09/26/2011
Update on Milo's school year.

We are using the Robinson curriculum method this year.

We start off with math.  He is supposed to do 2 hours of math each day.  We at least try do DO math each day, in reality.  For math his goal is to learn the math facts through the 18 family.  He has mastered the 0, 1, 2, 3 families.  All parts of it.  Meaning, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  He is working on memorizing the 4 family now.  I think he is almost done - we reviewed on Thursday last week together and he missed about 6-8 of them.   We are using flash cards to help him memorize.  He makes 2 piles - get and miss.  The misses he does over again, and piles them get and miss, until he doesn't miss any more.  Some days he takes his "miss" pile and write them on a window with a dry erase marker, while saying it aloud as he writes.  Trying to make it a visual and auditory practice.

He is memorizing them by rote - not trying to understand them.  Just like scripture - we pump scripture into them as a child and then the understanding comes later on in life.  So for now - he is memorizing the math facts, and then he will begin Life of Fred math books after that.  Why go all the way to the 18 family?  Why not?  Most people go through 12, but if they are in the groove of memorizing, why not shoot for 18? Plus - that is what the Robinson Curriculum suggests.  I'm a rule follower.  ;)

Milo is required to do hand writing each day.  I usually have him write his memory verses.  He has a memory verse from his dad and from his Patch Club. We are trying to memorize Psalm 34 corporately at church.  So that is copy work.   Then after that we use rhymes and poems as copy work for handwriting practice.  10 and under do copy work around here, after that they are required to do 1 hour of free writing each day.  1 essay.  Any topic of their choice.

We then move on to reading.

Milo is still using the GEMM LEARNING web-site to do the FastForward learning program.  Through the end of this week.  After that he is done.    I am looking forward to his "final" test from them to see the amount of improvement, and the areas we still need to work on our own.

He also reads aloud to me from the McGuffy 2nd reader.  This is required reading for the Robinson Curriculum.  I started him almost at the beginning of the list, just because we can.  Ü  I don't want him missing anything in his reading, and causing him to stumble even further behind.  I can tell his reading speed has greatly improved.

We noticed that he is not retaining a lot from Sunday School.  He mentioned to me, "I don't remember what the teacher says when he doesn't ask us to narrate like you do mom."  So - so... I'm wondering if I am a crutch?  We have got to get him to the stage of learning on his own - not just when his mom is in the room.  I like self teaching.  So - how can he learn in Sunday School, where it is just a lecture.  Note taking?  He doesn't like to write, but maybe he can narrate by drawing a picture in a notebook while the teacher is talking?  We go to Sunday School for a reason - it's just as important as week day school is.  I may try that - narrate by drawing so he can review the lesson with us at lunch time that day.

I'm so thankful for the option of home school this child!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

NEW PLAN For MILO

Now Milo:

Literature (reading) Keep on plugging along with 100 EZ lessons. He's doing great. He now can "read it the fast way" through most of a story. Still confusing d's and g's. Isn't that odd? Never had a kid do that before. But he's getting it. It's exciting to see. I'm glad I stuck with it.

English -- we'll start in 2nd grade, once his reading skills are solid. I'm not in a hurry with this.

Math - he'll start LFBC 1st grade math. We are currently working through a workbook that MFW recommends. Today he was measuring everything with a ruler. It's very hodge podge. I like how LFBC does things decently and in order.

He'll just keep doing 1 lesson of 100 EZ lessons a day with me, and then 1 lesson of math a day with me. Not much more than that.

Week 1 & 2

Woah... time got away from me. How did that happen?

I know... I put my computer time in the evening... and it keeps getting bumped for other things. For crying out loud... I love my computer time. Oh well -- I'll try to keep good notes and get on here when I can.

So -- we started out with a bang. EVERY DAY of the first week we started on-time and finished every subject.

Week 2?? Funny you should ask. I went to ladies retreat -- slept only 3 hours. So I came home and slept 10.5 hours on Saturday night... then took a 3 hour nap on Sunday. Hmmm... Monday... I really felt like I needed another nap. Whats up with that? Oh... hey... I think I have a UTI. Yikes... went to the doctor Monday afternoon -- YEP... confirmed. Got one. So -- I've been sort of tired this week. We haven't started on time at all this week. I've taken a nap every day... but today's was only 10 mintues. I dozed off at the library too... I asked Tori if I snored... she said I didn't.

But lets review -- shall we?

