Happy New (School) Year!

The new school year has begun for us.  There were some big changes, the biggest one that Jacob has now joined us as a first grader!

A little caveat: He would not be a first grader in a normal world.  He's past the cut-off date for both the US and the German school system but we kept him in the school prep class that we have in Germany for the simple reason that all his friends are some weeks older and thus before the cut-off and it would have broken his heart to be left behind.  He's been socially a little behind, namely having problems with temper tantrums, and all school counselors and the Kindergarten teachers recommended keeping him back.  I did not have a problem with that per se, even if it's not nice to hear that your kid is academically advanced but socially challenged.  Both Doug and I always maintained that there is still time (we got those recommendations early last school year) and that one year makes so much difference in a little child's life.  Last month, Jacob went to Kindergarten for the tail-end of the Bavarian school year (the summer break is in August) and lo, the teachers made a point to tell me how much he had grown up and how wonderfully he had turned out.  Which he has.  We had worked hard to contain those temper tantrums and to curtail all the wailing and crying and he's done such a good job.  He has grown into a very charming boy who knows it's all right to be angry and disappointed and sad, only it's not all right to fling it into everyone's face with the force of a category 5 hurricane.  He's also happier than he was in the past months and that's so nice to see.  He was ready for school.

Which is why he started the new school year with his older brothers.  In Germany, first graders are celebrated enthusiastically.  They get big paperboard cones which are filled with sweets and toys, and the first day of school is just a big party.  Both Alan and David started school in Germany, so Jacob was aware of this custom and he demanded it for himself as well.  So we got him a cone (I got him a cheap one with teddybears and then my Mom made me go and exchange it for a more expensive one with cars - she donated the difference and Jacob was very grateful):

We printed welcome signs, we had a little celebration, and he loved it.  He felt very special and I'm glad he did.  Every first grader should feel special on his first day of school.

So here we are now, in our new school year.  It's a bit unsteady, this life of ours, and all we know of the future is that Doug's project is ending COB November 11.  Our green cards expire on November 15, so that's the last day we can possibly be in Moldova.  There is (maybe) a follow-on but the RFP has not dropped yet, so there will be a break of several months between projects even if we win that follow-on.  Whatever happens after November, we do not know.  We have various balls in the air but if you are a reader of this blog, you may know that those balls crash and burn more often than not.  So let's not talk about unlayed eggs, as we say in German, and rather talk about our school plans. 

We decided to continue the homeschool project at least until the end of the current school year 2011/12, schooling a 4th grader, a 3rd grader and a 1st grader.  Oh, not to forget the precocious three-year-old who is currently learning her letters, because she insists on doing school as well.  I agonized over some choices and decisions.  What if we actually have to go back to Germany?  We have been teaching in English and not been writing or reading much in German.  We hadn't done much in the way of crafts and art, or music.  I still wasn't happy with the Math program. Both older kids were a year ahead in math in any of those programs and while the Singapore Math is more advanced than Saxon Math or Teaching Textbooks, it didn't really have a curriculum with it and I felt a bit lost.  I'm new to this business and I need strong guidance!

So here is our new curriculum for this year:

1. Meeting

I retained the Math Meeting from Saxon Math.  It's basically a morning ritual to start the day.  The kids write the dates in the blank calendars in their meeting books, chart the weather and temperatures, chart birthdays, practice the clock, money, problem solving and patterns.  I added flash cards to practice multiplication and division.  I don't have a Meeting book for Jacob but that's not a big problem.

Instead, he is responsible for our wall calendar.  It consists of little cardboard tiles with the names of the days, months, seasons, as well as numbers for the date and cards for the weather.  I glued little flat magnets to the back so that Jacob can put the cards up on a magnet board.

2. Language Arts

The older two boys do Sequential Spelling, Wordly Wise, and the Sonlight LA program for third grade (pdf sample file).  They just started English writing in March, so 3rd grade sometimes seems a bit hard for them but we are plowing our way through.  We do replace the Bible quote with the secular quote they offer,  and we skip anything that is just too religious for our tastes.  This year, we've replaced the essay writing of the Sonlight with The Traits program.  I actually wrote to the author and asked her how to incorporate her program into homeschooling and which books to get and she was amazingly helpful and generous with her time.  I'm very excited about this because I always felt that strong writing is important but was stumped as how to teach this to my kids.

Because my kids have horrible handwriting, we are working our way through Handwriting without Tears. I have to say that both Alan and David write beautifully in those books but they have yet to carry this over into their daily writing.  I can but hope.  Jacob has his own book and is working on writing letters and numbers.

Jacob also works his way through the Headsprout lessons to learn reading.  It's worked well for our older kids and we got a half price loyalty bonus and, most important, he seems to enjoy it.  We've been doing this very loosely for a while but now he does one lesson a day on school days.

3. History and Geography

We use the Sonlight curriculum Introduction to American History.  We all learn a lot!

