Football in the South

I guess we are the typical Southern Sports Fans. I grew up sitting under the stadium lights every Friday night in the Fall, cheering on our Niceville Eagles football team and then gathering around the TV on Saturday afternoons to the watch the Auburn game. Once off to college, I looked forward to Saturday tailgating parties and met my husband-to-be, who played football for Auburn. After Zachary was born, Bucky and I were eager to get Zachary to some of the local high school football games and out of town to visit our Alma Mater and pretty quickly, he was ready to sign up for recreation football.

Well, this year our little Pike County Pirates have been all the sports entertainment we've needed. (It's a good thing, since good old AU has struggled so this year!) Who knew Under7 rec. football could be so exciting? We were actually sad to see it finally come to an end. Now, don't get me wrong, I certainly did my share of complaining about running straight from karate practice to football practice and then rushing home to grab a bite of dinner so that we could get unsuccessfully try to get Zac in bed at a decent time. But the Saturday morning games were always lots of fun. I'm really proud of the whole team. Each one of the boys tried hard and seriously improved throughout the season.

We celebrated the end of a great season at American Pie and the kids all seemed to have a blast watching themselves on video and going up to get their team trophies.

Here are a few of the season highlights:

 Way to Go Pike County Black Pirates!!!

Apples + Cinnamon = FALL

It's that time of year that I look forward to, when the house is filled with scents (and tastes) of Fall. 

A few days ago, Zachary decided he wanted to make his own applesauce and I thought it sounded like a great idea, so I told him to go for it. Here is what he came up with.... 

Making Applesauce... Slice apples, leaving the peel on for extra vitamins. Put slices in mini food processor, process to chunky applesauce consistency, add a sprinkle of cinnamon and blend a little more. Enjoy!!!

Apple Peeler Corer Slicer (Pampered Chef)

Proud Chef

Zachary's Homemade and Healthy Applesauce

What a yummy, healthy snack. Good job, Zac!

Love you, 
~Mom~

Trying a New Grammar Curriculum

I'm very excited about a new grammar program that I am going to be trying out. It is called Foundation of Grammar and it is free for now through Anne's School Place - Curriculum Development Blog.  I ran across that website while I was browsing through The Encouraging Mom blog.

http://annesschoolplace.com/blog/

 

 

My son, Zachary, has covered the very basic grammar lessons that seem to be offered in most curriculum for his age/grade.  This seems to be a strange level when it comes to grammar. Most of the books I've tried for 3rd-4th grade have a simple review of a specific topic along with 8-10 sentences,  and the student is supposed to circle the noun or verb or adverb, etc. The problem I have with this type of practice is that my son picks up on the patterns of the sentences because they are all so similar and he just flies through all the questions without really thinking about what he's doing. Later if I say, find the prepositional phrase, he sort of has a blank look on his face. I'd like a curriculum that uses more complete paragraphs, where the sentences don't all have the same format, and lessons that require him to think about how the sentences are structured.

So this is why I'm going to be trying Foundation of Grammar by Anne Elliot. First of all I like that it uses the Bible as the main source text. The fact that it is free to anyone willing to use it and give feedback to the author is also a bonus. I liked what I reviewed of the teacher's manual. It is concise and although it is scripted, it has a very natural flow. The lessons explain the material thoroughly and, very importantly for me, the examples and practice texts have a wide variety of sentence styles that are all structured beautifully. What a great way to hide God's word in the heart of a child!

Another thing I like about the Lessons is that as the student learns a new definition/topic, they are instructed to find it in the text, but they are also still asked to find the items that they were learning about in the last lesson. So, the lessons build upon each other and they continue to practice locating each part of the sentence, even as they are going on to learn new topics. Again, this will force my son to think about the structure of each sentence and not just look for the repetitive patterns that are so often found in simpler grammar lessons.

This is how the program is set up:

There are 3 units. Unit 1 has Lessons 1-15, Unit 2 has Lessons 16-25, and Unit 3 has Lessons 26-30.


