my favorite curriculum choices this year

 

All About Spelling

If you’ve been homeschooling for any length of time, chances are you’ve heard of All About Spelling.

 

I decided to buy the first two volumes (pre-owned) to use with my daughter this year.  Also, to have on hand for my youngest who has special needs.  I’ve heard so many special needs mommies rave about the program that I thought it would be a good investment.

And I have NOT been disappointed when it comes to my daughter.  We used Abeka for her first two years at home and while she did okay…it wasn’t easy.  Especially with the spelling piece.  If had been keeping grades she would have flunked every spelling test.

 

This year has been SO much better!

 

I love that AAS doesn’t have weekly memorized lists and focuses instead on learning spelling rules.  Each lesson is fully scripted and organized.  Each lesson includes review…review…review…and lots of practice!  And the best news is…she’s successful!  In today’s lesson she wrote two sentences with a total of 15 words (we counted) and made ZERO mistakes!  She rolled her eyes at my excitement.  But I’m pretty sure she was feeling proud of herself too.  We’ll definitely be sticking with this curriculum next year!

 

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Math U See

My 3rd Grader was actually doing wonderful with Abeka’s math program but I decided to switch her over to Math U See this year anyway.  A friend was giving away a couple teacher’s manuals and dvds.  All I had to buy was the student workbook and manipulatives.  I couldn’t resist!  This was another program I’ve been eyeing with Trevy in mind.

 

My daughter is thriving with the program.  We both love the dvds and manipulatives.  We’re in Gamma this year and she’s getting the hang of multiplication. 

I’ve loved it SO much for her that I bought a used Primer set to use with him too!  I consider my youngest blended schooled.  He attends a wonderful public school program in the mornings.  And we do a lot of work at home evenings and weekends and snow days.  We’ve had a lot of them this winter!

 

Below is a sample of the Math lesson I did with him for today’s snow day!  I love how he added the 10 to the number line. 

We will definitely be sticking with Math U See!

 

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Homespun-School.net

I stumbled on Homespun-School in a FaceBook forum.  There was an ad sharing a free 6 week digital learning class.  Psssst…the next one starts on February 10th!

 

I was sold on the idea of a FREE computer class taught by someone other than me.

 

I wasn’t super sure what to expect.  And to be honest, in the beginning both my 7th Grader and I were quite overwhelmed.  But we stuck with it and went from overwhelmed to in love.  My son is learning SO much.  More than that…he’s LOVING what he’s learning!  It’s one subject he doesn’t complain about how much time it takes to complete.  He’s created his own website and is now learning how to create animations like the cartoon below.

He’s totally proud of himself.  I couldn’t be more happy we stumbled on HSS.  In fact, we’re enrolling in a Spring course!

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Draw Write Now

 

I love Draw Write Now because it combines art with penmanship/copywork!  Genius!  I’ve been borrowing the books from our library and perpetually renewing.  I should probably think about buying these!

 

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The Care & Keeping of You

A girlfriend mentioned how much her daughter was loving this book.  I thought it looked like a good choice for “Health”.  I had NO idea how addicted she was going to be!  She really doesn’t put it down except to hide it from the boys’.  We’ve had a lot of interesting conversations.  The topics range from hygiene to puberty to relationships.  Gotta hand it to American Girl on this one.  A great book for a tween-y health choice!

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Easy Peasy Homeschool

We’re using Easy Peasy for a number of things this year!

 

Science.  Reading.  Grammar.  Writing.  Spanish.  Thinking.

Easy Peasy is so great because it’s FREE!  But not just that…it’s quality.  Lee Giles, the developer, has spent a LOT of time & energy making these lesson plans available to moms like me for FREE.  It’s such a beautiful gift and I appreciate it to my toes.

A little sample of some poetry (above) and Spanish (below) that they’ve been working on with Easy Peasy this year.

We will definitely continue using Easy Peasy next year!

 

 

…danielle

a day in the life (homeschool picture marathon style)

 

 

I thought it would be fun to take pictures randomly through one of our days this week.  These pictures don’t reflect everything that happened during our day.  Just the stuff that made me smile.

 

Bristel with her “Abeka Academy” class for Math and Language Arts.

Toby sweatin’ to Saxon 7/6.

Bristel is such a SLOB with her desk during our school day!  This is how she left it during her break time.

