How We’re Using All About Spelling Level 2: syllable marking

 

 

I made the switch from Abeka to All About Spelling this year and have zero regrets! Even though I was tempted to skip forward, I am SO happy that we started with Level 1. She sailed through the first book but it laid a great foundation AND helped us both develop our flow. Flow is important in our home.

 

We aim to do AAS lessons four times a week. She loves AAS because it’s one of our subjects that she knows I’m with her the whole time. She does quite of bit of independent work these days…but is a sappy head like me and still enjoys our together time.

 

While I glance over the lesson & prep anything that needs prepping, I’ll have her busy sorting and organizing all of our letter tiles in ABC order.

 

Typically, once I’m set, we’ll do a little review work. She’s a big fan of me letting her be “the teacher”!

I do have a full set of the tiles. I use and encourage others to purchase them! You really need them. And though there are ways to make your own (I’ve tried) the quality of the product is worth the investment! In fact, I’m planning to buy a second set this year! But now that we’re further along, I find myself utilizing her mini white board more often. The great thing with AAS is that you’re encouraged to be creative!

 

In this lesson you can see I mixed tiles with whiteboard marker.

This is a review of syllable division concepts she’s learned. She loooooves the little cards. They have really helped root the “rules” in her mind…which helps her spelling globally. It’s always so cool when you see your child generalizing (using what they learned in the real world) concepts that you’ve poured yourself into helping them catch!

 

Because I’m such a HUGE fan of All About Spelling I’m also an affiliate! That means if you purchase curriculum via my link – I make a small commission! 

 

…danielle

Play-Doh Geography–a twist on map blobbing

 

 

My daughter has really struggled retaining the names of the 50 states. We’ve tried music and workbooks and iPad games and trivia during dinner.

 

 

But I think it was all just too abstract for her.

Enter map blobbing.  I love love love the idea! We’ve been using the idea to learn the continents. One day the idea popped into my head that we could modify the idea to help her learn her states too. And she doesn’t need to draw it to retain it! Why, she could play-doh blob the states instead! Everything is more fun with play-doh!

 

 

So I searched Pinterest for the cutest FREE USA printable I could find.  Hands down it’s this one. I printed & laminated & added magnets to the back so it can hang on our white board. We just pull it off the board for geography lessons. I have her shape play-doh over 5 (gradually increasing the number) states of her choice. She then has to tell me the names of the states she’s play-doh blobbed.

You can make it as intensive as you’d like. My goal right now is just helping her learn the names of the states and where they are geographically. The natural connections, like places we’ve been or have family help make it more concrete too.

 

 

This is so much fun even the 7th Grader can’t resist helping when he happens to find her state blobbing!

 

…danielle

we’re using Easy Peasy for Science

 

 

If you’ve been homeschooling for a bit by now then I’m sure you’ve heard rumblings about Easy Peasy or All in One Homeschool.

 

 

I’ve slowly been replacing other curricula with Easy Peasy.  Science being one of them.

 

 

Honestly, there is so much to love about this program. It’s well laid out and easy to follow. It promotes independent learning. It’s written to be aligned with PA homeschool standards. PA is among the more stringent states which helps me feel confident that what they’re learning is robust. Also, my kids are having fun! That’s not my guiding light when making educational choices for them…but it is a nice perk!

Learning is a blend of both online activities, readings, games and printables. Click here if you’d like to peek at the full Scope & Sequence.

 

 

Printables, like lapbooks, are linked in the daily schedules. This makes it SO easy to implement! I’ve always wanted to incorporate more lapbooks but I’m the girl that drools & thumbs her lips in the big box stores because there are too many choices! Too many choices paralyze me and trigger my “second guesser” instinct! That’s how I’ve felt about lapbooks. Easy Peasy makes it so…well…easy. And peasy!

I have found that for us using notebooks (rather than file folders) works best for our lapbooking. This way I can include other projects right into the same book. Plus, we’re enjoying the scrapbook-y feel. And it looks so neat and tidy! I have a thing for organized and tidy. This year I’m using composition notebooks. I like them best. Maybe it’s nostalgia?

 

 

The only thing I’m adding to our Easy Peasy Zoology studies is using Apologia’s Swimming Creatures as a read aloud. And that’s really only because a friend offered to let me borrow it.

 

Overall, I’m really enjoying this program and we will definitely continue to use it next year!