Each lesson introduces a new topic with a definition of a new part of speech. The introduction is followed by a variety of 4-5 Exercises. One exercise may ask the student to cross out any prepositional phrases, underline any verbs twice, and underline any subjects one time. The next exercise may have the student combine choppy sentences using compound verbs, and the next may tell them to fill in the missing prepositions.

The Teacher's Manual - has scripted lessons along with the identical text that the student sees in his book, except that the TM has the answers marked on its pages.

Student Book - since this is a .pdf file, it can be printed out all at one time or as needed. Here is a sample of one of the lessons:

Lesson 12
Exercise A - Cross out any prepositional phrases. Underline any verbs twice.

o Check for action verbs.
o Check for being verbs.
o Check for helping verbs.
o Remember that verbs will never be part of prepositional phrases.

1. This is the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2. Long ago Isaiah the prophet wrote, “I will send my messenger ahead of you.
3. He will prepare your way.”
4. “A messenger is calling out in the desert, „Prepare the way for the Lord.‟”
5. And so John came.
6. He baptized people in the desert.
7. He also preached that people should be baptized and turn away from their sins.
8. Then God would forgive them.
9. All the people from the countryside of Judea went out to him.
10. All the people from Jerusalem went too.
11. When they admitted they had sinned, John baptized them in the Jordan River.
12. John wore clothes made out of camel's hair.
13. He had a leather belt around his waist.
14. He ate locusts and wild honey.
Mark 1:1-6, NIrV

Extra Practice Exercises - these are available to provide additional practice for the student as necessary

Learning Aids - these are 8 1/2 x 11 posters, covering information covered in each lesson, to place in a mini grammar folder or to post on the wall.


I'm excited to try it out. We've been needing to add something with more substance and structure. This seems to be a good fit for us. I'll be posting more in the future to let you know how it's going and how much I think Zachary is getting out of the program.

Blessings,
Vicki

What's Been Happening in Co-op This Week?

In Human Anatomy Co-op:

We discussed the Endocrine System and the Excretory System. Amy S. jumped in to teach this week and did a great job. I love that all our kids look forward to science class. Is it like that everywhere? It certainly wasn't like that for me growing up. But if I'd have been able to cut out and glue in the body parts as I learned about each one, I think I would have been hooked. It was also helpful to be able to see how the kidney filters out impurities by watching blue water filter through several layers of coffee filters and come out clear on the other side.

In Writing Co-op:

George B. led our IEW SWI-A class today. We didn't have a new lesson to watch on the video today, so we took time today to let each child read the writing assignment that they had been working on over the last two weeks and anything else that they may have written on their own. At this age, I'm glad we are really taking it easy and making sure that they are learning each of the new dress-ups. It's incredible to see how much the kids have taken to writing since starting this class in September. They are all doing really well and love sharing their work with the group.

In American History Co-op:

I am falling in love with history this year. The story is fascinating. I grew up dreading having to memorize dates and birthdays and first, middle, and last names. It was torture. Most definitely not interesting and captivating. Wow, how surprising to enjoy it so much myself now. 

So this week we've been studying the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and the Mayflower Compact. Amy C. brought an activity for the kids that was meant to help them understand how difficult it must have been for so many people to come to an agreement and sign a contract promising that they would all work together as a group and that they would follow the decisions of their elected leader. We asked the kids to work together to come up with their own Compact. It was actually hilarious to hear them debate and vote and try to come to some compromises, but in the end they were all able to sign their name to their group compact. What a great lesson in teamwork and leadership.

Then we did a fun math activity that gave everyone a little extra practice in graphing. The final result was a cute drawing of the Mayflower.

And to finish up the class, we all worked on a 3-D map of the route the Mayflower took across the Atlantic.The kids liked that the Mayflower could actually move across the water (due to a little slit that is cut into the map.)

