Bragging on #2

Since it turns out that I use my blog more for daily life than for our school, let me catch you all up. We are now on Week 15 of My Father's World Kindergarten (Elephants, by the way). #2 is reading move CVCs with effort. He's rather proud of himself. He's enjoyed several read alouds very much lately, and his ability to concentrate on a story is improving. His attention span is lengthening. We've worked very hard on obedience, and we are seeing great progress. He is maturing in so many ways! And yet, he's very boy - just as we'd expect. And very sweet. Tonight at dinner, he leaned over to me and said, "Mama, you're a great cook-er." (Apparenly his hot dog, cheese, bread (all separate, by the way) and banana were quite tasty). After a lot of work, he will taste new foods without gagging and take medication when necessary without throwning a fit. His progress amazes me. He is a big help (sometimes too helpful :))

I enjoy him immensely!

Hello. My name is ThoughtfulMom, and I'm a curriculum junkie.

ComfyDenim and her G and Mini-Me came over to play with #2 and #3 this evening while The Bookworm King and I went to a wedding. It was great fun for all, and I still owe Comfy $4 for #2's happy meal - I'll pay her in the morning.

She and I got to talking a bit about our chosen Unit Studies that we are planning - and while I've got Galloping the Globe about halfway planned for next year and am just hunting down free notebooking resources and such to go with it and getting reading lists made, I found myself tempted to look at Konos Vol I. I've see II and III, so I know how it's all planned out and such, but it's so tempting to just buy a used copy at the local used curriculum store and have it on hand to refer to and enhance our literature studies.

This is really all because I'm having trouble fitting American history and geography into my verison of the Well-Trained Mind plan. You'd think that it wouldn't matter right now, especially since I've prayed about next year and GtG was my answer. And I've tlaked out next year's plan, and GtG was the answer. And I've talked to my husbnad who believes GtG is the answer. You'd think I'd just get the picture, but NOOOO... my mind starts wandering off on a rabbit trail.

I'm going to bed shortly - after a little more of planning out what God told me to plan for my kid. Not that Konos doesn't sound like wonderful fun - just that it's not God's plan for next year in my house.

I guess I must admit that I'm a curriculum junkie.

A Charlotte Mason Moment

We had never tried picture study before - but when Sugar Plum started posting her weekly "Fine Art of the Week" thread at The Homeschool Library, I decided we'd try it out. The first couple of pictures were amusing, but not really something I wanted to start with, but this week, she picked Mona Lisa. Ah HA! A piece of art I knew a bit about and that #2 needs to recognize. So, I printed out the image, and I put it on the refrigerator and waited for #2 to say something about it. About 20 minutes after I hung it up, he found it and started asking questions. The first one was, "Mama, what is that lady smiling at?" We talked a bit about the painting, and then moved on to other things. He later asked if he could color her himself, so I hunted down a coloring sheet for him, and this is the result (coloring became painting, by the way, and I couldn't find the watercolors.)

He was rather proud of his reproduction in green glitter paint (hence the sparkles). I was just glad to see him enjoying art - that is, of course, the point of picture study.

Homeschool Resources Meme

I've been tagged by Jessica at Jessica at Trivium Academy. Here are my answers:

1. ONE HOMESCHOOL BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED
Educating the Whole-Hearted Child by Sally Clarkson

2. ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT
"Rainbow Resource, fabulous views inside products and great customer service. I also love their wishlist option!" I admit, I copied that straight from Jess - but I do love their wishlist feature, and it is a handy-dandy catalog and website. Their prices are very nice.

3. ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT
The pre-ETC series - (Get ready for the code, Get set for the code, Go for the code). This is great for some kids, but it really didn't do it for my kindergartener. He much prefers MCP Phonics K.

4. ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST (This) YEAR
I like MFW Kindergarten - the phonics isn't perfect for us, but the units have been nice and I've enjoyed the resource, and so has #2.

5. ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR
Galloping the Globe

6. ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY
Ummmm.... there are many on my list at the moment. Know what I really want? A housekeeper - someone who comes and deep-cleans bathrooms and the kitchen dusts and vacuums once a week, leaving me only the keeping-up duties of the house, cooking, and being with my kids. As soon as our ship comes in, this will become a homeschool expense. If DH can pay a teenager $25 to mow the yard weekly in the summer, so that DH can spend his Saturday mornings doing something else, then I can pay someone to do my least favorite and most time-consuming tasks so that I can spend more time on the fun and important.

7. ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED
A searchable database of living books that can be searched by title, author, subject, appropriate age, geographic setting of book.... You get the picture. I want to type "Elephants Africa" and get a list of living books about the subjects.

8. ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOG YOU ENJOY READING
I go back and forth between My Father's World, Sonlight, and WinterPromise. The Love to Learn Catalog is pretty cool too.

9. ONE WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY
www.thehomeschoolibrary.com

10. TAG OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS

Comfy Denim
Nurturing Mommy
Diane

Baby's First Painting

Yep - this baby is a little green. :) Don't worry - it was nontoxic paint. And very washable. #3 was trying to get into #2's and #2's BuddiE's paint, so I gave him some of his own. Here's his handiwork: He was so proud of himself - or of his mess - I'm not sure which.

