Sound Beginnings Review

Our special table in the living room that they use only for phonics (Ellie just practices writing letters and listens in on the lessons, sometimes)

As you may remember from my posts in previous months, I really agonized over choosing a phonics program to use this year. So far we've used How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which wasn't that great of a fit for us. We plowed through it slowly but surely (started when she was 4), and made it to about Lesson 75 before quitting this fall.

We tried some MCP Phonics workbooks, and tried more of a "whole language" approach with easy readers and trying to construct my own reading lessons. I also considered Hooked on Phonics, the Explode the Code workbooks, and some of the other programs recommended by Cathy Duffy. But after debating back and forth, and back and forth, I finally opted to order a used Sound Beginnings program from Cathswap. This approach is based on the Spalding method of phonics instruction, and is very much similar to the Riggs program I used in my 1st Grade classroom at the Catholic school.

It teaches each phonogram (sound) with explicit handwriting instruction for every letter (which MC really needed), and uses flashcards. So yesterday she learned 4 new phonograms (v, w, x, z) and practiced writing them, choosing her best ones and analyzing her own writing. Then the next few days I will orally ask her all of the 22 phonograms she has learned, and she will write them in her best handwriting. I also give her "homework" to practice writing the ones she has trouble with. Even though she already knows her single letter sounds very well, this has been a great review and has been very good for her handwriting progress.

I'm looking forward to starting the double letter phonograms with her, because I know it will really help with her spelling, and reading. Speaking of reading, her reading is really coming along with the Little Angel Readers! I usually do the phonics lesson and have her read one story from the readers every day.

Here are some photos with explanation of some great things about Sound Beginnings.

They encourage children to use proper posture while writing, and ask that you use a special lined paper. At the bottom of the photo, you can see my book (has great instructions for the parent!), and the flashcard stack...I think that one shown is "ur the ur of nurse."


I like how the flashcards show a picture of how to write the phonogram on the lines, and also show the way you will usually see the letter written in a book. The program also includes worksheets, which Mary Clare is doing below, finding beginning, ending, and middle sounds to words that I dictate for her.


I got the idea from the Frugal Family Fun Blog to put worksheets in plastic page protectors to reuse them! Mary Clare loves writing with the wet-erase (overhead) marker, and of course the erasing is fun too!


I can't believe I agonized so much over this decision. I felt like I disliked the intense phonics program when I was a teacher and hesitated to try it with my own kids. But I think it was just what we both needed! I like how it's all working so far and hope that this program continues to help Mary Clare to be a stronger reader and writer!

My Invertebrate Mantra (Megan)

We're learning about Invertebrates, and classifying them. So today, we discussed the difference between Insects (6 legs, three body segments) and Arachnids (8 legs, two segments). But, hey, bugs, you've all got an exoskeleton, so, let's call the whole thing off.

I always pick up tons of books at the library for school. Some are specifically for a lesson, some are just on topic for fun. These were some bonus books to tack on to the ends of lessons. Today's books were neat.

The first was a brilliant book of macro photographs of butterfly wings. Gorgeous.

There is a little verse with each "letter" along with a full picture of the butterfly the photo came from. The girls liked finding the letter on the wings. It was a really, really beautiful book, that had to have been very challenging to create. Stunning!
The next was just a nice, neat, informative book about insects. Lots of neat illustrations, lots of great information is bite-sized chunks.

But what was even neater about it was it's dedication...
I just loved that.

Have I mentioned how much I hate spiders? It was difficult to even hold this third book straight. Agh. But, still, this last one was a great, informative book all about spiders, with a healthy amount of information and neat illustrations, and clear explanation between spiders and their other Arachnid compadres. But it was still nasty. Thank God for spiders, they eat millions of insects....Thank God for spiders, they eat millions of insects....Thank God for spiders, they eat millions of insects... This is my Invertebrate mantra. Just one more week to go...

Unless My Son is Doogie Howser... (Megan)

I'd take a mathematical guess on the wild side here, and say that 100% of home schooling families are asked this question at least once: "What about, you know, when they get to high school Math? You know, the hard Math. You know, the Math that we all for the most part hated, struggled through, barely passed when we were in high school, and avoided if we could in college, and have happily forgotten nearly everything about, you know, except for the Math-Smart people. What about the, ahem, hard Math?"



