Sunflowers in Bloom

One of the subjects we do for school is a Nature Study, where we pick one area of interest each week and we learn a little about it and we record our finding into what we call our "nature journal". Usually I try to pick something the kids are interested in for that week. But this week I decided to choose sunflowers simply because we have a few growing in our backyard.

Lately though I have been getting some resistance from the kids in doing nature studies. It has been a little frustrating for me since I really enjoy this subject. I'm still having to evaluate why they are not enjoying this as much as they used to. I am praying about this so the Lord can show me what I need to do to make this experience more enjoyable for everyone. One reason, I think, is I have been hesitant to allowing them to paint. Simply out of my own selfishness. I hate to clean up the mess! But I realize it is not fair to them and does not benefit them to not paint. They love it and I need to be more accommodating.

So, we did our nature study on sunflowers today. At first we were only going to just draw them with coloring pencils in our nature journals but I decided to break out the paints instead. The kids had a blast! And they went from saying "No! We don't want to do nature studies!" to "Yippee! We get to paint! This is going to be fun!"

For inspiration, we looked at our new art appreciation print by Vincent Van Gogh called The Vase With Sunflowers. Brianna is trying to draw her version of it.

Rebekah is using a real sunflower from our backyard to help her draw her painting. She's really good!

After several attempts at it, I helped encourage Zach to not just scribble all over his paper. I talked him through how a sunflower looks and this is his own painting after our little talk. An artist in the making!

Brianna's finished piece. She even made sure her sunflower had roots drawn in. She worked hard on this one.

Rebekah's completed project. Oh! And Zach snuck in this picture just as I snapped it. This is his favorite thing to do...make faces at the camera. He's my little clown. LOL

Teaching your child how to read-Pt. 3

I felt that writing a step-by-step process in our reading journey would be a practical way for me, in explaining how I teach reading here in our home. If you are anything like me, I need someone to tell me and show me how to do something. Hope this helps.

Here is a list of the things you will need:

• Dry eraser board


• Dry eraser marker


• 2 sets of magnet letters or foam letters


• A sheet of paper with a list of all the words they have learned. (This will be used for a quick review each day.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Books you will need:

• Good reader books.

You don't have to use this one in particular, but we use Pathway Readers by Rod and Staff. We LOVE these readers! I highly recommend them! They are readers that are not fancy but children learn great moral and spiritual values. The stories are set around an Amish community so you get a good feel about how they live. You can learn more about them here. They are a progressive reader, by that, I mean that each story builds on the new words learned the lesson before. So it makes it very helpful to practice the new words just learned. I have not used them yet, but I am told that the workbooks are great to use as well.

• A good phonics book.

We use Phonic Pathways by Dolores G. Hiskes. It is very easy to use and great for children who struggle with reading. It teaches all the rules in a easy way, so it is not intimidating for those who are not sure how to teach phonics. It is very kid and mom friendly. You can purchase this at Amazon or any bookstore.

• And last but not least, a sign language book.

This is not necessary, but for us, adding hand motions to our reading was a "make it or break it" experience, especially for Brianna. I figured since we were using lots of hand motions, why not learn sign language as well?

Once you have all you need, you are ready for the reading lesson.

1. First, you will need to look over the story from their reader and chose any new words they will encounter or words you know they will struggle with. Be very careful not to overwhelm them with to many new or difficult words. Your reading lesson should not take more then 30 minutes, total each day.

2. Write one of the words on the dry eraser board. This is where some phonics rules come in to play. Point out any special sounds that are seen in the word, if there are any. Some words just don't follow any special sound patterns, that's OK.

Here, I wrote the word "play" for Brianna. I told her that the "ay" letters make an "A" sound. I also told her, there are many other words that end in these letters and that they will also have this same sound.

3. Next, have them look at the word until they think they have it memorized. Erase the word and have them spell the word with the magnetic letters. If they are having problems, write the word on the board again and have them look at it until they are confident they have it memorized. Erase it once more and have them try again spelling it with the letters. This step is important for those children who need a multi sensory approach to reading.


This step is important for Brianna. She has an opportunity to not only read and hear the word, but feel it as well. I had Brianna spell the word by memory using her magnetic letters. She got it the first try!

4. In this next step you will have them write as many new words as possible using the word they just spelled. (It's important that they only spell real words, not silly words. ) For instance, with the word "play", I had Brianna take the "pl" out and she used the "ay" to make many new words. She created and learned the words: ray, pay, say, day etc. In only a few seconds she learned over 10 new words! And after this short lesson she learned that "ay" is a sound pattern to look for in other words.


This is Brianna's favorite part. She gets to create a bunch of new words that she didn't even know two seconds ago! I love seeing her face light up with joy. And I love hearing her say "Oh, watch mommy. I can make another word!" It's music to my ears!

