Teach Your Monster to Read

My 4 year old is on break from preschool and I've been trying to work with her on some reading skills and getting her used to the idea of homeschool (which she is really excited about).  She's a few lessons into Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  She loves it!  LM has always been my "independent reader".  She loves books.  She likes to "read" them all day every day.  When I read to her, I have to give her another book to hold or she'll interrupt me the whole time I'm reading.  Last year I read about a free website that works with beginning readers called Teach Your Monster to Read.  SM has already completed the 2 levels (we're hoping for more levels soon).  LM is half way through the second level now.

I like that it is free.  The girls love that they can create a monster and add accessories to it as they advance through the levels.  One fault that I have found is that the narrator is difficult to understand at times.  This makes some of the listening levels harder because it sounds like he's saying one sound but its actually a different one.

www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

 

Fancy Nancy Book Review

SM loves the Fancy Nancy books.  She has several of the picture books, but we recently discovered the I Can Read beginning readers.  SM loves that Nancy always dresses and talks "fancy".  I love that she uses "fancy" words and gives a definition in the story.  The bonus is that SM doesn't even realize that she is learning new words this way.  The end of each book has a glossary of Fancy Nancy's Fancy Words - which repeats each of the words in the story with the definition.
   

I had to use this book paired with her new smile!  She really enjoyed this book since she just recently lost another tooth.

Homeschool Headaches

We are about 5 weeks into the school year and have already started having fights about schoolwork.  Last year SM loved math and resisted reading.  This year we have done a flip-flop.  She loves reading and argues over math.  Right now its just with subtraction.  But we spend more time arguing about doing the math then it takes her to actually do it.  Some days we just give up and work on Khan Academy instead.  Other days I just stick to it and we fight the whole time.  This usually results in tears and threats of no privileges or even the dreaded public school.  We have had heart to heart talks and more tears.  Yesterday I asked her what she needed to help her not feel so overwhelmed by subtraction.  We remembered that she had blocks to we used as a manipulative last year.  We pulled those out and immediately the tears and arguing ended.  She finished her page of subtraction in record time today.  Sometimes we just need to change things up a bit and be creative.

Magic School Bus series

A great resource we have found for studying science is the Magic School Bus series.  There are different levels of books as well as videos.  You can even purchase science kits.  Scholastic also has a page that has games and activities.  SM and LM both love the series.  They pick out these books from the library on their own.  We also use them to supplement our science topics for CC.  This week we read In Search of the Missing Bones.  I highly recommend this series.  The girls think they are listening to a fun book, but they are also learning at the same time.  It's great!

Exciting Mommy Moment

Yesterday was our first review day after CC started on Friday last week.  My parents came over to visit that evening and my Mom asked SM how school had been that morning.  SM pulls out our CC trifold board and reads off all of the subject.  Pulls out the US map and points out the 5 states and capitals that we learned and then tries to quiz my parents.  We have definitely come a long way.  SM would not "perform" for others at all last year.  She always knew the materials, but was reluctant to show others what she was learning.  This makes me so excited!!!

Is home-school time consuming?

I was talking with another home-school Mom the other day.  She was saying how a lot of people (that don't homeschool) ask her how she can spend that much time every day.  She kind of laughs at it now because each school day doesn't last that long.  We are usually done with school by lunch time if SM cooperates.   Our time is actually spent learning/teaching. This isn't like public school where there are a bunch of other kids that the teacher has to keep on track.  We can focus and individualize the learning and get it done quickly because it's just one or two kids.  One of the things that I love about CC is that when LM is added to the mix we will be covering the same memory work.  The two girls will be working together on most of the material.  Then I can spend individual time on math and reading.

I do spend some time researching, but most of it is reading emails and blogs or on Pinterest.  I can spend 30 minutes here and there doing that.  I love doing the research part ... I'm bad about implementing it.  At this point in time though, SM is getting everything that she needs.  All of my research is for other things to supplement the material we are covering or some fun acitivities that I might want to try one day.  One of the big things that is stressed in CC is a "stick in the sand" mentality.  Keep it simple.  We don't need to go overboard on extra stuff.  I have a list of books that I check out of the library to supplement the topics we are covering in CC.  If we get to it, great, if we don't it's no big deal.

I love being home and being able to do this with my girls.  There are moments of frustration, but I know that this is the best thing for my girls.  This is how I want to be spending my time right now!

Schedule and Planning

So do I keep a schedule?  Yes and no.  I was excited about thinking we could have a laid back home-school schedule and be able to run errands in the morning and then come back home and work on school.  It turns out that this does not work for SM.  She thinks that if we run some errands first thing in the morning that we don't have to work on school work that day.  This usually turned into knock-down-drag-out fights (not really, but it kind of felt like that sometimes).

I don't follow a strict schedule though.  We have a Bible study (I usually try to start with this, in hopes that it gets are minds/hearts in the right place).  We review our CC memory work (at least 20 minutes), math (goal is about 30 minutes or no more than 5 pages in her math workbook), reading (at least 30 minutes for her and I read to her for 30 minutes).  Somewhere in there I have her writing things.  Last year was mostly copy-work, but this year I will have her writing simple sentences as well.  The copy-work was usually done while I was reading to her.  We were usually done with school by lunch time every day.

I'm not a big planner either.  I do have goals that I want SM to meet each year, but I don't have a time frame for them.  Last year she met her math goal by the Christmas break and finished her reading lesson book by the end of January.  That didn't mean we were done with school though.  I added different programs and books into the mix.  

I do tons of research on homeschooling resources, but I don't seem to put it to use very well.  I subscribe to several homeschooling blogs.  I have several homeschooling themed boards on Pinterest (I have more home-school boards then anything else).  I follow some CC channels on YouTube.  I tend to go week to week with the CC subjects and even day to day with the other stuff.  I fill in my planner as we go (it's more for documentation purposes).  The most planning I seem to do is when we go to the library every 3 weeks - planning out the books that correlate with the next 3 weeks of CC.

This year is going to be different.  I'm going to be a substitute tutor for CC this year.  I'm a little nervous because as I've said - I'm not a planner!!! (Ssshhh, don't tell my CC Director).  My goal is to be prepared each week for CC in case I get the call.  I think this will be good for us, because that will just have me more prepared for the week with SM. So wish me luck!  We start back next week!