 

…danielle

a scenic tour of our dive into All About Spelling Level 1

 

My choice to use All About Spelling this year really flowed from two places.

 

I felt like, while she learned SO much with Abeka, she just wasn’t connecting.  Actually, she hated…loathed…dreaded…the video program.  While I’m not a total buy-in to the whole delight driven movement.  Because let’s face it…sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do.  Even if it’s the opposite of delightful.  At the same time…I don’t want her to HATE learning.  We need a little balance here!  And there are way too many raving reviews out there to ignore AAS! 

 

 

Also…Trevy.

 

 

Even though I don’t homeschool him yet…I’m always thinking about when I do.  And trying to be prepared with the best curriculum choices out there to help him achieve his fullest potential.  All About Spelling is what all the cool special needs mommies go gah-gah over. 

 

 

 

 

So it seemed like a win for her-win for him.

 

 

 

 

She has a good grasp of phonics and did wonderfully with the initial assessment. 

 

But…

 

when it came time to put the letter tiles in alphabetical order the first time…we realized that she’d forgotten how!

 

 

 

For the first couple lessons we used the Wee Sing & Learn ABC on the iPad.  I just had the song playing while she worked on organized the tiles. 

 

It only took a couple days for her to remember and request that we turn off the song already!

 

 

Originally I thought I would use the little magnetic board for the letter tiles.  Hmmmm.  Not so much.  It just works better to have the tiles in a long row for the lessons that have her use them to segment words.

 

Even on days when she’s not going to use the tiles I have her go ahead and put them in alphabetical order.  I’m all about having a “grounding” routine.  Also, I use that time to read over the lesson plan and prep for our work of the day.

 

 

 

Some of the phonograms with multiple sounds are tricky.  We’ve started making up little movements to help it stick in our brains.  She thought it would be a great idea to make little videos to help “other kids”.

 

 

We’ve been rolling through the Level 1 lessons.  It’s mostly been review for her up until now.

 

 

Once we had a nice routine established I started spicing things up.  Like letting her choose if she wants to write on paper or the white board.  Um.  Like that was even a choice, right?!

 

 

We’re on Step 14 in Level 1 and she’s doing wonderfully.  We’re doing wonderfully!  She’s enjoying learning together.  I’m enjoying actually teaching her this year rather than delegating her teaching to a video.  Video teaching is a wonderful tool but it was just time for us to move on.  She’s building confidence not just with spelling but also with reading.  When she stumbles on a word now I can either prompt her to segment it or even better, watch her segment on her own!  And even though it took me a minute to gather my “teacher wits” about me…I’m feeling more confident every day too!

 

Anyway…I know this sounds like a sponsored post.  It totally isn’t!  Although I am an All About Spelling affiliate. 

in which we’re studying the states

 

With Games

 

We love love love our Scrambled States card game!  I’ll own up to not being much of a gamer…but even I have fun with this one!

 

The kids loved my homemade game.  I wrote the capitals on sticky notes and hid them around the house.  They then dashed to find them one at a time and match the correct capital to state.  If they made a match they could dash off to find another!

 

 

With Puzzles

 

We’ve had a giant USA Melissa & Doug floor puzzle forever.  Actually, it’s been shipped to Tanzania and back with us too!  Which means it smells kinda funky…but the kiddos have fun working on it together.  I love floor puzzles because all three of the kids can do them together!

 

 

With our iStuff

 

I created a USA folder on the iPad and filled it with fun stuff like:

 

Wood Puzzle USA Map ($1.99) – I think it’s worth the money!  It’s easy enough that even beginning readers can play and challenging enough that even my 6th Grader has fun with it.

Stack the States (.99) – one of our faves BUT it’s too difficult for my 2nd Grader to play alone.  Soooo…I fix that by scheduling time for them to play together.

License Plate Bingo (.99) – a great app to play while running errands or road tripping. 

U.S. State Capitals! (FREE) – super simple and fun.  They give you the state and the capital is covered with a question mark.  Click the question mark to see if your answer was correct. 

 

The iPad is awesome for just snuggling up on the couch and hunting YouTube for various clips of whichever state we’re investigating.

 

**be sure to like Raising Little Rhodies on FaceBook because I post educational apps I find when they’re free or super discounted.  All of our fave apps up there I got when they were free!**

 

With Music

 

Wakko’s 50 States song is our all time fave!

 

 

Tour the States is a close second!