5. Follow these same steps with each word you selected for them to learn. Again, remember, that overwhelming them with to many words will not be beneficial and will only discourage them from wanting to read. If they seem frustrated, try making the lessons shorter. If the lesson took longer then expected, it's OK to come back to the reading later.

6. Now it's time to practice those words! Time to read. If there are days where they seem to struggle more with the reading, have them read the story again the next day or for more days if it's necessary. Remember, reading is not a race. I've had to remind myself of this, many times!

Brianna read the story with only a few problems. She did great!

6. One thing that helps Brianna tremendously is the use of hand-motions. We try and use sign language when possible. This really does help them remember words. Interestingly, Brianna tends to remember the hand-motions before she remembers the sound of the word. It seems to help trigger her mind to recall certain words she can't remember.

Brianna was having a hard time remembering the word "Mother". She learned the sign-language motion for it and once she signed it to herself she remembered the word.

7. After the reading is done. Write the words they learned on a sheet of paper. At the beginning to each reading lesson have them review the words. Read them forwards and backwards and criss-cross until they read them well. This process is important because it helps in solidifying the words to their memories.

Phew! Got it all! Well, I hope this helps someone in the future. I know it was a lot to read but I hope others can benefit from our own learning experiences in this area. A quick word of encouragement, don't give up! I know the whole reading process is a lot of work but with patience and lots of practice, I promise you will see results. May God Bless you in this great journey of educating your own children. There is nothing better!

Teaching your child how to read-Pt. 2

As I wrote in my previous post, I really wanted to log our journey of learning how to read. Mainly for myself so I can look back and see how much we have progressed, but also for others down the road who might need a little direction and encouragement in this area.

It may not seem easy, teaching someone to read, but in a short time you will be amazed how quickly children learn to read. Please bear with me, as I will be quoting from one of the master educators, Charlotte Mason, about this topic because my words will definitely fall short in explaining how children learn to read. She does such an amazing job in eloquently explaining this process. First let me start off by saying that you can read all her explanations in her own words here, starting on page 199.

This week I wanted to start off with a very quick overview of how we are able to read words. Once you understand this, the concept of reading will be easier and hopefully the teaching process easier as well. In Chapter 6, "Lessons as Instruments of Education" CM said,

"Learning to read is nothing more than figuring out, however we can, the arbitrary symbols for objects and ideas. There is no one 'right way,' and no necessary sequence of steps. There is no beginning, middle and end. The arbitrary symbols we must know so we can read aren't letters. They're words." (Pg. 215)

In other words, words are merely symbols of objects or ideas. As we build relationships with words, reading becomes easier. Since words mainly express an idea or an object, it comes to no surprise that the more interesting the idea or object the better the child will remember it. We've all learned to read by association with the printed word and the idea that it conveyed. This is what CM wrote about this:

"He should be given real words that mean something interesting to him from the very beginning. It's easy to read 'robin redbreast' or 'buttercups and daisies.' The number of letters in a word doesn't matter because the words themselves convey such interesting ideas that it's easy for the child to fix his attention and make the association to the thing. Once the child has made the association between the printed word and the idea that it conveys, it will be easier for him to use what he knows about the sounds of the letters to make other similar words by building on that word. For example, once he knows butter, it's easy for him to change the b to an m to make the word mutter." (Pg. 216)

Reading should be taught not only by sound (phonics) but by sight as well. Reading should also be a multi sensory approach, not only using the sound and sight sensory but also the touch sensory which is necessary for kinesthetic learners (those who learn by touch rather than sight). Adding this sensory to our reading, here at home, is what made Brianna take off in her reading! I personally believe children who struggle to read need this extra sensory approach to help them grasp reading. It helps to make words real for them and it helps them understand that words are simply symbols of things and ideas. So... for my next post I will cover how we do reading in our home. I'll give some step by step examples to this process.

2009-2010 School Schedule

Because we have school year round, I have to make sure we get in all of our schooling during this time frame. If I don't have a yearly schedule there is a huge chance we will be having to play catch-up towards the end. Here is the calendar I will be using to schedule our school year.

Basically what I will do is plan our year using this type of calendar. I have to make sure we get in 36 weeks of school with 16 weeks of breaks. The plan is to have school varying from 4-6 week increments then have one week off . With the exception of August, December and April were we will have 2-3 weeks off depending on how I have spaced our breaks.

Because life is unpredictable I have saved a few weeks for things that just come up. There are some months that I already know we need off such as VBS, vacations, spring break, Thanksgiving, etc. By dispersing our breaks in this manner I'm hoping to prevent burn-out for all of us which is what happened a lot this last year.

The weeks we have off will be "x" out. Our school weeks will be circled to make sure we get in all 36 weeks. As we complete each week I will number them to show we have completed it. I will do a count down format. In other words, our first week of school will be numbered 36 and the following 35, etc. We will try really hard to stay on this schedule but I do expect things to come up to take us off schedule. In that case I will have to tweak things around. I'm hoping this will help us all out this year.