I know I've been asked this question. Boy, do people like to bring this up. A lot. The amount of times I've answered it, is, well, let's appropriately use another Math term: incalculable.



1. We don't just coast through math lessons for years and then BAM one day hit HARD MATH. Everything is incremental, one building block at a time. I am learning right along with them. It's a natural process, and we would never leave anyone behind.



In a large classroom, a child may not really get something. They could miss it and a teacher may not know, until several building blocks later when they fail a test, and then the child cannot understand where the rest of the class is and they feel lost- but the class keeps going. Then they get nervous and tense and feel pressured or humiliated. Then they regress more, they build a fear of Math (or another subject), they have an even harder time catching up, they lose confidence. Then, and this is just so hard, then maybe over time the teacher sees the need to send them to a special group for the children who need more help one on one that she can't give. And then they feel labeled, set apart, and so it goes for them. It's very tough.



We love Math. We use a fun, hands-on, thorough, age-appropriate curriculum (Saxon) that is just right- concepts are clear and just above where my children's minds are at the moment, so it's a fun and natural challenge to reach up and grasp the next block.



All of our learning at school is appropriately incremental, in every subject. I always make sure we have just a few, strong building blocks in each lesson, sometimes even just one block- but we really, really know it at lesson's end and the blocks are very rarely forgotten. If we don't know it at the end of the lesson, we don't move on until we do and we visit it the next day (this has only happened perhaps a handful of times in three years, because the blocks are an appropriate challenge). Usually, even just visiting the block again the next day is all it takes for the light bulb moment for a child, or for me in my own life.



Gaining knowledge or skills should NEVER be a struggle. Challenging, yes. Real work? Many times yes. But, if there is a struggle, there is something wrong with the process. Then perhaps the material, or the method, or the child's attitude, or the teacher's- maybe one of these needs to be adjusted. Learning is a natural thing and every child is wired to LEARN. If there are serious hiccups, it's not the child's fault- things just need to be evaluated.



And so Math, as it is with all other learning, is a constant, ever-growing, building process. And when subjects like Algebra, Geometry, Physics, Trigonometry, Calculus, any of the "Hard" things come- they come the same way- at a time that is appropriate, and they come incrementally, just as one would study Shakespeare, Latin, or the stars. One lesson at a time. You start with your Geometry curriculum at Day 1. And you grasp it. Then move forward. There is no difference. And I am moving on day by day right beside them.



2. I am moving on day by day right beside them. I don't have to know it all at once. I get to grow too. I have a chance to see the world and study it and learn 7,000 fascinating things each school year right along with my children. Basically, I am going to school all over again, and I'm amazed every day at what I learn in school, from our fascinating biographies, science lessons, math lessons, from amazing art, from the books we read. I am such a more full, well-rounded person because of home school. I made a commitment a long time ago in college that I would be a lifetime learner. A covenant with myself. I will never stop building with the blocks all around me. I will seek to be a more informed citizen of God's world. Home school keeps me always seeking, always learning all the more, and learning alongside my children has been so fascinating, so very beautiful, really. It's amazing. Their observations, their feelings and thoughts and questions about the world are just brilliant. To see our education paint new strokes on the canvas of their young minds is just breathtaking at times. I am so privileged to learn with them. And for this woman who was once a child who always struggled with Math, who cried all the times I couldn't go to recess for not memorizing my times tables...I have a new birth. I can see and learn Math all over again, and it's wonderful.



3. There are myriad resources out there. Extra curricula online and in print. Tutors, fun extra classes, books and more books, AP and other college prep classes- My kids, as they grow, will have many teachers through resources like these and more, and I can keep up with their work right along with them. Because...



4. How can I EVER expect my children to learn, and even want them to excel at a subject that I know nothing about? Whether I am home schooling or they attend another school. How could I ever do that? My parents were this way. When I brought home my report card, clad in A's and B's save for Math, which I never failed, but commonly had C's, and the occasional D for the quarter- they would ALWAYS be very pointed about my need to do my homework more, to get my grades up. But I knew, without a doubt, if I were to open my book for them, they would have absolutely NO IDEA what I was learning about, or even were to BEGIN to do it themselves. Even as young as 3rd grade I have vivid memories of my mother telling me to memorize those times tables, but she never, ever, and neither did my father, ever help me with my homework. It intimidated them. All subjects. They were educated through high school and then happily ended their education. They just went on working and knowing what they had to and forgetting the rest. And so as I grew up with this repeated countless times, I grew more and more certain of my parent's hypocrisy. They could not do it. They had no right to require something of me that they were unwilling to learn themselves. Yes, they were older, yes, it would have required them to work very hard to grasp it- but they absolutely could have done it. They just needed to want to. And even as a young child, this was clear to me. Jim and I will not do the same for our children.



