Well, Lydia finished math K last week, and we have math 1 on order. It is somewhere between the UPS distribution in Columbus and my house. Last time it was logged, my package was on a truck headed to Newark to be put on a delivery truck to come to my house. That was yesterday................ lol So I have to do some filling in until her math gets here.
Since I have to do some fill-in time, I thought it would be fun to do a lapbook on the months of the year. So, I started off by checking out my favorite free site for lapbooking and unit study resources, Homeschool Share. There is a HUGE listing of free lapbooks and unit studies, as well as free forums where you can post to get ideas. I've used this site a few times this school year for various subjects and lessons, and we've always enjoyed the units and lapbooks we did.
So anyway, I went to check and see if they had any lapbooks or unit studies for calendar skills. Well what do you know, they have one for the months of the year, exactly what I was looking for pretty much. I printed off the whole thing tonight, and am just going to create a couple little things to add to it for the days of the week, then Lydia and I are going to spend our math time working on that lapbook and mastering the months and days. I may also get Melissa learning it too, since she's having some issues with calendar concepts. I can't wait to get it all started, this will DEFINITELY help pass the time while we wait on her math to arrive tomorrow or Tuesday (depending on when UPS decides to bring the package to me)
She is very proud of finishing math K, and can't wait to start doing "big kid math" like Melissa does. So cute, one day she'll hate math. Probably right around the time we begin algebra...........................
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
our Horizons Health arrived this morning!
Well, its here. I didn't actually expect it to get here until early next week, so it was a happy surprise to have the box sitting on my front porch when I checked the mail. The kids are going nuts over the box and packing paper (like they always do when we order supplies if I let them at the boxes LOL) and I just finished looking over the health program for an initial opinion of it.
Overview of my purchase: I got Horizons Health K from Alpha Omega Publications for a K'er and 1st grader to do the remainder of this school year. I ordered the set and an extra student workbook for the two of them.
Student workbooks: my first impression upon opening the box was that the size of the books is PERFECT for my K'er and 1st grader. Its not too thick that they will get frustrated, but it also isn't so thin that I feel we got ripped off. I like that the pages are all perforated so I can pull individual lesson sheets out if we want, and they are only printed on one side as well. The pages are colorful and appear to be engaging, which will be a big plus for my dyslexic 1st grader. Getting her to really engage in a worksheet is sometimes difficult because of her reading problems. I like the parger print on the student pages themselves, and I think my oldest may be able to read most of the directions by herself with minimal help so I can work more with my K'er if needed on each sheet. I'm VERY happy with the workbooks
Teacher's guide: now THIS is the important piece to me. If a guide isn't well-written then I can't use it. I literally need to be told what to do and how to do it. The guide is nicely bound, although I personally would prefer a spiral-bound one I think (I'll probably take it to Staples today or tomorrow and have them do that for me) I like my guides to lay fairly flat since I'm left-handed and tend to make a LOT of notes in the margins when I go over a lesson before teaching it. The sections prior to the actual lessons are wonderful for helping me better understand the program and how it works, as well as seeing the progression of lessons through the scope and sequence. Overall, the print is a good size for me to read easily while teaching (definitely a better size than our k12 mamuals are LOL) Each unit starts with an overview of the lessons in it, telling you what you are going to cover and providing a list of vocabulary in the unit plus a full list of resources for the individual unit. Each individual lesson has a list for preparation and materials you need (with optional ones marked clearly as optional) and gives a basic overview of the lesson before breaking down the lesson for teaching. While it isn't directly guided like our k12 stuff is as far as telling me exactly what to say (our curriculum indents paragraphs that I am to read out loud to the student, it takes literally zero planning or thinking beforehand), it is well laid out with how to present the lesson. Each lesson has at least one activity included, along with a few related activities for further exploration of the lesson if desired. Overall, I'm very happy with my initial look at the guide, although I would make *minor* changes (like color-coding the top corners of the guide like the student workbooks are to make it easier to find your place quickly, and offering the guide as a spiral-bound edition as well as the current binding, but I think ALL programs should offer spiral binding in their guides as an option)
My initial conclusions: Horizons Health K looks to be a good program that was well thought-out and created to work well for a variety of learning styles. I think personally that for my family, a lesson will take 20-45 minutes to complete depending on the girls' attention spans that day and the number of activities we choose to do for the lesson. I feel that it will work well to accomodate our 1st grader's dyslexia and her "get down to business" learning style while also working well with my K'er and her creative, crafty style. Both enjoy coloring, and there appears to be a good balance of coloring pages to actual seatwork pages (like matching and tracing and such) From a teaching standpoint, I feel that it will work well with my need for hand-holding by giving me enough direction that I know what I'm doing while giving me the freedom of deciding how to present the materials at the same time.
