Wednesday, September 30, 2009
free helps from Handwriting without Tears
These free PDF's listed at the links below are excerpted from various workbooks and Teacher's manuals created by Handwriting without Tears. The links came in a free newsletter called Capital Start which I would recommend.
displaying children's art
My older two children both LOVE to draw, color, paint, etc. It has been fun to see their development in this area. I encourage them to "create" by providing them with a variety of art supplies placed on a low shelf where they can reach them. We display their artwork on a "clothesline" type string hung across the dining room wall. A visiting friend once remarked how he loved to see children encouraged in such a way.
I recently stumbled upon artsonia.com - an online art museum for children's artwork. Right now, I've uploaded some of their artwork under a parent account. Not only do they provide an online art gallery for free, but also make it easy to order "stuff" with the kids artwork on it (like T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.)
If you'd like to become a "fan" of my children's art and view their page in the museum, please email me and I'd be happy to add you.
I recently stumbled upon artsonia.com - an online art museum for children's artwork. Right now, I've uploaded some of their artwork under a parent account. Not only do they provide an online art gallery for free, but also make it easy to order "stuff" with the kids artwork on it (like T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.)
If you'd like to become a "fan" of my children's art and view their page in the museum, please email me and I'd be happy to add you.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Bible Time & Family Worship
Each morning after breakfast the kids and I have "Bible Time". Usually we are
reading through a Bible story book or some other children's book based on the Bible. We just started reading again through God's Wisdom for Little Boys and God's Wisdom for Little Girls. We love those books! They have been very helpful in training our children as we can point back to some of the character traits, like diligence, 
contentment, helping, etc., as we're going through the day. Other resources that I have used and will be looking to in the future can be found at Doorposts. They have wonderful products for training children.At night, after supper, my husband leads us in Family Worship. Our time together consists of three aspects:
1. My husband reads a pass
age from the Bible. (We've been studying through 1 & 2 Samuel recently.) Then each person (well, at least the ones who can talk) asks him a question about the passage. Sometimes he asks us a question too.2. We sing hymns and songs. I pick out the hymn of the month and any other songs we sing.
3. We pray. My husband generally asks each person to pray for a specific request.
One of our goals is to put a picture of what we're studying during Family Worship in our Family's Book of History to get an idea of chronology, but we have not done that yet. That's a goal for next year!
Monday, September 28, 2009
a day in the life of Home Ed @ the Roseberry's
It might seem like we've got a lot going on and truth be told, it took a few weeks to get into the hang of things. Definitely the most time-consuming part was figuring out what we were going to do this year. Now that we've kind of got a groove, the scheduled "schooling" part of our days is really easy. (Yes, I did say "easy" knowing that I could be shooting myself in the foot come tomorrow.)
From the time my K5-son was a wee babe, I've been encouraged to establish a routine for our days. We are not strict, set-the-timer schedule followers, but I have seen so many good things come out of having a general routine - both for my children and me. And now, five years after our first "routine" was established we have cherished "times" in each day including Bible Time, Table Time, Story Time etc.
When I started planning to "officially" educate K5-son, I wanted our days to flow in the same way they had been. I did not want him to feel a "jerk" into "schooling" and have a big schedule change. Therefore, I fit our "schooling" times into his normal routine, with just a few tweaks.
Our schedule for Term 1 of Kindergarten reflects how I would like things to go. This is our general flow - sometimes the times correspond to the schedule and most times they do not. Having this list printed and on the fridge helps me get back on track if the out of the ordinary happens - which does happen most days. (The highlighted parts of the schedule reflect the "official" 4 hours per day of "schooling".)
When I make up a new routine, it takes a week or two before it becomes habit, so I mostly look at the "schedule" for the first couple of weeks and then after that, the kids generally remind me what we do next.
I found the the book "Managers of their Homes" to be a good tool to learn how to make schedules and fit everything in that you want to fit in (like time for playing and exploration and reading aloud). I borrowed this book from a friend and learned their method of making a schedule. I don't use the book or forms for making my schedules now. I just use Excel or a spreadsheet in Google Docs. In my opinion, the content of the book is not worth the expense, unless you want pre-made paper forms.
My kids don't know that the schedule exists. They do know the pattern in which we do things. It makes life easier for me and more predictable for them - and they thrive.
From the time my K5-son was a wee babe, I've been encouraged to establish a routine for our days. We are not strict, set-the-timer schedule followers, but I have seen so many good things come out of having a general routine - both for my children and me. And now, five years after our first "routine" was established we have cherished "times" in each day including Bible Time, Table Time, Story Time etc.
When I started planning to "officially" educate K5-son, I wanted our days to flow in the same way they had been. I did not want him to feel a "jerk" into "schooling" and have a big schedule change. Therefore, I fit our "schooling" times into his normal routine, with just a few tweaks.
