Heading Into Week Two

We spent the weekend working ahead on some of our school subjects and getting familiarized with Reezle's Spanish course. I had been waiting on her teacher to explain how to log in to the course, but I hadn't heard back. As it turns out, simply logging in using Reezle's user info did the trick. She completed the first 3 units, and the course looks great! Little G is even following along.

Reezle spent a good amount of time enjoying some books and her favorite Poptropica computer game, while Little G worked on Math almost non-stop from the moment he woke up each day until he went to bed. It is rare to see the little guy without his math workbook. He encountered a bit of frustration when doing math problems which required him to borrow more than once, especially when zeros were involved. He is an extreme perfectionist and has absolutely no patience for his own mistakes. It took me a bit of time to convince him that it is a perfectly acceptable part of learning to make mistakes, and that these can even help us to learn better. He wasn't having it at first, but he eventually calmed down and accepted it. He did a retake on his assessment, and scored 100% the second time. He was fine after that, of course.

We also did some writing, vocabulary, analogies, and spelling, but typing out all of our spelling words for each unit - especially at the rate at which my kids are currently burning through them - is tedious and probably not enjoyable to read anyhow. Suffice it to say they are tackling some pretty challenging words and doing an exceptional job. I'm very proud of both of them.

Much like last year, we are continuing our hoopdance practice and doing mostly that and running for our physical education. We did a lot of it over the past week. I incorporate nutrition and information about how physical activity benefits the body into our PE curriculum. It seems there is a huge overlap between our health and PE material, so I kind of wing it with how much individual time we're giving to each. We probably do a lot more physical activity than I log for PE, all of it educational, but I was actually told to stop logging it last year due to the amount of hours. Heh. Better a bit more than needed than not enough, in my opinion.

On the agenda for tomorrow is Study Island, in addition to our typical studies. They changed the format and wow, what a positive change. Little G has his first Aimsweb assessment of the year later this week, and we're also planning a family field trip in the very near future. I love getting back into a routine again!

Wednesday Randomness

Dear Study Island,

I am using you. Yes, using you. Not to test what my children know, as is your intended purpose, but to assess what I need to focus most on when I am teaching them and to determine their strengths so I can use those strengths to their benefit. Or maybe that is part of your purpose. I dunno. But I'm using you. So yeah.

-Mama Bonn

It's been a long day, so you'll have to forgive my case of mommybrain/whatever that letter above was. Our lessons began this morning and didn't really wrap up until late this evening. We didn't need to go on that long, but material-related interests kept sprouting up like flowers after a thunderstorm and we went with it.

Miss R seems to be taking quite an interest in 9/11 this year. You'll hear no complaints from me; I am addicted to political and historical documentaries and events, and there are no shortage of these on the topic of 9/11. There is a short Nick News program called What Happened?, available in full on the Nickelodeon website. We watched that together, but it did not answer all of her questions. She has many questions about everything. (I like that.) So I also let her watch some of the live news coverage from that day, explaining what it felt like and what I thought about as I watched it unfold that morning. She had many questions, and I answered them as best I could, but told her that some questions simply cannot be answered.

On other matters, I am learning what works for my children and what doesn't. Strangers were in charge of my daughter's education for two years, so I am at a bit of a disadvantage with her compared to my son in terms of knowing her learning style and academic strengths and weaknesses. I find that the way some of the material is presented makes it more complicated than it actually is. For example, R is learning place values in Math, working with base 10 blocks and doing regrouping exercises. While these exercises are quite valuable, she already knows how to add two-digit and three-digit numbers, and can't understand why she has to basically back track and break down into simpler terms what is already fairly easy for her. But, since she actually seems to struggle with it to some degree, I am going to have her do an activity where she draws hundreds, tens, and ones blocks instead of working with the actual 3-D blocks. Since she is drawn to drawing (heh, I are so funny), I figure maybe that will help. You know, especially if I encourage the use of multiple crayon colors.

For PE, we're doing a lot of hooping for now. We can practice indoors or out. The weather has either been ridiculously hot or chilly and rainy recently, but once we get a nice day with some sunshine I will be taking some blogworthy pictures of our happy hooping. For now, these photos of G and myself will have to do.


R is a pro at this, and G is catching on quickly! Only occasionally do we have a hoop go flying while trying a new trick...and it's usually mine. It's so cool to watch my children learn new things, from Math to hooping and everything in between. We are all really enjoying this experience, and I am so thankful for it.

Study Island: Kindergarten Math

Little G and I spent some of our Sunday on Study Island. He completed the Kindergarten Math section. His scores (below) are in blue, the goal scores are in black, and how he compares is in black to the right of the goal score. Ad = Advanced:

Way to go, Little G!

