The Colton Family Schoolhouse

(I wrote this in April, wanted to add pictures, and never did. Posting now!)  "Slow and steady" is the theme of school this spring. Or, Keep It Simple, Stupid!  My attention is divided and my brain is tired from sleep with a baby (even though Olivia is a pretty good sleeper, for a baby). But, by steadily plodding away, by keeping it simple, we are still having a fruitful spring.  Math:  We worked through addition facts in the teens and now are doing subtraction facts in the teens. Each different set of facts has had its own game: Adding 9s Bingo, Adding 8s Crash, tic-tac-toe for adding 6 and 7.  The games keep the lessons from feeling repetitive or rote. With the ten-frame, she learns the process in an intuitive, visual way rather than just memorizing answers. Interestingly, I’ve noticed she can know the facts right away in the game setting but sometimes seems to completely forget them when going through a worksheet later. Or, one day can to rattle them off easi...

We celebrated the last lesson of All About Reading Level 1 with a tea party today. Tim joined us, and we drank tea and ate chocolate while she read the final two short stories, "Hal and Gus Go on a Trip" and "The Best Lunch."  I can't say enough good things about this curriculum. It has worked so well for both of us. Her skill, confidence, and speed as a reader has exploded the last few months because of the thorough practice gained in these lessons. I am proud of her.  Hey, I even learned some things in the last few lessons--about short and long vowels, and open and closed syllables. I supposed I learned the same things in first grade but had forgotten. Now we both know why the e in "he" says a different sound than the e in "hem," and how to decode open and closed syllables. Neat! 

We started a new writing curriculum in January. The first lessons focus on "getting started": what is a sentence? what does a sentence need? She will tell you the four things: (1) capital letter, (2) spaces between words, (3) ending punctuation, (4) subject and predicate.  We'll spend a few weeks on how to add details to sentences and how to construct paragraphs. Later this spring we'll spend quite a few weeks on narrative writing. (I don't think we'll get to the rest of the types of writing until next year.)  But a key concept early on was "use your best spelling." Obviously Anya doesn't know how to spell most words, and that has definitely slowed down her attempts at writing in the past. But, she seemed to find this lesson very freeing and a confidence booster. Slowly sound out the word and make your best guess. Just go for it!  I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. 

I guess it's been harder for me to make time for writing a weekly blog post since Olivia was born. Homeschooling has been harder too. I'm still getting used to trying to work through a lesson with a six-year-old, entertain a three-year-old, and bottle-feed a two-month-old all the same time. Actually, I have recently given up on trying to bottle feed during school lessons. If Olivia needs a bottle, we take a break and read Little House.  I'm also getting used to accepting the limitations of this season. There is so much I'd love to do with Anya, but it's just not possible to do it all. After a week or two of trying to do too much, and feeling disorganized and chaotic, I'm embracing the following philosophy for the remainder of the year: do less better, rather than more badly.  We are sticking with the basics: plugging away with math, handwriting, and reading every day. Alternating days for grammar and writing. I will soon add in a daily spelling lesson. Tim and A...

**I wrote this back in January but never posted it!**  Our fall season ended rather abruptly with the surprise early birth of Miss Olivia Noelle. I told Anya, "Olivia gave you an early Christmas present--it's Christmas break now!"  I had planned for a week or two of December calendar time (singing Christmas songs! reading Christmas poems!), some human body review activities, etc., etc. But... I'm sure Anya thought it was much more fun to have Christmas break and a new baby sister.  Now, we're back to school with the baby tagging along. She's been well behaved so far as long as she's having a bottle or being cuddled.  We jumped back into it with a January calendar song (cold and rainy weather... will it snow?) and a few days of math and reading review, but Anya hadn't seemed to have forgotten much after the extended break. So now we're forging ahead with:  - Math: playing "bean store" to add and subtract multiples of ten. I pretend to be a...

We are coming to the end of our human body unit. It's been such a fun curriculum for us, and a steal at only $12 (!)--full of experiments, crafts, and great books.  I last posted about the circulatory system unit. Since then, we've done the respiratory system, digestive system, and urinary system. Here are some highlights.  Respiratory system:  We recorded an experiment about breathing and heart rate at rest vs. after some jumping around.  We tried to use homemade puffy paint to make a model of the respiratory system. The puffy paint (shaving cream and liquid glue) didn't stay puffy, but anything with paint is still fun!  We tried twice to make a model of the lungs and diaphragm using a water bottle and some balloons. Neither worked! So we watched a video of someone making it on YouTube. Oh well!  Digestive system:  I guess I only have one picture from this unit, but it was a fun one! One activity was mashing up graham crackers in a bowl, with a little...