Turkish Delight from the Chronicles of Narnia

Mija has been reading The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time. She's watched the movies before, but this is the first time she's reading it on her own. 

We have been using The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Study Guide by Total Language Plus. I like TLP because it includes reading, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. I think subject integration is awesome (and easier!) It also includes projects to include to add to the study.  

Well, one of the project, of course, deals with Turkish Delight! We determined to find out what it is and possibly how to make it. We found found Nerdy Nummies really helped with this. Nerdy Nummies is hosted by Rosanna Pansino. She develops recipes based on books, movies, tv shows and more, so we were pleasantly surprised when we found the one for turkish delight!  
Here's her video:


Mija has been on an episode viewing spree since we discovered it!

Yes, I've included some affiliate links for the products I've mentioned. 

Friday Funny--Spelling Rules

Spelling rules have been around for a long time.

From Classical to Eclectic Classical--What we are doing this school year

 When started our home education journey, we were classical all the way. We had planned what curriculum and resources we were going to use. 

Woody Allen got one thing right when he said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans."

After dealing with my husband's two years of unemployment and our continued financial challenges, we still see classical as our philosophy, but have learned to use whatever God provides to accomplish it.

Hence, we have become "eclectic classical".

Here is what we are using this year to accomplish this.


Math: Because of my blog, I was able to get a free year of this math program to review. Here's the link to the review. 

Language, Literature & Spelling: We are going to be using K12 curriculum we received for free. You can't beat free and on the whole I like what I see. Language will continue with grammar and writing book reports. Spelling breaks the lists up into those words which follow a spelling rule, words from a base word, and words with a specific prefix or suffix. Literature will be covering introducing classics like Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels. All it all, the basics I want covered will be covered, and I can still adjust as I deem necessary. 

History: The Story of the World: Volume 4 will be our 
world history. I had purchased the whole kit and caboodle of the four volumes and activity books, so we will finish using them. We have so enjoyed how history has been shown as an ongoing story through the series. I'll be looking for a more specific Christian worldview in the next history we use.

Science, Art, Music: I found a great free curriculum which I was going to use for almost everything but now only these subjects (and probably Bible). Easy Peasy---All in one Homeschool is just that. It's easy. It covers everything (although a little weak in spelling). It's online and IT'S TOTALLY FREE. There is even a Facebook support group. We are going to be following Year 4. 

Told you. We're eclectic! What are you going to be using this year?

 

To Bee or not to Bee...various Bees & Bowls I've heard of

There are actually many different bees around. I thought I'd share a few. 

Of course, there is the Scripps National Spelling Bee.--Registration and local bees happening now.

National Bible Bee--During the summer

National Geographic Bee--School bees going on now

National History Bee--Registration going on now.

Numbers Bee--online math tournament

How about some Bowls?

National Science Bowl

National History Bowl

Bible Bowl

Do you know of any Bees or Bowls I've missed? Please share!

Slpelnig Is Not Taht Ipmrontat.---Post about spelling review

Picture courtesy of Home Educating Family Blog

Today's my day at Home Educating Family Blog! It's about spelling review.

Hvae you seen tihs bforee? As lnog as the fsrit and lsat lterers are in the smae palce, you can siltl raed waht is witretn.

Cool. Huh? Even if that fact is true, we cannot let spelling slide. Spelling is important, and spell check is nice, but definitely not reliable. We must trudge through teaching and reviewing spelling. I suppose the use of the word “trudge” gives you an idea of my feelings about spelling. I had to work hard to do well in spelling when I was in school. I remember the hours I spent copying the words over and over in class and the hours (literally) I spent drilling the words the night before the test.

Finish reading the rest HERE.

  

Friday Funny--Spelling Bee 2.0

FYI--The real Scripps National Spelling Bee will be May 30-31.

Board Games--Scrabble

Board games are great. Besides providing fun, family time, they also are great learning activities. Of course, what's really cool, is that it's undercover learning!
Mija really enjoys Scrabble. She has gets better each time we play and asks less frequently for help.

Besides the obvious spelling practice, Scrabble can increase vocabulary and math.  Currently, since mija is still learning to develop the words, we haven't been keeping score, but there will be a lot of great math we'll do when we start! There's the obvious addition, but then there is doubling and tripling.  And if it's double or triple letter, you actually have to do a little algebra by doing some multiplying before adding.

I'll add a personal note. Playing Scrabble with mija on this board is very special to me. You see, this is the same Scrabble set I played on when I first started playing Scrabble. I would play with my grandma. Wouldn't it be cool if someday mija uses the same board to play with her children!

Linked to:
  

World Math Day--March 7, 2012

We really like World Math Day and the Mathletics website.  I shared about it a couple of years ago HERE.  It's designed for ages 4-18.  This year, they are even adding an adult age category!


You compete in 60 second rounds against either the computer or other players from around the world.  To me, that is one of the coolest parts.  During the day, you usually run into players from the States or Canada, but later in the day and evening, you start playing Australians and Chinese students!  It's run to learn geography and math at the same time.


