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.

Saturday, July 21

First Grade, Bible, Set Five

  • We started the second part of Little Pilgrim's Progress this week.
  • The two "Ways" from 24 Ways for this set, about being content and generous, are really making for good discussions.
  • K. brought me a book this week and said, "We should read this book for Bible. It is about being content." The book is The Runaway Flying Horse by Bonzon. She showed me on the last page that is says that the horse was content. We did read it for Bible one day and when we were through she said, "It is about learning to be content with where you live because God put you there."
  • We read Genesis 29 - 35. I truly believe that God can close children's ears because K. did not ask questions about anything she isn't ready to hear about (and I'm not ready to explain).
  • Chapter 6 in the Friendship book was really good on being content with what we have (including our talents) and not envying our friends because everything we have, and everything our friends have is a gift from God.

First Grade, Writing, Set Five

In addition to Draw Write Now,
  • Alphabet Book (Games for Writing pg 166) -- K. didn't want to use any describing words for her alphabet, but she is using the front and back of each page, so we will go back later and use the last half of the book for describing words.
  • Read for the Fun of It by Bauer has a section titled Picture Books as Story Starters. It features a five page list of books to share with your child, with suggestions for something to write or tell. For instance, we read Nature Walk by Florian. This book is about some children see as they take a walk through the woods. The suggestion is "A City Walk". After reading the book we took a walk around our block, noticing lots of things. When we got home, K. wrote down what she could remember.
  • Egg Carton Tales (Games for Writing pg 134) -- I took the time during the planning week to change some of the "problems" and "settings" so the game would be fresh.
  • Writing to Form (Games for Writing pg 139) -- I took the story from an old text book, re-typed it, substituting blanks for some of the words.
  • Alphabet Code (Games for Writing pg 98) -- this time we just wrote the letters of the words on paper. It is a little harder this way than using letter cards, but makes a great game for a waiting room. I kept the words for K. to four letters, but her words for me went to five and six letters.

First Grade, Spelling, Set Five

  • The magnetic letters are great!

First Grade, Grammar, Set Five

  • In order to make learning about the parts of a book fun, I decided to make a lapbook. This was my first attempt, and it was a learning attempt, but I think the end result met my goal.
  • Karl and Carolina Uncover the Parts of a Book by Donovan -- this is a story book about two children learning about dinosaurs. Carolina shows Karl how to use the parts of a book to help them choose a book at the library.

I made a book character to walk us through the learning. When I was finished I noticed I didn't give her a mouth!


Here is how the first page looked when K. opened it.


We talked about the Cover, Spine, Title Page, and Table of Contents. I showed her one of each in different books, then let her find her own. We scanned them into the computer and printed them out the right size to fit on each pocket, then glued them in place.


The next day we went to the next page.


Here we learned about the Appendix, Glossary, Index, and Bibliography. We did the same process, letting K. choose the ones to scan, print, and glue in the book.


After reviewing the first pages, we went on to the last.


I had labels of all the parts, and had K. put them in alphabetical order (by first letter only). Then we glued them on. Next she matched them to their definition (on the left) and their location in a book (on the right).
  • I downloaded and printed The Child's Own English Book by Ball (copyright 1920) through Homeschooling Freebie Of The Day. We started part 1 "The Noun" this week. There were a few pages about what a noun is. It discussed how a baby learns to talk and all the words they start with (Daddy, cup, dog, etc.) are objects and a noun is the name of an object. Then it has five games and two written exercises to reinforce the concept of nouns.
    • One game has us see who could name the most objects in the room you are in, or outside in the garden (or any location).
    • Another game has us write all the names of people we could think of.
    • Another had us list cities, streets, oceans, rivers, countries, etc.
    • Friday we played My Ship Has Come In. The first player says, "My ship has come in and it is loaded with apricots" (any noun that starts with an A). The second player says "My ship has come in and it is loaded with apricots and beads" (any noun that starts with a B). We did change the game a bit from the book to suit two players, but it was fun. Our ship had a pretty interesting load as we added canaries, doughnuts, elephants, fans, grapes, hatboxes, ice cream, jaguars, etc.
    • We thought of pairs of words that mean the same (or close to the same) thing; example: woods/forest, blossom/flower, brook/stream, etc.
    • The book had some sentences where we underlined the nouns. We took turns. K. found the first and I found the second, and so on.
    • This week we have been reading books (very simple ones) and finding the nouns in them. One book was about God making the world and another was about animal's homes.

First Grade, Reading, Set Five

We are deviating from our original schedule to read the book The Story of Flight by Mary Lee Settle. This is a Step-Up Book, copyright in 1967. K. is interested in flight since learning about the Wright Brothers for her Science Fair project. Most of the chapters are just a few pages, but the longer ones I have divided.
  • Poster Words (Games for Reading pg 6) -- K. has been having a difficulty remembering how to spell her middle name, so we made a poster of it. I cut out or collected her name in different fonts and mediums. Then she glued or stuck them on and added some decorations to make a very pretty poster.

