History: How to Read

Lacie and I are still novice learners.  She's still learning how to study and I'm still learning how to teach a bunch of disparate subjects.  Lacie was reading Light to the Nations.  I spent a few minutes showing her how I read.  One of the toughest skills to master is how to study.  When I read, I need to take notes.  I told her to start with the summary, vocabulary, and questions at the end of the chapter; the questions, summary, and vocabulary are clues to the most important aspects of the chapter.  I have to take notes. I may never refer to those notes again--but I must write things down. 

For example, right now, I'm teaching a Human Biology class.  I was a Biology major; I had several anatomy courses.  With all that said, I don't remember every detail.  Before class I prepare the weekly lesson.  I start by reviewing all of the headings and skimming the chapter.  Next, I make a list of notes for each major heading, say in digestion: major organs, how food forms a bolus and travels, through the digestive system, mechanical vs. chemical digestion, etc.  Then, I plan a quiz, activities, and labs. 

Once Lacie has an idea of the important points in the chapter, I made a point to show her how I focus on a new topic.  For example, in Chapter 1, there is a brief description of Herod the Great.  Who was Herod?  How was Herod appointed?  What is an Edomite?  What territory was under Roman rule?  Why was there a census?  The Bible mentions a census, too; how is this significant?  (It's historic evidence.) 

In traditional school settings, kids are accustomed to having a teacher tell them to read a chapter, define the vocabulary, and answer the questions.  This does not teach a child to study.  If the student asks herself questions, makes note of significant information, learns to recognize what is important to understand in the content, the child learns how to study--not just complete an assignment.  The home-school students learn how to study.  Too many kids in traditional school settings do not learn how to study.  Hopefully, Lacie will.

Week Three Lessons

We started the Chemistry Co-op class today.  In Chemistry, we introduced graphing calculators and a brief review of graphing in general: title, axes labeled with units of measure, appropriate scale, etc.  I have another high school student who is doing British Literature right after Chemistry.  My husband and I are teaching Chemistry and Statistics simultaneously; after he teaches Physics.  I start working on other lessons with Lacie.  I just added Angel as a student for British Literature.  We are using British Literature by Stobaugh.  I bought an older set on eBay.  For now, we're reading each lesson and answering questions.  My goal is to complete four essays each term with a final term paper.  My goal is one lesson per week.  Today we started The Seafarer and went over questions.  I did teach Junior Literature one year.  I'm not an English teacher.  My goal is to expose Angel to a wide, traditional range of British Literature, in chronological order.  Boring?  Yes.  It won't hurt to read the classics.

Lacie is still working through the introductory Theology and History questions.  My son, Fr. Josh, was visiting.  Lacie received a thorough explanation of why the Catholic Church rejects Sola Scriptura.  She's still young.  This year, we'll work on critical thinking skills.  I did some editing again today.  For literature, Lacie is making lists of Robinson Crusoe's characteristics before and after a lengthy stay on the island in preparation for a composition, "How did the stay on the island make Robinson Crusoe a better man?"  First she's making a list and next an outline.

My husband, Rob, is working through Algebra 1; she's on Lesson 2.  Our goal each week is four lessons to complete the book by June.  That may be too ambitious.  We're not moving ahead until she understands each lesson.  We did extra work in metric measure conversions.  This is important for Chemistry all year.  I wanted her to have a head start.

In History, I reviewed questions from Chapter 1, assigned more questions, and encouraged Lacie to find a good time to work.

In Latin, she's learning terra, terrae, porta, portae, first declension nouns.   So, truthfully, we have not started Latin.  Instead, we're working on grammar.

Lacie had a guitar lesson and did more grammar work in 5/6 Easy Grammar with diagramming.  I know diagramming is old fashioned.  I'm a believer!  Diagramming, parsing verbs, and understanding mood, etc. will help her to understand Latin.  The reason people struggle with foreign and ancient languages is understanding the grammar, such as the subjunctive mood.

We think Lacie needs to spend three days at our house and do all of her work then.  She can read at home independently.  It's hard with little ones to concentrate.  If we work 20 hours a week, she can spend several hours at home reading, which is easier to work in during the course of the day.

It's a work in progress!

What about younger siblings? Hey! I'm doing school!

The young woman I'm home-schooling this year, Lacie, has four younger siblings.  The three year old likes to do school with her.  Little Sister has a tremendous attention span!  Now, I'm not an early childhood expert.  My background is with secondary science, Biology, Chemistry, etc.  But, I've worked with many ages at VBS and summer Science Camp.  So, Lacie and I are making up lessons for Little Sister. We made a short list of immediate goals: color recognition, shapes, number recognition, counting, and letter recognition.  Little Sister has mastered many of these already.  Before we branch into farm animals, weather, seasons, etc., we need to make sure Little Sister has mastery.  So we assembled cutting strips, practice letters, colorful objects to sort, and puzzles.  I had extra Lego Duplos. Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls has terrific ideas for Lego Duplo Math cards.  The child can count and do color patterning with the Duplos.   Another easy lesson is Do a Dot with printables.  Children can use bingo markers or  office dot stickers.  We are using the dot stickers; they are not messy and exercise fine motor skills.  I made simple paper books for VBS.  I stapled cardstock and copier paper to make the books.  Little Sister can use the book to glue pictures, stickers, stamps, scriptures, coloring etc.  The little book is a record of some of the activities and skills she has mastered.  Look!  Little Sister gets to be a big girl and do school with Lacie!  Lacie can focus more on her own work.

Are you making progress?