I can also say that this is the one math site of which mija never grows tired!  The practice month and World Math Day are free.  The practice month starts today, February 1, but you can start anytime this month or only for the World Math Day.  I suggest using it for all its worth while it's free!  A couple of days after World Math Day, the site will return to being fee based.  They do, however, usually offer a nice discount to those who participated in World Math Day.


Something new they are also doing is World Spelling Day on March 6th.  We've never done that before, but all the information about it looks similar.  Practice sign up for that starts today, Feb. 1, as well.  We might try that this year, too.


Come join the fun!  Who knows?  Maybe we'll all end up playing together!

Spelling is a "favret"

You know, timing can be so "timely!"

Today, mija was having trouble with the word favorite.  She kept spelling it favret.  I explained to her that it was because she wasn't pronouncing it correctly and tried to have her repeat it correctly with me several times to get it drilled into her head.  (We'll find out tomorrow if it helped!)


It's a berry laying on its side...
It's a LIE-BERRY!!



 It reminded me of this little girl I used to watch.  She really liked going to the lieberry.  After a few visits to the library when I would purposely exaggerate pronouncing the word, she finally got it.

Sometimes, it's just part of growing into their language.  However, I think a lot of times it's because WE have been lazy in our speech.  After all, they learned how to speak from us!

I finished talking to mija about favret, got online to check my email and TADA! AllAboutLearningPress.com had an article entitled How to Improve Spelling with Correct Pronunciation.

See what I mean about timing? It wasn't in FebUary or on Wensday.  It was right after one of our favret subjects!  Spelling! 
;-)

Some Math resources from Maria's Math Newsletter

I always enjoy receiving Maria's Math Newsletter.  You can sign up for yourself here.  I wanted to share a few of her tidbits from this month's newsletter.



Math Stars Newsletters (Grades 1-8)

"These newsletters have different kinds of puzzles and good word problems, including challenging ones. I'm currently using them with both of my girls as a once-a-week math enrichment material, and I can highly recommend them!"
This really looks cool.  If it weren't so late in the year, I'd definitely try them out.  I guess I'll have to wait until fall!

Decimal Videos
Maria makes great videos.  This entry from her blog had videos of adding and subtracting decimals, multiply decimals by whole numbers, and divide decimals using mental math.  If you want to check out some of her other math videos, you can go to her Youtube page at Math Mammoth Youtube channel. 
 
I've personally mentioned Spelling City before.  Here's Maria's thoughts on it...
 
Would you like to help children with their math vocabulary? SpellingCity has built a resource to address this: Math vocabulary spelling lists.
 
If you don't know SpellingCity, no matter what kind of spelling list you use, you can always practice the words in many ways: either just simple practice AND with several different games: MatchIt Sentences, Which Word (find which word correctly completes the sentence), sentence unscramble, hang mouse, word search, word unscramble, etc. Can't even list them all.

I did get a warning from one user that the definitions for high school math vocabulary were not up-to-par (for example, listing an ellipse as "a shape resembling an oval").

Spelling City Here I Come

Homeschool.com sends out emails all the time with a variety of things offered.  This time I really looked and am pleasantly surprised.

"No cost" was what caught my eye and made me open the email.  The actual website made me stay. 

I think SpellingCity.com will become part of my regular arsenal.  You can enter and save your own spelling lists which makes it a really useful addition.  You can even select which definition of a word you would like to use.  There are a selection of games and activities your student can play using the words.  Some focus on the meaning and some focus on the spelling with games such as hang man, crossword, and word search.  There's 15 games all together.

I think the one my daughter spent the most time on was "audio word match."  It's basically a concentration game using the spelling words.  The audio aspect is that when you select a word you hear it spoken. 

You can even take the spelling test on the site.  I'm not going to use this right now because I want to make sure I grade spelling and not keyboarding skills. 

All this and more are available for free.  A premium membership will allow you access to more games and actually keep spelling records on the site.  I don't see that it would be a necessary expense in order to use the site productively. 

Two "downers" about the site.  First, you get a lot for free which means a lot of advertising.  It can be very easy to think you're accessing something on the site and find yourself somewhere else.  The second "downer" is that in order to review a whole spelling list, you have to play a game a few times.  Not a big deal if especially if you're not depending on the games to do all the review.

Reviewing Spelling

I'm always looking for ways to review spelling words other than the traditional copying on paper or oral "bee".  There is nothing wrong with this time proven methods that can address both visual and auditory learners, but neither really addresses a kinesthetic/tactile learner.  [Side note: Being able spell words orally and being able to write words down are actually two different skills.  Just because your student can do one well, doesn't mean automatically he/she can do the other.  Use both.  You'll see more reason to do this in the study below.]

A kinesthetic or tactile learner is one who learns through touching and movement.  In all my years of teaching, I find this learning style usual the most difficult to incorporate while teaching.  However, I know that the more, learning methods you use, the more you actually remember, so even if your child isn't a kinesthetic/tactile learner, he or she can still benefit from adding this aspect.