Our schedule for Term 1 of Kindergarten reflects how I would like things to go. This is our general flow - sometimes the times correspond to the schedule and most times they do not. Having this list printed and on the fridge helps me get back on track if the out of the ordinary happens - which does happen most days. (The highlighted parts of the schedule reflect the "official" 4 hours per day of "schooling".)
When I make up a new routine, it takes a week or two before it becomes habit, so I mostly look at the "schedule" for the first couple of weeks and then after that, the kids generally remind me what we do next.
I found the the book "Managers of their Homes" to be a good tool to learn how to make schedules and fit everything in that you want to fit in (like time for playing and exploration and reading aloud). I borrowed this book from a friend and learned their method of making a schedule. I don't use the book or forms for making my schedules now. I just use Excel or a spreadsheet in Google Docs. In my opinion, the content of the book is not worth the expense, unless you want pre-made paper forms.My kids don't know that the schedule exists. They do know the pattern in which we do things. It makes life easier for me and more predictable for them - and they thrive.
music theory & hymn study
Monday's are Music Days. After lunch, we generally have time for some kind of "culture" time (as I call it). On Monday we take about 10-15 minutes to discuss music. The kids really enjoy imitating rythyms and getting a chance to play low or high notes on the piano. Once again, it is amazing to me that with such little time investment, they can learn and retain so much. I've created a list of music lessons based on suggestions from some of the following sites:
Theory Time - I didn't purchase these workbooks, though they look pretty good. I am using the concepts listed as jumping board for our gentle theory lessons.
Making Music Fun
During nightly Family Worship we work on learning one hymn per month. At the beginning of the year, I came up with a list of hymns (both old and new) and printed all of the lyrics and sheet music from the internet.
This is our list for 2009:
Theory Time - I didn't purchase these workbooks, though they look pretty good. I am using the concepts listed as jumping board for our gentle theory lessons.Making Music Fun
During nightly Family Worship we work on learning one hymn per month. At the beginning of the year, I came up with a list of hymns (both old and new) and printed all of the lyrics and sheet music from the internet.
This is our list for 2009:
| January | Be Thou my Vision |
| February | What Wondrous Love is This |
| March | I will Glory in my Redeemer |
| April | Crown Him with Many Crowns |
| May | Not What my Hands Have Done |
| June | |
| July | Praise to the Lord, the Almighty |
| August | |
| September | Great God of Wonders |
| October | And Can it Be |
| November | Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing |
| December |
Saturday, September 26, 2009
the arts
My goals for my children's learning in the area of "fine art" include appreciation and familiarity of fine art and classical music. I don't really care if they know the exact name of the piece of music or exactly who wrote it, but are familiar with the tune and familiar with the composer's name. As I always enjoy a piece at the symphony more if I am familiar with it, I figure this exposure will increase their enjoyment of the arts in subsequent years as well.
Combining both famous art and classical music, Disney's Little Einsteins provides a
story-line that my children enjoy and fits nicely into our morning "movie time". I don't allow the kids to watch much TV, but after Table Time while I'm getting lunch ready the 30 minutes of entertainment is much appreciated by everyone. I've found the cheapest place to purchase episodes is through iTunes for $1.99 per show.
We are also loosely following the picture study module 2 organized by Simply Charlotte Mason. I've printed on our color printer pictures by Van Gogh that were linked from Ambleside Online's Art Schedule (Van Gogh was on their list for 2008-2009 Term 3). I place these pictures on the inside door of our kitchen closet so that when we are having Table Time and throughout the day the kids can see the picture we are currently studying. Once a week we concentrate on studying the picture. I say the name and the artist and then we'll either play a game where I let them study the picture and then cover it up and ask them questions about it like "What color was the floor? Were there any flowers in the painting?" etc. or we will attempt to copy the painting with colors or paints. Last week I printed an additional copy of the picture and cut it into pieces to make a puzzle. We study each picture about a month to 6 weeks.
We are not doing anything formal in the area of composer study. I have several classical pieces from various CD's organized into playlists on my iPod by composer and sometimes while we're doing arts and crafts or eating lunch, I'll start it playing and just tell the kids, "This music was written by Vivaldi", for instance. If I'm near the iPod and can see the title I'll tell them the title of the piece. It's amazing how much they can pick up just by that simple "background music." Sometimes we play games where I will hum a little bit of a tune and let them finish it.
Combining both famous art and classical music, Disney's Little Einsteins provides a
story-line that my children enjoy and fits nicely into our morning "movie time". I don't allow the kids to watch much TV, but after Table Time while I'm getting lunch ready the 30 minutes of entertainment is much appreciated by everyone. I've found the cheapest place to purchase episodes is through iTunes for $1.99 per show.
