Tag Archives: Character Academy

Fifth Day Fifth Grade

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Ceili Rain is excited that we are actually back in school. One of the few kiddos who is excited, mind you. In addition to all of her academics, she’s taking piano and starting her second year of theater. She’s my only kid who is growing in her love for theater. My little stage heart is so ecstatic.

Silas is a bit more of a challenge. He is really struggling with reading and needs a little more work in getting his math facts down. So, I’m trying to scale back for him and start him a little above where he is and encourage him to work to that and beyond.

  • WriteShop Primary B 
  • A Reason for Handwriting Book D
  • Easy Peasy Reading Grade 1-I felt like we needed a little break from All About Reading. While he could read the stories up to Level 3 slowly, he isn’t comprehending anything he reads. So, we’re working on getting the comprehension down.
  • All About Spelling Level 3-A pretty awesome part of All About Spelling is that you can now purchase an APP that has the spelling tiles on it! It is awesome! It’s worth every single penny if you have siblings who may like to play with tiles and then they disappear…or they just disappear from use!
  • Language Lessons for a Living Education Level 2
  • Math Whizz-I purchased this at a discount through Homeschool Buyers Co-Op. It’s a great place to find reviews and get good group buy prices on curriculum. I like that this math program works at the level the child is at. It rates a child based on their math age and goes from there. Once Silas passes off of his Xtra Math, I’m going to have him go back to Teaching Textbooks Grade 6.
  • Xtra Math

Here’s what we’re using for the other grades:

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First Day Kindergarten

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I can’t believe Emmie is a kindergartener! She’s growing stronger and smarter every day. With NF, we know there’s a pretty good chance she can deal with learning disabilities. Armed with this knowledge, we take things slow and are making sure she enjoys every bit of her school time. Thankfully, she’s an eager learner. My goal this year is to get her closer to reading. I’d love to see her reading by the end of the year because she loves books. However, if we just see progress, I think we’ll all be happy. Kindergarten, for us, is all about loving to learn and learning to read. So, with that in mind, here’s what the super hero is working on.

  • All About Reading Pre-Reading-I love that this is self-paced and we can split up activities over several days. Emmie is learning to recognize her letters. I stay on a letter until she gets it all while reviewing letters she’s learned previously. After we get letter recognition down, we’ll move on to the sounds. I also use flashcards to review previous letters. We’ve already started to talk about how letters have different sounds.
  • Developing the Early Learner-I’ve had all of our kids work through these fun workbooks and it seems to help quite a bit with their thinking processes.
  • A Reason for Handwriting Level K
  • Later in the year, we’ll add Math Lessons for a Living Education K but it’s not come out in print yet. Hopefully, it’ll be out in September and we can started it our second nine weeks.

Here’s what we’re using for the other grades:

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First Day Series 2019

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For the past several years now, I have been posting first school day pictures on the days that correlate with their grade level. Yeah, I know grade levels are considered irrelevant for homeschoolers, but it’s a fun way for us to commemorate the start of their new year.

I decided that since I am so far behind on getting pictures up, I’ll just start where we are. I (hopefully) will get their first of the year pictures up and also a little snippet on what we’re starting off studying. I say starting off, because, if you have homeschooled any length of time, you know that some times what you start off with is not what you end up finishing the year off with. Homeschooling allows me the flexibility to change what isn’t working and to find what works best for each individual child…and that is just what we strive to do.

This year, I’ve picked a verse to help us stay focused and basically give us a mission for our school.

1 Corinthians 10: 4-5

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ

So, with that in mind, here is what we are studying as a group.

Bible

  • We’re using the SOAK method from Good Morning Girls study. We used this last year and will continue on a two week rotation. We’re currently in John. Mark takes the chapters we are studying and goes over it during our family worship time.
  • After two weeks of SOAK, we will do two weeks of World Religions and Cults. I think this is going to be a great introduction into different worldviews and religions

Fitness

Since Zoe and Ace are in high school, they need to do a one year of physical education. We’re going to try out Family Time Fitness this year. I like that the whole family can get involved in it.

History

Mystery of History Volume II-All but Zoe will be doing Mystery of History. I’m looking forward to adding timeline and lapbooking as we explore history together.

Science

We’re in the stars this year. Well, all of us from Ceili Rain down. We’re using Apologia for Astronomy. They’ve redone their astronomy curriculum and I’m trying to decide, still, if I like it. It seems more short and age appropriate but the jury is still out as to whether we continue with Apologia next year.