So now, I shall get ready to get in my 4WD pickup truck and get out of my driveway with its foot of snow that needs shovelled out, so that I can take the Teacher's Guide to Staples for some spiral binding. It is literally the ONLY flaw that I can find at this particular moment in the program.
Overview of my purchase: I got Horizons Health K from Alpha Omega Publications for a K'er and 1st grader to do the remainder of this school year. I ordered the set and an extra student workbook for the two of them.
Student workbooks: my first impression upon opening the box was that the size of the books is PERFECT for my K'er and 1st grader. Its not too thick that they will get frustrated, but it also isn't so thin that I feel we got ripped off. I like that the pages are all perforated so I can pull individual lesson sheets out if we want, and they are only printed on one side as well. The pages are colorful and appear to be engaging, which will be a big plus for my dyslexic 1st grader. Getting her to really engage in a worksheet is sometimes difficult because of her reading problems. I like the parger print on the student pages themselves, and I think my oldest may be able to read most of the directions by herself with minimal help so I can work more with my K'er if needed on each sheet. I'm VERY happy with the workbooks
Teacher's guide: now THIS is the important piece to me. If a guide isn't well-written then I can't use it. I literally need to be told what to do and how to do it. The guide is nicely bound, although I personally would prefer a spiral-bound one I think (I'll probably take it to Staples today or tomorrow and have them do that for me) I like my guides to lay fairly flat since I'm left-handed and tend to make a LOT of notes in the margins when I go over a lesson before teaching it. The sections prior to the actual lessons are wonderful for helping me better understand the program and how it works, as well as seeing the progression of lessons through the scope and sequence. Overall, the print is a good size for me to read easily while teaching (definitely a better size than our k12 mamuals are LOL) Each unit starts with an overview of the lessons in it, telling you what you are going to cover and providing a list of vocabulary in the unit plus a full list of resources for the individual unit. Each individual lesson has a list for preparation and materials you need (with optional ones marked clearly as optional) and gives a basic overview of the lesson before breaking down the lesson for teaching. While it isn't directly guided like our k12 stuff is as far as telling me exactly what to say (our curriculum indents paragraphs that I am to read out loud to the student, it takes literally zero planning or thinking beforehand), it is well laid out with how to present the lesson. Each lesson has at least one activity included, along with a few related activities for further exploration of the lesson if desired. Overall, I'm very happy with my initial look at the guide, although I would make *minor* changes (like color-coding the top corners of the guide like the student workbooks are to make it easier to find your place quickly, and offering the guide as a spiral-bound edition as well as the current binding, but I think ALL programs should offer spiral binding in their guides as an option)
My initial conclusions: Horizons Health K looks to be a good program that was well thought-out and created to work well for a variety of learning styles. I think personally that for my family, a lesson will take 20-45 minutes to complete depending on the girls' attention spans that day and the number of activities we choose to do for the lesson. I feel that it will work well to accomodate our 1st grader's dyslexia and her "get down to business" learning style while also working well with my K'er and her creative, crafty style. Both enjoy coloring, and there appears to be a good balance of coloring pages to actual seatwork pages (like matching and tracing and such) From a teaching standpoint, I feel that it will work well with my need for hand-holding by giving me enough direction that I know what I'm doing while giving me the freedom of deciding how to present the materials at the same time.
So now, I shall get ready to get in my 4WD pickup truck and get out of my driveway with its foot of snow that needs shovelled out, so that I can take the Teacher's Guide to Staples for some spiral binding. It is literally the ONLY flaw that I can find at this particular moment in the program.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Health class
Ahhhhh health. This is one of those few subjects that I'm required to teach but OHVA doesn't provide any curriculum for (the others would be PE and technology) So I spent the first half of the school year trying to do my own thing, and failing miserably. I just flat out lack the discipline to create my own program and actually STICK WITH IT. But this is a shortcoming that I am aware of, and I do whatever I can to overcome it and accomodate whenever possible. For health class, that means buying a curriculum to cover material consistently.