Co-op Play Practice:

We are all looking forward to our co-op family Thanksgiving Dinner and Skit Night coming up next Friday. The kids practiced their lines for the first time together today, and we all decided we needed to schedule one more day for a dress rehearsal. 

Getting Real:

Almost all of the children were out of sorts today (that's the nicest way I can put how they were acting during break time), but I keep trusting that God will continue to work His character into them. It's humbling to think that He has chosen us (the other moms and me) to help guide them and lead them up in His Ways. Some days I feel like I'm completely inadequate for this task, but somehow He always shows me that He is strong in my weakness. What an awesome and loving God we serve!

A Simple Change Makes a Big Difference

It's funny how sometimes the simplest things can make such a big difference.

Zachary has never liked handwriting or any kind of assignment that required him to pick up a pen or pencil and write letters onto a piece of paper. I've gone through several lines of reasoning for this and usually come back to the fact that he's just like his dad, whose handwriting is completely illegible.

But, being one to never give up....I keep trying to improve the hand writing.  I am a big believer in teaching him to type, which we are working on, but his typing isn't fast enough yet to be efficient. In addition to knowing how to type, I also think it's important to have the ability to write legibly in both cursive and printing. Not that I'm looking for perfection (I have to remind myself of that everyday!!), but I do think it is important for him to be able to put his thoughts on paper in a reasonably fluid and timely manner.

Practice, Practice, Practice seems like the best method to make this seemingly torturous chore come more naturally. In the past years we skipped over a lot of the copy work that past curriculum have required - he just didn't seem physically ready to do so much writing. Now I wonder if I should have forced this practice in order to exercise those fine muscles. Should've, Would've, Could've....right?

Well, this year we have been using IEW's SWI-A (for more information on this check out this past post) and it requires a decent amount of writing by hand; copying what Andrew writes on the white board during the video lessons, writing key word outlines, writing rough drafts, and rewriting a final draft. For my dear son, that is a lot of writing!!

So what is the simple thing I found that has helped so much?

A better paper. I told you it was simple, but it has made a big difference to Zac. I think when we started using the standard wide-ruled paper, it was too big of a jump from ruled handwriting paper, the kind with the dashed middle guide line.

I went to DonnaYoung.org (my favorite site for any free printables) and found out that she has a lined vertical handwriting paper called C1. The guidelines are still there, but the lines are much closer together. To him, it is not "kindergarten paper", but I think the guidelines make him feel more comfortable than the "naked" wide ruled paper. Since the lines are closer together it isn't as cumbersome for him to try to form the letters quicker. The paper is positioned vertically so that you can 3-hole punch the side and put it into any binder. I thought, "Why not...let's give it a try."

All of a sudden, Zac could write faster because the guidelines forced him to write smaller, and it was much neater, which surprisingly, was a really exciting thing for him. He kept calling me into the room where he was working to get me to just look at his work. He was really proud of how it looked! He actually asked me to print out more paper and put it into all of his notebooks, so that he could use it instead of the regular wide-ruled paper.

From Draw Write Now Book 3 - The Mayflower

Happy to have his guidelines back, Zachary had no complaints about doing his writing assignment today.

Now, obviously, this isn't a miracle-working cure that will make all complaining go away forever, but it did make a big difference to Zachary and that makes me happy!

~Vicki ~

Memorable Moments ...........

Do you ever have days, or weeks, that just seem to be gone before you even realize they've happened. This week feels like that to me. It's already Friday! I have that feeling a lot when we get super busy and are running from one thing to the next in a crazy whirlwind, but that wasn't necessarily the case this week. We didn't have that much planned. I mean, not more than usual for us. No, it feels more like it just slipped by...in a whisper.

Don't get me wrong, I do have some great moments to share with you from this week.

Monday....

We made a 3-D model of the White House in Monday's Co-op

Monday night....