Day Four

I found a way this afternoon to allow G to take first grade assessments in Study Island, so we did two of them. On reading standards for literature, the goal is 70% for students in grade 1. G's scores were as follows:

(a) Asking and answering questions: 90.9% (Ad) Advanced
(b) Retelling stories: 83.3% (Ac) Accelerated

So basically, he is accelerated to advanced...for a first grader. On his 4th day of Kindergarten. He amazes me. G welcomed the challenge and earned a warm and fuzzy for his efforts.

My dear artistic little girl wrote a few sentences about herself to accompany her self portrait for an assignment due tomorrow.


For a bit of Language Arts supplementation and our little post-break reading and relaxation ritual, I bought both of my children a book to help them with issues they struggle with. Little G has a temper, and R sometimes struggles with the concept of sharing. Today, they each read their new book to me, and afterward I read the books to both of them.



In the background is our furry friend, Sticky. I think she enjoyed our reading this morning and afternoon, too.

And finally, for History (or was it Social Studies?) yesterday and today, my little R (or was it G?) had this echo song about the continents. We're all having fun with it together, like most other subjects.

I thought we could put it together with music and add the tambourine to keep a beat. I plan to add our recorder and keyboard to our music lessons, and maybe pick up a little drum set for fun.

Oh, did I mention I love homeschooling my children? Because I do. And they love it, too. And I have to admit it is a lot of fun to hear the school bus drive right by our home, sans squeaky brakes, and know that we've been done with our lessons for 2 hours already and that there is no required homework ahead of us - just some great, quality family time.

Groovy

We're finding a groove.

I am more grateful now than ever about finishing up my last few college credits via correspondence courses. It gave me an idea of what a partially web-based school curriculum would be like, taught me time management in terms of independent learning, and gave me the confidence to do teach my children using a method which can be very personally rewarding for students. I loved independent learning, and it appears that my children are feeling the same way.

Today we experienced our first Elluminate sessions with each of their virtual academy teachers. This is where students and/or parents/learning coaches have virtual conferences and assemblies via an online sort of Skype-like interface. It was a fun, highly interactive, and very informative experience for us. The children even had a chance to doodle on a white board, a program similar to Paint, with their classmates. It seemed a bit overwhelming at first, but it was actually very user-friendly and fun to use.

We are becoming comfortable with our scheduling very quickly and beginning to settle into a routine that works for us. It's not nearly as scary as it feels just starting out, and I am already identifying places where we can supplement some of the things I was hoping to fit in. Study Island (mentioned in my previous post) is something we enjoy doing pretty much any time of the day, since both R and G like to test their knowledge. The most difficult part for me so far is letting R answer her own questions on the assessments even when I know she's wrong. That is part of the learning process, and her skills need to be evaluated for what they are. I write down any areas where she seems to have hesitation, and come up with a fun way to help her understand it better. The main issue for her seems to be with reading all possible answers before making a selection, and following instructions, not the actual material. She is still Accelerated or Advanced across the board, so I'm not concerned. Similarly, Little G has scored Advanced in all of his assessments, never getting below 100% on any of them thus far.

This Kindergarten Phonics, though...ugh. It's frustrating the heck out of G - not because he doesn't know it, but because he's bored to tears. It's like asking a 9 year-old to do sight word flash cards. He was (no joke here) helping R study for her first grade spelling tests and instructing her on the proper way to pluralize words when he was in preschool last year because he had already mastered what she was learning. I will never forget hearing R mutter something in frustration at her desk as G said, very animated with hands going and all, "You have to drop the Y and add an I-E-S, sissy." I wrote a quick note to his teacher and asked if we could at least change his Study Island Reading items to first grade. She's awesome about getting back to us quickly, so I should know something as soon as tomorrow.

Since the Kindergarten Phonics is what it is, I am having G join in R's Phonics and Language Arts lessons. I even print extra worksheets for him so he can actually do the work, too. And I supplement a lot in this area. In addition to the curriculum, they both have at least an hour of independent reading each day. We also make time to take turns reading aloud to each other after we break for lunch. It is a relaxing way to get their minds back into thinking mode.

Daddy is also helping to supplement their curriculum. In the evenings and on the weekends, he is often doing math flashcards with them (addition, subtraction, and multiplication) or playing skill games like chess, checkers, or memory. I love this, because it is a great way for them to spend special time with Daddy while also learning. This is not anything new, but now that we have specific things to study, he discusses a lot of what they are learning.

