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.

Sunday, March 31

Second Grade, Bible, Set Two

Week One:
  • Hymn: In My Heart there Rings a Melody
  • Memory Verse: John 1:1-2
  • Searching for Treasure: Reviewed Studies 1 - 4
  • Reviewed Catechism
  • Prayer
  • Read God and a Boy Named Joe chapters 1 - 6
Week Two:
  • Hymn: Jesus Bids us Shine
  • Memory Verse: John 1:3
  • Searching for Treasure: Study 5, Introduction - #4
  • Read Exodus 7 - 12
  • Reviewed Catechism
  • Prayer
  • Read God and a Boy Named Joe chapters 7 - 11
Week Three:
  • Hymn: America the Beautiful
  • Memory Verse: John 1:4
  • Searching for Treasure: Study 5 Review - Study 6 #2
  • Kiss Lesson 10
  • Reviewed Catechism
  • Prayer
  • Read God and a Boy Named Joe chapters 12 - 16
Week Four:
  • Hymn: I Know Who Holds Tomorrow
  • Memory Verse: John 1:5
  • Searching for Treasure: Study 6 #3 - Study 7 #1
  • Catechism #82, 83, 84
  • Reviewed Catechism
  • Prayer
  • Read The Chimney Sweep's Ransom chapters 1 - 4
Week Five:
  • Hymn: Standing on the Promises
  • Memory Verse: John 1:6-7
  • Searching for Treasure: Study 7 #2 - Summary
  • Catechism Review
  • Prayer
  • Read The Chimney Sweep's Ransom chapters 5 - 8; we will finish the book next week during our "off schedule" week

Second Grade, Math, Set Two

 
  • Writing Numbers to 9,999 and Number Words
    • I made a decahedron with clay and baked it. Then I wrote the numbers 0 - 9, one numeral on each side. I wrote out the words one - nine (3 each); ten - twenty; and thirty, forty, fifty . . . ninety; hundred; and thousand
    • Game
      • We took turns rolling the decahedron four times to make a four-digit number.
      • Then the player wrote the number on a paper (8,537)
      • and made the number with the word cards.
  • Ordinals first through twentieth
    • We played Find a Penny (pg 52 Games for Math)
    • I printed out 20 rabbits doing different things and wrote the words first - twentieth. K. told a story about a family of twenty rabbits and put them in order with their corresponding word.
  • Place Value and Renaming
    • We made four-digit numbers with UNO cards and then showed them on the place value mat. Then we made a three-digit number and subtracted it.
  • Counting
    • We counted to 1,000 by counting 100 numbers each day. At first it seemed like K. was just mumbling and echoing me, so we brought out the UNO cards. The first person turned the top card over (it is a 5). They count from (let's start with 200) 200 to 205. The other person turns the top UNO card over (it is a 9). They count from 206 to 209. The first person turns over the next card (it is a 7). They count from 210 to 217. Keep going until you get to 300.
      • This turned out to be a very good way to count as there is no set pattern for how many numbers each person counts, but sometimes you may count only one number and other times you may count more, but never more than ten numbers.
    • We used beads to count to 30 by 3's and to 40 by 4's
  • Rounding
    • I put a button on a number (7) on our number line and asked it if was closer to zero or ten.
  • Subtraction
    • We read Subtraction Made Easy by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson up to two-digit regrouping.
    • We practiced 3- and 4-digit subtraction without renaming
    • We did a few problems that we had to rename the tens. We did this on our place value mat.
  • Multiplication Readiness
    • I wrote out some word problems. K. drew a picture to illustrate the problem. Then we solved it with repeated addition, showed it on the number line, and wrote it in vertical and horizontal multiplication forms.
    • We read Multiplication Made Easy by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson; pages 4 - 19
  • Fractions
    • I read the book, The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. We had stuffed animals for the people and beads for the cookies and worked out the Fair Shares. Then figured out what fraction of the cookies each person got.
    • We compared fractions with common denominators and fractions with 1 as the numerator.
  • Geometry
    • We played Shape Lotto (Games for Math). I added the hexagon and pyramid shapes.
    • We counted sides and vertexes / faces, edges, vertexes, and curves
    • We played pattern games on-line. Moon Rock Patterns and Crazy Pattern Machine
  • Charts and Graphs
    • We read the book Tally Charts by Vijaya Chisty Bodach. Instead of just looking at the charts made in the book, we worked out the charts by looking at the pictures. Later that day we were running errands and made a tally chart of red, blue, and yellow cars.
  • Estimation
    • Games and Activities
      • We played Is It? from Games for Math pg 90

