OLD HOMESCHOOLERS NEVER DIE . . . THEY JUST WRITE CURRICULUM


"Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants."

Deuteronomy 32:2

Courses of Study

To view the Course of Study for each grade level, you can click on the "Course of Study" label
or "Search This Blog" for the specific grade level you wish to see.
To date, I have courses of study completed for kindergarten through fourth grades.

Newsletter Articles

In 2013 the Lord started me producing a newsletter for the homeschool group we are a part of. Every other month I write an article on a topic the Lord has put on my heart. I've decided to add these articles to this blog. I hope you will find encouragement through some of my ramblings. You can click on the label "Newsletter" to find the articles.

Thursday, October 28

Levers

This week we learned about levers. On our way to the backyard I grabbed an old shelf and an empty 2 liter soda pop bottle with the lid on.

I set the board (lever) on the bottle (fulcrum) and placed 4 bricks (load) on one end. Then we were easily able to move the fulcrum closer and farther from the load to see what made the load easier and harder to lift.

More Friction

We finished our science section on friction. K. knows that friction:
  1. is caused when 2 things rub together
  2. slows things down
    • ramp experiments
  3. heats things up
    • rub hands together
    • pull nail from block of wood
    • sanding wood
  4. wears things away
    • sand rough piece of wood
  5. can be decreased by using oil or other lubricant
    • rub 2 pieces of sand paper together, then put vasoline on them and rub them together -- notice the difference
    • rub 2 crackers together, then put peanut butter or butter on them and rub them together -- notice the difference -- then eat them
  6. is useful
    • write/draw on construction paper with chalk, then dip chalk in vasoline and try writing
    • open a jar, then try opening the jar with soapy hands
    • turn a door know, then try turning the door knob with soapy hands

Thursday, October 21

Runny Babbit

We are in the midst of reading the book Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein. This is a book of poems, but like "runny babbit" the beginnings of some words have been switched. It really taxes your phonics skills!

I tried to pull this book out a few months ago when K. started making up silly words, but I couldn't find it until I was re-doing our bookshelves. We are all enjoying the book immensely. We will read one or two poems each evening and read some of the favorite ones that we have read before. Here is one of K.'s favorites:

KUGS AND HISSES
Runny said, "I'm lonesome,
I feel so glad and soomy.
I need some kugs and hisses --
Now, who's gonna give 'em to me?"

"I will," said Polly Dorkupine,
"'Cause you're cute as a rug in a bug."
Said Runny, "Well, I'll kake the tiss,
But never hind the mug."

Sunday, October 17

Phonics, Step 6

The next things to teach are these rules (which are ususally true, but there always seem to some exceptions):
  1. An 'e' on the end of a word makes the first vowel in the word "say its name" (the long vowel sound).
    • We didn't do much with this rule because K. had already learned it in the reading she has chosen to do.
  2. "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking" -- the first vowel is long and the second is silent.
    • K. had a bit of trouble with this one when I first introducted it. I printed out 15 sample words and looked through magazines to find pictures to cut out and glue by the words. This provided practice reading the words as K. has to find the right word to go with the pictures. After doing this once she got the hang of it.
  3. 'Y' on the end of a word is a vowel and complies to rule #2 above. (bay, stay, gray)
  4. When 'y' is the only vowel in the word it says "i". (my, cry, fly)
  5. If a two syllable word ends in 'Y', it says 'e'. (baby, mommy, flabby)
I thought it would be difficult to teach K. about syllables, but by clapping her name (3 syllables), mommy (2 syllables), and dad (1 syllable) she got the hang of it really quickly. I also showed her that each syllable had a vowel (at least one).

Charlotte's Web

We finished Charlotte's Web by E.B. White last night. K. enjoyed it, and we will probably read it again in kindergarten when we learn about insects.

Nutty Math

I picked up a 1/4 lb of mixed nuts at the grocery store this week to use in school. First I had K. put them into groups by the kind . . . walnut, almond, brazil, hazel. Then we talked about what they looked and felt like. The walnut is roundish and wrinkly. The almond is oval and has holes. The Brazil is triangular with smoother wrinkles. The hazel is round and smooth.


Next K. counted each kind of nut and we made a bar graph. We talked about most, least, fewer, and more. Then we used tally marks to count up the total number of nuts. After that my husband cracked the nuts open. We talked about which was easiest to open and which was hardest. For an older child we could have weighed the nut meats and figured the cost per pound for them. (We paid $1.99 lb for them in the shells.) We could have even compared the cost to purchasing shelled nuts and seeing if we saved money or not.

Monday, October 4

Phonics, Step 5

The next sounds to teach are:
  • 'a' as in father
  • 'c' as in circus (when i, e, or y follow the letter c)
  • 'g' as in giant (when i, e, or y follow the letter g -- usually)
  • long vowel sounds
    • 'a' as in apron
    • 'e' as in eagle
    • 'i' as in ice cream
    • 'o' as in oatmeal
    • 'u' as in united states
I taught these the same way I taught the digraphs in Step 4.

Sunday, October 3

Autumn Pumpkin

We don't observe halloween, so we decided to make an Autumn Pumpkin from one we were given. We collected leaves, cleaned out the pumpkin, traced the leaves onto the pumpkin and cut them out. That night we ate our watermelon by the light from our Autumn Pumpkin.


Playdoh Letters

One thing we enjoy doing is making letters out of playdoh.

Friction

In Science we have started a unit on simple machines. This day we were talking about friction. First, we used three wooden blocks. One was plain, one I stuck a piece of fun foam on, and one we covered with parchement (since I was out of waxed paper). Then we slid them down this board and talked about how friction makes things go slower. After that K. decided she should slide down the board. Then I gave her a piece of parchment to sit on. She went down so quickly that it was hard to get a good picture of her -- but she understands about friction!


Measuring

We grew some small watermelons this year. We chose one and measured its circumference each week with some old rick rack. When we were through measuring, we used unifix cubes to measure how much it grew between measurements. We started with green cubes and made a stick the length of the first measurement. Then we moved the green stick over to the second string and added enough yellow cubes to make it the length of that string, and so on.


Here you can see our addition problem.


Then we turned it into a graphing tool.