Are you a family that finds yourself behind now and then on keeping up with Sonlight's IG. Almost every sonlighter family I know struggles once in awhile with this exact dilemma. When a family shares books it can even be more challenging! People say...don't be a slave to the IG, but we all know that the IG keeps everything flowing together...so when you get behind in the reading it seems wrong to continue on with the IG in all the other areas but reading. Even though I am new to sonlight I feel I have found peace with this in my household and I feel compelled to share some of the ways I have discovered to deal with this issue.
Let's say you are behind a few chapters in reading. You want to start off on Monday being caught up..but you know you wont get caught up by then...I say CHILL :) Stop where you are in the IG...look back on this weeks work and see if there was anything you missed or failed to do or that you can expand on.
Here is an example:
My boys were studying Egypt..they were behind in reading Golden Goblet and I did not want to continue on. So I looked over the past week. The boys had been assigned to write a paragraph on various objects in Egypt using Spacial Organization. They had only accomplished writing on about 3 objects...the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Nile River. So when Monday rolled around....I had them continue writing on the other assigned objects using spacial organization. They continued reading where they were. We researched some more Egyptian buildings. They wrote paragraphs for the objects as if they were seeing it from a boat floating down the Nile River. They wrote...edited...and rewrote these paragraphs.
We also filled up the week with catching up in their vocabulary books and spelling. We worked intensely on these subject areas. This way..these things can slide on days we are on schedule with the IG. With wordly wise..I just assign them to pick a section or two a day...by the end of the week they had a lot of vocab work done.
Another item we caught up on was our writing on current events. I had them read articles out of current Christian Magazines. They picked ones that were interesting and wrote summaries for me on the articles.
Science took more of a front seat. We caught up on our experiments. We worked on our labooks. We reviewed concepts and practiced for our tests.
If the afternoon was freed up we also took time to do some fun art projects.
My point is....stopping the IG completely for me is better than juggling it around weekly. It was created to flow together...the LA was created to go with the readings. Breaking it up...breaks up the flow and the meaning behind the LA.
By adding in all these extra things for the boys....I have accomplished not only getting everything done, but also my boys know that work will not stop just because they are behind in the reading..in fact..momma may push more on them! So they are determined more than ever to keep up with their IGs now. They also know that we will read everything..so the sooner they get through the sooner their summer will begin :)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Academy updates!
I have finally found a moment to update on the boys academics. I am going to go through a quick run through in the basic subject areas..with posts to follow up on the days to come with more finite details!
READING/READ ALOUDS: The older two have now finished reading Hittite Warrior...it was a good one! Now they are reading D'aulaires' book of Greek Myths and listening to me read God King. We are officially on week 5 in our IG for Sonlight. Probably about a week behind where we should be. But I am honestly pleased with how sonlight is working out. I have found ways of dealing with us being behind in the reading.
If you are familiar at all with sonlight..the reading can be heavy. It is a little challenging when you have kids sharing the books to boot. I will share some of the things I have discovered that keep us on task in another post. As for T6 he is working through Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He is on lesson 57. We usually hop back and forth between this and Hooked on Phonics, but he prefers to work out of the TYCTR100 book. We also are practicing reading real books as you can see HERE. He truly loves to read to me and his is super proud when he finishes a challenging book. I love it!
HISTORY :Our history notebooks are working better than I had hoped! We whip through map and timeline activities now. I am discovering the joys of notebooking. I have downloaded history notebooking pages and now have them write interesting facts they discover in their reading of the Usborne Book of World History. We are on chapter 15 in Story of the World. We go so fast...that it is impossible for T6 to keep up. So I am doing his history at a much slower pace. T6 is listening to momma read to him out of various history books...books on Caveman, Egypt, and Ancient Rome. We are reading a book about how people lived long ago too. He colors pictures and does some minor notebooking as well.
LANGUAGE ARTS: LA is tied into the history and read alouds for the older boys. My older boys have never done copywork/dictation. With sonlight they are to do dictation on Mondays. Since this was new for them...we started off doing copywork and have just now switched to dictation. J11 is struggling more than C14..although C14's handwriting could always improve! I have them studying it intensely for a few minutes then take it away and read it aloud. I hope by the end of the year this will be a piece of cake. They are both working through Grammar Ace...it is a little childish for C14, but it is good to keep grammar terms fresh in his mind. My favorite part is how Sonlight is really teaching my kids little tricks to make them better writers. I am already seeing them both strive to use more exciting adjectives and adverbs in their writing. This is an area that I am stretching a lot when we are behind in reading..more on that in a later post. T6 is working on learning literary devices such as onomatopoeia, similes, and metaphors. He gets this with FIAR studies.
SCIENCE: C14 is on Module 3 in his Physical Science book. He is studying our atmosphere. J11 just finished up Module 3 in his apologia book. He is a bit tired of learning about the ocean creatures. So I offered to let him take a break. He really wants to learn about space...so we are taking two weeks to do some unit studies on space. I will share that in another post as well!
