Beginning our nature journaling

We started our first "official" homeschool year almost three weeks ago, with Izzy (6) starting first grade.  Since we're brand new at this, and since it's summertime, these last 2 or 3 weeks have been more of a  transition time.  Even though we're almost three weeks in, there are still some things that we have yet to begin, but we're slowly getting there.  Plus we're (read:  I'm) still figuring out a good routine/schedule/flow to our days.

Anyway, one of the things that has taken us awhile to finally implement is our nature journals.  We've been on several nature walks, but the act of drawing or writing something down has not happened...until now!

On Monday we went on a walk around our neighborhood.  When we came back to the house I asked Izzy if there was anything that she wanted to draw or write about in her nature journal.  I do plan to eventually have a focus area, but for now, since it's new and we're developing the habit, I'm going to go with her interests.

She decided to draw a blackberry bush - we actually have three different blackberry bushes growing in our neighborhood.

I have an old Reader's Digest Complete Book of the Garden and we found a nice picture of part of a blackberry bush.  Izzy used the picture to draw hers.

I wasn't going to make Addy (4) draw anything, but she was more than willing!  She decided to draw a couple of flowers that are around our neighborhood - a dandelion (of course) and a daisy.  She actually asked for her own nature journal, too, but I had to explain that she'll get one when she turns 6 and begins real school.  I think she was a little disappointed :(  Instead, she just drew on plain white paper and I put it in a sheet protector in a binder.

I found this wildflower book at a yard sale awhile ago, and it was perfect for finding some nice pictures.

 

Addy and I took turns drawing the petals of the flowers, but she did the rest and colored it.  Izzy did hers completely on her own.  I thought they did such a good job!  Especially since these are their first nature drawings and we haven't done any drawing lessons yet.

And here's Addy's daisy.

Unfortunately, I didn't draw anything in my journal because I was busy helping Addy with her drawings.

How is your nature journaling going?

First grade scheduling

I recently shared our first grade curriculum plans and now we'll talk about scheduling!  We haven't begun year one yet, so I can't tell you how the following schedule is working.  These are my plans for the year, including a schedule of what and when we'll read the AO readings and a daily schedule/routine for getting all the work done.

First, the schedule of readings.  I've only done this for term one so far.

At first, I wanted to schedule certain readings for certain days.  For example, Our Island Story would be read on Mondays, Paddle to the Sea on Tuesdays, etc.  But.  I remembered that I am one who, if we miss say, the scheduled reading for Monday, would probably get a little irritated and it would throw my whole week off!

Thankfully, I came across the idea of looping.  Instead of assigning certain readings to certain days, I put the readings in the order that I would like for us to read them, and we'll just go down the list during our reading times each day.  So, my books are in the following order:

Our Island Story
Aesop for Children
Paddle to the Sea
The Blue Fairy Book
50 Famous Stories Retold
Just So Stories
Burgess Bird Book
Parables of Nature
Herriot's Treasury for Children
D'Aulaire books
(I'll discuss the Shakespeare readings below.)

I wanted to mix up the readings a bit so that 1) the history readings are spread out (this will probably be more helpful when there's more of a mix of World and American history in the coming years), and 2) we're not reading books from the same category all at once, like all of the literature readings at the end of the week, for example.

I am planning to have at least two times set aside throughout our days in which to do our readings.  At the beginning of the week, during our first AO reading time, we'll read from the first book, Our Island Story.  Then, barring no scheduling havocs, we'll read from Aesop for Children in the next time slot.  If we happen to miss Aesop, we'll pick it up the next time we read, even if it's the next day, and we'll just keep going from there.  This way everything stays in order.  We have to make it through the whole list before starting at the top again.

Here's my document for checking off the readings (here is a link to the pdf file):

Each week we'll just work our way down the list, marking off as we go.  I'll keep this handy throughout the term, maybe on a clipboard or something.

This grid came from the AO year one 36-week schedule page.  I downloaded the word document, then copied and pasted the rows for term one into a new document.  I rearranged the rows so that the books are in the order that I want to read them.

