The Curriculum Choice

Amanda

Amanda has been married to the love of her life for almost nine years. She has four beautiful children who are 7,5,3 and 1 and keep life interesting, messy and fun! She loves home schooling and anything else that involves hands on learning and creativity. Amanda is very thankful for the opportunity to invest daily into the lives of her children. In her down time, (what is that exactly?) She enjoys running, reading, hiking, learning to sew and creating a cozy, warm environment full of love and traditions amidst life's typical chaos. You can read more about her family, school and life at Spilled Milk and Wet Kisses.

Silly Sentence

Elementary, Grammar, Language Arts, Preschool 4 Responses »

Apr 252012

I am sharing a game that has made learning easy, effortless and fun. Silly Sentence is produced by D.K. Games and you can find at: DK Games. Here is what the game is:

What: Silly Sentences
How Much: Around $8.99
What It Covers: All the basic parts of a sentence

Silly sentence takes apart the elements of a sentence in a fun and engaging manner. There is a playing board, a hexagonal shaped dice, a spinner, place markers, a sentence board that has an easy side with no prepositions and a more advanced side with a preposition place, and hundreds of cards that are labeled noun, preposition, adjective, adverb, and verb. Each card has a word, (e.g., run, hop, scared, the, a, over, under, etc) or a picture if it is a noun card: horse, girl, dog, or fox, etc.

On the player’s turn he will roll the dice. Depending on what is rolled, he will either move his marker, spin or chose a category and even sometimes both. The object of the game is to be the first to complete your silly sentence and then read it off laughing your head off!

My kids LOVE this game. My five-year-old requests it almost daily and he doesn’t even realize that he is understanding prepositions as he repeats, ” Prepositions find the noun.” This game is very simple to play.

There are two minor things that I do not care for with this game and feel that it is important to bring to your attention. One is that the hexagonal shaped die is not sturdy at all. You have to put it together when the game arrives and it is very flimsy. I have ended up placing clear tape all the way around it so that it maintains its shape but if an unassuming toddler steps on the die, it is crushed. Also, our adjective and adverb spots on our dice are the same color, yellow, but on the board the adjectives are blue and the adverbs are yellow. This makes it a bit confusing for non-readers when they question which card to take.

Besides the issues mentioned above, I still feel that purchasing the game and its benefits far outweighs the die and color issue. I highly recommend this game and hope your family enjoys it just as much as ours!

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Addition the Fun Way!

Age, Elementary, Mathematics 4 Responses »

Apr 202012

I am so excited to share with you a curriculum that has allowed my children to move past the traditional black and white numbers and into a world where numbers create characters and characters stories. Allow me to introduce you to Addition the Fun Way! by Judy Liautaud with City Creek Press.

The curriculum is a fun, picture method of learning and the addition facts, per the author. I whole heartedly agree. Let me explain how the method of learning the addition facts work. First, the author goes into great detail to explain how to use and teach this book. I found this area very helpful simply because this was an entirely new way for me to think about numbers and for my children as well. Any question that you may encounter will more than likely be answered in this section and if not, Judy Liautuad is incredibly prompt at answering any email request AND phone calls that you may have have! This is based on personal experience!

The book then goes on to explain who each of the number characters are. Each number becomes a constant character throughout the entire book. For example, there is ” 3 bee” and ” sick 6″. The stories are constructed around these characters and a new addition fact is learned after each story.

The curriculum covers EVERYTHING from adding zero through ten. Learning the one’s and two’s addition facts are covered in the beginning and not used as character in stories. Rather the numbers are given the staircase picture of going up one step if you add one and two steps up the stairs if you add two to a number.

Silly and memorable number characters are a great way to describe how the author draws the children into learning in a very visual and interesting manner. For example, one of our favorite stories is 3+3=6. The story, in summary, talks about how sick 6 was picking flowers on a beautiful spring day but there were 2 bees in the flower who stung him. The author then recaps each story with,

” Remember: When its 3+3, the 3-bees sting the 6 and make him sick.”

Now, for the best part, our experience with the curriculum! I received this curriculum in February and was not sure how long it would take for me to accurately write this review, based on my children’s results. However, the method and results with the picture methodology presented in Addition the Fun Way! is incredible!