We are also loosely following the picture study module 2 organized by Simply Charlotte Mason. I've printed on our color printer pictures by Van Gogh that were linked from Ambleside Online's Art Schedule (Van Gogh was on their list for 2008-2009 Term 3). I place these pictures on the inside door of our kitchen closet so that when we are having Table Time and throughout the day the kids can see the picture we are currently studying. Once a week we concentrate on studying the picture. I say the name and the artist and then we'll either play a game where I let them study the picture and then cover it up and ask them questions about it like "What color was the floor? Were there any flowers in the painting?" etc. or we will attempt to copy the painting with colors or paints. Last week I printed an additional copy of the picture and cut it into pieces to make a puzzle. We study each picture about a month to 6 weeks.We are not doing anything formal in the area of composer study. I have several classical pieces from various CD's organized into playlists on my iPod by composer and sometimes while we're doing arts and crafts or eating lunch, I'll start it playing and just tell the kids, "This music was written by Vivaldi", for instance. If I'm near the iPod and can see the title I'll tell them the title of the piece. It's amazing how much they can pick up just by that simple "background music." Sometimes we play games where I will hum a little bit of a tune and let them finish it.
hands-on learning @ museums
In a previous post, I mentioned that for science this year (and probably throughout the elementary years) we've opted to do nature study, gardening, cooking, reading living books about science and visiting science museums.
We believe that in providing our children hands-on learning experiences they not only learn better, but they become excited and interested about the subject. We've also seen how this helps in reading because when they encounter a new word they can often figure it out from context because they have seen what they are reading in real life.
Many museums have free days or times and those have been helpful. We opted to purchase a contributing membership to the Museum of Discovery ($110 per year) that included free admission to museums that are members of Children's Museum Assocation as well as Association of Science and Technology Center.
We haven't used the membership as much as I would have liked, but in a different season I think we definitely would have. Still, I feel like it was good deal financially speaking.
We have visited:
The Magic House in St. Louis, MO - If you are ever in St. Louis and have children this is a must-see! Plan to spend at least a whole day! It is really awesome and well worth the admission fee (though one admission for a family would pay half of a yearly membership fee to MoD)
The St. Louis Science Center - Again, well worth the money and time
invested. They treated us like first-class members with free planetarium shows, free Discovery Room entry and I think we could have watched the IMAX movie for free (but it was a little intense for our children's ages.)
Children's Museum of Memphis - While it was a nice visit, it certainly does not compare to The Magic House. One other disadvantage is that they only allow 4 people to enter free with the reciprocal admission program (The Museum of Discovery membership allows up to 7 people) and everyone age 1-100 pays the full $9 admission price. If we did not have the yearly membership, I do not think it would be worth the admission price for a whole family to go.
The Pink Palace - Nice visit, especially since it was included
in our membership. We only gained admission to the museum and extra exhibits and not the IMAX or planetarium. It will be nice to go back and view the traveling exhibits. We went when there were life-like dinosaurs that moved and growled and they were kind of scary for our kids.
Though not part of our MoD membership, we also visited the Museum of Westward Expansion located underneath the St. Louis Gateway Arch. This was perfect timing as the exhibits about pioneers and such fit right into our reading of the Little House on the Prarie series.
We believe that in providing our children hands-on learning experiences they not only learn better, but they become excited and interested about the subject. We've also seen how this helps in reading because when they encounter a new word they can often figure it out from context because they have seen what they are reading in real life.
Many museums have free days or times and those have been helpful. We opted to purchase a contributing membership to the Museum of Discovery ($110 per year) that included free admission to museums that are members of Children's Museum Assocation as well as Association of Science and Technology Center.
We haven't used the membership as much as I would have liked, but in a different season I think we definitely would have. Still, I feel like it was good deal financially speaking.
We have visited:
The Magic House in St. Louis, MO - If you are ever in St. Louis and have children this is a must-see! Plan to spend at least a whole day! It is really awesome and well worth the admission fee (though one admission for a family would pay half of a yearly membership fee to MoD)The St. Louis Science Center - Again, well worth the money and time
invested. They treated us like first-class members with free planetarium shows, free Discovery Room entry and I think we could have watched the IMAX movie for free (but it was a little intense for our children's ages.)
Children's Museum of Memphis - While it was a nice visit, it certainly does not compare to The Magic House. One other disadvantage is that they only allow 4 people to enter free with the reciprocal admission program (The Museum of Discovery membership allows up to 7 people) and everyone age 1-100 pays the full $9 admission price. If we did not have the yearly membership, I do not think it would be worth the admission price for a whole family to go.The Pink Palace - Nice visit, especially since it was included
in our membership. We only gained admission to the museum and extra exhibits and not the IMAX or planetarium. It will be nice to go back and view the traveling exhibits. We went when there were life-like dinosaurs that moved and growled and they were kind of scary for our kids.Though not part of our MoD membership, we also visited the Museum of Westward Expansion located underneath the St. Louis Gateway Arch. This was perfect timing as the exhibits about pioneers and such fit right into our reading of the Little House on the Prarie series.