  • Jigsaw Sentences (Games for Reading pg 67) -- we did four sentences, then mixed them up and made new sentences.
  • Finish a Fairy Tale (Games for Reading pg 152) -- I wanted to use fairy tales K. had not heard before, so I picked up The Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales from the library. I marked the places I wanted to ask "what do you think happened?" in The Flying Trunk ahead of time.
  • Taking Turns (Games for Reading pg 148) -- we played this with sentences for reading, but later in the day (when K. was bored and I was feeding my mom) we used it to tell a story.

First Grade, Math, Set Five

Games, activities, books, and web sites that enhanced our learning:
  • Reviewing Odd/Even Numbers
    • I found the idea for making a maze and having your child follow either the odd or even numbers to find the path through the maze. This took a bit of time, but it was worth the effort. It provided great review and practice reading numbers aloud.
    • I also found some on-line games for practice. One is at Crickweb and the other at Teachrkids.
  • Reviewing Greater/Less Than
    • We played the game with the Uno cards again
    • Here are some games on-line that I liked. Here is one at Kinderwebgames and one at Abcya.
  • How Full is Full?: Comparing Bodies of Water by Parker -- this book starts with a glass of water and ends with an ocean. There is an activity at the end, putting 1 cup of water in different size and shape containers. The question is: does it look like each container has the same amount of water?

  • I introduced the concept of perimeter. We used her measuring tape we made in Set Four and measured each side of a book. I had her use a calculator to add it up. Then she used the measuring tape and wrapped it all the way around the book and got the same measurement. We measured a total of 5 things.
  • We did a lot of games on the computer this week:
  • To introduce the concept of the "decimal point", we counted money and then wrote the amount. I have a bag of coins I keep just for school. I dumped them on the table and then slid a "handful" over to K. She counted them and I showed her how (and why) to write the amount. Then she slid a bunch over to me and I counted and wrote the amount. We each had three turns.
  • We have been practicing the Subtraction Facts. To liven it up:
    • I added a hippo shaped water squirter. One day I squirted K. every time she gave me the correct answer.
    • Another day, I counted out fifteen fact family triangles and set the timer for three minutes. If she got through all fifteen cards before the timer buzzed, she got to squirt me until the timer went off. It took four or five sets to get through all the cards. When we were finished, I got to squirt her until the hippo was empty.
    • Another day, I took a small bag of M&M's and divided each color into a different bowl. Then I divided the triangles into 4 stacks (there are about 14 in each stack). If K. could get through a stack before the timer went off (3 minutes), she earned a bowl of M&M's.
    • Another day, I told her that if she got through a stack before the timer went off, we would stop and play a game.
  • We played Star Count (Games for Math pg 113) on her chalk board.

First Grade, History, Set Five

Along with Child's History of the World (chapters 53 - 55), we read:

  • Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe adapted by Marianna Mayer -- this is a quick read and is meant to introduce young children to Ivanhoe, not as a substitute for the novel. It adheres closely to the original plot, not changing any key details, but certain scenes, subplots, and characters are omitted.
  • Robin Hood retold from the Howard Pyle original by John Burrows.
  • Castle Diary: the Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page by Richard Platt -- I wasn't sure if K. would be interested in this story, but the first day I read it, she didn't want me to stop.
  • Crusaders by Joanne Jessop -- this is a "Beginning History" book
  • Ghana, Mali, Songhay by David Armentrout -- this is another book written for younger children, but don't try to cover too much in one day
  • Ancient West African Kingdoms by Jane Shuter -- these two books (above) cover the same material, but I felt that the one by Armentrout was easier to understand, but this one has illustrations that explain things better.

First Grade, Science, Set Five

Since our map already has the main rivers and lakes of the world marked on it, we are labeling them as we read about them in these books.