 

My grading bin is there because I sit beside her and look over their turned in work.  She pays better attention to the videos if I’m sitting with her.

Oh the irony that his space is neater!

Toby is looooooving Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool for his English.  In fact, next year we’ll be using EP a lot more. 

I had these set out to laminate.  Um.  Yeah…they’re still sitting on the table where I left them a few days ago.

Bristel was kind enough to warn everyone that there was a hornet in the mudroom.

I was astonished to find her bike neatly propped up!  She loooooves riding her bike during her break times but usually just drops it any ol’ place in the yard.

I didn’t catch a picture but Toby is often found working on his pitching finesse or shooting hoops during his break times.

She also decided to start a garden.  I’m guessing she must have been inspired by peeking at some of my recent pinning?

 

Notice the browning de-seeded apple below.  I couldn’t help but notice where she found the seeds.  She thinks she’s growing me some apple trees in the backyard. 

We discovered that Trevy got into her school work.

I guess he’s not a fan of Math. 

She had a sweet spirit about it though and laughed while she erased his scribbles.

Probably because she knew I was going to find her hidden message on our chore chalkboard. 

 

…danielle

how homeschoolers do teacher appreciation

 

 

Unexpected letters left on the teacher’s desk…

 

 

Love notes hidden in Math Tests…

 

 

Offering to entertain the littlest so mom can relax in her early Mother’s Day zero gravity chair.

 

 

 

Okay…so maybe I had to FORCE him to entertain the little guy for me.  But at least I got to grab some Vit D for a few minutes! 

 

 

…danielle

tracking: it’s time to get serious about this potty thing

 

 

Which is not to imply that we haven’t been serious to this point, mind you.

 

 

Because we have been.

 

 

For three bloody years we have been.

 

 

Once an hour (because a schedule seems to work best for him) for three bloody years we have been potty serious.

 

 

Every gimmick, trick, theory, Elmo potty toy/book/dvd, potty training program tried once an hour for three bloody years kinda potty serious.

 

 

And it’s not that he’s entirely unsuccessful.  Although he has yet to TELL me (consistently) when he has to use the potty. But still, we’ve had stretches when I’ve actually thought we were ready to brave the big boy undies in public!  Then suddenly…we’re back to ground zero.

 

 

And it’s been frustrating.

 

 

And exhausting.

 

 

And all consuming.

 

 

And (because the tears I’ve shed over this skill are many, it bears repeating) SO thoroughly exhausting!

 

 

But here’s the thing.  I haven’t been collecting data.  Oh I’ve mentally tallied pees and poos.  Especially the poos.  Especially the smeared over every portion of his body causing mommy to have psychological breakdowns on more than one occasion poos.  The trouble with mental data (especially with a fuzzy brain like mine) is that it isn’t reliable.   And if there is one thing that ABA is teaching me (you know, other than using LESS verbal prompting) it would be how important real, hard data collection is.

 

 

So even though Excel is my enemy.  I did it.  I created a spreadsheet.

 

 

 

I’m using some of our ABA program’s tracking system.

 

U+ is for pee pees on the potty is exceedingly ABA-ish.

 

 

But because I’m a Kinesthetic learner…I wanted some color that could help me make sense of any emerging patterns.

 

Hence my hand written color blocks at the bottom. 

 

 

 

I’m gonna collect potty data for a couple weeks and see where we’re at.  Our home-based ABA program is also getting serious with me.  Because he’s almost six now.  And he’s SO smart! 

 

 

I just know he can DO this! 

 

 

And the data will help me see where he needs a little more support.

 

 

Right?!

 

 

If nothing else…it will make Bristel very impressed that I “faced my (Excel) fears” today.  She’s all about facing her fears recently.

 

 

And because I’m all about helping other parents out…if you’d like to “steal” my spreadsheet just send me an email and I’ll whip a PDF right over!

 

 

…danielle

 

 

ps.  Oh and last thought.  Other than the Time Timer watch…if anyone knows of a watch that can be set to vibrate once an hour which is also Trevy resetting and water (or whatever else Trevy might do to it) proof…please leave a link in the comments section!

prayers with Trevy (a bedtime book idea)

 

 

Praying with Trevy has always been part of our nightly routine.

 

 

Except when sick, Trevy is a sweet, sappy, cuddle bug at bedtime.  Even when dripping with exhaustion, there is something really special about snuggling up, reading a book, singing a song and praying.  No matter how cranky I am, it always gets me in the heart.  It’s one of the most peaceful moments in my day. 