So whatever your "Hard" subjects were, you have that same opportunity too. Don't give way to fear that you will "mess up" your children, or fail them. If home is the best place for your children to learn, and you've embraced the lifestyle, then you can live free to learn, one day at a time and enjoy all the blessings and rewards along the way. Is it challenging? Of course. Almost nothing of great value comes easily or cheaply.



Unless you've birthed a houseful of Doogie Howser M.D.'s, you're absolutely equipped to teach them, and I'm sure they're happy to have you along for the ride.

Art Narration (Megan)

We narrate after most everything we learn- I always teach conversationally, allowing the girls to ask questions, make comments. And when our little interactive lesson is over, we almost always narrate. Sometimes just more talking. Usually with a 5-10 pt Oral narration that I record. A lot of times they also draw a picture of what we learned, or if it's a story, they draw a picture of what they could see in their minds. You know, whatever fits.

Narration is such a natural way to enjoy what we're learning, to converse about it, to clarify things for them, to think further, to process, and to record what we're learning. It applies to nearly everything we learn. No rules, just a chance to get creative and make the lesson stick that much better.

On this day, we were reading Emily Dickinson's poem, A Narrow Fellow in the Grass (not the actual title, because of course, she never titled her work, but I digress.) When we read poetry, we read it slowly, deliberately. I have the girls sit back, close their eyes, and hear it. I tell them to make a picture movie in their mind with the words they hear.

We read it a couple of times, first just through it without stopping, then another time, stopping after each stanza to process or clarify unknown words or ideas, or to figure out what a line could mean, since it's not always very direct (especially important with Ms. D.- like upon first reading, they had no idea what it was about.).

I think it's important to not press this too much, to let them hear and process on their own, but to just clarify enough that they can grab it. By the end of the second reading, they really, really had it in their minds, understood it, and could see it. It's fun to see their eyes light up- like when we talked about what narrow means (opposite of wide), what a fellow is (another word for man), and to say, "OK, girls, there's a skinny guy in the grass... what could that be?" etc. Patie yelled out "Snake!!" right away. And so it continued. They loved this poem.

Once we could see it, they narrated it on their own, with a picture, and a caption of the title, for memory and handwriting practice's sake. And that's it.

A Year in a Binder (How I Create and Store What We Do All Day) (Megan)

Last year, I wrote out each day's lesson plans in a book, filed and stored each semester's work in a folder/file, and called it good.

This year, I wanted to get really, really serious about keeping solid, complete records of EVERYTHING we do pertaining to education, our lessons, our fun activities, and anything we do that supplements them. Because there were so many extra things we did last year that never got recorded, because they weren't in the original written plans. And because if anyone ever asks me to PROVE what we do here, and how much we're in school, etc, I need a strong record of attendance, performance, all of it.


It dawned on me that I could easily get it all in one place. I created a template in Word, and copied it off with enough pages to last the whole year. Then they were placed in a 3-ring binder, that has become a sort of "Day Book" of sorts.

Each day has a spot for the date, who attended school, the lesson plan or notes about what we did in each subject, whether or not we read library books aloud, read a chapter from a novel, had piano lessons, all of it. I also record when we make trips to the library, or other applicable times out, and what we're learning/memorizing with Awana. There is a spot to the side with plenty of room to write extra notes about what happened that day, how the day went, what really worked or didn't, how the girls later responded or applied a lesson on their own- anything. Anything I want to add. Like the day we first introduced Mary Cassatt. At dinner that evening, Grace and Patience were telling Daddy about their day and gave an incredible narration of Cassatt's life, and what she painted. Like, at least a 10 point narration (of course this mama was beaming inside!). So of course, a little note about that ended up in the binder too.

As we finish something, I record it with a check mark, and add little notes right there in the lesson plan, anything I want to record. I LOVE THIS.