I going to talk about Milo first. He is really not liking 100 EZ Lessons at all. I'm trying to decide now it if is a character issue... this is too hard, I don't want to do it. Or if it is too hard and he shouldn't HAVE to do it. Maybe 100 EZ lessons isn't a good fit for him. I've heard moms say their kids don't remember the stuff.. .they have to go back and review. Their kids hate it. It moves too slow. We aren't having any of those issues. If we sit down with little to no distractions -- he gets it. He remembers all the new stuff we do. Even if we skip doing 100 EZ lessons for 4 days or more. (Like Friday, Sat, Sun).... OK that's only 3 days. But he is retaining and learning. I THINK it's a character issue. We are really struggling with his eating. He is MOST particular. I'm an ogre, and make him sit until he eats. Or he doesn't get dessert if he doesn't finish his food. No 2nds of the good stuff until he eats the yucky stuff... etc.

So -- he really pushes us. He won't pray for his food. Dan really gets irritated at Milo for not wanting to pray for his food before he eats.

Milo is the middle child. I'm thinking these are attention getters.

SOOO... is 100 EZ lessons struggle an attention getter? I'm going to keep pushing for a few more weeks. We are on lessons 40 something. He is about to take off with his reading. He just doesn't know it yet.

He likes Math -- until it gets hard. I really think I need to crack down on the character issue... Woe is Me feelings. Poor Milo -- he isn't going to like me much in the next few days. :giggle:

Tori is finding 7th grade to be HARD. Math is hard... the very first lesson with the DIVE CD she balked. This is stupid - do I have to do this every day? Yes... now she never asks... she grabs her notebooks and goes right to the computer. I think she is liking the instruction with the CD more than she thought she would. She still doesn't work unprompted very well. If I stop her math at 1 hour, she never restarts on her own to finish 1 lesson in 1 day. School after lunch really drags. She is not up to speed with her Math. I really want us to not get behind on this. I need to figure out how many lessons she needs to do in 1 trimester in order for her to be on time. If she doesn't stay on schedule I think I'll make her do her math through our scheduled breaks.

Thus Apologia Science... she had done 3 days worth of this in 10 days. I need to figure out those days too.

We are on track with our BIBLE, HISTORY, MFW SCIENCE and... and... that's about it. We skipped all the rest of the stuff in some form or another this week. I'm not good at keeping on task when I feel sick. I'm a wimp.

Mansel is flying through Singapore Math. He is doing 3 days worth of work in 1 day. What happened with that is he didn't do well with his placement test.

We did 1st and 2nd grade math with Landmark Freedom Baptist Curriculum. Very good math curriculum. Just not what My Father's World recommends... so I thought I'd switch -- be more streamlined. Order all from one place... get teaching ideas from the discussion forums at the My Father's World web-site. Anyway... We did the switch. I made the mistake of giving him a placement test when his dad was home from work one day.

Mansel didn't want to do it -- so he was fussying... saying it was too hard... he didn't know the stuff. He daddy felt sorry for him. "Maybe it's too hard." Oh hooey... So he let him quit. When I checked it he only got up to level 1B. That's 2nd semester of 2nd grade. Well -- that's a 1/2 year behind where he should be. We start 1B last week. It's EASY PEASY!! That's crazy. I should have retested him. Oh well. I'm making him do it. He'll have to do math during our breaks in order to get caught up. I've told him this -- I told him he whined and slacked during that test -- now he has to pay for it by doing extra work.

Spelling is going well. I like Spelling Power. Tori finally knows how to spell the word tomorrow. I wanted to have a running fit when she finally spelled that correctly! Mansel is progressing. Tori is -- ok -- don't mentino this to her... but Mansel is on level 1, group 9. Tori is on level 2, group 13. They started out in the same group - but Tori being only 1 level ahead of Mansel. She just can not spell very well. But interestingly enough -- she is progressing faster than he is.

That plays right into my theory of... let the kids wait sometimes, they'll catch up.

I'm not starting Danielle with school right now -- trying to concentrate on Milo's reading. When she starts 100 EZ lessons next year... she'll be ready (and probably surpass Milo)... sshhh... I think I have friends who thing that is terrible that I'm not starting Danielle this year (she is still only 4... until Monday). I'm pretty sure she'll catch up and do well.

Tori got some verses to memorize for ProTeens at church... one is a passage we are to be working on right now. We really are stumped by it. Isaih 40:21-31. We were tryign the KJV. Her's is in the NEW KJV. So -- we are starting over with her version and I'm working on this every day. So -- we'll kill to birds with one stone. Get it memorized for school and church. Ü When she does this she will get 50 points. Woo Hoo! And she'll have God's work burned into her heart... most important of all.