Alpha Omega Publications has a new Horizons Health program for grades K-8. I've looked it over the last several days, and I like what I see from the sample pages online. In the fall we plan to do Horizons Health 1 based on my researching, it looks like a solid program and its fairly affordable at only $20.95 for the set and $7.95 for additional student workbooks. I kept doubting if it is smart to start in health 1 without doing health K first, and I do know that I am overthinking that because its jsut one of those things I do. Well, I discussed it with the husband today, and he was in agreement that we should go ahead and order health K to do the remainder of this school year and over the summer. About 2 hours ago I placed that order with a coupon code that Alpha Omega Publications (AOP) sent me for free standard shipping. Hey, I like free shipping, and in this case especially it was a better deal to take advantage of the free shipping than it would be to wait for a convention or other sale offering up to 20% off. (although when I order health 1 I plan to also order Horizons preschool for Kimmy, so I am waiting for a big 20% off sale that always happens aroun April or so and I hope to get another code for free shipping as well)
My order should arrive here sometime in the next 10-14 days, and I'll give a review after looking it over completely and again after we've done some lessons. I plan to teach health 2 or 3 days a week, just depending on what our schedule looks like each week. I am really looking forward to this simple addition to our homeschool that will hopefully help provide a more solid consistent education in a very important subject, and I really hope that we chose a quality program. The price certainly works for us, that's for sure.
Alpha Omega Publications has a new Horizons Health program for grades K-8. I've looked it over the last several days, and I like what I see from the sample pages online. In the fall we plan to do Horizons Health 1 based on my researching, it looks like a solid program and its fairly affordable at only $20.95 for the set and $7.95 for additional student workbooks. I kept doubting if it is smart to start in health 1 without doing health K first, and I do know that I am overthinking that because its jsut one of those things I do. Well, I discussed it with the husband today, and he was in agreement that we should go ahead and order health K to do the remainder of this school year and over the summer. About 2 hours ago I placed that order with a coupon code that Alpha Omega Publications (AOP) sent me for free standard shipping. Hey, I like free shipping, and in this case especially it was a better deal to take advantage of the free shipping than it would be to wait for a convention or other sale offering up to 20% off. (although when I order health 1 I plan to also order Horizons preschool for Kimmy, so I am waiting for a big 20% off sale that always happens aroun April or so and I hope to get another code for free shipping as well)
My order should arrive here sometime in the next 10-14 days, and I'll give a review after looking it over completely and again after we've done some lessons. I plan to teach health 2 or 3 days a week, just depending on what our schedule looks like each week. I am really looking forward to this simple addition to our homeschool that will hopefully help provide a more solid consistent education in a very important subject, and I really hope that we chose a quality program. The price certainly works for us, that's for sure.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
February homeschool goals and other notes for me
OK this is more of a reference for me than anything else, so feel free to just TOTALLY ignore my rambling on this one. Mainly, I'm typing it out specifically so that I have a readable copy later when Jordan decides to sneak a pencil and my notebook and just scribble all over the page I have this written on LOL
OK this month I have some curriculum being finished, and I need to remember to order the next level for those when its time.
Melissa is going to finish phonics K and lang. arts K both hopefully this month so that I can order 1st grade in both of them. They are intertwined so I can't just get one without the other. It might take the first few days of March to actually hit this goal, but I need to have this down because its GOING to be happening soon. Also, I am backing off on history for a while and pushing forward with science to get it finished up as fast as possible. Next school year I will take the approach of doing these two subjects as a semester thing if the teachers we are assigned are down with that plan, we'll do that subject daily for half the year then do the other one daily the second half.
Lydia is going to be finishing math K probably in the next week or two, so as soon as we hit unit 15 I need to send off a message to get math 1 for her. She would have been done with it before now but we took it easy for a bit to work on some motor skills and build up her strength for writing more. I also am going to be pushing her history big time so that next school year I can combine her and Melissa both in history 2 (they will also do science 2 and art 2 together if the school will let it happen, if not then I'm going to figure out a way to make it work for me) She will probably finish history K sometime in March I'm guessing and then we'll do history 1 over the summer. Phonics K is stalled out, this month I'm just focusing on those pesky sight words that she's struggling so much with and getting her to read to us daily a little bit. I'm not too concerned if she doesn't finish phonics K by the end of the school year, I already talked with our teacher about it and she said that it will not be an issue if it takes her until Christmas-ish to move up to phonics 1 and that they won't hold her back grade-wise over just the reading since it is independent of other subjects because I can fully accomodate the reading thing.