 

I do naps and Daddy does night nights. 

 

 

Now that Trevy is understanding so much…

 

 

I’ve had this heart tug to make prayer time mean more for him. 

 

 

Once upon a time, I’d read a sweet post that shared a prayer over their children. Moving from head down to toes. It included words like “heart of a warrior – feet that run to Jesus”.

 

I thought I’d read it over at Sand in the Gears…one of my favorite reads which I’m shamelessly plugging. In fact, I emailed the author so convinced was I. Tony was kind enough to respond that he didn’t recall such a post but shared this link of inspiration instead.

 

 

I loved the idea on so many levels!

 

I loved consecrating each part of Trevy to Jesus.  I loved tangibly giving thanks for Trevy blessings.  I’ve grown into quite a pessimist over the years.  Forcing my heart to take notice of the blessings is needed!  I loved working on body parts with Trevy.  Helping him become more self aware.  I loved reminding him that he’s a perfectly Planned miracle child (as Toby calls him)! 

 

 

Did you know that the right side of the brain does most of the visual processing? 

 

Yep.  So it’s no wonder Trevy loves things that are visually stimulating.

 

Which is why I decided to take this idea that I loved and make it into a little prayer book.

 

 

I found some of my favorite Trevy pictures and using Pisca I cropped out the body parts I wanted to focus on.  Each page would be dedicated to a different focus. 

 

I then added the text “Dear Jesus, thank you for Trevy’s xyz”

 

I then free-style floated random words around the page.  I didn’t want too much text.  Just simple words that he and I (or he and daddy) can add to during prayers.

 

 

I then printed and laminated the pictures.  And a few hole punches and book rings later…we had our prayer book!

 

 

Trevy loves it.

 

 

He randomly talks about it throughout the day.  And will not go to bed without reading his prayer book.  The first time (and every time since) we read it together…he made it clear (in Trevy speak) that I forgot a very important body part.

 

 

His “taco”.

 

 

Swahili for bootay.

 

 

His siblings taught him to grab his boot and say, “I love my taco!”

 

 

Which he did whilst verbally adding a “thank you Jesus for my butt” page.  All twinkling eyes as he’s telling me all the reasons why his bum is so cool.  It goes poooop in the potty (sometimes) and makes boo-fahs (he’s a boy, people) and booty shakes (I’m not advocating for Magic Mike but I’ve seen the preview and I’m just saying, Trevy could rock the audition)…

 

 

Boys.

 

 

Trevy’s head to toe prayer book is one of the best things I’ve made for him!

 

 

…danielle

 

 

ps.  Praying over Trevy has been so beautiful that I decided to pray over the “big kids” too.  Oh if you could see the way their eyes shine!  Every now and then…an idea comes along that is a mommy home-run.

look who’s ice skating

 

I always love when we have homeschool-y events when Trevy can join us.  Sometimes his school breaks come along at just the right time.

 

 

Enter: super adorable ice skating pictures!

 

 

Trevy doesn’t miss a beat.

 

 

He’s overheard us talk about ice skating many times over the last few months.  Which always leads to him pleading “I go too!”  A conversation that always ends in bitter tears and tantrums.  Because…um…no, bud.  You go school. 

 

 

He was so excited the answer was finally “yes” that he never even complained about wearing the helmet!

 

 

Thank goodness for Miss. Kerrie!  She braved the ice with him.  You do NOT wanna see me on skates!  And the truth of it is…if Miss. Kerrie didn’t come we would have done breakfast at Friendly’s rather than ice skating!

 

 

Of course, he saw Bristel out there doing triple lutzes (slightly exaggerated because it’s my blog and I can!) and decided he wanted to skate without the crate and “do like Bristel”.

 

 

Only he forgot he has low tone and motor planning “challenges”!

 

 

Poor Miss. Kerrie was sweating from all the work!  They both quickly decided it was much more fun with the crate after all.

 

 

Especially when Trevy learned how to cheat and hitch a ride by putting his feet IN the crate!

 

Smart boy!

 

 

By the end of the hour though…he did manage to hold onto the side (with LOTS of Miss. Kerrie help) and slowly slowly creep along.  With Bristel and her BFF Sam cheering him all the way!

 

 

 

…danielle