      • We made the Gallon Hero. I found this idea on a blog and made our own. We started out by coloring all the pieces before they were cut out. Then I had K. cut out the gallon piece and the head and glue them together. I had a gallon of water and experimented to see how many times it would fill our quart measuring cup. Then K. cut out the quarts and glued them on to the gallon. Next, we took 1 quart and experimented to see how many times it would fill the pint container. Then she cut out the pint pieces and glued them on to the quarts (2 on each quart). Last, we took one pint and experimented to see how many times it would fill our one cup measuring cup. I had cut out all but four of the cup pieces. K. cut them out and glued them on to the pint pieces (2 on each pint). Then I let her glue some hair on his head. This method seems to have worked really well because a couple times since then she had used the knowledge.

      • I pulled out 10 containers and K. put them in order from the one that would hold the least to the one that would hold the most. I had her first pick out the one she thought would hold the least. We filled it with water. Then I had her pick out the one that she thought would hold the next most. We poured the water from the first container into the second. If it overflowed, we knew the second container was smaller than the first, but it we had to add more water, then we knew the second container was bigger. We did this with each container.
      • We took a walk around the neighborhood. I pointed out items and asked K. if we would use inches, feet, or yards to measure it.
      • We both went and found an object. Then we weighed them to see which was heavier. The goal was for her to come back with something that would be heavier than whatever I picked.
      • K. picked an object and we weighed it. Then she flicked the spinner (options are 'More' or 'Less'). If it landed on 'More', I had to bring back an object that weighed more. If it landed on 'Less', I had to bring back an object that weighed less. Then I flicked the spinner, etc.
  • Map Skills
    • I found three different activity pages on-line that were fun to complete; they gave practice with north, east, south, west and finding locations.

Second Grade, Reading, Set Two

We are back to reading Story Train. We are having fun with the Playmaking is Fun section, acting out stories. We spent a couple days in the fourth week making a story into a play and acting it out. One week K. had a sore throat, so instead of her reading aloud, we detoured and did a short unit on poetry. I read poems to her and then she would tell me if it was written to (1) express thoughts, feelings, or emotions; (2) tell a story; (3) describe something or someone; or (4) teach a lesson.

Comprehension Skills: Sequence of Events, The Reading Corner:
  • We read a story and I asked some of the questions provided on page 71.
  • I read Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo! by Rosetta Stone. We talked about the order of the events and how the story wouldn't make sense if they were out of order. (#1 on page 71)
  • I started a story with "Once there was a boy who got lost" we told and short story and I wrote it down. Then I cut the sentences apart and had K. put it in order. (#2 on page 71)
  • I read The Old Woman and Her Pig adapted by Eric A. Kimmel and we talked about how one event leads to the next.
  • We did the magic tricks provided in the book and I have checked a couple simple magic books out of the library. K. is enjoying learning the tricks. Incredible Tricks and the Dinner Table and Amazing Tricks with Everyday Stuff  both are by Steve Charney
  • I read a mystery story to K. Then we wrote the main events on a paper and I cut the strips apart. K. had to put them back in the correct order. Then I mixed up some of the strips and we talked about if it would work that way in the story. K. really enjoyed mixing up the strips. She made some pretty funny combinations.
  • We were supposed to make a timeline. I had planned to do it on the development of water navigation -- to go with our history studies -- but when I was looking on-line to find pictures of the various things I found a timeline that someone else made, so we just looked at and discussed it. In history we are doing a timeline of the explorers.
From Games for Reading:
  • Chain Game  page 130
  • Jigsaw Puzzles -- while cleaning out my parents garage, we found some puzzles that have 63 large pieces. These are perfect for K. They offer a challenge, but can be finished in a short amount of time.
  • Hard Listening page 83
  • Alphabet Words page 100 -- K. wanted to do animals. We are both coming up with an animal for each letter. We completed through M and will finish it during our "off schedule" week.

