"God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." - 1 Jn 4:16



Wednesday, October 23

All About Reading, Level 1 - REVIEW

We've been scrambling to keep up with Baby Bird recently.  It seems she's ready to start reading... NOW.  She's 3 1/2.  Didn't really think we'd be needing phonics resources when our kid was still wearing pullups, but hey, kids are quirky.

I've sought the advice of many much more experienced homeschooling mamas, pored over curricula reviews, prayed, talked it over with hubby, dragged my feet, and finally settled on what to order.  We decided on two programs actually, but tonight I'll just include a review of the one that arrived today.  Mail... I love homeschool Christmas!

I read through the placement tests and chose All About Reading, Level 1.

If you order directly through the company you can request box art.  How seriously cool is that?




The goodies:

Please forgive the poor picture quality/location.  It's midnight and this is real life.



Initial Reactions:
  •  Teacher's Manual
    • Open and go - I'm going to want this spiral-bound or in a 3-ring binder.  I like binders but I want to be able to fold back one half so only one page is visible.  Mission.
    • Table of contents: very clear on what will be covered, know at a glance if the readers will be needed
    • Appendices:  AWESOME.  Includes all the key components I want at my fingertips
      • Scope and Sequence of Level 1
      • Phonograms taught in Level 1
      • Full blending procedure
      • Solving B-D reversal problems
      • Words taught in Level 1
    • Section 1, "What do you need?":  So glad it includes pictures of each item
    • Clear, clutter-free pages throughout 


  • Letter Tiles
    • Seem sturdy enough for their job.  Like the color-coding.
    • REALLY glad this person suggested attaching all the magnets BEFORE punching apart the letter tiles... she also has a fantastic review of AAR, Level 1
    • Anyone else find mindless tasks like sticker-sticking and laminate-cutting relaxing?  Turned on some classical music (yay Pandora!) and chilled with a glass of wine for this job :)

  • Readers (3)
    • Exceptional binding
    • Gorgeous black and white pencil illustrations
    • Skill-appropriate vocabulary, not overly juvenile, would be appropriate for an older beginner reading student but easily enjoyed by younger audiences as well
  • Student Activity Book
    • Definitely to be used in conjunction with teacher's manual
    • Clear, clutter-free pages all in black/white
    • Heavy-duty pages

We chose this program is large part because it is supposed to be so geared toward multi-sensory learning.  Our daughter is young and wiggly - hoping this pans out!

Sunday, June 9

Newby Thoughts on Preschool Homeschool Materials

I've spent countless hours - way too many hours really - poring over homeschool materials.  I think we've figured out what we want to do for now, which is really not that much.  Well, not structured learning anyway.  Kids learn whether you want them to or not.  Any materials we choose to purchase or utilize at this time will be for our benefit as the parents and used mostly to keep us moving forward.  We will not require Baby Bird to do seatwork or set curriculum until such time as we deem it appropriate.

Below are some of my thoughts on three popular choices for PRESCHOOL homeschool curricula.  If you are interested in purchasing any of these materials, please note that the prices I've listed are for NEW materials.  I don't get any kick-back or anything, this is just information for sharing :).  Some materials (such as the Five in a Row Volumes) are available USED for more reasonable prices.
 

Sonlight (P3/4 or P4/5 - includes ALL the books needed) - $285 - $425
  • can buy just the teaching guides OR find the reading list free online
  • don't waste the money on materials available for free (or a few late fees) at your local library
  • instead invest some time and a little cash in great hands-on long-term materials such as moveable alphabets, map puzzles, learning games, paper, binoculars, all-weather clothes, good shoes
Five in a Row (Teaching Guides Vol. 1-3) - $35 ea, total $105
  • almost all the books are available at the library (a few are apparently hard to find because they're out of print)
  • buy a good world map
  • unless you love spending time and money laminating things, just buy the premade story disks
  • go ahead and spend the money for the manuals.  they're full of great extension ideas for each recommended children's book.  no sense in reinventing the wheel!
  • kids at this age really aren't ready for seatwork anyway.  let them get dirty. if they don't want to finish a book, fine - go have a tea party instead.  they'll learn more from interacting with you than they will from any book or curriculum.
Catholic Heritage Curricula - $79.75 (Preschool Core Kit)
  • pick and choose certain pieces for now
  • will use as our core starting in K (but using grade 1)
  • most interested in their lesson plans - look like easiest and most flexible on the market!  again, why reinvent the wheel?