As for T6 we have been rowing Storm in the Night and thus learning about the weather. We are now about to row The Rag Coat and we will be learning a little bit about coal mining.
MATH: C14 and J11 are loving Teaching Textbooks...so is momma! They are both on lesson 25 and right on target. They only have 136 I think for the year. I have a feeling they will finish this up early. J11 is doing so well with this math that we have decided to let him skip 6th grade math and let him go into 7th grade next year. That will save me some money too! As for T6 we are using Math-U-See. He enjoys the blocks and decimal street. I love how much emphasis is placed on place value with this program.
OTHER VARIOUS SUBJECTS
ART:I hope to start incorporating a study on various artist. I plan to borrow a book on one famous artist..have the kids imitate his work and hang a printer copy of one of the works on my fridge per week for about 4 weeks. I think this sounds like a fun approach to learning about art.
SPELLING: J11 is working through Spelling Power. He really struggles with spelling and always has. I think this program is working better than Sequential did last year. T6 was giving a book from a public school teacher that has tear out readers in it. It also has weekly spelling words. So I am using it for him to practice spelling, but he also flying through Explode the Code book 1...which has a lot of spelling practice.
VOCAB: I ordered the wrong level for C14..we are using wordly wise, however despite it being a lower grade level...I think it is still challenging and helpful for him. This is a great book for preparing for standardized testing...ACT/SAT too.
HANDWRITING: J11 is working through a cursive book now and then with HWOT just to keep him sharp on the how to...but honestly he prefers to print. T6 really enjoys handwriting. We sing the HWOT songs and truly use their terminology in teaching writing. I catch him writing all the time. He just loves to write in little notebooks. He is daily asking me...."How do you spell__________?"
I get this is lengthy...I don't expect many people to care about this update...but understand this blog is more for my evaluator than anyone. I feel keeping a blog of all we do all year long at Morningside Academy will be a nice way for him to see and evaluate along with our portfolios. I find this a simpler way to keep track of everything going on :)
READING/READ ALOUDS: The older two have now finished reading Hittite Warrior...it was a good one! Now they are reading D'aulaires' book of Greek Myths and listening to me read God King. We are officially on week 5 in our IG for Sonlight. Probably about a week behind where we should be. But I am honestly pleased with how sonlight is working out. I have found ways of dealing with us being behind in the reading.
If you are familiar at all with sonlight..the reading can be heavy. It is a little challenging when you have kids sharing the books to boot. I will share some of the things I have discovered that keep us on task in another post. As for T6 he is working through Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He is on lesson 57. We usually hop back and forth between this and Hooked on Phonics, but he prefers to work out of the TYCTR100 book. We also are practicing reading real books as you can see HERE. He truly loves to read to me and his is super proud when he finishes a challenging book. I love it!
HISTORY :Our history notebooks are working better than I had hoped! We whip through map and timeline activities now. I am discovering the joys of notebooking. I have downloaded history notebooking pages and now have them write interesting facts they discover in their reading of the Usborne Book of World History. We are on chapter 15 in Story of the World. We go so fast...that it is impossible for T6 to keep up. So I am doing his history at a much slower pace. T6 is listening to momma read to him out of various history books...books on Caveman, Egypt, and Ancient Rome. We are reading a book about how people lived long ago too. He colors pictures and does some minor notebooking as well.
LANGUAGE ARTS: LA is tied into the history and read alouds for the older boys. My older boys have never done copywork/dictation. With sonlight they are to do dictation on Mondays. Since this was new for them...we started off doing copywork and have just now switched to dictation. J11 is struggling more than C14..although C14's handwriting could always improve! I have them studying it intensely for a few minutes then take it away and read it aloud. I hope by the end of the year this will be a piece of cake. They are both working through Grammar Ace...it is a little childish for C14, but it is good to keep grammar terms fresh in his mind. My favorite part is how Sonlight is really teaching my kids little tricks to make them better writers. I am already seeing them both strive to use more exciting adjectives and adverbs in their writing. This is an area that I am stretching a lot when we are behind in reading..more on that in a later post. T6 is working on learning literary devices such as onomatopoeia, similes, and metaphors. He gets this with FIAR studies.
SCIENCE: C14 is on Module 3 in his Physical Science book. He is studying our atmosphere. J11 just finished up Module 3 in his apologia book. He is a bit tired of learning about the ocean creatures. So I offered to let him take a break. He really wants to learn about space...so we are taking two weeks to do some unit studies on space. I will share that in another post as well!
As for T6 we have been rowing Storm in the Night and thus learning about the weather. We are now about to row The Rag Coat and we will be learning a little bit about coal mining.
MATH: C14 and J11 are loving Teaching Textbooks...so is momma! They are both on lesson 25 and right on target. They only have 136 I think for the year. I have a feeling they will finish this up early. J11 is doing so well with this math that we have decided to let him skip 6th grade math and let him go into 7th grade next year. That will save me some money too! As for T6 we are using Math-U-See. He enjoys the blocks and decimal street. I love how much emphasis is placed on place value with this program.