If we follow an incremental book (like our phonics/reading lessons, or our Saxon Math, I just record the lesson number we did that day as the "lesson plan". The feature time we have includes quite a bit more information, since we create our own plans for those (using many sources, of course). (More on all of this later...)

Every math worksheet is just added in the binder right in the week we created it. As our girls finish and create homework and projects, we display them on the wall. After each quarter, I bring them down and file them so there's room for more. Now, instead of a separate file, I'll 3-hole punch them, and add them right in next to their lesson plans that inspired them (and I'll also file away all the additional paintings, etc. right there in the binder too).

It's ALREADY neat to look back, and it's only been 2 weeks- but it's just awesome!



I LOVE getting to keep this clear, neat, fun record of how each thing went, and the interesting and amazing things that happen in the midst of our days- and I know it will be incredibly valuable as the years pass- to look back, AND for teaching Hudson and Lily, when they get there.

It's all so neat and organized, that I was able to REALLY get going on our lesson plans, mapping out where we'll begin and how we'll travel through and arrive at the end of semester 1, creating ALL my LPs through December! Whew! It's just so easy to flip ahead and get the plan down! I felt so rewarded doing this, and have a rough outline of how we'll continue through semester 2. So after a couple of weeks of hitting the plan with determination, we get to just breeze through the semester. I even wrote down which books/types of books/topics of books I'll need to get from the library in certain months so we'll have them when I need them. This has been awesome. Last year, I did everything month-to-month. It was great to step it up this year and finish the thing. And I CAN'T WAIT to plan for next semester! There are so many neat things/people/places coming up!!

Have I mentioned that we love school??

Our Day on Paper (Megan)

I posted our newly updated daily routine (including our school schedule) over at my personal blog not too long ago. If you want to check it out, click here.

Blair's Family's First Day 2009

Well, we've made it through the first day! And it was a great one! Here's a little play-by-play starting with the night before:

10:30pm: I start trying to pull all our books together, making copies, and creating Schultutes, a German gift tradition for the first day of school. I end up in tears a few times because things are not coming together and I'm exhausted. But I plunged through, got it all worked out, and finally at
1:30am: went to sleep, after taking a photo of our coffee table with things sitting out for the morning!


7:30am: Woke up before the kids and started breakfast! I thought I'd have a late-sleeping baby but he was up before his sisters! They all got dressed, ate pancakes and fresh fruit smoothies, and were very anxious to open their Schultutes:

They were filled with school supplies...new pencils, markers, colored pencils, fancy colored pencils, pastels, stickers, and a pencil box, with a few Starburst candies (they get to eat one when their schoolwork is done each day this week)! I also tied a little note to each package. They enjoyed the special words from Mommy.

Baby wanted in on the fun...all morning!
8:15am is about when we started (didn't look at the clock).

We read the Mrs. Applebee story from Serendipity. I couldn't get it to download but it worked well to just cut and paste the story from the blog into Word. I shrunk the images a little, but left them there so they could look at the pictures.

We also listened to the Flower Fairy CD, and will read the above book, "The Life and Times of the Apple" throughout the week.


I also printed out the color page for the Apple Blossom Fairies off of the Flower Fairy website. I let them color it with markers, but in the future I think I'll require colored pencils. We'll find some other more appropriate uses for markers, if the markers survive long enough! Markers never last long around here because the tops are always left off or the tip is bitten off by baby.

We also read the little story of St. Ann from "Miniature Stories of the Saints."


Ellie wrote some "A"s.


and Mary Clare started writing the "Angel of God" prayer as copywork.


We used Crayola Model Magic to make a capital (Ellie) and lowercase (MC) letter A. They are drying on the fireplace and we plan to put a ledge up in the schoolroom for the whole alphabet!


And since I'm not finishing this until after our second day of homeschooling, I'll add in our favorite activity from today...Art! We looked at Cezanne's apple still life paintings from our "Child Sized Masterpieces" set and then I got out apples for everyone to draw with colored pencils on sketch paper which I cut into small squares. The only problem was dodging the apples, when the toddler decided he needed some attention and started hurling them across the table! Oy, it's going to be a fun year with him!


Things have been going well so far, I'm hoping to stick with this program to make for a fun and exciting school year!