HOW WE USE SPELLING POWER

I just recently purchased a used 3rd edition Spelling Power to use with Little Girl. I have seen so many people talking about how long the instructions for use are, and how complicated. I suppose they would be, if you bothered to use them. But, being a rebel, I never use anything like the directions tell you to. Instead, I have modified to fit what works for us. So here is how we are using it.

First of all, I gave her the placement tests. No big deal. I let her type the words out on the computer, and it didn't take long at all to figure out where to place her. Then I got two composition books for her to use for the regular tests, as I want her to actually write the words out. I think they "see" them better that way.

Spelling Power has lists of 20 words with a spelling rule above each list. The rules are pretty useless in my opinion, so we don't use them. We learned spelling rules with Spell to Write and Read, which had really good rules but was much too time consuming to continue. However, I am glad for the time we did use it. I learned a lot myself. I could have just used the Wise Guide from SWR the way I am using Spelling Power, but after research, I realized I like Spelling Power better. SWR only has 2000 words. It doesn't include variations of words because those are included in the exercises the student does (adding prefixes, suffixes, etc.) Nor does it review words throughout the lists, but each word only appears once. SP, on the other hand, has 5000 words. It does include the variations of the words and it also reviews them throughout the lists, thus accounting for the number of words included. This is what I wanted.

Ok, so on with how we actually use it. The first day, I call out one word at a time from our list. Little Girl writes the word in her notebook, then spells it aloud to me. If it is correct, we go to the next word. If it is wrong, I have her mark it out, give her the correct spelling, and discuss any rules, hints, or tricks for remembering how the word is spelled. We continue to the end of the list. The rules say to stop when they have missed 3 or 4 words, but the most she has ever missed is 3 anyway.

After we finish the test, I have her copy the missed words into her second composition book. I have her spell each one aloud to me, to make sure she doesn't copy them wrong. She then studies the words, one at a time, covers them, and rewrites each out beside the original. She hasn't missed any so far, but if she does, she will erase it and repeat.

The next day, we get a clean notebook page. We start with the words she missed the day before and go through the next list, using the same steps as before. So far, she hasn't missed any a second day.

As I said, review is built in, and every 5 lists, I believe, is a review test. We had our first today. I crossed out some of the easier words and replaced them with some she had missed from the recent lists. She got them all right the first time.

I like this book because it goes all the way through 12th grade and the kids don't have to study words they already know, but only the ones they need to work on. I had previously dropped spelling for a while, but I think I will continue this until she graduates, or finishes the book, whichever comes first. Good spelling is important.

First Week with Tapestry of Grace

I finally ordered a unit of Tapestry of Grace after looking at it for several years and thinking how expensive it is. I ordered unit 3 of year 2, since that is where we left off in time with Truthquest. I ordered the digital edition (I am using a Mac) because they did not sell this single unit in print. I much prefer print because I do not like to read off the computer, nor be tied to it when making my plans. But it downloaded without a hitch (even though I am not computer savvy at all), and I was quickly on my way to planning out our first week. We started with week 20, which is the beginning of this unit, and actually took 2 weeks to do it. We will continue to take 2 weeks for each week, as this particular year plan is very full.

First, let me give some background. When I first decided to make my own literature based history plans, I started with Christine Miller's All Through the Ages. While it is a great listing of books for each time period, there is no real outline to go by. The books in each section are listed in alphabetical and not chronological order. This would not do for us. So then I discovered Truthquest History, which we have been using for several years. I thought it was just the outline I needed, with lots of great book suggestions. I never did care for the commentary, and neither did my girls, though most people seem to love it. It is just too "chummy" for us. We do not like that at all, nor do we agree with most of her theology.

Well, what I came to discover is that we would do a section of Truthquest, choosing books to read about the particular topic, then, a few sections later (which would be weeks or even months later in some cases), we would come across a section of people from that time period, or perhaps a section on the science of that period, etc. These topics and people should have fit into the previous lessons, but because of the way the TQ book is arranged, we kept having to go back and forth in history, instead of keeping up a steady chronological pace. I was quite annoyed with this. When I recognized the people or events, I could insert them where they belonged, with a bit of messing around, but in many cases I just didn't know without doing tons of research.

Next, I ordered year 3 of Biblioplan. It only took one look to realize this was not for me. It is just so sparse, for lack of a better word. Not good at all for someone who likes choices and planning. :-)

Enter TOG. It is just what I have been wanting. Each unit is sort of a unit study, where you cover all the people, events, etc. of a particular period at one time. So far, I love the books they suggest, but because it is by topics, I can always substitute if needed. We are only using the history, and even that we are not using "properly." I pick and choose from among the levels as I see fit, and we just read and discuss and read and discuss. It is working great for us.