Psychology

A recent Bible study I have used mentioned a neuroplastician named Dr. Caroline Leaf. I loved what she was saying about training your mind and taking every thought captive and decided to get her book, Switch on Your Brain to read through with the kids. After we started reading, I realized the workbook would be great at driving discussion about what we were reading. So, we’re slowly getting through the book. Lots of sensible information that I already knew but it’s saturated with God’s word and pretty much is a scientific articulation of what I tell my kids every day, “You cannot control the situation or people around you but you are in charge of your actions and reactions to those situations and those people.”

Other Stuff

In addition to this, our family is also involved in Trail Life for the boys and American Heritage for the girls. We love the Christ-centered focus and the opportunity for the kids to learn more about the world God has created and the amazing people in it.

Here’s what we’re using for the other grades:

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Biblical History

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This past spring, I saw a homeschool day offered for a museum in our state.  We’d never been, so we decided to sign up for it.  

We were pleasantly surprised to find a great museum based on the history of times from the Bible.  We learned a lot and there was a lot of hands on activities that kept everyone interested the whole day.

  • Making flour.
  • Emmie got to smash grapes.
  • Checking out what an archaeological dig is like.
  • Ace brushing up on his heiroglyphics
  • Liam made pottery.
  • Baking bread
  • Checking out tombs.
  • In the storehouse
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Ethos Academy 2018

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We started off our eleventh year of homeschooling at the very end of July into August.  It was early but we knew we would have several breaks throughout the year.  So, here goes ya’ll!  I have kids starting in Pre-k all the way to a sophomore in high school.  Prayers are always appreciated!

Group subjects this year include:

Emmie is “officially” starting school.  My goal is to have her recognize her letters and numbers along with shapes and colors before the end of the year.  It’s going to be slow going because NF brings a lot of challenges and most kids with it have some learning disabilities but we’re working at her pace which is the joy of homeschooling!  We’re using All About Reading Pre-Level and working on thinking skills using Building Thinking Skills-Beginning and Primary Levels.  She’ll probably also be working through Developing the Early Learner in January.

Malachi is in first grade.  He’s the eager beaver learner right now.  He taught himself to read last year.  So, this year, he is doing the following:

Bryant is heading into third grade.  He’s worked hard on reading and has grown so much in it!  Bryant’s working on:

Silas is working in various levels.  He worked hard last year on a program outside of school to increase his processing speeds.  It’s helped and we’re hoping it continues to help.  This  year, he is working on:

Ceili Rain continues to enjoy all things school.  She’s still totally in love with math and is thrilled we are doing Anatomy for Science.  This year she is working on:

Josiah’s in sixth grade!  I can’t believe how fast he is growing up.  He’s still a carbon copy of his daddy and growing taller by leaps and bounds.  This year he is working:

Liam’s starting to get into more independent work.  To help him with that this year, we swapped over from book work to online school.  So, this year, Liam is in Alpha Omega’s Monarch program for Language Arts, Math, Science and History.  So far, he is doing well with it and communicating more with us about his work.  He’s also going to be doing an online coding class but we haven’t narrowed down which one yet.

With Ace starting his 9th grade year, I’m now officially “teaching” two high schoolers!  Aggghhh!  He is expressing more of an interest in graphic design and we’re helping provide opportunities for him to explore it more.  He’s working on the following:

Zoe was at Grandparent Camp when we hit ten days.  So, Papa and Grandmere did me a huge favor by getting a pic!  She still says that ASL is her favorite language and the Deaf community is continuing to be a big learning area for her.  This year she is working on:

I added links here just to make it easy for curious minds to check it out.  However, most of our curriculum is used (through Homeschool Classifieds) or downloadable (in the case of most of our Master books).  We aren’t endorsing any one company and all of these products were paid for by us…with our blood, sweat, and tears.

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Ethos Academy 2017-2018

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We started our ninth official year of homeschooling with gusto.  I quickly learned that even if I claimed some normal pencils…that they would disappear…and had to resort to this.

This was Ceili Rain’s artwork on her assignment book. I giggled.  Public school kids probably have the same misconceived pictures of homeschool kids too…right?

Here’s the lowdown on what everyone is working on.  I try to buy all of my non-consummables used to keep costs down.  But, I’m including links that will have new curriculum.  Our Bible curriculum this year is PictureSmart Bible New Testament.

Emmie’s main “work” is to color, cut, and explore.  She’s doing a great job with it.  She’s also designated her self, on most days, as Malachi’s cheerleader.

