Pop-Up London

Some of you may have read my previous post about the London Olympics which included a book list.  Most of the books on that list are specifically about the Olympics but one that has stood out from the rest is Pop-Up London.  It shows off all of the major London landmarks following the Thames from Kew Gardens to the Olympic Village.

I'm not generally a fan of pop up books, not because they aren't lovely but because they end up trashed and not working properly and that just makes me sad.  Finally the children are old enough to enjoy this format and not attempt to destroy it, well, all bar Possum.

I thought I would share with you some of the beauty of this book so you can see for yourself.

Royal Albert Hall

When you turn the book around you can see inside some of the buildings.  Inside Royal Albert Hall.

Buckingham Palace

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge opens up to let a boat pass under.

Under the flap you will find Olympic Park.

This is a beautiful book!  There is plenty more to see.  It is constructed to a very high standard and all of the pop-ups work smashingly.  All of us have thoroughly enjoyed pawing over the pages and I'm sure it will be treasured for many years.

Amber xx

I See Sam Readers

Last year a friend of mine encouraged me to take a look at the I See Sam Readers as a solid reading program for Bugsy.  He has completed Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons but he is still a struggling reader, maybe it's just a boy thing.  I really didn't want to start another 'learn to read program' because he has the basics down.  My gut feel is that he needs more practice reading real material, enter I See Sam Readers.

After e-mail discussion with Andy at Academic Success for all Learners I decided to go ahead and purchase all 8 sets of little books.

They are backwards on this shelf.  The order is red, orange, 

yellow, pale green, dark green, aqua, blue, purple.

So far they have been a hit!  Bugsy has really enjoyed getting to know the characters which appear in all of the little books.  He loves that they are colour coded so he can see when he has moved up a level.  So far he has completed all of the red books and is three shy of completing the orange books.  The books build so incrementally he really feels comfortable with each new book.  This is giving him the confidence he was lacking.  I can see his attitude towards reading changing as the process is becoming easier.  Once the book has been read fluently he gets a sticker of his choice to pop on the back so that we know that one has been completed successfully.  There are also charts and certificates to mark off and present along the way.

A page from an orange book.

Showing off his new sticker.

Here are sample pages from each of the levels except orange, it's above :).

 red

yellow 

 pale green

 dark green

 aqua

 blue

purple

Each book contains phonics review and comprehension questions.  As they progress the font size decreases and the number of words per page increases.  Longer stories and even chapters are introduced.  I believe after completing all of the books Bugsy will be in a position to read anything he picks up with confidence.  My aim is to complete all of the books in a 6 month period although Bugsy isn't aware of that :).

Just as a side note Bugsy is still working on phonics daily.  Aside from reading he is working on Explode the Code and also All About Spelling.

Science 2012

I am SO EXCITED about science for 2012!  We just received our Science in a Nutshell Kits from Delta Education and they look unreal :D

Here you can see the 5 kits i purchased - Vision & Hearing, Body Basics, Weather Wise, Destination Moon, Energy & Motion.  There are MANY more kits available however i chose things i thought would interest my children.  I was also conscious of import restrictions on anything organic and considered a bio-security risk.  I didn't want the kits ripped apart at customs!

When planning for science for 2012 i was inspired by this post.  So i decided we would take a similar approach.  I looked through TWTM logic stage recommendations for science and decided to go with their book recommendations.

Here they are sitting nicely on my shelf waiting for next year.  We have the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science, Usborne Science Encyclopedia, DK Science (a visual guide) and The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia.  I'm really pleased with all of these books and feel they will be excellent reference books for us not only for next year but well into the future.

Back to the kits :)  The kits are presented in a small plastic tub with a handle.  Inside each kit is an Activity Guide and 3! Activity Journals.  The guides provide step by step instructions on how to complete the 'experiments' and the journal provides a place to record details.  The kits also have EVERYTHING you need to complete each of the activities.

My plan is to use the books to thoroughly explore the concept before we conduct the 'experiment'.  We will do lots of reading and narration.  Hopefully i will be able to share more of how it plays out for us next year.

Mid Year Review

So it's July and it's time to have a mid year review just to check how things are going and see if we are on track.

