What we've been up to.....

I just wanted to post what we've been up to this Summer.

Mom:
- I've been working on my 20 year highschool reunion committee.  Wow!  It's hard to believe it's been that long--it sure doesn't feel like it.  Any other 1992 grads out there?
- Narrowing down curriculum choices and extra charts, printables, learning supplies, etc.  I have all the curriculum purchased and ready to go...it's all those little extras now: magnet tiles, index boxes, making binders, printing out all of those lovely resources I've found on Pinterest, etc, etc.
- Organizing, de-cluttering and setting up for the start of our new school year.
- I'm working on a Nursery Rhyme activity schedule for Lil Bear.  I'm matching it up to go along with MFW K since Sissy will be doing that in the Fall and Lil Bear will be 'tagging along'.  Anyone else using MFW K this Fall?
- I'm working with DH on thoughts, ideas and structure for our Bible focus this year.  So, I've gathered supplies, narrowing down choices and trying to 'flesh it out' on paper.
- I was really busy before the summer on Pinterest.  I pinned a gazillion---not quite--but a lot of ideas to correlate with History, Science and other Cycle 1 subjects.  Now, I'm trying to narrow those down to just one History and Science idea per week to do along with a few other CC families as just additional enrichment.


Kids:
- Listening and enjoying John Phillip Sousa and creating instruments and pulling out their instruments to play along.
- Working on 'projects': Sis found a bunch of random stickers, pipe cleaners and other craft supplies and has been making 'Christmas decorations'...you can never start too early.  Bud has been using cardstock and scissors and cutting numbers freehand...he's in the 30's now.  Hmmmm....he's going to have great scissor skills.  Lil Bear has been 'copying' big brother and is 'cutting' something really 'pecial....it's precious;)
- Swimming and sprinkler parks: Swim lessons are finished for the summer and now they get to go with Dad to the pool when he gets home.  We try to go as often as possible.  We've also been to different sprinkler parks in our area.....it's almost a necessity around here.
- Making up games,  playing together and reading....that pretty much sums up the summer.
- We have a few more 'big' things to do and go to before we start back up in August.  But for the most part they are just 'taking it easy'.  This is really helping to add anticipation for school---they can't wait to get started and using and reading all of the new books.

 I hope your Summer is going well, too!

Linking up to: Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

 

Summer Tot Time

Our youngest is now 3 years old.  He's a sweetheart!  We started noticing that our older two would 'speak for him' since he was born.  With two older siblings he had a hard time getting a word in to answer for himself.  The two older ones still have to work on that and we, parents, have to do a better job of catching it.  We noticed that Lil Bear can say every phonetic sound.  But, it is hard for him to make certain initial sounds.  For instance he will say 'Gook' instead of 'Look' or 'tissy' instead of 'sissy', 'wilk' instead of 'milk'.   The good thing is that if I ask him, "is it gook or look?" he will respond with 'look' and say it the right way.  He just has to pause, think about it and make a concerted effort to do it.  I do not think it's laziness.  I do think it is harder for him to make the right sound automatic. We brought up this concern with our Pediatrician.  He recommended before we seek speech therapy to work with him on our own until his next check up.  He IS able to make all L, S, and M sounds (and all the other phonetic sounds) but some of them are hard for him in the beginning of a word.  SH, CH, TR are also a bit harder for him at the beginning of a word.  Our doctor gave us some exercises to do with him. 

Along with those exercises, I have been doing a few things to help me and him.
- I have an index card that I update when I notice a word or sound he is having trouble with.
- I made a summer Tot Time plan for him that will focus specifically on practicing the sounds he has trouble with by using rhymes and songs.
- I am praying for him and also having siblings NOT correct him.  I noticed it would hurt his little heart if too many teachers would try to correct help him.

*Please note we are not opposed in any way to get him evaluated.  However, based on the advice of our Pediatrician and others that know him well--they all seem to agree that it is more of a let's practice at home for a certain amount of time issue and then reevaluate at the next check-up.  I strongly recommend that you consult your physician if you have any speech or developmental concerns about your child.*

With that being said:  Here are some of the songs/rhymes we will be using:

- Mealtime prayer: Thank You Jesus song (The one that is used at our church.)
- The Alphabet Song
- Little Bo Peep
- Jack and Jill
- Hey Diddle Diddle
- Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
- Review

Some resources I will be using:

Tot School Planning Forms from 1+1=1
Nursery Rhyme activities from Spell Outloud
and other ideas I found on Pinterest

I am super excited to get started!

Linking up to:

CC Cycle 1 Literature Planning

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Literatuare Planning

**link to update post**

I love learning through literature.  I love it when my kids make connections when reading or hearing a story and something they are learning about during school time.  There have been many of those moments this year and I'm praying that there will be many more in the this upcoming year.  Just yesterday we were watching a show with the kids and my son mentioned how the two characters were working together and I brought up how they were compromising.  My son busted out in song, "The Compromise of 1850...."

I have enjoyed using Five in a Row and Homeschool Share's unit studies so I have compiled a list of possible literature titles that are loosely matched up with a History, Geography or Science fact for Classical Conversations Cycle 1.   I want to integrate the subjects as much as possible so that we can see how these subjects fit together and recognize any connections between them.**I must add, we may or may not use this list next year.  We are trying to decide if we should use Memoria Press 1st grade or even Sonlight for this Cycle.  If we do not, we will use this approach for literature.**

If we decide to go with our own eclectic curricula mix, I want to put together a Literature Notebook that has a place for vocabulary words, copywork, drawings, narrations and other important things to note or printables to remember for each book.  I will use the discussion points and activities suggested in either the Five in A Row manual or Homeschool Share unit study.  I tried to only use those resources less I get caught up in major research.  That is such an easy time trap for me and I don't want to spend countless hours 'reinventing the wheel'.

