Amazed

My 9 year picked Photography as one of her elective subjects this year. This (of course) pleased me. I may not be an expert, but I know enough about it to have taught several workshops. I figured it would be nice to teach a subject that required no textbook purchases.

Considering her age, I figured it would not make sense to begin as I typically would with all of the technical camera information. Handing her my DSLR and showing her briefly how to work it, I gave her a basic exercise in seeing light. I gave her a shell, and a lamp, and put her in a dark room. The idea is to play with angles of both the subject and the light, seeing the sometimes subtle, and sometimes extreme, differences. She also had an opportunity to place the shell in front of window light and play with that too. After that, I loaded her photos into Lightroom and giving her a very quick overview of some of the Develop Tools, told her to select five and play with them until she was happy.

Honestly, I am astounded at how quickly she began thinking outside of the box. Without the inhibitions that we adults so often carry, to her, there were no limits. No right or wrong. Just simply what she liked. And I am sincerely amazed at the results she presented. The following images are all Copyright of J. D. Green.

Take the time to teach your child, give them a little freedom, and they'll open your eyes to a whole new world.

We Are Ready!

After working 10-14 hour days for the last week and a half, my lesson plan is complete, my school room is organized and my house is clean(ish)!  After enjoying a restful day tomorrow, we will be all set to start school Monday morning!

180 days planned, each with a corresponding file folder containing all copies, worksheets and books I need for each day. I feel GREAT about this coming year!

Week 3	DAY 1	DAY 2	DAY 3	DAY 4	DAY 5
Bible Study Telling God's Story: 1	Read Lesson 25 Coloring page	Duccio's Callingof the Apostles Peter & Andrew	Fishers of Men Game	Read & Discuss Proverbs 4	Life Lessons from The Princess & The Kiss Lesson 15
Math	J-Math-U-See Gamma 19A & D N-Math-U-See Beta Lesson 4A & D	J- Read Times Tables the Fun Way p.64-67 Math-U-See Gamma 19B & E N-Math-U-See Beta Lesson 4B & E	J- Read Times Tables the Fun Way p.68-71 Math-U-See Gamma 19C & F N-Math-U-See Beta Lesson 4C & F	J-Math-U-See Gamma 19 Test N-Math-U-See Beta Lesson 4Test & X	Both-Life of Fred Apples Lesson 4 Kid's Pay (Money Mgmt)
Grammar	J-FLL Level 4- Lesson 16 N-FLL Level 2 - Lesson 32	J-FLL Level 4- Lesson 17 N-FLL Level 2 - Lesson 33	J-FLL Level 4- Lesson 18 N-FLL Level 2 - Lesson 34	J-FLL Level 4- Lesson 19 N-FLL Level 2 - Lesson 35	J-FLL Level 4- Lesson 20 N-FLL Level 2 - Lesson 36
Writing	J - HWT Can Do Cursive- p. 14-15 N-HWT Printing Power-p. 12	IEW Unit 2	IEW Unit 2	IEW Unit 2	IEW Unit 2
Spelling	Spelling Check/Intro	Spelling words		Spelling words	Final Test
Memory Work
History	Read “If You Traveled On The Underground Railroad” p.7-29	Read “If You Traveled On The Underground Railroad” p.30-64		Read: CBUSH – Dred Scott p.185-193 Put Civil War Sticker on Timeline	Read UILEWH-American Civil War p. 348-349 Internet Links
Geography			A Child's Geography p.19-25 Postcard Home
Science	Vocabulary Lift the flap NJ. 29-30	Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy -Make a Solar Eclipse p.26 NJ. p.32		Sun Mini-books NJ p.A11-A15, p.33	UILBAS p. 10-13 Internet Links
Read Aloud	Freedom Train by Dorothy Sterling Ch 7-8	Freedom Train by Dorothy Sterling Ch 9-10	Freedom Train by Dorothy Sterling Ch 11-12	Freedom Train by Dorothy Sterling Ch 13-14	Freedom Train by Dorothy Sterling Ch 15-16
Latin	Prima Latina Lesson 4
Music	Music Theory 1, Lesson 4
Character			CF-Obedience S1, B2 p.8-16 Coloring Page
Worksheets
Elective Subject				N-World Farming p.18-1 Internet research chicken breeds Finish Rare Breeds book	J - Photography
Reading
Art		Artistic Pursuits Book 2 – Lesson 4
P.E.		Gymnastics 6-7pm		N-Ballet/Tap 3:30-4:45	J-HipHop 5:15-6:15