We began with two stories a day. That is all. Then after my boys became familiar with each character they would go through the book and pick out stories that appeared interesting to them. We did not go through any specific order. Rather we simply enjoyed reading the stories and learning the characters.

After a couple of weeks, I began pulling out some manipulatives that I had in our home. I did this for the purpose of observing if they were understanding the concepts behind the stories ( they were!!). I began to incorporate the flashcards that can be purchased along with the curriculum. The fun part about these flashcards is that they show the characters on them thus further helping to press the pictures as well as the addition facts into a child’s long-term memory.

I cannot, honestly, say enough great things about this incredibly fun and EASY way to learn the addition facts. After a few short weeks my boys were rattling off EVERY single addition fact while smiling about them. We all know those “flash card” moments where we sit with a black and white fact and continually repeat, ” you know this, what is this, what is this??”. Now, I hold up a flashcard and it is still black and white (the book is all in color) yet the difference is with the picture association built into the addition fact there is an immediate recognition and recall from the stories. I find this so encouraging and incredibly helpful in building the math foundation!

The author has addition and subtraction as well as multiplication and division programs for you to choose from on her website: City Creek Press.
The addition book that we have will cost $19.95 and the flash cards at $8.95.
There are also great options to buy for one student on her site that include basic and deluxe kits.

I encourage anyone who is looking for an addition program that is engaging and fun to try out Addition the Fun Way! We have not been disappointed!

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Sing, Spell, Read and Write

Age, Grammar, Handwriting, Preschool, Reading, Spelling, Vocabulary 2 Responses »

Mar 072012

Sing, Spell, Read and Write is a curriculum that I had the joy of being introduced to in the very beginning of our homeschooling adventure. Now, I am in the trenches of this program with my second child. This child learns 100% differently than my first and I am beaming at his success with reading and writing.

What type of program is this and how is it set apart from the others? Let me explain. Sing, Spell, Read and Write (SSRW) is a multi-sensory, song-singing, game-playing, colorful and very creative program. The curriculum focuses on the language as a whole while making learning exiting and fun. SSRW covers:

Grammar
Spelling
Reading
Vocabulary
Handwriting

The teacher’s manual details how each lesson should go and gives an estimate of how much time should be dedicated to that lesson. The author, Sue Dickson, has systematically laid out the various objectives for each lesson. Some of the lessons may take two days, others may take up to nine days.
The kindergarten curriculum is based on a train track. Each lesson is a section of the track and at the end the child will have completed the curriculum and is on his/her way to reading and writing!

I love the colorful books that are included in this set and the fun ways that the author teaches the child how to form the letters. There are two books in the kindergarten curriculum along with fun songs that teach short vowels, sounding out words and many other phonetic rules.

The first grade curriculum is a racetrack. As the introduction song goes,

“I’m going 36 miles so I can learn how to read, 36 lessons are just what I need, 36 spots to read, write and spell. So everyone rejoice I’ll soon be reading so well!”

My children run madly around in a circle pretending to be race cars each time this song comes on. Thankfully, the next song that goes through each letter sound a-z calms them back down! There are two books in the first grade curriculum as well.

I truly believe this is one of the most thorough and enriching ways to learn to read, write and spell. The first book has each letter broken up into four pages. For example, learning letter “c”, the child would color a cat, next page practice both lower and uppercase c, then there is a cut and paste page where they need to decipher whether or not that picture begins with the “c” sound and finally, a dot to dot.

The first book takes around a month to complete, while the second book, will take much longer. I am thankful that this is not a quick program. When my first child completed step 36, I was a few days away from having our fourth child and I could have cried. We had been diligently working for the past 10 months and had covered everything from the short vowel sounds, long vowels, silent k, l, g, g, h to reading comprehension and everything in between.

My son finished the racetrack a very confident reader, speller, and writer. He took his confidence to the library checking out more books than I can count and reading them to himself any opportunity he had.

My second son, is on step 12 as I write this. He is a very kinesthetic learner. He is a very independent child and loves going ahead on his own (which is very possible with mom close by, of course!). The songs grab his attention while the workbook pages change up the rhythm of the lessons so that your child will not become bored. Each lesson is followed up by a game that has a Bingo or a Go Fish theme to it.