 

 

With Writing

We were SO excited to join a 50 State postcard swap over the summer! As the postcards came in we would fill out the coordinating info in our USA coloring books (Target $1 bins).

We made our own postcards to mail out. Staples was running a 50% off postcard sale so it was super cheap too!

I decided to hole punch our postcards and keep them filed in an index card binder. Then I printed up these handy dandy flashcards. Just the front sides which I pasted onto the index cards. Once the kids have finished their workbooks I’m going to have them go through and add important info to the back of the index cards.

 

The postcard swap was great except…

 

sadly, some of the people who joined didn’t send out their postcards in return.  We’re missing a handful and would love your help completing our 50 State postcard set!  We’ll send a RI one in return!  If you live in one of the following states and would like to help us out please leave your email in the comments and I’ll touch base with you. 

 

States still needed:

Alaska

Arizona

Illinois

Indiana

Mississippi

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Texas

 

 

…danielle

our at home speech therapy tray

 

 

I am all about Montessori style trays. 

 

 

But I’ll be honest…

 

 

Trevy is MUCH less enthusiastic about the trays than mommy is!  He’s just not a fan of anything that smacks of work.  Especially lately.  He’s becoming increasingly opinionated!  But one tray he’s always excited to pull out is his Speech Tray.

 

 

 

 

He loves tickling his cheeks with Thomas and the little newborn hair brush. We do have a fancy shamancy massager…but the battery is dead.  Also, it’s easy to pop it out so I can’t keep it in there any way. For fear of a trip to the ER – because Trevy thinks pretty much everything is at least attemptable to eat.

 

 

I have a little mini basket with various whistles, straws and chewy items (minus the magnetic letters which are no longer in that basket).  Clothes pins are good oral motor work and cotton balls are cheap & fun to work on blowing exercises.  I put it on my hand and we see how far he can make it go.

 

 

I added a mirror for him to make silly faces and work on sounds at the same time.  Our mirror is magnetic which is perfect for adding magnetic letters.  The idea is that he’ll pull a letter from the bowl and work on that sound.

 

I had his big sister model for me because getting pictures of Trevy working is impossible!

 

 

I used to try and keep all the cards all organized and neat. Um. Yeah. Maybe I’m the crazy one?!

 

The binder has flashcards to work on but he has WAY more fun pulling his PECs cards out of a pencil holder and working on words that way!

 

 

 

 

…danielle

exploring astronomy: solar system race to the sun hopscotch review game

 

 

I snuck outside while they were watching tv and drew the solar system on our driveway.

 

 

 

She noticed that I’d excluded Pluto and was highly offended.  Oops.  Guess she’s decided not to subscribe to the Pluto isn’t a Planet team.

 

 

I had a couple ideas for ways to use our chalk solar system. 

 

 

Race to the Sun review game.

 

I like to have them pick a number between 1-20 to decide who goes first.  It’s easy peasy and has eliminated the griping.  I’m a big fan of less griping.

 

 

Whoever wins the number pick gets the first review question.

 

Each correct answer means a hop to the next planet.

 

 

I know his feet positioning looks like he’s ready to run the other way…but he really enjoyed this game a lot.  Even if the eleven in him won’t let him admit it!

 

 

We also just hopped forwards and backwards down the solar system naming the planets in order.  In the direction we were going, of course. 

 

 

Another way we’ll play (an impromptu play date interrupted us though) is to use a squirt bottle to erase random planets and see if we can remember and name the missing one.

 

 

Just a little fun School Lite stuff we did today!

 

 

Other Solar-y System Stuff:

Space Rocks a Chapter by Chapter review

2 Super Fun Asteroids Games

My Solar System Pinboard

 

 

…danielle

Trevy’s fave warm weather fine motor play-tivity: write and squirt the alphabet

 

This is totally not an inspired idea.  You’ve probably already seen it/done it/moved on.  But since we’re having so much fun right now I thought I’d share.

 

 

What you Need:

• Sidewalk Chalk
• Water filled squirter of your choice
• Any chalk friend surface (opinions may vary on precisely which surfaces are chalk friendly )
• Children

 

 

 

Trevy (when I say Trevy…I really mean mommy) has been driving daddy bonkers with the chalk.  He’s drawing everywhere.  On everything.  A regular graffiti artist in the making!  Actually, we may have two or three of them in the making.  That big square that Trevy in enhancing (below) is his big brother’s chalk drawn Strike Zone.  Where he practices pitching with a tennis ball.  From approximately dawn til’ dusk. 

