End of the Year Evaluations

"The writers of this book don't want kids to understand math!" my then seven year-old said to me. That proclaimation came up in a series of conversations about math that started with one of our year-end evaluations. My son told me that he hated math--which I knew already, but I started asking what made it hard, and then I began to realize that the program I had chosen used a discovery-oriented approach when he wanted to be shown how to do something (by the book--not by mom!) instead.

This became crystal-clear one day when I showed him a different book. He looked through it, and then came to me with his old book and made the statement that still makes me laugh today. I feel confident that the writers DID want kids to understand math--it was just the wrong approach for this child. As we talked, I did have to tell him, "No, sadly, we can't get rid of math as a subject--but we can work together to find a better curriculum and a style that makes more sense to you." The result was that his very negative reaction turned into a positive journey that we took together to find something that would work better. That's actually one of my favorite homeschooling memories, and it set me on a new path. Instead of feeling defensive and adversarial, I joined him on his team and together we found solutions.

We often think about evaluating our kids--but do you also have your kids evaluate themselves and their school year? I started doing this because of my son's math struggles early on, and I learn so much from my kids through this! When they were little, we would do this orally. We'd snuggle up on the couch with a snack and just start talking. What did they like about school? What was hard this year? What made it hard? What was their favorite subject? and so on. My kids have given me valuable information that has helped me improve my teaching style, learn more about their learning styles, helped me make simple changes that meant a lot to them, helped me in choosing curriculum, and improved our relationship with each other. They know that I really care about what's important to them and that I want to help them and walk alongside them. I have often told them, "This is YOUR education," because I really want them to take ownership of it.

One year my son wanted to learn about sharks, and the local children's museum just happened to be holding classes where they would disect a 2' shark! Amazing! But had I never asked my son what he wanted to learn, I might never have known about that fleeting interest (fleeting because of the smell I think...!)

Now that my kids are older, I have a written form that includes these questions:

What subjects are your favorites, and what do you like about them?

What subjects are not favorites, and why not?

What area did you improve in the most this year?

What area are you struggling with or would like to improve in?

If you could change something in how we do things, what would you change?

What would you most like me to understand about you?

What is one goal you hope to achieve next year?

How about you, do you have your kids fill out an end of the year evaluation? What questions do they answer?

Back To School!

Well, we started back to school yesterday. We are not quite "year-round schoolers," but I find it's easier on us to start early and be able to take off time throughout the year when we need it. Plus I find that with a shorter summer break (6 weeks instead of 10 or more), the kids don't forget as much. This will be our 9th year homeschooling. (Wow! Hard to believe!)

I like to start back with just a few subjects and ease into things--so far we are doing:

• Bible
• History
• Spelling
• Reading
• Math

Some years I've started with only one or two subjects, and slowly added on more to "ramp up" over the course of a month. This year I wanted to start with these 5, and in a few weeks we'll add on more LA and Science. I have to say though that I'm enjoying our current pace, and am not so sure I really WANT to change things!

One new idea I had while preparing for this year--when I pre-read my kids' readers (mostly Sonlight and a few others), I am using an index card for a bookmark and taking notes. Some books have tough vocabulary, so I'm going to put the definitions right on the card for the kids to use as a bookmark. Other books have lots of characters that can be hard to remember--so for those books I'm listing characters and their relationships to each other. I'm hoping this will help them get more out of their reading, and then eventually I can transition them to some of these habits.

For spelling, I started back reviewing some mastered cards from AAS on the first day. The kids retained almost everything! I was so excited for them. The notes they wrote me this summer were near perfect spelling, so I knew they were doing well--nice to see confirmation though! My son started Level 5 today. I'm hoping he can get through 5 and half of 6 this year, so that we can finish up spelling in his 9th grade year. We'll see how it goes! My daughter is just a few lessons into Level 4.