Lacie and I are learning how to home-school together.  Her parents agree that it's more important to be thorough than to be quick.  I did a math and grammar assessment.  We are starting over.  I have a copy of Easy Grammar 5 and 6.  The course syllabus specifies Warriner's Third Course, Vocabulary Workshop D, and a separate writing book.  All of these are on hold.  Instead, I hope to tackle Easy Grammar Grade 9 later--much later.  Right now, I'm giving Lacie writing assignments from Theology and Literature.  We're going over her compositions and making revisions together.  In the Chemistry class I teach, I insist the kids use the third person, present tense, active voice, and indicative mood in their lab reports.  I get many blank looks.  I'm showing Lacie how to write most of her work in the same manner.  It's a good standard for many essays.  She already understands how to write a five or six paragraph composition.  We're working on mechanics, stronger descriptions, and  punctuation (A colon follows a noun, not a verb.)

It's stressful to learn how to manage all of the assignments.  I decided to start slowly and working through a few subjects at a time.  Lacie has younger siblings.  We've created lessons for her three year old sister to do while Lacie works.  It's a work in progress.

Home-school lessons continue!

Lacie and I met today to review last week's assignments.  She finished reading Robinson Crusoe and wrote two drafts of a letter to her Dad.  We start at 10:00 and worked for 1 1/2 hours revising the letter and making corrections.  We saved all of the revisions for her portfolio.  My goal is for Lacie to be able to write a paper using the third person, present tense, active voice, and indicative mood.  Not easy!  We're spending time now as an investment for future papers.  I started to work on Latin.  Lacie and I are starting over in grammar.  It's hard to understand declensions without an understanding of subject, direct objects, indirect objects, object of a preposition, etc.  Today, I had Lacie copy the first declension for terra, terrae and porta, portae several times and assigned more for home work.  My technique is to copy noun declensions and verb conjugations over and over to learn them.  We took a break and Lacie had a guitar lesson with my husband, Rob, lunch, and more work.

I checked on her Chemistry summer assignment, Periodic Table cards, due next Tuesday.  We worked on Algebra, Theology (Sola Scriptura), and grammar.  Next week, things get real!  Right after Chemistry class, we're spending several hours reviewing assignments, giving direct instruction in grammar and Algebra, and learning the elements in the Periodic Table.  I plan to assign more first declension nouns to learn, but launching Latin slowly to teach the grammar simultaneously, including diagramming sentences.  Wooooo!

Lacie's Fine Arts credit is guitar.  Below is a photo of the chord cards and book she is using.

After guitar and lunch, we began grammar.  We are using Easy Grammar 5/6.  First, we reviewed prepositions, subjects, and predicates.  Once we completed the exercise, I introduced Lacie how to diagram simple sentences.  Next, we added prepositional phrases to the diagram.  As we went along, we talked about objects of a preposition, definite and indefinite articles, etc.  So, as we do exercises, we doing a bit more grammar.  This link explains how to diagram sentences.  Start slowly!  

Lastly, we did some Algebra.  We are starting with Lesson 1 to learn order of operations, and basic algebraic rules.  Tell me this isn't exciting!  It has been a long time since I've taught grammar or math.  

Home School Back to School!

Yesterday, Lacie, her dad, one sister, my husband, and I went to the Co-op picnic to launch the school year.  The local Co-op is tremendous.  They host weekly classes for elementary through high school aged students.  There was a meeting describing opportunities for this school year, everything from ski lesson, book clubs, lego clubs, swing dance parties, bowling, All Saints Day, peg dolls, Rosary Bonfires, and field trips, such as to the pumpkin patch.  Easily 50 families with their children attended the picnic at a local park.  After the meeting and lunch, the families have an exchange—largely books, DVDs, flash cards, etc.  This is the first time my husband and I attended because it’s the first time we are home-schooling.  He and I have taught high school children from Co-op the past three years.  We help with VBS, too.  My husband, Rob, and I know some of the families and wanted to make Lacie and her dad, James, feel at home.  James was happy to see so many large families with teens hanging out.  The little ones played on the playground adjacent to the picnic pavilion.  Rob and I want to help Lacie meet the kids and go to some of the events the Co-op sponsors and chaperones.

Does your Co-op host a picnic?  Our families brought their own lunches.  This time of year, the Pavillon Space is available without a reservation.  A picnic is a great opportunity to get everyone’s contact information for group emails or texts.  It’s also a good way to introduce new families to Co-op.  We all live near a military base; there is constant turn-over.  New people bring new ideas.  Here are prayers all of us have a wonderful year as home-schoolers.

Week Two: Lacie

The Co-op classes start after Labor Day.  Over the next two weeks, Lacie and I are working on reading Robinson Crusoe, jump starting Theology and History, all while doing pre-assessments in Math and Grammar.  The two of us are stilling receiving books ordered online and determining a good schedule.  I need to clarify her strengths and gaps.  Today, I checked all of last week’s assignments, gave her a paper to write for Robinson Crusoe, and two assessments, the first Algebra test, and this grammar assessment.  We corrected and scored the tests before reviewing the incorrect material.

We need to get a handle on grammar.  Here is my plan.  First read all of Robinson Crusoe.  Next we will finish two or three study units in Theology and History.  Mean while, the pre-assessment results indicate hat we should start over in Algebra and Grammar.

We are starting slowly.  In two weeks, we’ll introduce Latin and Chemistry, Algebra in three weeks, and postpone vocabulary, composition, and grammar until October.  So far so good!  Teaching every topic is an adjustment for me, too!

Lacie said that it’s hard to work independently.  Exactly!  Together, we’re transitioning from a teacher  centered approach to a home-school approach, in which Lacie becomes responsible for her own education.  So, we’re taking some time before Co-op to get into a routine, set up dedicated study time, and  a schedule.

This gives me time to read the history and theology material in order to assess her answers to questions, and time to prepare Algebra and Latin 1.   Woooo!