relax during the day allow Lillia to be successful in ways she couldn’t be before (when she was sleep deprived, starving, and overstimulated at school).

Hope you all had a great week, too!

Our second week (and first full week) of homeschooling is complete! So, what did Lillia do this week?

— She learned about the different types of clouds, and how to identify them.
— She learned about number sets from our math book, Life of Fred: Apples by Stanley Schmidt (highly recommend!). Can you think of a set with seven numbers in it? {The days of the week}!
— She studied world history from the Precambrian through the Triassic using her history book, Voyages Through Time: The Beginning by Peter Ackroyd.
— She learned how to make and use drop-down webs to organize what she learned in history.
— She learned how to make the letters A, E, I, O, U, Y, B, & C in cursive!
— She learned what a sentence is, and how to identify one of its parts (that of which we speak — the subject).
— She reviewed the concepts of latitude and longitude, and started plotting hominid fossils on a map using coordinates.
— She finished her first literature book, Children of Time by Anne Weaver, and used two column notes to help her remember all of the different characters.
— She participated in many extracurricular activities, including Phys Ed and Art at the school, and Hip Hop and Ballet at Moco!
— And, she had lots of time to play!

This afternoon, Lillia spent a couple of hours creating character studies for some wolves from her imaginary city. She typed up all the pages by herself, and then she used Photoshop to create illustrations for them!

All in all, this week went really well. Looking back at her list of accomplishments, I feel pretty good about homeschooling! There were a few moments where things were difficult, but each of those moments offered valuable insight into how Lillia learns, and what types of activities interest her/bore her/stress her out. I feel like it will probably take a couple of months for me to really figure out what I’m doing, but there is marked improvement just since last week.

One thing I noticed is that we don’t really follow a schedule. I had originally planned to do things in twenty-minute increments, but that has gone completely out the window. We don’t really follow a particular order, either. Every day is different. It certainly keeps us from getting bored. I’m curious how others deal with the schedule issue, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Phew! It’s Friday afternoon, and we have officially finished our first week of homeschooling. And, what a week it was! I have read that, when it comes to homeschooling, kids often teach their parents more than the other way around. After the week we’ve had, I couldn’t possibly agree more. But, the things I have learned were so valuable, and I know they will really shape our homeschooling journey in the months to come.

First of all, I learned that all of my agonizing over curriculum design and planning was, though not entirely pointless, a fairly big waste of time. Our school day looks very different in real life than it does on paper! Sometimes there’s a cranky baby. Sometimes we’re inexplicably starving an hour after breakfast and need a break. With one car, we’re on the road more than I thought we would be. And, Lillia’s extracurricular classes at the school use up the entire morning twice a week.

But, this is good for me! I hate ambiguity — I need to know what’s going to happen. This is a real exercise in persisting despite not knowing, and I think that will have long-term benefits for me.

I also learned that my daughter HATES to write. I didn’t know this! That might surprise some people, but how would I know? The problem is not her writing skills. In fact, she’s actually a very good writer (most likely because she is also a very good reader). However, my plan to have her write daily in a literature journal has been tossed out. The first attempt ended in tears, the second attempt ended in laying on the ground moaning, and I didn’t even try a third time. I’m not homeschooling her to torture her. But, I am homeschooling her because her teachers and guidance counselors were not able to help her deal with her debilitating perfectionism, and it has become a real obstacle to her academic success. Writing seems to be where her perfectionism manifests itself in the homeschooling environment. I’m going to try and separate the literature study from the writing, and see if that helps. I found a program called WriteShop for “reluctant writers,” which I think describes my daughter perfectly. Writing isn’t always fun, but it shouldn’t be torture, either!

Once the pressure was off, she wrote extemporaneously about an imaginary place she created called “Miriloo – City of the Wolves.” She wrote an entire page! The next day I typed it for her, and she created a map of Miriloo, complete with a legend/key (during which time we got to cover some Geography stuff), and then the following day she created a travel brochure for her imaginary land. All in all, a great project that was mostly child-directed and completely unplanned.

Here’s what else we accomplished:

Independent Reading!

Discovering the thickness of the Earth’s atmosphere using an apple!

Writing in her science journal!

Seeing how long it takes for a drop of water to evaporate!

Re-creating the Water Cycle!

And, much more!

After a terrible start, most of the week went smoothly. I was temporarily paralyzed with fear that we should start with US History instead of Ancient, but in the end it probably doesn’t matter. There are arguments from both sides, and both seem equally valid. Since I’ve already bought many Ancient History books, I figure we should just stay the course. I may write more about this later, and I’m open to feedback on this issue!

I’m looking forward to next week!