And of course a picture of my pet quail, Destiny. Just because she lives in the school room. And because I love her.  :)

Homeschool History Lesson Plan - How I Roll

I've just spent the past 4 days working on our history lesson plan. It's been gruelling. Seriously. It is by far the most complex lesson plan that I build. I could follow a simpler, pre-packaged plan but I don't. My reasons are as follows:

1. In my experience with most history plans, modern times are studied around fourth grade, and the content is too complex for my second grader. Since I wish to teach my two children together and modern times is where we are at in our rotation, that means making alterations. (We are on a 4 year rotation - ancient times, middle ages, early modern, and now modern times.)
2. There are so many fun resources out there to supplement the stiffer text books. There's unit studies, history pockets, sticker books, craft projects, fictional classics. I feel that teaching in layers like this truly adds depth and color to their studies, and hopefully results better retention.
3. I never do anything the easy way.

This list will seem overwhelming. It does to me. But now that I have it assembled into daily lessons, I am actually quite excited about it.

My lesson plan can be found here. Since I am doing a 30 minute lesson 4 days a week, I have it broken down into 144 lessons. The "Sessions" are based on the school calendar year that I have chosen and there is a week break in between each one.

My history program for this year involves correlating the following resources:

History Odyssey: Modern Times - This is a good lesson plan and is geared towards the younger age level. I use it as a starting point as it already correlates some of my resources, but I hack it up quite a bit. Actually, this year it will be hacked up a lot.

TruthQuest History - American History for Young Students III - This is my first time utilizing this program. It is mainly literature suggestions for the individual subjects, but I also purchased the "Binder Builders" to go with it, which acts like a large lapbook for the year. I think adding this will really add dimension to our studies.

The Story of the World: Book Four - In the past, I have used mainly this book and its suggested additional resources. However, a lot of the fun projects from the first two volumes' activity books have been sucked out of the latter ones and replaced with increased reading, mapwork and written responses. That doesn't seem fun too me, much less to my seven year old. Regardless, it still has content worth utilizing.

The Complete Book of United States History - This book is great. It is very comprehensive and uses a story telling style. Sections are of a manageable size for my seven year old, and since we are focusing on US history for this rotation (our next rotation will contain more complete world history), it is a perfect guideline for our studies. It's low cost also makes it well worth the purchase, however it will be challenging to acquire after the next year or so as it is now out of print.

The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History - An excellent staple with great pictures and a lot of cool internet links.

A Child's History of the World - Great story-telling style. I don't use this one as much, but every now and then it does well to reinforce specific events.

Interactive 3-D Maps: American History - Love, love, love this! While I typically end up assisting in the cutting out of these things, the girls always enjoy them, and it really gives them a tangible visual to reinforce the lessons.

Usborne Sticker Books (Sticker Dressing First World War, The Second World War Sticker Book) - I special ordered these through Amazon. Although it is impossible to avoid the heaviness of the subject, I wanted to present it in a way that would not completely freak out a very sensitive seven year old, or even my nine year old. These are a light way to visually reinforce these important events.

Pandia Press History Timeline - I prefer this timeline over any other I've found. You can stretch them out on the wall, or they fold nicely into a 3 rind binder (and are hole-punched for such).

Sonlight Timeline Stickers - Pandia Press has stickers to go with their timeline, but I started out using Sonlight's and they just always seem to have pretty much everything I need.