 

 

Anyway…

 

I may have rolled my eyes at the hubs’ chalk hating ways.  I also may have guilt tripped him to “let the boy write” and “the rain’ll wash it away” retorts.

 

 

Which gave me the bright idea to let TREVY wash it away!

 

 

I mean the monkey already has a passion for squirting things.  We keep a little squirty bottle ready for bed head fixes.  It is not uncommon to get misted at the most unexpected times.  And to look up and find Trevy cheesy grinning behind the weapon.  So very proud of his aim. 

 

 

 

So I decided to make it a little more structured by drawing the alphabet on the fence for him to wash away.  And you can get as creative as you dare.  Pull letters from a bucket and then go erase that letter.  Use words instead of letters.  Draw shapes.  Colors.  Whatever!

 

 

The bottom line is…

 

 

it’s crazy fun to squirt things!

 

 

And Trevy loooooved it!

 

 

Of course, I played therapist by making him use “two hands”.  Which he hates.  He will ALWAYS prefer his left hand only.  Forcing him to “work” did put a damper on some of the love.  But I have no doubt this’ll be his fave thing to do ALL summer long!  Especially when I randomly allow him to get in a mommy squirt too. 

 

 

…danielle

Trevy’s April (montessori/tot school) Trays

 

 

Trevy attends our local public school’s integrated preschool program four half days a week.  Although next year is K…sniffle sniffle.  Integrated is just a fancy way of saying half the class or less is special needs and half the class or more should be peer models.

 

 

I like the program we have wrapped around him.  It’s working and he (mostly) enjoys school.

 

 

But we also do a lotta learning here at home too!

(homeschool mommy syndrome?)

 

 

I’m in love love love with the workbox/tot tray concept.  The OCD in me adores how organized it is!  Plus it looks so cute and learn-y all cozy in the school/therapy room.

 

 

 

 

Inside each of those little drawers (I call them trays) lives mommy picked toys and activities.

 

I rotate what’s inside them on a monthly basis.  Sometimes more often.  Depending on how creative and energetic I’m feeling. 

 

 

   

 

 

We’re blessed to have some amazingly gifted people working with Trevy.  One of them gave me the 3 – 2 – 1 – all done! idea to help Trevy maintain his focus.  I have 3 strips (hanging on the whiteboard for now) with coordinating pictures on the drawers.  Once Trevy fills a strip (which means completing 3 trays) he’s All Done!  And can choose anything he’d like to play – usually that means outside or iPad.  Although he does have a recent infatuation with Chuck the Truck.

 

 

Ideally, we’ll go through all 3 sets of trays each day.  I don’t know about your place…but at our place life doesn’t typically flow ideally.     Most days we make it through 1 set.

 

 

Rather than go in depth with the trays now…I thought I’ll just do a quickie skim.  And maaaaaybe…I’ll do a post for each tray individually? 

 

Set 1

 

All About Reading Tray

Ziggy Zebra and a couple other puppets live inside here.  My AAR tote bag hangs on the back of the school door. 

 

Pattern Blocks Tray

I found these awesome easier pattern printables and only have the blocks needed to complete the two patterns in the drawer.  I do keep the blocks in a Trevy safe tupperware so I don’t have to worry about choking.

 

Pre-Writing Tray

I do use a large binder which doesn’t fit in the tray as a slated surface.  Dry erase crayons are in the little tupperware.  Again…Trevy safe.  Trust me…I’ve wiped enough crayon off enough walls!  And from between enough teeth!

 

Set 2

 

T for Trevy Tray

Spelling his name with magnetic letters.  I intend to start erasing the prompt letters one x one to see if he can generalize.

 

Hand Writing Without Tears Puzzle Tray

I printed HWT templates and cut the shapes from foam sheets.

 

Gross Motor Play Tray

I found another great printable with movement prompts for the letters of the alphabet.  We have to do at least 5 movements to complete this tray.

 

set 3

 

Speech Therapy Tray

Lots of oral motor play goodies plus flash cards, PECS and a sentence strip or two.

 

Craft Tray

We’re making our own ABC book with coloring sheets.

 

Life Skills Tray

We’re using I Can Dress Myself by Your Therapy Source to help learn about self care.  We also dress to dolly as we play.

 

 

And that’s a peek in his trays this month.

 

 

…danielle