SUMMER Topics of Interest

We went to see Disney's The Lion King on stage this afternoon - INCREDIBLE!  My jaw hit the floor in the first minute of the production and I was as wide-eyed as our three-year-old all the way to the final curtain.  Amazing.  Gorgeous.  Breathtaking.  Intriguing.  Go buy tickets.  Now.

This show piqued both my and our daughter's interest in so many areas; we have lots of new and exciting things to explore this summer!

  • Facepainting
  • Batiking
  • Puppetry
  • Theater
  • African Dance/Music
  • Costumes
  • Measurement
  • Science Experiments: Ice 
  • Flags
  • National Anthem

I foresee a whole summer of learning about Africa :D

Friday, June 7

Favorite Books about... BEES

Eventually I suppose I'll get my act together and start logging our homeschool adventures in a portfolio or something of the kind.  However, for now I need a place to stash pictures and thoughts before I simply forget them!

We read... a LOT.  Generally I watch to see what's piqued Baby Bird's interest for the moment and just run with that for awhile.  We choose books from our home library and local public library, we may do some activities that somehow tie into the subject of interest, and we explore till we're ready to explore something else.  It works for us :).

Inspired by Five in a Row's suggested book The Bee Tree and Baby Bird's interest in gardens and bees, we spent spring this year learning all about honey bees.  Here are some of our favorite books about BEES:


The Bee Tree
by Patricia Polacco
 







The Bumblebee Queen
by April Pulley Sayre





A Bee's Life


Saturday, January 19

Healthy Changes?

It's been 1 week since I decided my life needs a change.  I'm turning 30 this year (eek!) and am in the worst shape of my life - overweight, out of breath going up the stairs, chronic pain and fatigue, and the worst part is I just plain can't keep up with our daughter.  She's two.  There are no excuses.

After receiving some great encouragement and advice from friends and family I started back to tracking calories and trying to making healthier food choices.  Livestrong.com has a great FREE food and exercise tracker that I highly recommend.  I'm doing well on calories but it's definitely been an adjustment.  Baby Bird nursed till just a few months ago.  While nursing I was hungry all. the. time.  When she slowed down then weaned completely I just kept eating as if she was still nursing like a young toddler... not so good for my waistline.  I was feeling good about making some healthy changes.

Life has a way of throwing curveballs though.

The day after I announced my goal of getting healthier I felt the teeniest tickle at the back of my throat.  By Thursday all three of us had full-fledged nasty coughs, fiery throats, and aches all over.  Thursday was supposed to be my PCS work day... A whole day dedicated to cleaning, sorting, and packing while Baby Bird played with friends.  The ONLY day we had available to get that amount of work done without a little helper.  A whole day.  Spent coughing in bed instead of packing.

Well, the movers come in just a few days and the house still looks like a tornado blew through it.  Our suitcases aren't packed, the shipments aren't sorted, the fridge and pantry are still full of old food, and we're still hacking, coughing, and sleeping away our sickness.  We don't have TIME to be sick right now.

I'm trying to make some healthy changes in my life right now, but I think for this week I'd be thrilled with NOT SICK!

Tuesday, January 1

Oops, sorry.

Well, that was fun.  In an effort to make this blog address easier to type and remember I decided to change the web address.  It didn't occur to me till AFTER I'd already changed the address and entered a new post for 2013 that it would mess with my followers' blog feeds.  Sorry!

I've changed the web address back to the original:

meanderingsofaclutteredmind.blogspot.com


I will be changing it to a NEW address this Sunday, 6Jan2013:

drops-inabucket.blogspot.com

I'm sorry for the confusion; please let me know if you have any questions or run into any more glitches!