A few notes:

~ I moved around a couple of the readings:  "Prince Darling" and "Toads and Diamonds" from The Blue Fairy Book, and "Only One Woof" from Herriot's Treasury.  You can see at the bottom of my table where they were originally.  I moved them in order to keep a maximum of 8 readings per week (the two Aesop readings per week count as one since they're short).

~ For Paddle to the Sea I'm going to use Charlotte Mason Help's (CMH) schedule of this book which means reading Paddle in term one, then reading two chapters of Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography per week in terms two and three.  That's why Paddle is different from the original AO schedule.

~ AO only has half of the Burgess Bird Book scheduled for the whole year; one chapter every other week.  I've heard so many people talk about how the book is so wonderful and just flows if you read it from beginning to end that I've decided we'll read one chapter each week with a plan to finish the whole thing (which will take longer than 36 weeks - we may begin it a few weeks early and finish it a few weeks late).

~ See the Shakespeare row at the bottom with the asterisks?  I plan to begin a "morning" time routine (I hope to keep you updated with our morning time plans throughout the year) consisting of Bible and poetry readings, memory work, possibly Spanish, and a read-aloud or two.  On the weeks that Shakespeare is scheduled, I'm planning to read that as the read-aloud during morning time.  Addy (4) won't be required to sit in during this, but I would love for her to.  It seems that most families read Shakespeare together, so I think this would be a nice way to do that.

~ I mentioned in my first grade plans post that I'm not planning to read Trial and Triumph this year, so that's why it's missing.

Still with me?  I hope!

Now on to the daily schedule!

At first I made a schedule with the actual times that I wanted to do everything throughout the day.  So for example, morning time would be from 8:30 to 9:00, math from 9:00 to 9:15, writing from 9:15 to 9:30, then a break for 20 minutes, etc, etc.

But.

Like I said earlier, if I did this kind of schedule and we got behind, then I may or may not get a little irritated and it would throw the whole day off!

Instead, I'm going with a routine rather than a schedule.  Things are in order, but it's not so particular that we have a certain time of the day for each subject.

Here is the weekly schedule checklist I made for term one:

I'll print this off each week so that I can check off each item and make any notes that are needed.  I may keep this on a clipboard with the readings schedule from above.

A few notes:

~ Notice how I did not assign the actual days of the week:  Monday, Tuesday, etc.  I put day 1, day 2, and so forth, so that if we miss Monday because of sickness or something, then Tuesday turns into day 1.

~ The first block for each day is morning time, which will probably be during or right after breakfast.  Bible is first because I definitely want Addy involved for that, but after that she is free to go if she wants.

~ I put the subjects in the order in which I would like them to be accomplished during the day.  So once we're done with morning time, we'll probably break for morning chores, then come back and Izzy will start with math.  Writing practice is next, followed by one of our AO readings from above, then reading instruction, then the second AO reading.  If we have to take breaks, we have to take breaks.  Of course, I would love to get this all done together, maybe with a short break or two, and be done before lunch.  But, if we only get math, writing, and one reading in before lunch, so be it.  Sometime after lunch we'll continue with reading instruction, then the second reading.  And then she'll get to recorder practice at some point during the day!

~ You'll also notice that next to each subject is a number in parenthesis, for example Math (15).  That's the estimated amount of time that will be spent on that particular subject.  CM was an advocate for short lessons, and I agree with that, so we will be staying close to those numbers.

~ Bible:  AO has certain Bible selections to be read each week, but I am doing something different.  I'm going to be using the selections at Penny Gardner's website, with two days of Old Testament readings and two days of New Testament readings, then a chapter from Wisdom and the Millers on Fridays (I mean, day 5!).  We'll probably just go down the list on her website, but only keep the readings to around 10 minutes per day.

~ I plan to "do school" four days per week with the fifth day being a day of enrichment.  We'll still have a morning time, but instead of all the academic-y stuff, this is when we'll do our art and music studies, drawing lessons, handicrafts, and nature studies...aka the fun stuff :)  I'm not planning for us to do everything listed every Friday.  I mentioned in my previous post about how I plan to rotate these subjects.  We'll see how it goes.  And I hope to keep you updated!