Second Grade, Grammar, Set Two

  • We reviewed Verbs
    • I read aloud pages 56 - 57 in Child's Own English Book.
    • Then it was time to Play Games:
      • We pretended that we were sailors (this went well with our history studies) and took turn acting out things sailors would do. K. really enjoyed this and wanted to keep going, even when it was time for lunch! (Game #1 on page 57)
      • We played "Dumb Crambo". Player 1 thinks of an action verb (something that can be acted out). They tell player 2 a word that rhymes with the verb they are thinking of. Player 2 then thinks of action verbs and acts them out. Player 1 has to guess the word player 2 is acting out. This continues until player 2 guesses the verb player 1 is thinking of. Then roles are switched. This game was a great hit, too. (Game #4 on page 58)
    • We underlined the verbs in one of the stories in the book. (Game #5 on page 58, story #2 is about Columbus, which went really well with our history)
    • We underlined the verbs in a story in an old reading text book, Finding New Neighbors.
  • I introduced Linking Verbs
    • I read pages 61 - 62 in Child's Own (linking verbs are called "copulas" in this book)
    • Then it was time to Play a Game:
      • I printed out pictures of sets of freight cars. Player 1 writes a noun in the first car, player 2 writes a noun in the second car -- a word that relates to the first. Then the players decide on a linking verb to put in for the coupler between the cars. (Game #1 on page 62)
    • We underlined the linking verbs in a story in Finding New Neighbors.
  • We reviewed Pronouns
    • We practiced substituting pronouns for other nouns in sentences. Example: Sally and Fred went to the store. They went to the store.
    • We practiced using "I" or "me" in sentences.
    • Then it was time to Play Games:
  • We reviewed the Parts of a Book with the lapbook from first grade
  • Listening and Speaking
    • We practiced what to say when she answers the phone, takes a message, or makes a phone call.
  • We reviewed Punctuation
    • Childcraft 1969 Edition, Volume 11, page 262 -- has a short paragraph without punctuation, and it talks about the need for punctuation. We copied the paragraph out and K. put the punctuation in.
  • Common and Proper Nouns
    • We played the game from Set One
  • Singular and Plural Nouns
    • I picked a story in Finding New Neighbors. On the first page K. underlined in green all the plural nouns. Then I had her find and underline in red an equal number of singular nouns.
    • We did the same thing on the next page. Then I decided to expand it by circling the proper nouns in purple and underlining pronouns in orange.

  • Writing Skills
    • I picked a story in Finding New Neighbors and we picked a word from each paragraph (just on one page) to find a replacement for in the thesaurus.
    • We made word webs for a food (donut), activity (swinging), and place (park) -- one each day. The first day I used the words she wrote and wrote out a short paragraph. The next day we did a paragraph verbally. The third day K. wanted to write the paragraph.
  • Writing Projects
    • We spent a couple days writing and illustrating couplets. Sometimes we would write a complete one by ourselves, other times one of us would write the first line and the other would write the second line.
    • A couplet has two lines, the last word of each line rhymes, and both lines have the same number of syllables.
  • Usage
    • We spent a couple days talking about the difference of can (ability) and may (permission).
    • I figured the best way to practice was to use them, so I asked her which she would use if she was asking . . .

Second Grade, Writing, Set Two

From The Magic Pencil:
  • We skipped to the second section and have been playing with similes. We spent one week doing the exercises in the book. The second week I went on-line and found a crossword puzzle of similes and a few sheets that had the beginning of similes for us to finish. We tried to be creative and not use typical things.
I found the book Writing Hangups by Murray Suid at the library. This book is full of easy writing projects.
  • This week K. made a chain letter. She wrote a letter to Grandpa on a piece of construction paper, then we cut the paper into strips and made it into a chain before giving it to him.
  • K. had written a puppet show for our family potluck. We made cue cards to hold up a certain points for the audience. Examples: clip-clop; snore; yum!
  • Another week K. wrote a box story. We took a shoe box and I cut paper to cover each side. On each piece of paper she wrote a part of her own story. We made sure she wrote "side 1", etc. on each side. At the end of each part of the story it states to open the box and find (something that has to do with the story). For one part it is a cat, another part it is a mouse, etc. When the story is all written, glue or tape the papers on the box. This will be fun to share with our family.
 