4:47am

Yes, folks, that is the time I got up this morning. I got up to feed #3, who was truly ready for breakfast round one (a bottle). While I was up with him, we woke up #2, who got up and came to chat, waking #3 up more and refusing to go back to bed and wait for me (earned some discipline for that). When I finally got #3 back to bed and went to deal with #2 - who told me he was hungry - so I went and got him a glass of water and the first #2-approved snack I came upon (a slice of homemade whole wheat bread). He refused to eat it, so I put it on his desk and left him in bed. Don't bite the hand that feeds you - especially not at 5:15am. As I left the room, #2 threw a high decibel screaming fit - and work #3 up again. By the time I finally made it back to my bed, it was 6:10 - 20 minutes before I needed to be up for the day.

I cried. I was so tired and so mad at #2. And there was my sweet husband, snoring away. I was mad at him, too - and yet I knew he had just gotten in bed when I got up to pee at 1:30.

It's now 9:15pm, and I'm done with Tuesday (It did get better - we went to Bible study and the pizza place, come home and did schoolwork, and then #2 went to Mimi's and #3 and I did errands and then went to pick #2. it wasn't a horrible day, but that was quite a icky morning. I'm hoping to never repeat that particular one.

Options for K-round 2

I need to think something through - what exactly do I want to do with #2 for school next year. So, I hope I don't bore you with my thoughts as I consider and plan.

#2 will be 5-5.5 when we start whatever plan I finally pick. He's rather intelligent. Right now, at 4.5 he's reading CVC words with some confidence and improving rapidly. He's going to finish MFW K at the end of April, and he will finish Singapore EarlyBird Math before that. He enjoys reading and being read to, and he has a fantastic imagination and a mind like a steel trap. He asks for school every day, and usually completes his work with no problems. My main goal for this year has been and continues to be to teach obedience and respect. (As one would expect, that goes better some days than others.)

Now, I have math and language arts picked out already. Following the suggestions in The Well-Trained Mind, they are:
Horizons K math
Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading (done first 40 lessons)
FIrst Language Lessons (start when we reach the appropriate place in the book
MCP Phonics A, and continuing (done K)
Spelling Workout A, and continuing
A Reason for Handwriting A, and continuing (done K)

Here are the current options for the rest of the subjects as I see them - I'm sure this will be one long entry, and I'm hoping that I'll talk myself around a useful circle and come to a decision. Any advice offered will be considered and appreciated.

Option#1: Sonlight Kindergarten (country/culture bent)
The plus to this program is that it is already planned out and it is about life in different places - which I think it a good thing for next year. While he is getting a grasp on time and history besides today, yesterday, and tomorrow, I know he can grab ahold of the idea of life in different areas of the world. The downsides is that all of the books used in this program are chapter books, and he just isn't ready for constantly reading from chapter books. I think he'd do better with a program that provides a gradual move from picture books to chapter books

Option#2: Winter Promise Animal Worlds
One major plus to this program is that it is already planned. I like the idea of this program, but the subject matter isn't perfect. Since we just spent this year on MFW K, we've done a lot of animal stuff. While he has enjoyed it, I don't know that he would enjoy spending another year on the animal kingdom. This program does have a mix of picture and chapter books and much information that would interest him, but I think he'd be bored if we spent another year just on animals.

Option#3: Winter Promise's new geography program for K-2
The largest downfall to this program right now is that is won't be released until April, when the new catalog comes out. If I'm going to do it, fine. But if it isn't the perfect thing, then I'll have to have another plan in place already. It may turn out to be just what I want - so I may start planning something else, but not make any purchases yet. That way I can still do this if it's perfect when I lay eyes on the new WP catalog.

Option#4: Galloping the Globe, which I would plan out completely now and begin using next fall
This is looking like the most viable option at the moment. It has several pluses - I can tailor it to #2's attention span and work to build his attention because I'll be picking books from lists instead of adhering to a particular schedule. I can incorporate the books from Animal Worlds and SL K that I think he would enjoy without having to use the ones that would most likely not hold his attention, and I can continue to fit in many books from our working reading list without having to drop other things. This unit study could be done in 40 weeks or it could be spread for a full year - since #2 needs his routine, we rarely take a week off. It's better for him to school one hour a day, six days a week, every week than to take weeks off - if we try, he begs for school until I make up something so it is easier to have something planned. I already own GtG, so I only would have to buy the spines and sort the books we have into appropriate subjects. I have a backlog of animal and geography based units from Hands of a Child and Live and Learn Press that could be incorporated into the program. Notebooking our way through would not be difficult either with the masters included in GtG and things available online and in the lapbooks and learning folders.

Option#5: Something of my own creation focusing on geography and world cultures
I want to acknowledge this as an option, but I'm more comfortable with modifying Galloping the Globe than I am with striking completely out on my own.

OK - looking back over my thinking, I can see that Galloping the Globe is probably the best choice. It's planning work for me, but that can be done little by little over the next few months, and it won't be difficult to have it done before the baby arrives. I'm off to see which of the spines are available at our local library so that I can see them before I buy them and start planning.

If you read this far, thanks for listening!