Whoo!  That's my plan and I'm *hopefully* sticking to it!  Have you made your schedule for the upcoming year?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!  Maybe I'll glean some good ideas :)

First grade curriculum plans

I've been planning and researching and organizing these past few months in preparation for our first year of official homeschooling.  Izzy (6) will begin first grade sometime this year and I finally feel like I'm getting a grip on the whats and hows of what I will teach her.

It may be a little early to post curriculum plans, but I have decided to begin Izzy's first grade year around July (only two months away!!) because we have baby girl #3 due in September.  I would like to get at least a month or two in before our whole schedule/routine is thrown off due to a newborn.  Also, because of said newborn, I have a lot of "bucket list" items that I would like to complete in the next few months:  decluttering, yard sale, general baby prep, etc, and I don't want my homeschool plans to be put on the backburner.  I'm just not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of gal and I need a plan!  Plus, I tend to procrastinate and I just don't want to keep putting this off.

Anyway.

We're relying pretty heavily on Charlotte Mason's (CM) educational methods:  living books instead of textbooks to teach different subject areas, copywork in the place of spelling and grammar, narration instead of worksheets, and short lessons, just to name a few things.

So, here we go!

Booklist

I've decided to rely on Ambleside Online (AO) as our spine curriculum.  Here is the link to their year one (aka first grade) booklist for each subject - history, literature, poetry, science, geography, etc.  I plan to use all of these books with one exception:  Trial and Triumph.  I do think we'll read it at some point but I'm just not sure I want to read it yet.  I'm thinking of waiting another year or two when Addy (4) will be a little older and we can read the book together as a family, maybe on Sunday evenings or something.

Writing

I plan to have Izzy do no more than 10 minutes of writing each day (CM is an advocate of short lessons).  She can write fairly well, but I still plan to start with her mastering the correct way to form each letter (for example, making sure she writes an "o" counterclockwise and not clockwise which she has a tendency to do).  After we go through the alphabet, I'll have her begin copying words and short sentences from the above readings.

Reading Instruction

We'll do 15 to 20 minutes of reading instruction each day.  At this point, she already knows the sounds each letter makes and we've done quite a bit of word-building using CM methods.  You can find a breakdown of those methods here.  She has learned pretty well how to sound out words.  My plan is to use the McGuffey readers, beginning with the primer, to continue with both phonics and learning to read by sight.

The McGuffey readers are in the public domain, so they can be found for free online.  Here is a link to the primer.  Also, the Eclectic Manual of Methods is invaluable for learning how to teach reading using the McGuffey readers (and for teaching math with Ray's Arithmetic which I'll mention below).

Math

I've had a difficult time choosing a math spine, which seems silly because I have a math degree and I taught math in the public school system for five years.  However, there's a big difference between teaching 9th grade algebra and figuring out what and how to teach first grade math.

After much consideration, I've decided to use Ray's Arithmetic.  I like it because 1) it is that classical, tried-and-true method of teaching arithmetic, focusing on mental math and really understanding numbers, and 2) it's free!  You can find the Ray's New Primary Arithmetic book here.

Actually, the book isn't even used for the first year, unless the child masters the concepts quicker than anticipated (which I wouldn't be surprised if this will be the case with Izzy; she's pretty sharp when it comes to math...she must get that from her mother HA).  Like I mentioned above, the Eclectic Manual of Methods is a must for learning to teach math using Ray's Arithmetic.  AND the Ray's Arithmetic Yahoo group is also invaluable.  It has the whole plan for the first year.

I also plan to add in some living math books (great sites with lists of books here and here) and math-y games here and there.  My math pinterest page isn't much, but there are a few good games that I've pinned, so feel free to look!  We'll probably spend 10-15 minutes on math each day.

Foreign Language

I've decided on Spanish as our foreign language.  I really wanted to do French, but I'm much more familiar with Spanish, having taken it in high school and college, and it's just more practical living in the southern U.S.