We got together with neighbors for our annual Halloween Hayride. Zachary dressed up as King Peter from Chronicles of Narnia. He had a cool shield that his Daddy and Nana worked on together.

King Peter of Narnia

 

  

Tuesday....

We got started on our writing assignment from our SWI-A Co-op. Zac has really enjoyed this year's writing class!

We are slowly working our way through the SWI-A (Student Writing Intensive - Level A) program by Excellence in Writing. It is great! I wish I had learned to write this way. The kids especially enjoy watching  Andrew Pudewa teach the classes on the video,  he is quite humorous, which the kids love. What is amazing to me is that I've already begun to see marked improvement in all the children. Even the most apprehensive writers (my son being one of them) have gone from dreading the process of writing their thoughts down on paper to actually being excited about what they are writing and looking forward to reading their works aloud to everyone in class. 

 

Here is a sample of Zachary's work:

The Dog and the Treats

by Zachary 

       A crazy dog named Rosie was at the groomers and saw a bowl full of dog treats. She put her head in to get some. She filled her mouth with treats and tried to pull out her head, which was bulging with treats. She was unwilling to let go of any of the treats so she was unable to get her head out of the bowl. She desperately ran around the room in panic. 

       Nearby, an alley cat said, "If you would be satisfied with fewer treats you would be able to get your head out the bowl. Sometimes you have to give up a little to get what you wish."

 Wednesday....

We are steadily working our way through Singapore Math 3A and also using Aleks online. Zac is very good at math, but I am beginning to get really bored with memorizing the multiplication math facts. He's mastered through the 7's as well as the 10's & 11's, but we are still working on the 8's, the 9's and the 12's. Like I said, he's good at memorizing, but I mean it's the same thing, week after week, lesson after lesson. Just more memorizing. Blah, blah, blah!!..................... Great attitude for the teacher, I know!!

But, I finally found a game called Manga High that "rocks" according to Zachary. It's completely free which I think definitely "rocks" too. I'll post more information about it later in case anyone else is interested.

Thursday....

I pulled out Draw Write Now and let Zac choose a selection from the book that went along with our Plymouth Colony study. He chose the Mayflower drawing and took his time adding his own spin to the picture. I love it when he really gets into his work and has something he's proud of when it's done. 

Friday (actually, a little bit every day)....

We have been studying about the Plymouth Colony, Pilgrims, Mayflower, and First Thanksgiving all week and will continue on next week as well. I think the timing of how these weeks fall right before we break for Thanksgiving is pretty cool. Our American History Co-op is preparing for a Thanksgiving Play that the children will perform for the families the week before Thanksgiving. They've been given their lines to practice on their own, but we'll be using co-op time next week to start practicing more as a group and for making the costumes and sets. This will be the first time many of them have performed in front of a group and they are really excited.

Here's a peek at the books we've been using for American History:

An Assortment of History Books, Textbooks and Story Books

Readers for Zachary

Hands-On Projects and Zachary's History Workbook

Well, after thinking through all the things we've done this week I can see that, yes, we did get a lot accomplished after all.

I just want to be more careful in the weeks to come. The holidays are coming up and this is my favorite time of year. I don't want to look up and realize that the days have gone by and just slipped away without leaving behind thoughtful learning and precious memories. I want our days, weeks and lives to be more focused, more intentional. I definitely don't mean busier - certainly don't need more stuff to do. But I want to be more intentional in my planning (and in my unplanned moments), listening to the still voice of God that guides me and directs our schooling and our lives. I want to cherish the moments.

~Vicki~

Candy Rocks!

I got a call on Sunday evening from the lady that coordinates our Monday co-op.  She asked if I would mind filling in for the regular teacher, who was dealing with some health issues with her dad, and would be unable to plan for our class. Well, what could I say? "Of course, I'd be happy to help!" 

Truth was, at that very moment I started to feel the panic rising up inside. I know it sounds ridiculous....it's a class of 3rd - 5th graders. Nothing too scary, right?!! But I just can't help it. I have a fear of speaking in front of a group. 