We're all looking forward to getting started tomorrow. R has already asked me if I have printed out our lesson plans for the day yet. I have. We talked a little about what we have planned for the day, and she was literally jumping with joy about Science because we will be going around measuring things. And, for Music, stuffed animals will be participating. How cool is that!?

Very cool, indeed.

Study Island and Day Two

There is a neat little assessment tool which we became familiar (and a little obsessed) with today. It is called Study Island. We all enjoyed it, and the children's scores were as follows:

R

Pretest, reading:
Score: 100%

Phoenemic awareness, word recognition, and fluency (word sounds):
Goal: 68%
Score: 100% (Ad) Advanced

Acquisition of vocabulary; context clues:
Goal: 67%
Score: 100% (Ad) Advanced

Pretest, math:
Score: 100%

Number, number sense, and operations:
a. Place value
Goal: 70%
Score: 90.9% (Ad) Advanced

b. Compare and order whole numbers
Goal: 70%
Score: 90.9%

c. Odd and even numbers
Goal: 70%
Score: 100% (Ad) Advanced

d. Money
Goal: 70%
Score: 100% (Ad) Advanced

G

Math: Numbers, operations, and quantitative reasoning

a. Counting objects up to 20
Goal: 70%
Score: 100% (Ad) Advanced

b. Comparing Numbers
Goal: 70%
Score: 100% (Ad) Advanced

c. Ordering
Goal: 70%
Score: 100% (Ad) Advanced

d. Dividing in Half
Goal: 70%
Score: 100% (Ad) Advanced

This was actually a bit of fun that helped us all unwind a bit from what started as a somewhat stressful day. The OLS (online school) was suffering from some technical problems, and we (as well as many other K12 families) were suffering right along with it. I found myself thanking my lucky stars that I printed out my lesson plans for the day bright and early this morning before the birds even started chirping. I will make it a general plan from now on to print all lesson plans the night before, just to be extra safe.

Though I was admittedly stressed out, since I tend to prefer things super organized and highly predictable and because I could not access all of the information and was forced to miss out on a really cool connection opportunity with one of our virtual academy teachers, we managed to keep busy and even have fun with our offline studies until the technical issues were ironed out. Even on a stressful day, I still love this experience and felt us finding a bit of a groove today as we worked. I would even go so far as to say the technical issues were a bit of a blessing in disguise because it showed me we work well under pressure and the flexibility of the curriculum is a major benefit for many reasons.


I am witnessing myself some of the things that R's teacher told me last year about her strengths (most places) and the areas where she needs a bit of encouragement (focusing on the details instead of skimming, and counting money). It is a different perspective. It's one thing to hear it and know it, and another entirely to witness it and work with it. And, pleasantly, I am surprised how well R and I work as a team. My concerns are quickly fading, our collective enjoyment of the experience is already growing, and I am feeling truly blessed and incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to witness and be a part of my children's learning experience. Honestly, it almost feels too good to be true.

Today, we enjoyed Math and Language Arts, as we will every day. My only problem there is getting Little G to pace himself. We really need to move ahead for his sake, because he had three days worth of lessons completed in the five minutes - no kidding that it took me to set R up with her words list and book for her Language Arts lesson. I mean, he was done, and everything was correct. I think he could complete that entire math book in a day's time and not miss a beat. Fortunately, he cuts things very slowly, so I set him to work on making a shapes puppet. To quench his mathematical thirst for knowledge, we studied only Math in Study Island. He loved it. Eventually, his 5 year-old attention span won, daddy came home, and the two of them enjoyed a game of chess together.

Did I mention how much I love this? Because I do.

My precious R did a self portrait today as part of her Art curriculum, and I have to tell you I am still in awe of it. She is an artist. She comes by it honestly; her grandma Josephine and cousin Josie are also very creative and talented artists.

We didn't get to music today, but since we put in extra time on most of our other subjects, the plan is to have a lot of fun tomorrow with that.

Today I made a call to the transportation department to let them know that my children will not be attending the local elementary school and thus not taking the bus, so we should not have a repeat of the bus stopping and beeping like it did this morning. I will not miss that, though I do have to admit that I enjoyed watching it drive away with absolutely zero anxiety about the fact that we were not curbside, dressed, backpacked, and ready to leave for 8 hours. I relished making breakfast in our own time, doing school in pajamas again (because we can!), and inviting Sticky and a few bears to join us for our lessons. The big yellow bus, once so anticipated with innocent smiles and hopes and dreams, lost much of its appeal by the end of Kindergarten for my sweet R. I hated that. But the smiles are returning now instead of fading, and there is nothing in this world that could ever mean as much to me as knowing my children (and husband) are happy.