OTHER VARIOUS SUBJECTS
ART:I hope to start incorporating a study on various artist. I plan to borrow a book on one famous artist..have the kids imitate his work and hang a printer copy of one of the works on my fridge per week for about 4 weeks. I think this sounds like a fun approach to learning about art.
SPELLING: J11 is working through Spelling Power. He really struggles with spelling and always has. I think this program is working better than Sequential did last year. T6 was giving a book from a public school teacher that has tear out readers in it. It also has weekly spelling words. So I am using it for him to practice spelling, but he also flying through Explode the Code book 1...which has a lot of spelling practice.
VOCAB: I ordered the wrong level for C14..we are using wordly wise, however despite it being a lower grade level...I think it is still challenging and helpful for him. This is a great book for preparing for standardized testing...ACT/SAT too.
HANDWRITING: J11 is working through a cursive book now and then with HWOT just to keep him sharp on the how to...but honestly he prefers to print. T6 really enjoys handwriting. We sing the HWOT songs and truly use their terminology in teaching writing. I catch him writing all the time. He just loves to write in little notebooks. He is daily asking me...."How do you spell__________?"
I get this is lengthy...I don't expect many people to care about this update...but understand this blog is more for my evaluator than anyone. I feel keeping a blog of all we do all year long at Morningside Academy will be a nice way for him to see and evaluate along with our portfolios. I find this a simpler way to keep track of everything going on :)
Friday, October 16, 2009
Field Trip to the Clay Center
We attended an event for homeschoolers a few weeks back at the Clay Center in Charleston WV. They were showing a special exhibit of Egyptian and Nubian Artifacts. We saw a special presentation titled Stars of the Nile as well as a movie on Prehistoric Sea Creatures. Here a few snapshots taken in the childrens activity center.
This fit in perfectly with our studies of Egyptian time period. We are about to start greek mythology and Roman history. I will post pics of the next set of books we will be reading through next week. Stay tuned!
This fit in perfectly with our studies of Egyptian time period. We are about to start greek mythology and Roman history. I will post pics of the next set of books we will be reading through next week. Stay tuned!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Guess What T6 Read!
T6 was super proud of himself. He read the entire book Green Eggs and Ham and he did it quickly! He was so excited to see that he had read a 62 page book! I only had to help with the word "anywhere". Other than that he read it beautifully. He is looking forward to working through our entire collection of Dr. Seus Books.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Butterfly Fun!
A dear friend of ours found a monarch caterpillar a few weeks ago. When her kids brought it home they discovered their were some really tiny ones on the leaves they picked up. So she gave some to other homeschoolers. We were lucky to be one of them. So the boys kept it for about a week and it soon spun its chrysalis. I honestly thought it had died. However, my husband went out to our deck and was preparing to clean it off when he discovered the butterfly was just then emerging. So the boys got to see the process completely. Here are few picks of them holding the butterfly shortly after it emerged from the chrysalis. T6 really hated letting him go, but we did! T6 then drew pics of the event in his notebook.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
History in our house.
We are sonlighters..which means most of our history is through living books. However, we use a basic book to bounce off of and that is Story of the World. I decided to create a simple 6 weeks history book for the boys. Here is a pic of J11 and T6's folders.
Inside I have place our maps. The Story of the World Activity Guidebook gives a lot of fun exercises to do with our maps. Such as "Trace the Tigris and Euphrates rivers with a blue pencil." "Color the Arabian Sea red." and so on.
The activity guide comes with some great coloring pages that I have put in T6's notebook. I usually encourage him to color while I read the story. J11 likes to color now and then as well.
The books is chock full of activities to go with your stories and today T6 build a Ziggurat. We have not quite finished..but here is is painting it. We used various sized cereal boxes, hamburger helper box, and a raisin box.
The older boys just finished reading The Golden Goblet and we are nearly finished reading aloud Mara, Daughter of the Nile. The boys have started reading Hittite Warrior. We have spent a great deal of time watching a lot of cool documentaries and stories on Egypt and the Mesopotamia area. It just feels like history is coming alive in our house!
Inside I have place our maps. The Story of the World Activity Guidebook gives a lot of fun exercises to do with our maps. Such as "Trace the Tigris and Euphrates rivers with a blue pencil." "Color the Arabian Sea red." and so on.
The activity guide comes with some great coloring pages that I have put in T6's notebook. I usually encourage him to color while I read the story. J11 likes to color now and then as well.
The books is chock full of activities to go with your stories and today T6 build a Ziggurat. We have not quite finished..but here is is painting it. We used various sized cereal boxes, hamburger helper box, and a raisin box.
The older boys just finished reading The Golden Goblet and we are nearly finished reading aloud Mara, Daughter of the Nile. The boys have started reading Hittite Warrior. We have spent a great deal of time watching a lot of cool documentaries and stories on Egypt and the Mesopotamia area. It just feels like history is coming alive in our house!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Sonlight lovers don't miss out on this!
This is a cool giveaway by Karla. I just started following her blog and she is offering some free cute bookmarks for your kids and the chance to win a cool sonlight bag. Head over to her blog...Roads to Learning and check it out!
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