Flossy -
She has completed Math Mammoth Addition & Subtraction 2B and has really cemented those concepts. She is about half way through Miquon Blue. I had planned on her being further along in Miquon but we needed to pit stop so the delay is to be expected. In saying that she has a solid understanding of multiplication covered in Miquon and is probably working on a late 2nd early 3rd grade level. We have shelved Kumon word Problems for a little while as it was presenting some concepts that we had not yet covered. We will be getting back into it in the second half of the year.

She has been motoring along in AAS3 and is almost done. She very rarely makes a mistake and really enjoys it. I'm hopeful that we will finished AAS4 and be part way through AAS5 before the end of the year. That would see only AAS6 & AAS7 for next year.

WWE2 has been going well. She narrates well and rarely makes a mistake with the copy work. I am starting to have her write the first sentence of her narrations. I'm thinking of changing things up a bit with writing and might take a look at Galore Parks Junior English books. I've also got a book about writing poetry on the shelf and we might have a go at that. We won't drop WWE2 just mix things up a bit. It's good keep it fresh.

REAL Life Science is proving a hit. We are right on track with that. I honestly feel that this is below her level. She isn't learning too much new material, but it is getting done and it is fun.

With SOTW2 we are a little behind. I'd like to see us do a few more projects in the second half of the year and be a little more consistent with narrations. I'm thinking of posting them here so she can see them published, she'd think that would be neat. She has been reading plenty of the go along books and enjoying them. She is also loving our literature selections.

We have not been consistent with MCT or GSWL. We need to change that moving forward. With MCT I'm going to have to think about how to be more proactive with it. It is enjoyable but I'm not sure if it's sinking in properly. I'm sure consistency will help. With GSWL we need to make a vocab chart so that we can remember all the nouns we are learning.

She has been swimming well and passed level 3.

Bugsy -
He is flying through ETC, he completed book 1 and is now half way through book 2. That's ahead of where I had planned him to be.

He is right on track with Horizon K math book 1. At this point I think we will switch back to Miquon at the end of this book and see how he handles it. If we need another pit stop book 2 is on the shelf.

Reading wise I had hoped we would have finally completed 100EZ but we still have a few lessons outstanding. He has been reading plenty though and that is coming along well. He seems to struggle with silent e words.

We have not been putting much time into AAS1 but will focus more on it in the second half of the year. I would like to see him complete level 1 by the end of the year.

He has been swimming well and making great progress with his kicking.

All About Spelling Review

All About Spelling is as the title suggests a homeschool spelling program. It comprises 7 levels which do not correlate to grade level. Currently only the first 6 levels are available, the 7th level is due to be released anytime. An average student working for 10 mins per school day could probably complete 2 levels in 1 year.

This program uses rule based spelling instruction and strives for mastery. Eg - one rule learnt in level 1 is "c says /s/ before e, i & y". The student will then learn how to decide which /k/ to use at the beginning of a word trying c first then changing to k if the c makes the wrong sound. As the rule becomes firm and the child has practiced making the right choice it becomes an automated decision.

A whiteboard and tiles are used so that a young student doesn't tire and also to make the program more hands on. When starting level 1 you begin with a limited number of phonograms but as you move through the levels more and more phonograms are added until you have learnt them all. When displaying them on the board they are grouped together by type. Eg - the vowel teams are all grouped together, the consonant suffixes are all grouped.

Each level has 1 teacher manual. Within the manual there are steps. Each level has a different number of steps. Level 1 has 24 while level 3 has 28. At the beginning of each step there is review of previously mastered rules and phonograms and also rules and phonograms that still need mastering. The idea isn't to get bogged down here in the review just to make sure you do some daily.

The step is then presented on the whiteboard using the tiles. Only once the teacher feels the student is confident with the material should they ask the student to begin writing on paper. There are 10 words to spell at the end of the step and also dictation phrases and later sentences. If the student misses lots of words then they have not understood that step and should continue to work there before moving on. Only once mastery of that step is achieved should the student move on.

There is some flexibility with the dictation phrases and sentences. If the student finds the material easy and doesn't make any mistakes you might choose to only complete a third or half of the phrases/sentences. Similarly if they need more work there is plenty of material to expand the step.

This program is very teacher intensive. The student cannot be left to work on this alone at all.

We LOVE this program. It is explicit, very easy to implement and produces outstanding results!