Our first "week" covered the Roanoke colony, Jamestown, the 30 Years War in Europe, and all the folks associated with those things. We do not like reading long passages from books at a time, so I divided our reading up so that we read a section from each book each day. We read from these books:

The World of Capt. John Smith

Don Quixote (an adaptation)

Here Comes Galileo

Story of the World 2 and 3

Our Island Story

Trial and Triumph

Life in Colonial Times

Also, Big Girl read Lion of the North by Henty, and a couple sections from Clarence Carson's Basic History of the United states. Little Girl read the Childhood of Famous Americans book about William Bradford.

We read from these books for 9 days, then on the second Friday, we read the Pageant of Philosophy aloud together, and reviewed using the teacher notes and student questions and answers. I did not have the girls do any worksheets, nor do we do any projects. But that is the great thing about TOG - you make it work for you! It is very customizable. In fact, I like it so much, I went ahead and ordered unit 4, but in print, so I can sit wherever I want and plan. TOG is a planners dream. :-)

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CHANGES

I am making a couple changes for Little Girl this week. We have been using the spelling words in CLE Language Arts, but I am finding they are just too random, and many of them, because it is a Mennonite curriculum, are simply words that we don't use. I am going to start using the list from the Wise Guide we already have. I will give her a pretest each week until she misses ten or so words, then use those for her weekly spelling.

I am also going to incorporate dictation back in, using Spelling Wisdom, which we already have.

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THINKING AHEAD A BIT

I made a list this morning of the things I want to cover with Big Girl over the few years she has left of "school." I have been thinking a lot of what our ultimate goals are, and of the fact that what we do does not have to (and really should not) look anything like traditional school. If she ends up wanting to go to college, it will surely be a community college where she will simply have to take a test to get in. At this point, she has no such aspirations.

I am a big believer, as I have said before, of playing to the girls' strengths, instead of focusing on their weaknesses. God has made each of us different, with our own gifts and interests. Not everybody was created to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a scientist. Very few were, actually. Big Girl's strengths are in reading, writing, and creating. She is not a math or a science person. For math, she will finish up the Lial's BCM she is halfway through right now. Then, some time before she graduates, we will do a consumer math. That is all the math she will ever need in "real life."

I do want to do an economics overview with her, using the Richard Maybury books we already have, as well as perhaps the Abeka book my sister gave us.

As for English, she will finish up her Wordsmith she is doing, then do the Wordsmith Craftsman book, which has more practical "real life" writing instruction. Either that, or Jensen's Format Writing. I'll have to look over them again. At some point, we will go through Our Mother Tongue, which we already own, for a grammar refresher. I also want to go through a couple spelling reference books with her that we have here.

After she finishes her Apologia Biology, I think we are going to get a couple of homesteading books and do a sort of course on homesteading and gardening. I also want her to have some basic first aid and nutrition education at some point. Neither of those will take long.

For the really important stuff, we will go through Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, as well as some worldview books, one being a John MacArthur book I already have.

She will continue history with her sister, as already planned. Besides all this, there are about a billion really great books I want her to read. :-)

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WHAT WE ARE DOING

We took the week off week before last because we had some things we needed to get done. We were back to work last week.

We are currently reading the Landmark book, Custer's Last Stand, for American history. We are reading some of the spines and working our way up to starting William the Conqueror in Middle Ages this week. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I also subscribed to God's World News, to keep up somewhat with important current events from a Christian point of view. We enjoy those little magazines. We are continuing with Scott Joplin, Alfred Noyes, and Grandma Moses for music, poetry, and art. Will probably be starting new ones next week.

Big girl finished her first science module. We have been working through the Critical Thinking book together. Haven't gotten far. It is some hard stuff, but I know it is good stuff. Big girl is into painting model horses now, and she really does a great job! She has natural artistic talent. She has also created her own website where she has a model horse ranch, and posts her pictures and other stuff about all her horses. I must say, she did a great job. I love that she has the time and desire to pursue her own interests and to do what it takes to learn how to do them. This, after all, is one of my goals for homeschooling. To teach my children to learn for themselves.