We had a funny ART story. The first day of ART Tori was going to "teach". I looked at it for her... um... it was on NUDITY! HA HAAA!!! Too funny... I taught the first class. She has taught the 2nd one though, while I was napping. She said it went fine. I sure hope it did.

Man alive -- this is long. I really need to try to do this once a week, if not more.

Some day I'll post some photos of Tori's 1st experiment from her General Science class. All the kiddos had fun watching. She has told me she likes this class. I'm so glad. I really enjoy science classes too.

Milo's Schedule

Last but not least -- Milo's schedule. He gets to watch TV for 30 minutes a day. He is SO excited. I don't make schedules for the babies, ones who aren't in school. I'm done. Whew...

Milo's 2008-2009 School Year Plans

Milo will be doing the following. If this looks vaguely familiar -- it's because so much of our school overlaps.

So -- Milo will be starting 1st grade in Sunday School.

He will finish up Creation to the Greeks with us and begin Rome to Reformation unit. This is designed to be taught at a 2nd grade level. So anything he gleans is beneficial, but not required. He will NOT be required to do the worksheets or hands on projects, although sometimes he likes to watch the science experiments and do the hands on projects. This part of his school - hands on, is child driven. I always have him sit and listen to the readings and join in with the verse memorizing.

This includes:

Bible/History

• Rome, the life of Jesus, early church history, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation from a Christian perspective.
• Bible readings and memory verses.
• Hands-on projects: Make a Roman writing tablet and enjoy a Roman feast, construct a Roman arch, sample foods from the Middle Ages, play Medieval games and more.
• Learn to play chess and construct a cardboard castle.
• Map work, history notebook, and timeline.
• Library book. Daily reading out of the book basket! This will not be REQUIRED of him, but he can read if he wants to.
  

Science

• Human body - participate in simple experiments and demonstrations as well as make simple models of body systems.
• Astronomy - explore the universe from a Christian perspective. Includes hands-on activities.
• Weekly nature walk and nature journal.

Read Aloud

• Selected books that are integrated with the study of history to inspire and develop godly character. We will use The Bronze Bow, Twice Freed, Dangerous Journey, and Door in the Wall.

Art and Music

• Enjoy hands-on projects from history.
• Art lessons include drawing as well as Roman, Early Church, and Middle Ages art from a godly perspective, using God and The History of Art .
• Music appreciation lessons focus on Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.

Of course vocabulary lessons focus on Latin roots using English from the Roots Up.

Those things are all things we will be doing as a family. We set up our school like a one room school house. Combining as many things as we can. The rest of the list with be done alone, or one on one with Mom.

MFW suggests that a student begins Singapore math in 2nd grade, starting with book 1A. So - we will follow that suggest for Milo. MFW has a 1st grade program that you can purchase separately, and also teach separately one on one. I am choosing NOT to do that. Since the Math is included in the 1st grade manual, we won't be doing the MFW math for 1st grade. I WILL be getting The Complete Book of Math workbook that they suggest you get if you aren't going to do the 1st grade math. So -- he will be doing math every day from the workbook, as well as all day long as I think about it. Calendar work, days of the week, time - I recently purchased a how to tell time book for him from e-bay. (Thanks Lisa) I'll print off the Singapore placement test for the 1A text book to make sure he will be up to the standard when he will begin that program in 2nd grade. There are also all kinds of free web-sites for math that I will be using to print off worksheets, or have him play math games to keep from having any gaps in his math education.

He will be doing book A of the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting series.

Our piano teacher likes to start pianos lessons in 2nd grade. He has one more year of reprieve from this "torture". LOL

He will continue using 100 EZ Lessons until it is complete. This books says the student will be on a 2nd grade reading level when complete. If he can read at a 2nd grade level at the end of 1st grade, I will be happy. Upon completing this book we will start to use the Pathway Readers together. This is one on one with Mom.

We also will be using the Bible Reader with simplified Bible stories that the student reads for himself. This is a MFW product. At the beginning on the year I read and he follows along. Then he eventually will read to me.

The spelling power book recommends we begin using this in 2nd grade. So he will not be doing spelling.

He will also work on his S.S. lesson paper and be memorizing his S.S. verse each week. I write this up on his white board list too each day.

He will not be open enrolled or dual enrolled.