Sonlight Read Alouds E - Sonlight's composed list of classic literature is always AMAZING. We love almost every book on their list. I think for this year, however, I may have overdone it (could it be possible???). With over 40 books now sitting on the shelf, I may have to turn some of these into readers for my 9 year old, and otherwise just be very selective as to what I choose to real aloud to my children. I never regret purchasing them, however. Lord willing, these children will be with me for another 9 years at least, and that gives them plenty of time to read the living books that await them.

Plus a few other books that fit in well:
If You Traveled West In A Covered Wagon
If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad
and a list from the Truthquest program that is way too long to list.

And that's it. Hopefully the rest of my lesson planning will go MUCH easier!

How Do I Fit It All In?

As I'm sitting here staring at all of the curriculum I've purchased for the next year, I'm left wondering how on earth we are going to do it all. Well...we're not. It's as simple as that. However, we will be able to do most of it, if I can get us on a schedule.

I've never been a schedule kind of a girl. I really think God has a special place for people who are regimented, those driven to create and stick to a routine. I've always been more of a highly organized, let's-just-get-it-all-done-in-a-general-order-before-we-have-to-go-somewhere homeschooler. And it works. Just not as well as I think it could.

So, here is my general plan for the next academic year. It's not fancy, but it's a starting point for building my lesson plans. And hopefully it's flexible enough that when I decide to toss the whole schedule out the window for a day, or a month, we won't be totally off track.

Wisdom

I have a couple of homeschooling ideas that I wanted to share with you today. The first is a state quarter map. I bought these books years ago, way before the girls were old enough to do anything with them. The other day I decided to pull them out, along with a big jar of coins we've been saving. I had the girls sort the quarters first, and then divide the quarters into regular issue, and state quarters. Then they found the states in their book and placed the quarters in their spot. It was a great way for them to identify where the states are, and a few facts about them. Some books have more info in them, some less. You can get these books through Amazon like this one, and some hobby stores also carry them. 

Through our jar, they have the book about half way filled, leaving plenty for them to keep their eyes open for in the future.

The other thing is a book by Jennie Bishop called "The Princess and the Kiss". It is a delightful tale of a princess finding her true love with the underlying theme of purity. It also has an accompanying "Life Lessons" book that helps to solidify in a young girl the notion that her kiss (heart, purity) is precious and should not be given lightly and without determining whether the match be God's will.

It's a light-hearted book, and the discussions can be lighter or deeper depending on the age of the child. The Life Lessons book also has activities and craft suggestions, which my girls are always in favor of.

There is also a version for boys called "The Squire and the Scroll", which I would be really interested to read at least. And I would like to know if any of you have sons that you are doing this program with. I will be making a list of their names for later. :)

And I don't think it's ever too soon to tell my girls that to God, they are precious princesses. It may not stop them from making every mistake when they are older, but if it saves them even a little heartache, it will be well worth it.

Time for a Change

For the past 3 years we have started every school day with a bible study lesson from Grapevine Studies, and the kids have loved every minute of it. But, after having gone through both the Old and New Testament studies 3 times over, I decided to look for something a little different.

Now, I am not a fan of devotionals that take scripture out of context and attempt to relate them to some fictional, however touching, modern day story. Finding something that would keep both of my 6 year old and 9 year old happy, while focusing on the bible itself, not interpretations of it, was going to be difficult. However, while searching through Peace Hill Press's website to order the next level of our language arts program, I came upon their religious program, Telling God's Story. Since one of the collaborators is Susan Wise Bauer, whom I'm a fan of, I promptly ordered the Parent Guide Book, the Year One Book and it's companion Activity Book. So far, the girls LOVE it.

The focus is on Jesus, which I like. They are short, which I like since I have a 6 year old whose focus I need to keep. And the activities provide solidification of each lesson through fun crafts and games, which all three of us love.  A consider this a huge score in our homeschooling endeavors!