Here is the box story.

 
Here are the items inside the box.
 
From Games for Writing:
  • Word by Word page 47
  • Acrostic Poems page 69 -- we like to add pictures to ours
  • What a Personality page 124

Sunday, March 24

Second Grade, Spelling, Set Two

Spelling is going fine. Sometimes I have her do the work page on her own.

Second Grade, Fine Arts, Set Two

During week one K. finished her pillow and began crocheting another chain. I was going to teach her the slip stitch, but she just wants to make chains, which is really better because she does need to get better at making her chains all the same size. She is improving!

During week two we did two pages in her piano book.

We went to The Skirball Museum this week and saw a portrait and a seascape and answered the questions in our book, Let's Visit the Art Museum. I have picked up some books from the library which we will use either instead of or with visits to a museum.

This week I needed to make a couple sock monkeys. I had enough socks to make three, so K. is making her own. I have all the machine sewing done and she has done some of the hand sewing.

 
Here is her completed sock monkey. She did all the hand sewing, except for the mouth. We sewed it on the wrong side the first time, so she asked me to sew it on the right side for her.

We spent this week on art. We worked in her book, Let's Visit the Art Museum. I picked up these books at the library:
  • Mousterpiece by Jane Breskin Zalben -- a fun book about art
  • Katie Meets the Impressionists by James Mayhew -- gives the opportunity of seeing famous paintings and learning a bit about artists in a fun way. This is part of a series of books.
  • My Art Book by DK Publishing -- this is a book of art projects inspired by masterpieces. This is a book I want to do a lot from. This week we worked on decorating a rock. The projects all look fun and the instructions are very well written.
  • Discover Great Paintings* by Lucy Micklethwait -- this book has reproductions of famous paintings along with questions and observations about each one. There is also information about the artist and the painting.
  • Come Look With Me: World of Play* by Gladys S. Blizzard -- this book has reproductions of paintings, a few questions about each one and then a few paragraphs about the painting and the artist.
* We only looked at one or two pictures in these books.

Second Grade, Science, Set Two

We are continuing to do experiments with magnetism. Here are some of them:


  • I put a paper clip in a glass and asked K. to get it out without touching the paper clip. You can see her using a magnet to do it. True Book of Science Experiments pg 27

  • We gathered seven magnets and tested each to see how many paper clips it could pick up. This showed us that some magnets are stronger than others. Science: Understanding Your Environment pg 86
  • We made a needle into a magnet. The Real Magnet Book pg 40
  • We learned that magnets push and pull. Real Magnet pg 44 
  • Here is an experiment showing the magnets pushing each other apart. Let's Experiment pg 64

  • Here are iron filings "dancing" above a magnet. Let's Experiment pg 67
  • We made a vending machine slug rejector. Let's Experiment pg 71
 
  • We made a switch to use for our electromagnet experiment. Let's Experiment pg 73. Do not use this switch with any power source except household batteries, such as D cell batteries.

  • Here is our electromagnet. Let's Experiment pg 57 and Real Magnet pg 55
Book to read:
  • Amazing Magnetism by Rebecca Carmi -- this is a Magic School Bus chapter book

Now we are experimenting with electricity. We started this week with Static Electricity.
  • We experimented with balloons Science: Understanding your Environment pgs 93 - 95
  • We played with static charges using glass rods and plastic combs and a ping pong ball Let's Experiment pgs 96 - 98
  • We read Amazing Electricity by Sally Hewitt -- this book has good pictures, short text, and things to do or talk about on each page spread.

  • What Happens page 23 -- we discovered how a flashlight works by making one. We taped four D batteries together so we would have a brighter light. We started with one. There was hardly any light, so we added a second battery and it was brighter. Then we decided to add a third and the light was even brighter, so we added the fourth for a very bright light. After doing the experiment in the book, we decided to hook it up to the switch we made. It was so much fun because it actually worked!
  • Let's Experiment page 102 -- we tested different items to see if electricity flowed through them. This didn't work at first because our light bulb was different than theirs. Ours had to be touching the top of the battery and have the wire touching the side of it, too.
Other books we read:
  • How does a Waterfall become Electricity? by Mike Graf -- good book, easy to read and understand with good pictures and illustrations.
  • Electricity: Bulbs, Batteries, and Sparks by Darlene Stille -- very easy book to understand with large, colorful illustrations
  • Electric Storm by Anne Capeci -- this is a Magic School Bus chapter book.
Recommended book:
  • Why it Works: Electricity by Anna Claybourne -- we didn't use this book, because it covers the same things as in the other books and the experiments we did, however, if you don't have any other books already, this is a good one to use.