At this age my goal is to introduce the language to the kiddos and have them learn some common phrases and vocabulary.  I'm thinking we'll shoot for about 10 minutes per day.

I'm not buying a Spanish curriculum at this point.  I searched around the AO forums and found a couple of sites on the internet that provide free resources for teaching Spanish to children.  One of them is the Salsa Videos, and here are some Salsa Teacher Support Materials and the support materials for teaching grades k-2 with the videos which I think will be necessary to implement this program.  I actually don't plan to use the videos at this point, but I'll definitely use the support materials because they contain a great deal of vocabulary and common phrases.

Someone on the forums also mentioned Spanishtown, which may prove useful as well.  I would also like to incorporate some illustrated children's Spanish literature (gotta search the library) and Spanish children's songs which I'm sure I can find on youtube.

Memory Work

I'm taking the suggestions at Charlotte Mason Help (CMH - scroll down to the Recitations section) for this area.  Izzy will learn and recite one Psalm, one passage of scripture, and one poem, as well as two hymns and two folk songs, per 12-week term.  I plan to set aside around 10 minutes each day for memory work/recitation.  I don't have my official selections yet (I'm not that organized at this point!), but when I do, I'll share them.

Picture Study

I'm again taking the suggestions from CMH for picture/artist study.  AO has a rotation of artists and prints to study each year, but I think it's important to expose young children to art that will capture their particular interests, developing an appreciation for fine art.  So, I'm going to be choosing different prints to study, rather than the ones listed on the AO website.  I'll choose one artist each term and we'll study six paintings by that artist - one every two weeks.  I haven't made my selections yet (see above), but again I'll share them when I do.

Hymn/Folk Song/Composer Study

And yet again, CMH for this one.  At this point I'm not going to use AO's song and composer rotations.  I like how CMH introduces the young'uns to the orchestra, the ballet, and the opera, so we'll plan on that.  And I'll be choosing the hymns and folks songs at least for this year.

I plan to do the picture, hymn, folk song, and composer studies on Fridays, rotating each week.  I'll play the composer selection at different times throughout the week, and I plan to include the hymns and folk songs during memory work, too, rotating them on different days.

Drawing/Painting

Not quite sure about the painting part yet - CM advocates learning the dry-brush technique and I've played around with it, but I'm just not comfortable yet to teach it to a 6 year old.  So we'll plan to start with just plain ole' drawing lessons using the book Drawing With Children.  I should probably read this book soon...it's on my summer bucket list ;)

I would also love to incorporate some drawing drills that go along with this book which can be found here.  I'm wondering if we could do these during our morning time.

Nature Study

We'll plan to go on a nature walk once per week and keep a nature journal, recording and drawing birds, plants, and animals/insects.

We'll most likely take the journaling part kind of slow - maybe every other week or so in the beginning to get our feet wet.  We'll probably start this in the next few weeks.  As a result, I'll probably supplement a little with some nature/science books.  At this point I'm thinking of reading some of the Among the People series, probably during morning time.

Handicrafts

Oh boy.  Here's where I'm kind of at a loss at this point.  I know I want to teach the girls to sew, but first I need to learn!  Of course, I could just learn right along with them...

Anyway, I would love to teach them all kinds of things, but again, we're going to take it slow and go with something I'm familiar with.  (Plus I'll have a newborn, so...you know.)  We'll most likely spend the first term working on some cooking and baking skills (now that's what I know), and I'm thinking of doing some card making as well.

I know CM had her students working on the drawing/painting, nature study, and handicrafts every week, but I'm thinking of doing a Friday rotation, kind of like what Brandy explained on her blog, just so that we can get acclimated to all this new stuff.

Music Instruction

I haven't thought a whole lot about this area, but I would love to have the girls learn to play the piano.  I'll probably use CMH's suggestion of how to teach children to play the piano, starting with the use of a recorder.  I know this will need to be something done consistently, so I'm shooting for about 15 minutes, 4 or 5 days per week.

Whoo!!  Is that everything??  I hope so!  Sometime in the near future I'll share my plans as far as a schedule/routine for getting all this done.

Have you started planning your next homeschool year?