Math-U-See ~ I Sing Its Praises

Math is not my best subject.  Actually, it is my very, very worst subject.  I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide, but that's about as far as it goes.  Fractions, algebra, geometry.....not so much.  I struggled in school with math from day one.  Dawson has always gotten decent grades in math, but it was easily his worst subject and as the years went on I could see that he struggled more and more.  Reagan seemed as though she might be pretty good at math, but as a first grader it was hard to tell.  And poor Griffin.  Griffin takes after his mother and has always struggled - a lot - with the dreaded math.  He has always hated it.

Enter Math-U-See. 

We started a new math curriculum this year that uses blocks to teach CONCEPTS rather than memorizing facts.  We have been using it for a month now and..... (cue angels singing).... WE LOVE IT!!  There has been light-bulb moment after light-bulb moment with all three of them over the past four weeks.  Especially with Griffin.  The curriculum doesn't go by grades, but rather by levels.  Each level focuses on one concept instead of jumping around from one thing to another.  For example:  Reagan is in the Alpha book, which concentrates fully on addition.  Really, she probably should have done this in first grade, but I wanted to go back and make sure she really understood what she was doing.  The good part about it is that if she is understanding what she's learning she can test out of it and move on to the next thing.  We hope to have her out of this book by Christmas break and then she will move on to the Beta book in January.  I went back a level for Dawson also (he's doing fractions) just to make sure that the concept was truly understood. 

 Hopefully he will finish by Christmas as well and move on to where he technically should be in 7th grade.  With Griffin, I moved him ALL the way back to the Beta book which focuses on subtraction.  It's very easy for him, but I felt that he needed to go back and solidify those concepts.  Again, he is moving quickly through it, so he should move on to Gamma (multiplication) next semester.  For a kid who, at the beginning of the year, could barely add and subtract if it involved regrouping......he is now adding three digit numbers - in story problems, no less - in his head!  I never thought I'd see the day!!  So, if you want a review of Math-U-See........RUN TO GET IT!!  Run, I tell you!

First Day of School!!

Today was our first day of our second year of homeschooling!  

This year we have Dawson joining us since he graduated from CBCA last May.  We have switched most of our curriculum this year and we think we are really going to enjoy the new stuff.

Dawson is in seventh grade this year and will soon be a teenager :/  The curriculum we chose for both Dawson and Griffin is called Trail Guide to Learning - Paths of Exploration, which is a history based curriculum that encompasses everything except math and Bible.  It is a Charlotte Mason style curriculum which I think is going to work really well with Dawson's natural curiosity and also my laid-back personality.

Like I said, Griffin will be doing the same curriculum as Dawson, only at a fifth grade level, which is what grade he is in this year!

They have a lot of the same assignments, although Dawson often has extra work to do.  We decided not to continue with Switched On Schoolhouse for Griffin with the exception of Spanish and Health.  We thought that it would be a good fit for him, but it really wasn't.  He needs more hands-on learning and Trail Guide has that.

Reagan will also be doing Trail Guide to Learning with the boys.  It actually begins in 3rd grade, but it can be adapted for second graders.  Along with Trail Guide she will continue doing the Horizons curriculum for Spelling, Handwriting, and Phonics/Reading.

For math we will be doing Math-U-See for everyone.  I am so excited to start this because math is NO ONE'S best subject around here!  It uses manipulative blocks and a base 10 system to teach concepts, so that they will actually understand what they are doing as opposed to just memorizing facts.  It teaches one concept at a time and they cannot move on until they have sufficiently mastered the concept.  On the other hand, if they have mastered it they can test out of the material and quickly move to the next concept.

For Bible we are doing Kay Arthur's Discover 4 Yourself Bible studies for kids.  The first one we are doing is "How to Study Your Bible".  I thought that would be a good place to start :)  There are lots of different studies in this series and we hope to complete four of them this year.

So, I think we are going to have a great year this year.  I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to stay home and be my children's teacher.  God has been good to us!

Happy Birthday, Reagan!!

Election Lapbooks

Over the past month we have been learning all about elections and voting.  We got together with the Jones' to make a lapbook about it.

Watching a video about the different types of government

Checking out some books about voting and elections

Pretending to "register" to vote

       We finished!!

Election Day!!

 It's time!!

Here are our finished lapbooks:

The covers of our lapbooks.  They even got an "I Voted" sticker to put on the front!

The Candidates

Learning the "lingo"

They will all vote in their first Presidential election in 2024

What are political parties?  What do I have to do to be President/Senator/Representative?

What is the Electoral College??

No matter the outcome, though, we understand how important it is to vote in our country.  

The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.

 --Proverbs 21:1

Mind Your Own Beeswax

Griffin had to do a report about bees for science class so we took a trip to the

University of Illinois Pollinatarium to do some research.

The guy working there tried to help us find the queen bee, but she was hiding.

It was a really fun place to visit!!

http://www.life.illinois.edu/pollinatarium/

 







 





Nature

Today was an absolutely gorgeous fall day, so we took advantage of it by going on a nature scavenger hunt. They each had a list of things to find on our hike through the woods.

We stopped in the Nature Center before our hike.

                                   Bird watching

We saw some super cute owls!!

                Looking at stuff through a microscope

Time to start our hike...

Checking things off of our lists as we go.

           We found some really big mushrooms.

Happy Birthday, Dawson!!

Our Curriculum ~ Griffin

I thought I'd share with you the curriculum that we have chosen for this homeschool year. For Griffin we chose Switched On Schoolhouse (SOS) by Alpha Omega Publishing.



I first heard about this curriculum from one of my favorite TV families ~ The Duggars. They use this and highly recommended it. It is a computer based curriculum, so almost all of his subjects are done on the computer. He has Language Arts (reading, spelling, etc.), Bible, History/Geography, Science, and Spanish. We tried the math over the summer and didn't love it so we won't be trying that again for a while. He seems to enjoy working on the computer, watching the video clips and slide shows, and playing the games included in the lessons. The biggest selling point for me was that it does 95% of the grading for me!!

For math we went with Horizons, which is also through Alpha Omega.



He struggles with math and apparently workbooks work better for him than the computer. We will stick with this for a few years.

A friend recommended A Reason For Handwriting and so that is what we use for Penmanship.



Griffin hates, and I mean HATES to write and we like this book because it is only half a page of practice each day with a quiz on Fridays. It incorporates Scripture as well.

So there you have it! We have been pleased with our choices so far and we will continue with most of it again next year. Possibly with a few changes. You never know! ;0)

Our Curriculum ~ Reagan

For Reagan we have chosen to go with Horizons curriculum for almost everything. Switched On Schoolhouse doesn't start until 3rd grade so that's not an option yet.



It is a Scripture-based curriculum that is similar to the Abeka curriculum that she is used to.



We are trying some really fun things to do with spelling this year!






I have been very pleased with Horizons so far. (I scored ALL of the Horizons 2nd grade teachers guides at a consignment store nearby, so that is what we will use next year too.)

For Bible we are doing two different things. First ~ we chose Grapevine Studies by Kay Arthur (a wonderful author of many Bible studies). It hasn't come in yet, but I'm expecting it any day now. I'm very excited to start this!



Because there are not enough lessons of Grapevines to fill the entire year, and also because Griffin's SOS Bible is not every day we are doing We Choose Virtues with both of them a few days a week. It focuses on Biblical character qualities with fun catch phrases and corresponding scripture.



So anyway, with all this plus a lot of help from Pinterest, I think it's going to be a great year!!