Little girl has finished the Burgess Animal Book and started the Collodi Adventures of Pinocchio. It is another book online. I prefer actual books, but when you can't get them at the library, it is good to have the free ones online. We are also changing up some things with her language arts. We will continue to use the Spelling Wisdom passages, but she will use them for copy work one day, and for studied dication (typed) the next. We are continuing the dictated sentences from Spelling Plus, but adding back in the word lists. We will do one list (along with some review words) each week on the Spelling City site. She will work with them every day, testing and games. Then, the following week, we will work on the sentences for those words, plus the next word list. I like that they are common words that kids actually need to know, but I like the passages in the Spelling Wisdom for a little something more. Also, I ordered CLE language arts for her. I ordered level 4. She looked at the samples and said she really liked the looks of it better than the Rod and Staff she has been doing. She likes that it is a workbook, I think. I like that it has integrated review, and I prefer the writing exercises to what R&S has. We have only done a couple stories in her reading, and so far, it is ok. Nothing terribly exciting or anything, but not bad either. I have skipped a couple things and done others orally.

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UPDATE

Big Girl finished up her thinking skills book, and started Critical Thinking book 1 this week. Little girl likes to join in when we do it.  She says it is fun.  Big Girl also finished her Abeka Physical Science book this week, and will be starting her Apologia Biology next week.

Little Girl has been doing great with her Spelling Wisdom dictation and Spelling Plus dictation which I have her type instead of write.  I also ordered CLE Reading 4 for her, and we just started this week.  So far, so good.  Not a lot to go on yet as to how much we will or won't like it.  

We have been reading Rolf and the Viking Bow in world history, and about cowboys in our U.S. history.  We are continuing to read the Little House series, and will do so until we finish, while moving along in our history.

Also, for history, I have decided to do an overview using various sources while we are doing our regular history.  Right now, we are reading through the ending of A Child's Story of America, then we will move on to world history.  I think we will read through the Synge Story of the World books online first.  Then, when we finish those, we will start over with something else - maybe our BJU 11th grade world history books.  I think the repetition with the overviews will be good, along with continuing our TQ for in depth studies of people and events.

We have added the BJU 9th grade geography book to our daily reading as well.  Right now, we are just going through the first parts about geography in general. Then, as we get to each country or continent, we will stop and do a study on it.  We finished up Australia and are currently doing New Zealand.

We will be starting a new poet and composer next week.  We love Robert Frost (at least, I do, lol), but didn't care much for Mahler, except for the second movement of his first symphony, which is really fun.  We will be starting Alfred Noyes (who wrote the Highwayman), and memorizing his poem, When Daddy Fell Into the Pond.  We will be starting Scott Joplin for composer study.  He should be fun, as there will be some familiar tunes there.

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SPELLING UPDATE

I have added the Spelling Plus Dictation sentences back into Little Girl's daily work.  But she will be typing them instead of writing them, and doing them as prepared dictation, like the Spelling Wisdom.  This will give her extra practice with common words, and I also like the way the sentences spiral, giving her more practice with individual words than Spelling Wisdom does.  She is doing great with both, and rarely misses a word.

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DROPPING SPANISH

Well, we have decided to drop Spanish, for now at least.  With no real use for it, and no opportunity to actually use it, we can make much better use of the time it would take us to constantly review vocabulary cards and rules that we have no use for.  I know there are other benefits to learning a foreign language, but I feel that we can get those benefits in other ways that don't take so much time, such as root study.

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PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR

Our official school year (if there is such a thing) begins in January.  Some things will continue the same, and a few things will be added or taken away.  As of right now, here is a loose outline of our plans.

BIG GIRL

Easy Grammar Plus

Jensen's Vocabulary

Key to Algebra

Critical Thinking Book 1

Exploring Christian Literature (with writing assignment once a week or so)

Daily Writing

Spanish (SFC & Visual Link)

Abeka Physical Science/Apologia Biology

LITTLE GIRL

Rod & Staff English 4

Spelling Wisdom

Daily Narration

MUS Gamma/Delta

Spanish (SFC)

Science (books of interest)

Literature - various books

Mavis Beacon Typing

BOTH

Bible (Gospel survey)

Poet Study

Composer Study

Artist Study

World Geography (country study)

TruthQuest AHYS 3

TruthQuest Middle Ages

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ALGEBRA DIFFICULTIES

Well, Big Girl hit a snag yesterday in her LOF beginning algebra.  She had gotten a third of the way through the book, and things have suddenly really escalated.  There were a couple problems that neither she nor I could figure out, so we emailed Mr. Schmidt.  He promptly got back to us with the explanation.  Great service!

