Sunday, April 28, 2024
A Peak in our Classroom
Friday, April 5, 2024
Long Over Due Update
We have been very busy lately and had a lot of changes around the house and with school. I was noticing that all of us, me included, were dreading school each day.
We have decided in March that what we were doing was not working and we needed to make changes to reduce stress and make learning more fun. We needed to do something different. I had hoped we could use a one size fits all box curriculum but that was just not working. Instead we have picked from here and there and see if that worked any better. That way we could tailor things to each child. Before we were trying to stay with the same grade with the youngest three since they are 11, 12, and 12. However, some of our kids needed more help, and others needed to be able to go faster in some areas.
We are still doing So Happy to Learn but also use workbooks, and story books for a good part of their learning.
We found a spelling program, Evan Moor Spelling Skills, we all love that all the kids can use but we are just doing different grades for the kids so it is meeting them where they are at. For math, Willow is no longer using the Study Time Math program. It is a very good program, but it was moving too fast for her and she was getting very frustrated. She needed constant direction with it. We found a program called Teaching Textbooks that is on the computer and it will explain when she gets something wrong. It also grades her work as she goes along. If she misses too many she can just redo the lesson so she has a better understanding of what is being covered.
Veronika and Gavyn are doing some work in Teaching Textbooks but it is not their main math program. We are focusing on learning their addition and subtraction facts with Easy Addition and Easy Subtraction. When they have mastered that, they will move onto Abeka math.
For history, science, and geography I have put together a curriculum with read aloud books. For the month of April we are learning about Biomes and learning about South America. I am reading books about the rainforest, deserts, books about South America, and drawing animals that live in South America. So far the kids have drawn a sloth and a toucan. We will be learning about the polar regions and forests and looking at map books to discover where all the things we are reading about are.
Monday, September 25, 2023
Back To School - September 2023
This September we have finished the final things to make the schoolhouse usable. We wired it all up so we can have outlets that we will use with solar and generators, added solar lighting, insulated the walls, put up internal walls, painted the walls, and finished the flooring, I would have loved the ease of vinyl flooring, but we had left over laminate flooring from the house so we used what we had on hand. Mark also found plans online for the child size chairs that will work perfectly in the schoolroom with the desks we have for the kids.
Mark drilled the holes for the wires and I put in the wires and the insulation. I painted the room and he worked on the flooring. A couple of the kids even came over to help paint.
The first day of school for the kids was so exciting! The youngest three kids are the only ones who are doing school together so it feels a bit different. It is certainly a lot different than when I had a whole class of 20 kids back in the day. The older two girls are working on their own time as and when they want since they are also working part-time. I still help them with their school work when needed, but it is more for their own enjoyment (they love doing schoolwork) than anything else as they are both adults now.
We made bookmarks today to keep track of our reading. The kids drew a picture then colored it on one side, and on the other side I will be using it as a sticker chart to keep track of how many books they have read.