Malachi is all set on learning to read. He started out in All About Reading Pre-Level but when I realized that he knew what all of his letters were (capital and lower case), I skipped over that and the past few weeks have been focused on letter sounds.  He loves it.

Bryant is working hard in Math Mammoth Grade 2, All About Reading and All About Spelling Levels 2.  In fact, he has worked so hard with his reading and spelling, he is about to move on to the third level in both!  I like the All About series because it works at the child’s pace.  When I feel they are ready to move on after mastering a skill, they can.  But sometimes, I can tell they aren’t, and we back up and work some more on it.  We weren’t getting that with any other curriculum we worked in and it’s really something that Bryant (and Silas) have both needed.

From Bryant to Liam, we are going through Apologia Land Animals on the Sixth Day, Zoology 3.  They love learning about all the different animals!

From Bryant to Ace, we backtracked from our history last year (Mystery of History Volume 4) and are doing Mystery of History Volume 3.

Handwriting goes from Bryant to Josiah and we use A Reason for Handwriting.

Ceili Rain is using Veritas Comprehension Guides for Reading.

Silas started out finishing up All About Reading and All About Spelling Levels 1.  He finished those in September and is now working through Level 2.  Some days are fast and some days are really, really slow.  It depends on moods and motivations.

Both Ceili Rain and Silas are working through Math Mammoth Grade 3.  They are doing an excellent job too!  Silas started out last year with pretty big delays in addition and subtraction and had to back track into some first and second grade things to catch up but now, he’s doing really good picking up on the third grade concepts.  Ceili Rain continues to tell us that she loves math!

Josiah is in Veritas for reading, IEW Continuation Course Level B for Writing, Math  Mammoth Grade 5 and all the other things mentioned earlier.  He’s doing a great job keeping up with his work!

Liam has turned a giant corner and for the first time in six years is not fighting me on school…most of the time.  He has a joyful attitude and, most of the time, works hard to finish his tasks.  He’s doing Math Mammoth Grade 6, Veritas reading and IEW with Josiah.

Ace’s last year before high school!  He’s in Apologia Physical Science, IEW Continuation Course C (with Zoe), Windows to the World and Introduction to Literary Analysis.  He finished up Saxon Math 8/7 and is now plunging into Saxon Algebra 1.

Ace is showing a big interest in architecture and graphic design.  We’re working on finding some introductory courses for him to take online over the next year that will help him see what direction God is leading him.

Our first high schooler!  Goodness ya’ll.  The time is going by so fast with our first born.  She is an amazing kid.  Most everyone knows that she has a gift and a passion for languages.  Which ones?  You name it.  I think I saw that she has recently taught herself the Korean alphabet.  She uses several websites like Duolingo and Memrise.  The past few years she has shown a bigger interest in learning Sign Language.  Last year, she took an online course but we were excited for this year when a local homeschool mom organized a class with an ASL interpreter.  Our pastor, also put up an offer to teach a class on New Testament Greek.  Zoe, of course, jumped at that chance.  It’s safe to say those are her two favorite courses this year.

She is also getting to experience the joys of high school in Saxon Algebra 2, English and Composition, and Apologia Biology (must get the dissection out of the way…neither of us are looking forward to that).  She took the SAT and PSAT this year and will take the ACE at some point before the year is over.

For her English and Composition, I’m combining English 1 and 2 from Excellence in Literature.  It’s been a good fit and she is learning even more about how to develop a thesis statement and support it.  Plus, she is reading some quality literature which is exciting for us both.

It’s been interesting as I jump from high school teacher to elementary teacher and then back to guidance counselor and career counselor.  I do feel quite teacher schizophrenic on some days.  The kids are doing great.  It’s always exciting when we see where God is leading their hearts to serve Him.

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At the Convention

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We sat through a lot of sessions and all of us learned a lot. And also got some silly pictures in. The treat was hearing Andrew Peterson sing on Thursday evening and hearing him speak on Friday morning. The most we saw of Cincinnati was the rooftops of several beautiful buildings near the parking deck.

The kids were thrilled to meet some new authors but also one that was familiar to us.  S. D. Smith wrote a book about rabbits with swords.  I grabbed it up for free on the kindle, read it to the kids aloud, and we were hooked.  We highly recommend The Green Ember and the whole series!  Seriously…rabbits…swords…who could lose.Facebooktwittermail

Large Family Lesson Planning

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It only took seven years and six kids to get in to a groove in lesson planning.