** Please note that we do not receive any kick back for endorsing this program. We just like to share when things are working well for us. **

Kumon

These 2 books are my absolute favourite pre-handwriting books! Both Flossy and Bugsy have worked through these before moving onto formal handwriting books and now it is time for Chicky to start.

We begin with the colouring book. It has the child colour a small part of a larger picture then draw a line from a dot to a star navigating some obstacles. By the time we are about halfway through the colouring book they are generally ready to add in the Tracing book which focuses on having the child draw within lines to make shapes like circles and diagonal lines.

New Curricula - First Impressions

In the last two days we have received in the mail Writing With Ease 2 and Getting Started with Latin. These are for late this year or next year whenever we finish up what we are currently using. I thought I would share my first impressions.

WRITING WITH EASE 2

This is a significant step up from Writing With Ease 1 which we are currently working through. The copywork selections are longer and the children are introduced to dictation. The selections are somewhat difficult. This is not a graded text so Level 2 is not necessarily designed to be used by a Year 2. I can see that an older child (Y3 or Y4) would have little difficulty with the dictation exercises but I personally feel that your average Year 2 would find it difficult, mostly because of spelling issues. I am hoping that Flossy will find it the appropriate challenge. I certainly don't think she will struggle in any way but I don't see us doubling up lessons as we have been doing with Level 1. Looking through the book I like the way SWB encourages beginning summarising skills which is one of the main reasons we are using this writing program.

GETTING STARTED WITH LATIN

From the moment I open this book to take a proper look at it, I love it. It is such a gentle, systematic approach to learning latin and it makes me wonder why we have bothered with Song School Latin and Minimus to date. They have both been fun programs, don't get me wrong, but this book is 'really' learning latin if you know what I mean. I can't see a problem moving through 1 lesson per day but should we need to slow up it will be very easy to do so. Most lessons have 10 sentences to translate from latin to english. The grammar instruction looks solid and the writing requirement is minimal. This book is excellent value for money and the audio is available free from the authors website, what more could you ask for? One thing to note is that your child really needs to be reading well, I would think a middle school level at least. Not a problem for us, but not all Year 2's would be ready. (I guess that is where Song School Latin comes to it's own, your child really doesn't need to be reading at all to get something out of that program.)

So on face value these are both winning purchases.

Sonlight Science K - What it looks like at our house

We have been using Sonlight Science K in a secular manner for the last 7 weeks and it is a hit! From Sonlight I purchased the 5 day program (minus the supplies kit for K as it is a biohazard to Australia) but I did also get the non-consumable science supplies kit.

First let me say that the K level isn't hard to make secular at all. None of the books used have 'God' references and it is very easy to skip the parts of the Teachers Manual which are religion centred. Most references to 'God' are for discussion purposes.

Once I received all of the materials I had the student pages from the Teachers Manual copied and bound into their own book for Flossy to work through.

Most weeks follow a similar progression. Scheduled days 1, 2 & 3 are reading followed by comprehension questions on the student pages. Day 4 is experiment day where not only do you get to try the experiment yourself you can watch the Discover and Do DVD and see how it is supposed to work. Day 5 is additional reading which is scheduled. The Teachers Manual also contains suggestions for other activities that you might like to do and discussion topics.

So how does that work for us?

Typically we do science twice per week. On day 1 we cover days 1 & 2 from the Sonlight schedule and on day 2 we cover days 3 & 4. The program really is light enough at this level to not feel overwhelmed or like you are spending loads of time on science even doubling up lessons in this fashion. Day 5 in the schedule is reading the 'extra' books they add to the 4 Day program so we are saving those to use as lapbook or unit studies at the end. We school year round so it will make a nice change before we head into the next science program.

Each time we read from The Children's Encyclopaedia we take the time to look up the links on the computer and see if there is anything awesome there. So far we have found some wonderful sites and I think this is one part the kids enjoy most. The other part they love of course are the experiments! Here are some pictures from a couple of things we have done.

Here we are making a weather vein.

Observing how icebergs are mostly submerged under water.

Purchasing the supply kits means you have everything at your fingertips. No need to make a special trip to the hardware store for an obscure item.

I give Sonlight Science K 5 stars.

Flossy gives Sonlight Science K 5 stars.

Bugsy gives Sonlight Science K 5 stars (he wanted to give it 6!)

So there you have it an overwhelming success at our house.