I also need to keep an eye out for the big sale that Alpha Omega does every year so that I can order when it is happening. We are going to be getting Horizons preschool for Kimmy to do this fall (I'm too lazy to actually stay consistent with doing my own thing, I need it laid out for me like that) and for Melissa and Lydia we're going to do Horizons Health 1 and Physical Education PreK-2 (Kimmy and Jordan will join in on that one as they wish to) Without that sale I'm looking at spending around $180 before shipping costs, so the sale is a bit important for me. I really do want to get a curriculum for the big kids to do with health, especially as I am adding a bunch of other craziness to our lives and I need to keep it simple and consistent for us.
On the college arena for me, I need to get all that paperwork finished up and faxed in where it needs to go so that I can finish getting re-enrolled for classes and get started. Once I get that done, I will have a better idea of where I stand with starting classes again so that I can then start tweaking my daily schedule to better accomodate all the educational needs that we'll have here.
Oh, and I need to go to the store next weekend and look at laptops, mine is desperately in need of a replacing. It doesn't work half the time, and I'm going to need it for college and homeschooling so that I can get away from my little computer desk. This will be especially important if I can pull off getting Melissa and Lydia in the same science, history, and art so that we can do half our schoolwork at the dining table to provide ample workspace for them. I will also have more flexability with being able to do lessons at a friend's house or relative's, or if we decide to go on a family vacation somewhere at a time that isn't a scheduled school vacation.
OK notes all done, you can now stop ignoring me LOL Hopefully Jordan doesn't figure out how to erase this blog post after she scribbles all over my notebook page.
OK this month I have some curriculum being finished, and I need to remember to order the next level for those when its time.
Melissa is going to finish phonics K and lang. arts K both hopefully this month so that I can order 1st grade in both of them. They are intertwined so I can't just get one without the other. It might take the first few days of March to actually hit this goal, but I need to have this down because its GOING to be happening soon. Also, I am backing off on history for a while and pushing forward with science to get it finished up as fast as possible. Next school year I will take the approach of doing these two subjects as a semester thing if the teachers we are assigned are down with that plan, we'll do that subject daily for half the year then do the other one daily the second half.
Lydia is going to be finishing math K probably in the next week or two, so as soon as we hit unit 15 I need to send off a message to get math 1 for her. She would have been done with it before now but we took it easy for a bit to work on some motor skills and build up her strength for writing more. I also am going to be pushing her history big time so that next school year I can combine her and Melissa both in history 2 (they will also do science 2 and art 2 together if the school will let it happen, if not then I'm going to figure out a way to make it work for me) She will probably finish history K sometime in March I'm guessing and then we'll do history 1 over the summer. Phonics K is stalled out, this month I'm just focusing on those pesky sight words that she's struggling so much with and getting her to read to us daily a little bit. I'm not too concerned if she doesn't finish phonics K by the end of the school year, I already talked with our teacher about it and she said that it will not be an issue if it takes her until Christmas-ish to move up to phonics 1 and that they won't hold her back grade-wise over just the reading since it is independent of other subjects because I can fully accomodate the reading thing.
I also need to keep an eye out for the big sale that Alpha Omega does every year so that I can order when it is happening. We are going to be getting Horizons preschool for Kimmy to do this fall (I'm too lazy to actually stay consistent with doing my own thing, I need it laid out for me like that) and for Melissa and Lydia we're going to do Horizons Health 1 and Physical Education PreK-2 (Kimmy and Jordan will join in on that one as they wish to) Without that sale I'm looking at spending around $180 before shipping costs, so the sale is a bit important for me. I really do want to get a curriculum for the big kids to do with health, especially as I am adding a bunch of other craziness to our lives and I need to keep it simple and consistent for us.
On the college arena for me, I need to get all that paperwork finished up and faxed in where it needs to go so that I can finish getting re-enrolled for classes and get started. Once I get that done, I will have a better idea of where I stand with starting classes again so that I can then start tweaking my daily schedule to better accomodate all the educational needs that we'll have here.
Oh, and I need to go to the store next weekend and look at laptops, mine is desperately in need of a replacing. It doesn't work half the time, and I'm going to need it for college and homeschooling so that I can get away from my little computer desk. This will be especially important if I can pull off getting Melissa and Lydia in the same science, history, and art so that we can do half our schoolwork at the dining table to provide ample workspace for them. I will also have more flexability with being able to do lessons at a friend's house or relative's, or if we decide to go on a family vacation somewhere at a time that isn't a scheduled school vacation.
OK notes all done, you can now stop ignoring me LOL Hopefully Jordan doesn't figure out how to erase this blog post after she scribbles all over my notebook page.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)