Before I tell about how we do things, I will say several things.  I know full well that this planning is not for everyone. With Emmie’s trips to the doctor and our adoption, it has become absolutely necessary for me to plan out a good amount of school.  Yes, it is a lot of work.  Six kids.  All different grade levels.  All different abilities and learning styles.

But this is how we make it work.
IMG_20151010_151707667_HDR I start by planning nine weeks at a time.  That way I can get in our full 180 days of instruction (that our state requires for homeschoolers even though other kids are only required to attend 170 days).  The best way for me to do this is to take a couple of days when Mark is off and run.  Run, far away.  Okay, not really.  I go to Panera and sit and work.

I can only imagine what I look like with books spread all around me and buried deep in one book or my laptop.  The thoughts in those employees heads when I walked in trying to carry all of my books, laptop, and purse because the handle on the book bag just plumb broke from the weight of knowledge.

Anyway, I like to use Google docs spreadsheets because I can access it anywhere.  Each week gets it’s own sheet.  Each kid has his/her own section with our group lessons on top.  Each kid section has subjects listed out and I go from there. IMG_20151010_151712807 After I plan everything out on the computer, it’s time to get the hard copies in order.  Each week is a stack of papers and I use color tabs to separate each kids’ work and then clip them all together with binder clips.

This usually is a week long process since our school table is also our dining table and is usually occupied by a kid or two at any given moment of the day.IMG_20151010_151719391 IMG_20151017_231353400

And then, the glorious end.  When I can sit back and stare at our great accomplishment.  Another nine weeks ready to be consumed by eager minds ready to learn (that sounds so much better than reality).

Yes, time consuming upfront, as I said earlier.  But it has saved us a ton of time week to week and has helped us stay on track.Facebooktwittermail

School is in Session

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Technically, we started school in July of this year.  However, I didn’t get “first day of school” photos until August so here is my school post for this year.  Disclaimer:  I did not receive any compensation for mentioning the following products.

Everyone is working on:

Mystery of History Volume 1-We have already done this volume but took a break last year for American History.  This year, we’re back at it.

Exploring Creation with Botany-I’m not going to name names but there were a few groans about studying plants.  Needless to say, when we started breaking out our Nature’s Workshop Plus Botany Lab Kit, the groans ceased.

Math Mammoth-While I still love Life of Fred, I’ve noticed that the kids seem to not have enough drill and thereby are falling behind on several math skills.  I was able to purchase Math Mammoth through the Homeschool Co-op at a great price.  So far, I like it and it seems to be helping the kids catch up to speed on all things mathematical.

I have very good intentions to add some dication in there as well…Good intentions.

Zoe:
She has a lot of good books to read this year and some she has already read.  We’re focusing this whole semester on getting through The Lord of the Rings and subsequently watching the movies as a treat.  This book has provided a lot of great opportunities to discuss various themes throughout literature as well as looking at how our beliefs influence our actions and in Tolkien’s case, his writing.

IEW Rockets, Radars and Robotics-Yes, there’s some technical in this, but there is also a lot of fun creative writing.  Okay, I say it’s fun creative writing but the kids just make faces.  And for even more added fun, I’m snagging essay contests as they come across my email.  They are jumping for joy.  Zoe and Ace are both doing this.

Spelling Power-We continue to trudge through this curriculum and we usually do it once or twice a week.

Winston Grammar-First Language Lessons did an amazing job setting a good foundation in grammar that following up after that has been hard.  Winston Grammar has worked out well in that it takes a different approach (labeling versus diagramming) to identifying parts of speech and after completing it and the Advanced, she will be completely done with grammar.

Ace:
His reading list is different than Zoe’s but other than that, we are using the same curriculum as she but on a different level.

Liam:
He is learning cursive this year!  I know that it’s not common to teach it but since so many fonts are in cursive nowadays, I find that teaching how to write it also helps to learn to read it.

Building Spelling Skills-Every super hero has a weakness and spelling is Liam’s.  As a decent speller, it is  hard for me to accept but he is working hard at it and appears to be doing well on grade level.  This curriculum is a little slower paced and repetitive enough that I think it is helping in the spelling area.

First Language Lessons of the Well-Trained Mind-Liam is doing a great job with this curriculum this year.

Again, different reading list.

Josiah:

He has his own reading list as well and is continuing on the same curriculum as Liam but only at a grade level below him.

Ceili Rain:

My newest student is working in Abeka Phonics and Saxon Math K.  She has two sidekicks (Bryant and Malachi) who enjoy the lessons as well.

And now for the obligatory first day of school pics:

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