4. Math

Here I got all nationalistic and went back to German books.  After some discussion with my Dad (who was, after all, a math teacher) I bought the Mathepilot books (link in German) for all my kids - grades 1, 3 and 4.  I have to say this is the most amazing and wonderful program.  It's very demanding and just the two-week long review of last year's curriculum has my kids pulling their hairs.  I love it.  Finally, they are challenged! Cubes in third grade, yay!

The kids have their instruction books and a 180-page workbook, and I have the teacher handbook.  It's a big, fat, punch-holed loose-leaf book complete with a DVD that contains a training software for the kids,  the entire handbook as a pdf plus tests, evaluations, and material for printing.

The book contains a complete curriculum, various teaching strategies for every week, recommendations on how to help struggling or advanced students, tests and so-called diagnosis tables.  Those are simply fantastic and a great help to determine whether or not my kids are on track.  It's basically a list of skills they need to develop this year and I can go and check them off.  I see which areas need reinforcement and which can be left alone. 

While the two older boys have to put in some work, Jacob breezes ahead of schedule in his book.  He's got a lot of basic math concepts down and seems to be just like his brothers in his intuitive understanding of how numbers work.  Heh, those are so not my genes.

5. Social Studies

We're using a German book - Das Auer Heimat- und Sachbuch - for grade 1 and grade 4 (both Alan and David).  It comes with a workbook and covers everything from safe traffic behavior and learning about flora and fauna in meadows for Jacob to sex ed (ugh), water treatment and life in ponds for the older two.  Good stuff.

6. Biology and Chemistry

We continue our studies of last year's curriculum, the Real Science Odysee for Kids by Pandia press. We are also using some material from Aurora Lipper and her Supercharged Science. 

7. Latin

Lively Latin.  We hardly started last year but this year, we mean it!

8. Art

I bought multiple things from my favorite crafts shop, Labbé.  This site is chock-full of ideas, printouts and inspiration and I can spend hours on it.  Sorry, in German only.  In the next three months, we are doing:
Flying Fish
Linoleum printing
Paper weaving
Various watercolor experiments
Fingerprint paintings
Cutting and glueing (Leah and Jacob)
Some Origami
Leaf and flower pressing

Art appreciation - the Masters. Yeah, that's broad.  Because I haven't made my mind up yet.

9. Music

Piano.  Ah, yes,  I hear the few people who are intimately acquainted with our stuff raise the objection that we don't own a piano.  That is true.  However, we are leaving here in three months and then we are going to purchase an E-Piano.  Maybe for Christmas. Until then we will listen to music and especially to Mozart.

11. Keyboard Typing

We're using the Typing Instructor which the kids love.

10. PE

Soccer, basketball, Taekwondo and tennis.  Not everything for everybody.  Jacob told me today that he wants to run with me.  Um, okay.  I'd have to start running again which is not the worst thing I could do.

So.  That's the plan.  Gee, now that I look at it, it seems kind of a lot.  But we don't do everything every day and anyways, we get through things faster with only three kids.  We are liking this homeschooling thing.

Comments

[Carrie]

Your plan looks good!

Here we will have Moving Beyond the Page, either 6-8 or 7-9 levels; Math Mammoth; probably Explode the Code for phonics; a mish-mash of art projects and study of the masters that I will put together, plus a pottery class; additional history (ancient civilizations); music with the local youth choir if she gets in; and adaptive soccer on the weekends. Her Spanish teacher grandma will continue to work on her Spanish, and I will fit keyboarding in somewhere when I figure out what program will work best with her hands. Oh, and Girl Scouts.

The little one gets Reading Eggs and Starfall, a regular nature-study preschool hour at a nature center, ballet and a beginner sports class, and anything she wants to do with her big sister. This becomes a hell of a lot of work, especially when I add in the outside activities. Yet people still believe homeschooling is somehow "less" than public school...

[claudia]

Wow, Carrie. Now you got me all in a funk! I had no idea you are homeschooling, I'd have asked you for pointers then! I looked it all up, of course and am awed with what your kids are doing (and you!). This is all very wonderful stuff!
Moving beyond the Page sounds great but my kids aren't gifted. They are smart and clever but really normal. The science kits look really interesting but I can't get my hands on them here. That's our problem when homeschooling without a network around us - no boy scouts, no ballet schools, no co-ops, nature centers, and very limited amazon.com delivery. But oh, I can long!
I did sign up for a free trial for Reading Eggs. Maybe Leah will be interested!
Wow. Just wow.

[claudia]

Reading Eggs is great! Leah loves it and had to be dragged away. Jacob can use it to reinforce some letter combinations. We're definitely getting good use out of the trial! Thanks for the recommendation.

[Doug (not Muir)]

Are you still in touch with Maurice at all?

[Carrie]

Oh, we are just starting this year! And MBtP isn't just for gifted kids. I chose it because it has a variety of activities, not just worksheets, etc, for the topics covered. Hands-on activities seem to help her focus, and this program supports that. Catie's bright but I wouldn't say she's gifted, except maybe in verbal abilities. It's too hard to tell around the impulse/attention issues. And I just signed Amelia up for Reading Eggs too :-)

I am grateful there is so much around here for the kids to be a part of. I can't imagine how I'd do it if I had to teach them with no other support...what you are doing is really impressive.