History had a rough spot this morning--my 11 yo daughter was in a talkative mood and my 13 yo son was...well...13: the age when it's interminably hard to have a little sister who knows anything...But when I said her points were legitimate and that I wanted to hear them--and that further I wanted ALL of us to participate in a lively discussion--he changed his tune and we had a great discussion! So encouraging. I'm really looking forward to history this year (we're using The Mystery of History) and the opportunity for them to do some independent projects. And it's fun to be back in Genesis for our Bible reading.

Math--my son is good at math but usually balks at it--however today he willingly did *3* lessons! We switched to Math-U-See for Pre-Algebra (Horizons doesn't go up that high), and he really likes Steve Demme. I wonder how long the honeymoon will last? LOL! I did tell him that it's good to whiz through the easy stuff now so he can spend more time on the harder concepts later on. My daughter is continuing with Horizons. Last year we didn't quite finish her book, so this year I'm having her take the tests at the beginning of the new level--to get past all of the review and leave more time at the end of the year for the new stuff (so we can finish!). I told her when she gets less than an A on a test, that's where we'll start in the book. She thinks that idea is the best thing since apple pie!

All in all, a good start back. I hope this trend continues! Anyone else start back yet or making plans?

Right-Left Brain and the Power of Movement

Our lesson today started out as a normal spelling lesson--we spelled a few review words and went over some of the mastered rule cards--all was going well with my 12 yo son. Then I opened the book and picked up where we left off--the 2nd dictation sentence. Usually he enjoys the dictations. Today he started rubbing his eyes and saying that they were tired. He tried to write the first sentence and couldn't remember how to spell "while." I encouraged him to leave it and finish, then come back to it. He tried wale and ended up with whale.

"That says 'whale.' What would need to change to make it say 'while?'" I gently asked.

"My brain won't work right today!" he exclaimed, frustrated. A lot of his letters were drawn over several times (in pencil), messy, and pushed together. He changed 'whale' into 'while.'

We were only a few minutes into our 20 minute session, but I said, "let's take a break?"

That threw off my structure-loving son--what? "We can't do that! I won't finish!"

Yep, son, we're going to march now. Marching wasn't on his top ten list of things he wanted to do right then. I made sure that he was alternating arms and legs--right arm with left leg, left arm with right leg, etc... He assured me this was no break and would make his eyes more tired. I said "try it!" and continued marching. He marched up and down the hall a few times, then tried leaps with alternating legs/arms. I told him crawling was good for crossing the right/left brain barrier and he grinned and got down and crawled a bit!

A few minutes later we were back at our lesson, another dictation sentence. I had a changed son. His mood had lightened considerably. His letters were neater, bumped the lines, didn't run into each other--and everything was spelled perfectly. I gave him high praise and encouraged him to put just a little bit more space between his words for the next dictation. He ended up writing 9 sentences in the remaining time! All were much neater than the first one, and none of them had spelling errors. Way to go!

Have any of you experimented with right-left brain activity or exercise as a break when your kids are struggling?

Merry :-)

Need to save a couple hundred?

On Mother's Day, Dave informed our dear little cherubs that their mother is priceless...and that they'd be getting the bill soon, LOL!

The kids tried to guess how much it would be & one of them said, "1.1 million dollars?" I said that sounded pretty good (Dave said it wasn't enough!).

Then when we were cleaning up, my sooo sweet son asked, "Can I help clean anything else?"

"Oh thank you honey, that was so sweet of you to ask..." I said, to which he replied,

"That ought to be worth a couple hundred off!"

LOL!

Well, I might take some off for that, and for the menu (made by dd) :-)

Merry :-)

My daughter made me cry today...

She & dh went out to get me a rose, and she sang a song she made up:

There is no one richer than me, richer than me, richer than me. There is no one richer than me, because I have a mom who reads to me.

There is no one richer than me, richer than me, richer than me. There is no one richer than me, because I have a mom who teaches me.

There is no one richer than me, richer than me, richer than me. There is no one richer than me, because I have a mom who loves me.


(She got the idea from a poem we read the other day, "The Reading Mother" by Strickland W. Gillilan--in the Glorya Hale collection, An Illustrated Treasury of Read-Aloud Poems for Young People. Such a great poetry book!)