So, I had Big Girl start with one of those problems this morning, before starting her next problem set.  Well, she still couldn't do it.  So I told her to go ahead and do the next city (that is what some of the problem sets in LOF are called).  She gave it a good try, but I am thinking she just may not be developmentally ready for algebra yet.  Not that she has any learning problems or anything.  Just that all kids develop at different rates, and many are not ready for this level of thinking at 14.  

So, we are going to start the Key to Algebra books that I already have here after our break next week.  After she has completed them, we will try LOF again.  If she still can't get it, we will figure out something else at that point.

I should mention that while Big Girl is great with words, and is a natural writer, she is not a number person.  All of us are not talented in the same areas, and I believe in concentrating on the gifts God has given us, and only doing what we need to do in the areas we are not gifted in.

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HOMESCHOOL THOUGHTS

I think I may start using this blog to record our homeschool journey.  We are starting our sixth year homeschooling.  We go year round, taking off when we need or want to.  Our year "officially" begins in January.  This January, Big Girl will be "officially" a ninth grader, and Little Girl fifth.  

We don't actually do grade levels though, and just take things as they come.  If we don't like something, or it isn't working, we change it, regardless of when it is.

Here is what we are currently doing:

BIG GIRL

Easy Grammar Plus:  She is about a fourth of the way through this now.  It will probably last another year and a half.  Then, I am thinking we will use Our Mother Tongue and odds and ends for review until she graduates.

Life of Fred Beginning Algebra: We are loving LOF.  I started her with the first two books for review, and she really liked them, so we will continue with LOF for as long as we want. I am not sure she will do much more than algebra though, and maybe some kind of consumer math later.  We will take it as it comes.

Jensen's Vocabulary: I really like this program!  She has to use a root list to figure out the meanings of her new list each lesson.  Each lesson has several worksheets, intended for a week's worth, but we take two weeks for each lesson, and I add in a couple activities to stretch it out.  She is really learning to use roots to figure out new words.

Abeka Physical Science:  She is really just reading through this.  I think she will do Apologia Biology next.  She did Apologia General, and said she liked it much better than Abeka.  She says things were explained much better.

Megawords 4: Will be finishing up this level, and not continuing.

Building Thinking Skills 3 Verbal: She really liked this, and is almost finished.  I think I will get her the Critical Thinking book 1 next.

Writing: She writes something of her choice every day on the computer, and I go over it with her and help her make corrections.  She really is a natural writer.

LITTLE GIRL

Rod and Staff English 4: We are really only using the grammar part of this.  I really like R&S and already have books 5 and 6, which we will use as well.

Math U See Gamma: She is finishing up this level in the next couple months.  She loves MUS, and we will start on Delta next.  Then, when she is finished with Delta, I will move her into the LOF books her sister used.

Spelling Wisdom: I am actually starting this with her next week.  We did SWR for a while, and she has learned it really well, but it was just taking too much time in our day.  Then, I got Spelling Plus Dictation, which we have been using for a couple months.  I like the idea, but didn't care for the simplistic sentences.  I really think spelling comes more from a knowledge of the rules (which she already has) coupled with lots of writing and actually using the words.  I like that Spelling Wisdom uses wonderful quotes and literature, and isn't just bland, disconnected sentences.  We will use one passage per week, working with any words she doesn't know SWR-method.

Abeka Science 5: She is just reading through this because she really likes science and wanted to.  

BOTH 

TruthQuest History: We are currently using the Middle Ages and AHYS 3 guides.  I use both guides at the same time with both girls.  We love the wonderful books we are reading with this!

Poet Study: We study one poet at a time, memorizing one of their most famous poems, and reading other of their poems daily.

Composer Study: We read about one composer at a time, listening to his works for a month or so.

Artist Study: We study and read about one artist every month or so, looking at some of his paintings online daily.  We are working through American artists now, and will go back to the beginning when we finish with them.

Country Study: We recently finished our 2 year study of the states, and are now starting the same kind of study of the countries of the world.  We look at maps, read tons of books, look at internet sites, and will try some recipes from each country.  We will take as long as we want on each country until we are finished.  If we ever do finish, lol.  

Bible: We have just started using CLP's Studying God's Word for the Gospels.  It is a chronological study of the Gospels.  After this, I am making my own chronological study of Acts thru Revelation, placing the other books where they fit into Acts.

Spanish For Children: I like the way this teaches grammar along with vocabulary.  The girls also use computer discs to supplement.

Besides all this, we read tons of other books as well.  I think I might do a weekly review, like I have seen on other blogs.  

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