A study done at the University of Texas found that people remember:

10 percent of what they read;
20 percent of what they hear;
30 percent of what they see;
50 percent of what they see and hear;
70 percent of what they say; and
90 percent of what they do and say

In fact, if you've seen the movie Akeelah and the Bee (and if you haven't, you should), Professor Larabee adds kinesthetic learning to Akeelah's memorization when he has her jump rope as she memorizes her words.

All this to share just a few different ways I've had my daughter study her spelling words the past few weeks.

 She thinks it's fun to "be" the letters.  She makes her body into the letter shape as she orally spells out each word.  OK, so sometimes the letter shapes get a little abstract, but it does make her focus more on each letter as she spells the words.

Another thing I did (of which I didn't take pictures) is to write in shaving cream.  I sprayed some plain white shaving cream and had her write her words in it.  I attempted to keep most of the shaving cream on a plastic place mat to aid in clean up.  This is actually a fun activity on many levels.  I've used this for PKs to write the letters, numbers or shapes.  You can also use it for math facts, for instance.  Pretty much anything you can write on paper, you can write in shaving cream.

I also had her type her spelling words into her "blog."   You could also just do this on a word document.  Since she's not "fluent" in keyboarding, the hunt and peck method makes her focus more on each letter of the word as she types it in.  Obviously, it also starts to get her working on computer skills.

Today, we went outside for spelling.  I had her write her spelling words with sidewalk chalk on the sidewalk.  Again, plenty of movement and fun.  I made sure she did them in a column, so we didn't have chalk all over our clothes when we came back inside.

 



So, those are just a few of the things I've been doing.  I'd love to hear additional ideas, so if you're reading this, please share your ideas in the comment, so others can benefit in addition to me.

Spelling ideas

Have students creat acrostics for their spelling words (their--Tom has everyone illustrating rainbows.)

Have students make spelling snakes by listing words that are linked by beginning and ending letters (number-rainy-yesterday, etc).

Make a set of laminated blank cards in shapes relating to unit themes such as whales, hands, etc.  For each new spelling unit, write the words on the cards to use in your own versions of games like concentration, go fish, or pictionary.

Spelling Practice Ideas

Found this wonderful list of spelling practice ideas from http://www.msrossbec.com/spelling_index.html. I'm just going to list some of the ones I think would work easier for a homeschooler. Go to the list to see them all including a list of spelling words for first grade.

• Spell words with alphabet macaroni (can be glued to paper) or alphabets cereal (yummy to eat!).
• Spell words with magnetic letters on cookie sheets.
  
• Use alphabet stamps and let them stamp out their words on paper.
  
• Squirt a bit of shaving cream on their desks and allow them to write their words.
  
• Cut letters from magazines or newspaper to spell the words.
• Make a wordsearch or crossword puzzle at Puzzlemaker.com with the spelling words.
  
• Fun Pens: students copy the words in "fun pens". You can find them at the Dollar Store or Walgreens. They light up, or are wiggly, or gooey, etc.
  
• 30 Second Words: Students fold paper in quarters. Write the spelling word in one corner of the corner. The teacher gives the students 30 seconds to write the word as many times as they can.
  

A Work in Progress

It's interesting being a home school teacher because I can notice steps of growth more closely than I did even as a classroom teacher. In the classroom, the curriculum dictated to a great degree what I was to teach and when I was to teach it, so monitoring the individual students growth was often set aside as I evaluated if the class as a whole was prepared for the next step. I can honestly say I wasn't as aware of doing this then as now that I only have one student on which to focus.

Narration is a big part of the Classical Education concept, so starting even last year with FIAR there are many times that after reading something I ask Micki to tell me what it was about and then I write down what she dictates to me. I usually try to use her handwriting paper and her penmanship style so as a way to review penmanship skills with her. Another nice aspect is a little less hands on work for me! :-) Win-win!

The next step was for me to write down things and for her to copy them onto her paper. This started with simple things like labeling items & spelling words to more "extensive" things like notes. I usually write things on a small white board using her penmanship style. Sometimes I will even erase items as she completes it or only write one sentence or word at a time, so she doesn't feel quite so overwhelmed.

Just within the last few weeks, Micki has made a nice big jump. She has thank you notes to write for her birthday, so I thought I'd see how well she did writing them straight from brain to paper. I was right beside her assisting in sounding out words as need. I always knew I could pull out the white board if it was too much, but she was ready for the challenge.

It was really cool to see her put various tasks she had learned to use. She knew how to spell and write many words especially sight/Dolch words from memory. Some may think this is not that big of a deal, but it is. Being able to spell a word orally is a different skill than being able to write the same word. That's why writing spelling words over and over again may be helpful to remember them for a written spelling test but not as helpful for a spelling bee.

She also did a great job sounding out words that she didn't recall from memory such as "gifts" or "present." It was encouraging to hear my 5 year old say, "OK, end of sentence, so I need a peradid [Micki speak for period]."

So, this means that I will be turning more and more writing over to her. Not all at once by any means, especially since she's only 5 and doing 5th grade work, but definitely giving her more opportunities to grow in personal writing skills beyond just penmanship.