"The Reading Mother"

I had a mother who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea.
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth;
"Blackbirds" stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness lent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings-
Stories that stir with an upward touch.
Oh, that each mother of boys were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be --
I had a Mother who read to me.

by Strickland W. Gillilan


Keep reading to your kids :-)

Merry :-)

Getting Organized with Workboxes!

It's been a week since we started using Sue Patrick's Workbox System, and I thought I'd post some pictures!

She strongly advocates using shoe-box style bins, but we didn't have the space for that, so here's what I opted for instead:

That's in our kitchen! The tower drawers can be easily added to, another plus for me! We have 8 right now, but I think we really need 10-12 to be able to break things down sufficiently, yet still throw in some fun stuff :-). (After all, the fun stuff is what motivates!)

Here's a close-up of the drawers fully loaded and ready to go:

I debated whether to go with the velcro numbers--I was afraid my 12-yo might think they were a little childish. But, since the drawers are not easily-removable like bins would be, and the visual of seeing that work is getting done and being able to tell at a glance where you are & how much is left is an important part of the system. I had to at least try! So I was VERY careful in how I introduced the concept to him. I said, "Wouldn't it be nice if you could just look at the drawers and know without opening a bunch of them where you were working and how much you had left to do?" (Gee, Wally, that sure would be swell!) Well, he was sold then!

Here are the drawers in action:

So here's what they do--As they complete each drawer, they have to turn in any written work to a box on the kitchen table, and return any books or supplies (like their Bible or a reader, or their personal whiteboard markers & erasers for AAS!) to the drawer it came out of. THEN...and ONLY THEN, is that drawer finished. That's when they can remove the numbered velcro sticker and put it on their progress chart for the day--here's Zach's chart in progress:

The charts stay on top of the carts, which conveniently are a divided tray that fit their pencil boxes too.

I chose to put a few extra velcro stickers in 2 of the little boxes. We have stickers for:

Clean room/make bed (they do this before breakfast)
Music Practice
Exercise
Family Service (assigned chores they do each day).

Here are Anna's stickers:

We've had a schedule for years, so this really hasn't enabled us to get more done in less time like it might for some. But I started it because we had occasional missing books, and because the kids would forget to turn in work sometimes (and I would forget to tell them, or I would forget to correct work that day...). So I really like this system for the accountability and organization it's given us, and I'm hoping it will be a good, long-term solution.

All done for the day!

Growing up...

Anna is finishing AAS Level 2 tomorrow. I'm feeling kind of nostalgic--she seems so old since her birthday last month, she's letting her bangs grow out now, and I wonder how much longer she'll be my "little girl." She's only 10, and yet the days seem to be slipping away. I want to treasure each one of them! Not so long ago, she was my "Raggedy Anna!"

With the dolls and clothes my grandma made!

Now she says she's too old for coloring books (and she could probably SPELL coloring books, LOL!).

Sigh...

Congratulations, Anna!

Mom :-)

A Spelling Emergency!

My son (who is in 6th grade) has come so far since starting All About Spelling! Just a year ago he was having trouble keeping the word "from" straight in his mind--he would often reverse the o and r, and write "form" by mistake. Now, only 2 days ago he was writing sentences in Sunday school, and he spelled "emergency" correctly! He was as surprised as I was, and so happy when I praised him. We started AAS in May of 2008, and he's now in book 3. We're both so pleased with the progress he's made.

Edited to add:  Not long after this, he won the "most improved speller" award at our homeschool spelling bee!  

All About Spelling Review Update

My kids still enjoy All About Spelling, and their writing has improved so much. They can spell more words and if they do make a mistake, usually the mistake makes phonetic sense--no more simply "decorating with vowels" or adding extra letters because the word might need more!

They have a lot more confidence now and both have told me that reading is more fun too. I think AAS has helped with word-attack skills for bigger words, as well as helping with their speed. Zach actually read a huge Indiana Jones novel (with all four books in it). Back in September he told me that the first chapter in one of the books didn't make sense and didn't belong. After discussing how that couldn't be true, he put the book up for awhile and re-read it in November--and told me that now he could read it all and that it DID make sense! Zach is now in Level 3, and Anna is nearing the end of Level 2. Click to see my original review.