Here are the resources I recommend for learning about Rivers and Lakes and their Animals:
  • Rivers and Lakes by Helena Ramsay -- this book teaches what rivers and lakes are, how they are made and used. It has a lot of illustrations and is written for younger children.
  • The Brook Book by Jim Arnosky -- if you have a brook that you can explore, this would be a good resource
  • River Beds by Gail Langer Karwoski -- picks one animal from many rivers around the world. It doesn't give a lot of information about the animal, but you can find more in other books. This is almost a picture book.
  • The River by Gallimard Jeunesse -- an interesting book with wonderful illustrations. Shows life cycle of a dragonfly. Introduces some birds, animals, and insects. Shows frogs laying/fertilizing eggs
  • Amazing Water Frogs by Meish Goldish -- great photos and simple text
  • Animals of Rivers, Lakes, and Ponds by Sandra Donovan -- great photos with text that is easy to pick out the information you need or interesting facts without reading long passages that bore first graders
  • What Lives in Streams and Rivers? by Oona Gaarder-Juntti -- great photos, but not a lot of information
  • River Life by Barbara Taylor -- great photos with easy to use information
  • River Food Chains by Rachel Lynette -- good book for older children; talks about a lot of rivers throughout the world
  • A Nile River Food Chain by Rebecca Hogue Wojahn -- a Who-Eats-What Adventure; we really like this series
Literature or Picture Books:
  • River Song by Steve Van Zandt -- if you get this from your library, be sure it has the cd. The book would be nice to read, but the cd has it in song, which makes it a lot of fun. The pictures illustrate each verse of the song. The story starts in the mountains at the source of the river and takes you all the way to the mouth of the river at the ocean.
  • The River by Brigitte Sidjanski -- this book follows five pine cones that fall into the streamlet all the way to the ocean.
  • The Raft by Jim LaMarche -- a boy enjoys a summer on the river at his Grandmother's house

First Grade, Fine Arts, Set Five

We have fallen behind in our schedule, so I plan to catch up during this set.
  • Franz Schubert
    • I could not find any books in our library system that would interest a first grader, so we will just be using Child's Own and listening to cd's.
    • I picked up a cd that has "Trout" Quintet on it.
  • Frederic Chopin
    • I picked up a set of cd's that has Chopin's Nocturnes. They are great for going to sleep.
    • Chopin by Ann Rachlin -- this is in the Famous Children series; at the end of the book it mentions the Minute Waltz, Raindrop Prelude, and Cat Waltz. I searched in our library system and was able to find all three, but it is probably easier to just find them on YouTube.
  • George Fredrick Handel
    • Handel and the Famous Sword Swallower of Halle by Bryna Stevens -- this book brings the mood and magic of Handel and the seventeenth century to life in its spirited and humorous retelling of this biographical tale.
    • I picked up a set of cds called The Handel Experience -- it has selections from Water Music, The Messiah, Joy to the World, and many others.

Evaluation of Set Four

  • Bible -- K. is doing really well learning the verses and sometimes catches me saying the wrong words since I am re-learning them from the KJV. I am continually amazed at how God weaves things together. The topics "I planned" for each set of weeks last winter in 24 Ways or the Friendship book seem to be exactly what what we are needing to discuss now.
  • Writing -- while K. still enjoys drawing from the Draw Write Now book, she seems a bit bored with the writing, so I'm keeping it for drawing and using more games for writing.
  • Spelling -- using the magnetic letters on the fridge for reviewing spelling has been a great way to reduce the "are we done yet" attitude.
  • Grammar -- the activities and books about prepositions were great, and through the mad libs, I am sure K. knows the difference between action, naming, and describing words.
  • Reading -- our Friday games help keep things fun. Since K. reads well, and loves to read to herself, I keep the number of pages for "Reading" short.
  • Math -- K. is catching on well to the new addition facts. She seems to have grasped the concept of even and odd numbers. She understands which number is greater or less, but we need more work on using the symbols and reading the math sentence.
  • History -- K. is enjoying this period of history. Our castle still isn't completed, but we will work on it some more this next set of weeks.
  • Science -- I wasn't sure how much K. would enjoy My Side of the Mountain, but we took our time with it and talked about it, and now that we have finished it, I saw her reading it the other day.
  • Fine Arts -- I've started keeping the cd's in the car -- it's a good place for listening.

Saturday, July 7

"Off School" Review Time

Since we are taking a two week break, I decided we really needed to spend some time each day reviewing. I also wanted to continue having Bible each day, so this is what we have been doing this week:
  • Bible
    • I chose two songs from the hymnal and let K. pick one for us to sing. We have been singing Make Me a Blessing this week. It has been interesting to talk about being a blessing to other people.
    • I've continued reading Little Pilgrim's Progress (this will mess up my "master plan", but we are enjoying the book so much that we didn't want to take a break from it)
    • I let K. choose a book from our Bible Shelf for me to read
    • We reviewed Luke 2:1-15. We each took a piece of scrap paper and thought of a verse or section of the passage. Then we wrote the first letter of each word on the paper. Next, we exchanged papers and figured out the verse or section the other person and written down. As and example, verse 1 would look like this: A i c t p i t d t a d w o f C A t a t w s b r
    • We ended our Bible time with prayer.
  • Review
    • I took six strips of card stock and wrote a subject on each: Math, Writing, Reading, Grammar, Math, Reading
    • Each day K. chose a strip, then I would give her a choice of 2 games we could play for that subject.