Are you planning on using literature that matches up somehow with any of the CC Cycle 1 subjects?  If so, I would love to see your suggestions.

Here is what I have so far:

*These are just my initial notes, so I do not have author last names or even correct punctuation/capitalization unless otherwise noted.  Most titles can be found at Homeschool Share.

 

week	History	Geography	Book suggestion by History or Geography	Book suggestion by Science
1	Commandments  1-5	Fertile Crescent (from Nomad to Civilization) Ancient Hebrew (10 Commandments)	A is for Adam, Beechick The True Story of Noah’s Ark,  Life in the Great Ice Age,   The Story of Creation: Words from Genesis,Ray	Classification: The Salamander Room,
2	Commandments  6-10	Ancient Egypt	The Giraffe that Walked to Paris, Milton Boy of the Pyramids,  The Day of Ahmed’s Secret The Littlest Frog Rouss	Kingdoms:  Andy’s Circus, Stopping by the Woods,  Wild Horses of Sweetbriar,  Grandfather’s Journey
3	Greek/Roman Gods	Ancient Greece	Norman the Doorman,  Nico’s Octopus,  Aesop’s Fables	Animal: Owl Moon, the tale of Peter Rabbit, The Giraffe that Walked to Paris, Warm as Wool
4	7 Wonders	7 Wonders	Liberty Rising, Who built the pyramids (hooper)	Plant Cell: Make Way for Ducklings, Tale of Ferndinad, Miss Rumphius, Linnea’s Windowsill Garden, Tale of Peter Rabbit,
5	Split of the Roman Empire	Ancient Rome	Clown of God, Papa Piccolo, Angelo, Gabriella’s Song,	Invertebrates: Niko’s Octopus, Night of the Moonjellies
6	Fall of Rome	Ancient Rome	Same as above	Vertebrates: When I was Young and in the Mountains
7	Hinduism	Ancient India	Little babaji, What should I make by Nayar, monsoon and monsoon afternoon	Reproduction: Make Way for Ducklings
8	Age of Imperialism	Ancient India	Same as above	Types of Seeds: Miss Rumphius, Follow the Drinking Gourd
9	Confucius	Ancient China	Round is a Mooncake, Fish in the Air, The Empty Pot Lapbook, Love as Strong as Ginger, Daisy Comes Home, The Story About Ping Resources	Parts of plants: same as above, The Parable of the Lily, The empty Pot, Down, Down the Mountain,
10	Heian Empire	Ancient Japan	Little Oh, Taro and the Tofu, Crow Boy, A Pair of Red Clogs s, Grandfather's Journey , Grass Sandals	Leaves/parts: same as above, The trellis and the seed
11	Constantine	Ancient Middle East	Little Humpy and How the Camel got it’s hump,	Flower Parts: The Plant Gardener
12	Muslim Empire	Ancient Middle East	?	Plant Systems: Growing Vegetable Soup
13	Kush	Ancient Africa	The Giraffe that walked to paris, Why  mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears, The Mosai and I, Fatuma’s New Cloth, My Rows and Piles of Coins,	Parts of Earth: Climbing Kansas Mountain, Grandfathers Journey, Hill of Fire
14	Songhai	Ancient Africa	See above	Rocks: The Gift Stone/ Stone Soup
15	Henry the Navigator	Colonial Africa	See above	Mountains: When I was young and in the Mountains, Climbing Kansas Moutain
16	Civilizations of Meso America	Meso America (Olmec, Inca, Mayan)	The umbrella, The Parrot Tico Tango, Abuela’s Weave,	Volcanoes: Rocks in His head, little island, hill of fire
17	Aztecs	MesoAmerica (Aztec)	Hill of Fire, Isabel’s House of Butterflies, the Old Man and his Door, The Gullywasher	Parts of Volcanoes: see above
18	Mound Builders	Native Americans	Long Night Moon, Hiawatha,	Ocean Floor: Time of Wonder
19	Anasazi	Native Americans	Same as above	Ocean Zones: Very Last First Time, Hello Ocean, Atlantic
20	Mexican Revolution	Mexican Revolution	Same as week 16	Atmosphere: Amber on the Mountain, Harold and the Purple Crayon
21	Exploration of Canada	Canada Explorers	All those secrets of the world, Cranberry Thanksgiving, Mirette on the High Wire,	Circles: Three Snow Bears, Rechenka, Curious George, Me on the Map, katy and the big snow,
22	British North America Act	Canada culture	The Three Snow Bears, Fight of the union	Weather fronts: A Pair of Red Clogs, Wild Horses of Sweetbriar
23	Liberation of South America	South America (History, liberation)	On the Pampas, Gauchada, chucaro wild pony on the pampas, This Place is Wet, a pen pal for Max	Clouds: Mr. Gumpy’s Motor Car, Three Names
24	Napoleon	South America (Culture)	See Above Madeline, Giraffe that Walked to Paris	Globe Markings: Curious George, Me on the Map, Katy and the Big Snow, The Rag Coat, Henry the Castaway, Mapping Penny’s World