Winter, 2012: Hard to believe my kids are in Levels 5 and 6 now! My oldest is in 9th grade and has decided that writing isn't so hard any more. He spells words like "experience" correctly in his rough drafts and doesn't have many words to correct as he revises. He continues to say, "All About Spelling is the only spelling that worked for me." My 7th grader has started taking notes for science and history so that she'll learn more--100% HER idea! And sometimes she writes for fun as well. I feel like AAS has freed them to be able to write by making spelling easier, and through the dictation and Writing Station exercises.

Spelling Progress! All About Spelling Review

I have to share about a favorite curriculum!

We've tried several spelling programs here (including making up my own, which I found to be a very involved task!). But never found one we really loved or that "worked" for us. Then last Spring I stumbled across All About Spelling; it was everything I had wanted to create on my own and more.

My son (11) says that it's the most effective curriculum we've used. "It starts out basic and really makes you think about how words are spelled. Then it helps you to know how to spell tricky words. I like writing the words on the white board. It's fun because I like to see what I know and I like the trivia questions! (review cards). I like the time that I get to spend with Mom."

(No, I didn't pay him to say that last part, isn't he sweet?!) I agree that it's effective; every week I am noticing more words that my kids are spelling correctly in their writing that they didn't know how to spell before.

So, here is my All About Spelling review:

The things I like:

The letter tiles--these are similar to what we used in Reading Reflex, only these are laminated and color-coordinated. We use the magnets too and put them on a magnetic white board--this makes the program so user-friendly!



Not sure if you can read what Zach spelled on the board: I'm done with my book! We were both so proud!

The book is open and go, the lessons are all laid out. We work for about 15 minutes & then pick up there again the next day. I spent one day getting ready to teach it by punching out the perforated cards & just glancing at the book. Otherwise there is really no prep time.

Each new step begins with reviewing rules and words that still need reinforcing, then learning some new concepts and building words with the tiles. Later the kids can write words on a white board or on paper (or they can use more tactile methods). I really like that there are phrases and dictation sentences to write too--so the kids don't just memorize a list and then forget it, they have to think how to write words in a sentence. I think this is one reason that what my kids are learning is "sticking."

We can go as quickly or as slowly as we need to through each lesson, so my kids learn at their own pace. Some lessons (called "steps") have taken us 2 days, some have taken a week or so.


Here's Anna after finishing another lesson, with her progress chart. Obviously she loves "sticker day," LOL!

Review is built in so it won't be forgotten, and my kids retain what they are learning. It's completely customizeable--the rules and words are on cards that you keep in a card file, and when your kids have them mastered, you move the cards out of the review section.


Zach and his progress chart, done with Level 2!

It's based on the Orton Gillingham phonics research, and it only teaches rules that really hold true (no rules like "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking," which is only true about 40% of the time.) AAS also used the same research that another favorite book of mine--The ABC's and All Their Tricks--used.

It uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic processes. Works for kids with dyslexia, auditory processing struggles (which we have dealt with) and other issues too.

AAS has a money back guarantee (that tipped the scales for me to try it! And they take paypal too, another plus).

There is a great Resource Center on the site with articles and videos for further help.

There is a jail for words that don't follow the rules!

We added magnets to the "jail" so we could put that on our board too! BTW, the board is 2' X 3' if you're wondering--the angle of this picture may make it look bigger.

AAS is easy to use and to understand. I only wish I had found it several years ago! I really can't think of much I'd change about it, and the company offers lifetime support. It might not be the program for everyone, but if you're looking for a better spelling program, check it out. I decided to become an affiliate because it's helped us so much. If I can answer any questions I'd be glad to.

UPDATE: After answering questions online for awhile, the author asked me to join her Customer Service team in October of 2008. So if you email the company, you'll very likely hear from me!

God bless, Merry :-)

P.S. Click to see my review update here.