math Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

I shared what Malachi (5) will be doing this year…now I’ll share about our three older boys:

Asa (13) will be working through most of Sonlight 100 this year (History, Geography, Literature, Current Events, Creative Writing, Spelling) and will be doing much of it on his own. He’ll begin Apologia Science this year, Exploring Creating with General Science. For math, he will be going through Teaching Textbook Pre-Algebra. We LOVE Teaching Textbooks and HIGHLY recommend them!!!!!

Justus (10) and Elias (8) will be doing much of their work together this year.

We’ll be studying American History with them (from Civil War era to present) using Sonlight’s Level 4 Books. I remember studying these with Asa a few years ago, so I’m really excited to revisit them with Justus and Elias!

These two boys are about on the same reading level, so I’ve put together a big shelf of Sonlight readers for them to choose from throughout the year. Ooh, such good books!!

For science, we’ll be making a monthly trip to our local science museum, where they have a special program just for home schoolers! They’ll also be going to a once-a-week science class here in town taught by a wonderful gal who really knows her science. Here and there at home, we’ll be reading through a few of these science books that I’ve purchased in years past and never got around to reading.

Elias will be finishing the last two Miquon Math books this year. Justus will be working through Teaching Textbooks 5. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Teaching Textbooks!!?!! For the older kids, it is a tremendous teaching tool!

I use Sequential Spelling with them and they work through MCP Phonics books.

sequential spelling

Whatwe do with ALL four boys together (well, Malachi is hit and miss with some of this!):

Grammar Ace – These activities are simple and fun. (When asked to make a list of nouns, one of my boys wrote “boogers”. It was a proud moment.) Grammar Ace goes along with the School House Rock DVD, which is so much fun and is bringing back so many memories for me! (“Conjuntion Junction, what’s your function” – remember?!)

grammar_ace

Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad – I’ve pretty much been TERRIBLE in the past about making time for art lessons with the boys. Sonlight recommened Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad…I got it, along with a nice sketch pad and some pencils for each boy and we are all learning to draw together. (By all, I mean all. Mom is learning too because up until now I have had NO artistic ability. Hand Mama Mark Kistler’s book and give her her very own sketch pad!)

draw squad

Bible – I don’t know why I’m mentioning the most important part last. ;) We read the Bible together at breakfast time (currently reading through the book of Matthew). In addition, I read a section of Why Pray? each morning and we discuss it a little bit. It is AWESOME that the boys are old enough to have thoughtful Bible discussions now. (Which sometimes ends with, “Mom can I have more french toast?” But still.)

I’m sure I forgot something off of our list. What are your kids studying this year?

I’ll try to take time this week to tell you more about our schedule and what our school days look like. Because yes, we sort of have a schedule. Sometimes.

I thought I’d take a little time to share with you some of the things we’re doing for school this year with each of our boys. We’re working hard around here, gearing up for a new school year. I figure I need to organize my thoughts and plans anyway…I may as well type them out here and bore you with all the details. Or excite you with the possibilities. Or a little bit of both. ;)

I’ll start with Malachi, our littlest guy who will officially begin kindergarten this year. Of all my boys, he’s the one I’ve done the least “formal schooling” with because there simply hasn’t been time. (Or I haven’t made the time.) Want to know a little secret? It doesn’t matter. He does not appear to be suffering any damage from the fact that I was rarely able to sit down and talk about colors and shapes with him. He has somehow learned many of these lessons with or without me as he’s hung out with his brothers while they were learning.

malachi_cowboy_costume

And yet, I feel that it is important for me to begin to work with Malachi one-on-one for a little bit each day now that he is showing interest in learning to read and do math. In fact, he began to show so much interest in reading early in the summer that I pulled out my very favorite book and started teaching him to read!! Three cheers for getting a head start on the school year with Malachi!! We’ve started going through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Malachi is SO eager and doing SO well, that we’re already on Lesson 48! I’m so thankful that reading seems to be coming easily for him….and can I just give a big shout out for Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons?!

read

This is the book I’ve used to teach all four of my boys to read and I just LOVE it. It doesn’t work for everyone, but somehow it has worked for all of our children. It’s simple, the lessons take just a few minutes to work through, and they are so easy for the parent to guide the child toward reading. The child usually sees success within the first few lessons as they learn to put simple words together. Confidence grows because suddenly they have figured out how to put letter sounds together to make a word!! Oooh, I love those light bulb moments!

Once we work our way through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, I’ll pull out our collection of Bob Books for him to work through.

For math, I’m going to try going through the first Miquon Math book with him. I’ve loved the Miquon Math books for the early grades, simply because they teach math in a way that makes sense. It may appear to be a little bit backward compared to they way we normally see math taught…but it helps the child understand the concepts. I love it.

Beyond reading and math…I’ll be reading some great read-alouds to Malachi and doing some phonics lessons using Explode the Code books.

AND…we’re very excited because we’ll be using Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve with Malachi (and the whole family) as we pick someone to serve each week, working our way through the alphabet. I’ll be buying Malachi a little notebook so that we can journal about who we serve and what we did. We’ll also be working through the memory verses in the kit and doing various other activities mentioned. I’m so excited to revisit this, since the last time we did something this thorough with our alphabet service was when Justus was three. Justus is ten now. Wow. :)

That about wraps up Malachi’s school year plans. Stay tuned to hear what Elias, Justus and Asa will be working on. And while I’m at it, I may as well “type out loud” as I figure out a schedule for this year. Because somehow, we will get it all done. Or not. Or whatever. ;)

Homeschool Hubbub: Our Eight, Ten and Thirteen Year Olds

Homeschool Hubbub: Our Five Year Old