Second Grade, History, Set Two

I read chapter 64 of Child's History. This chapter covers:
  • Ponce de Leon
  • Fountain of Youth
  • Hernando de Soto
  • Mexico / Aztecs / Montezuma
  • Hernando Cortes
  • Peru / Incas / Pizarro
  • Mayas
In addition we read/watched:
  • The Spanish Conquistadors in North America by Walter Buehr -- we read the first three chapters (up to Cortes) and then switched to this next book. When we finish it we will go back and read the chapters about Balboa and Coronado.
  • Cortes of Mexico by Ronald Syme -- well written, interesting book. It is better than his book about Champlain (which we didn't finish). The chapters are long (191 pages and only 8 chapters), so it takes the entire history time to read one chapter, but it is holding K.'s attention and I'm finding it very interesting.
  • Ancient Civilizations for Children: Ancient Maya by Schlessinger Media
  • Ancient Civilizations for Children: Ancient Inca by Schlessinger Media -- both these dvd's are 23 minutes in length. They are geared for grades 3 - 7, but are interesting and K. enjoyed watching them. They each had a teacher guide pamphlet with questions for discussion.
  • Secrets of Ancient Cultures: The Inca by Arlette Braman -- this is an activity and craft book. I let K. look through it and pick out one thing to make. She chose to make a raft. We didn't have balsa wood, but used popsicle sticks instead.
  • Secrets of Ancient Cultures: The Maya by Arlette Braman -- this is an activity and craft book. I let K. look through it and pick out one thing to make. She chose to make a wheeled toy. The instructions are very good. It is made of clay. We didn't have enough of any one color, so her tiger is very colorful and it really rolls and she can play with it. The instructions called for air dry clay, but we used oven dry clay and it worked fine.

    We finally finished assembling the wheels on the toy. It really rolls, although in a lopsided manner since the wheels aren't perfect.
We have started drawing and labeling lines on a world map to show who explored where.

I read chapter 65 of Child's History. This chapter covers:
  • Portuguse sailing around Africa
  • Vasco de Gama
  • East Africa
  • Ibn Battuta
In addition we read:
  • A Boy of Old Prague by Sulamith Ish-Kishor -- I did not read the entire book to K. just enough for her to get an understanding of what life was like for the peasants and Jews.
  • Exploration and Conquest by Betsy Maestro -- we have just started this book. We are using it to make a time line of the explorers.

Evaluation of Second Grade, Set One

  • Bible -- K. did very well memorizing the Ten Commandments. A funny thing is that the children were memorizing them in Sunday School at the same time. She is enjoying singing the hymns and listening to the books. Our study on wisdom is going much better than I expected.
  • Math -- K. is doing well with her math facts. We are having fun learning with games and activities.
  • Grammar -- I am pleased with K.'s grasp of the concepts. She seems to really remember them.
  • Spelling -- so far this is a really easy subject for K. Because she has been writing on her own for a few years, she has learned how to spell most of the words in her spelling lessons.
  • Reading -- We really enjoyed the book. It was a good introduction for our history studies this year. The comprehension activities were a lot of fun.
  • Writing -- I'm not sure we will be using The Magic Pencil very much. She does not seem excited about the projects. We still enjoy the activities in Games for Writing.
  • History -- sometimes I'm not sure if K. is paying attention to what I'm reading to her, but when I ask her questions, she can talk about the events of the book with me.
  • Science -- experiments are a big hit. This is going to be a fun year!
  • Fine Arts -- we got off to a good start with three aspects: sewing, crocheting, and piano. The museum we visited was a big disappointment, so I have requested some books from the library to use and we are keeping our eyes open when we go other places. For instance, there were some paintings on display at the library, so we were able to talk about which was a still life and which was a landscape.