Don't get me wrong, I was willing and happy to help, but at the same time I knew I was, once again, going to have to face this unexplainable fear of public speaking. In these situations, it always helps if I thoroughly know the information that I'm going to have to be standing up talking about. This class is all about Earth Science. Huh, not exactly a strong suit for me! I love science and find it extremely fascinating, but I haven't done much yet with Zac on geology. Biology, Human Science, Physical Sciences...any of these would have been a little better, but ROCKS??? What do I know about rocks? 

Thank goodness for friends! I mean that in all seriousness. I love my friends and so appreciate that at any moment I can call one of them and they'll stop whatever it is they are doing to try to help me out. They are the best. Well, it just so happens that one of my good friends has a degree in....lol, I know so little about science that I don't even know what to call her degree! But let's just say - the girl knows her rocks!!!

She was full of lots of ideas to get me going, and with the help of the her and the internet I was able to learn enough about the Rock Cycle and Sedimentary rocks that I felt like I could stand up in front of the class and with a reasonable sense of confidence, keep them interested and learning.

This was my lesson:

I started by reviewing the three types of rocks: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic, describing each one and how the rock cycle effects each of them in different ways. 

Then we watched a short video called Junior Geologist: Rocks and Minerals  that I downloaded from Discovery Learning. I threw in the video, because I figured by this time in the class I might need a breathing break, because I tend to hold my breath when I'm terrified. Sad, but true!

(FYI: If you live in the state of Georgia and are a teacher/homeschool teacher, you can contact the Georgia Public Broadcasting office at jpasley@GPB.org, and request a subscription to Discovery Learning. It's completely free and they have thousands of streaming videos to select from that cover just about any topic for any grade. It is a great resource.)

After the video we worked on a mini booklet page from our Considering God's Creation science book. This gave us a chance to further review the 3 different types of rock and visually see how the rock cycle works.

Finally, the part that the kids were really looking forward to - because my son knew my plans and he sort of spread the news quickly - time to bring out the candy!!!  My thinking here was that no matter how badly I was doing, the kids would all forget about it once they got a chance to eat some candy. Smart, huh?

No, really the idea came from my super smart, creative teacher friend, and the fact that our class was on Halloween made here idea even cooler. She suggested gathering together different types of candy that would replicate the different sizes of particles, called clastics, that are used to classify the different types of Sedimentary rocks. So, for instance, a silt or clay particle was represented by the powdery sugar in a Pixie Stix and in Wonka Fun Dip , and I used candy sprinkles to represent sandstone, and for the pebbles, cobbles and boulders that are found in conglomerate rocks, I used Nerds, Reese's Pieces, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. I also found some candy called Rock Candy in the specialty aisle at Walmart, and it looked so much like real rocks that I couldn't resist throwing in some of those too.

I used a snack size Ziploc bag for each student and added a small handful of each of these different types of candy. In addition, I also added some sprinkles that looked like little fish and dinosaurs to represent fossils that are found in the layers of sedimentary rock. After giving each student a Ziploc bag and a single cupcake liner (for observing their "rock" samples more closely), I would call out one of the different types of Sedimentary rocks and ask the students to look through their bag of "rocks" to find the one that most closely fits that description. I asked them to put one "rock" in their cupcake liner so that I could come around and see what they had selected and I gave a few of them the chance to tell the class why they had chosen that particular piece of candy.

This was the sheet from Considering God's Creation that we used to help them classify their "rocks".

By this time our one hour class was almost over and the kids and I were having so much fun that I had forgotten to be scared. Of course, the kids were thrilled that they could take their "rocks" home to eat and I was thrilled that I had faced my fears and learned a lot about rocks all at the same time. 

God is good and faithful and full of mercy! Thankfully,even in my weakness he can shine.

 Blessing to you all,

~ Vicki ~