My son who cannot sit still long is reading! Oh yes and not only is he reading but enjoys reading. He is comprehending what is read!

The program contains:

17 story books
CD and 6 sing along tapes (do people still use cassettes?)
a raceway track
cars for the track
five games
a treasure chest of prizes and four books
an assessment book

In summary: Honestly, I cannot say enough good things about this curriculum. The curriculum is an investment at around $254.00- $306.00. This, however, includes both the kindergarten and first grade programs. You may reuse the resources for each subsequent child after and are able to purchase just the workbooks online for around $9-$14. After seeing how successful my children are learning and have learned to read and write I would pay this amount over and over again. I know others who have followed this program would state the same!

Finally, you can view the materials at Christian Book. Happy reading!

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Konos Unit Study by Jessica Hulcy and Carole Thaxton

Unit study resources No Responses »

Dec 142011

Konos is a hands-on learning, Christian worldview curriculum consisting of three volumes. Each volume encompasses two years of study and is about 400 pages full of every subject you could possibly imagine! There are HUNDREDS of activities to go along with each unit.

The subjects included are:

social studies
practical living
math
language arts
creative expression
Bible, science
arts & crafts
field trip ideas
music
history
geography and the list goes on!

The goal behind Konos is to teach and instill character within our children. Instilling character is accomplished by reinforcing the character traits within the subjects listed above. Volume II consists of the following character traits: Inquisitiveness, Responsibility, Love/Generosity, Courage, Wisdom and Loyalty. You do not need to follow these traits in any particular order and may choose to skip around as much as possible. However, Volume I is geared more towards the younger learner.

A complete math and language arts curriculum are both still needed, since Konos does not offer an in-depth study of these subjects. However, your child will still receive a very large amount of writing, story telling, and reading from this curriculum.

Everything your child will need from grades kindergarten through eighth is included in the above three volumes. This is an all inclusive unit study. Every child, from kindergarten through eighth grade can learn at the same time. Konos is divided into younger, middle and older sections. For example, if you are learning about pets in the Responsibility unit, the younger dictates ways to compare and contrast cats and dogs, the middle may write a list and a short research paper and the older may make an extensive list, research and prepare a paper and presentation on what they had learned about the different breeds.

A week-by-week schedule is another plus to Konos. If you need a little bit of guidance, the authors have included a weekly break down. If you are feeling a bit daring, just pick and choose the activities that you feel your child(ren) would benefit the most from.

A book list at the start of each unit is provided. I have reached the point where I look at the week’s sub-unit and will reserve anything and everything at the library that I feel would benefit and enrich our study. We use the library for everything! At any given time our home is brimming with over 100 checked out books all reinforcing our trait for that month and the sub-units within that trait.
How it works in our home: My children and I have been working with volume II this year and have loved every minute of it! At this time, we are studying Courage. For the past three weeks we have been traveling through the Bible, reading the history of the men and women who exemplified courage while facing danger, death or betrayal as well as other historical figures. We read about Daniel in the lion’s den and researched different interesting facts on lions. My seven-year-old wrote brief paragraphs on lions while my five and three-year-old children drew a picture. Also, we listened to a lion’s roar and talked about seeing the lions at the zoo.

An example of the many hands on activities is our fleur de lys flag we created to remember the courage of Joan of Arc. We marched around our neighborhood as soldiers and priests like in the battle of Jericho from the Bible. We made a sling sho. We also completed heat experiments with fire as we learned of the courage of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. This upcoming week, we will be reading “Call It Courage” while eating coconut, mangoes, bananas. We’ll learn about sea life, and where Polynesia is located on the globe.

I highly recommend Konos for any parent who wants a fun, challenging, interactive and multi-level curriculum. You will be required to dedicate more time into the lesson plans, gathering supplies and preparing than your usual workbook curriculum; however it is WORTH IT! Jessica Hulcy and Carole Thaxton created Konos for their children and I am so thankful that they made this available to other homeschooling parents.

Each volume costs $110. Yet consider that this is a two-year all-inclusive study! For more information visit www.konos.com.

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