Science Picture Books for Kindergarten

We came across some pretty cool Nature Study/Science picture books that I read to Julia throughout this last Kindergarten year, and I thought I would share them here, as I am always on the lookout for good, living books. Here they are, in no particular order:

A Look Back on Our Year with Ambleside Online

I feel like this year was a big year for me, with having three official students (one of those being in high school) and pre-schooling twins. I'm not sure how the year managed to fly by, but it did and we have closed up the books. There have been so many good books floating on and off the shelves and it makes me sad to think that some of these won't be opened again for a long time. Thankfully, I have some young kids to cycle through all these old friends and I look forward to reading with them in the future. 

What We've Been Up To

It's super easy to get discouraged by other's progress and that isn't what this post is supposed to do... but instead, to encourage all you moms who are just quietly working each day with one or two or more children. All that consistent work each day really adds up. We're feeling cooped up, like everyone else in the world, but we are working on being kind, doing our best work, and habit training. I thought I'd share a peek in pictures of the past few weeks.

We just finished the MEP Reception year!

A Look Back at Term 1

We finished Term 1 yesterday! I feel like we need to have balloons and confetti! :) It was a long term, for a variety of reasons but looking back, I can see that we accomplished SO much! 

Planning 7th grade with Ambleside Online

And now it's time for the 7th grade plans! This was probably the easiest year to plan out of the three girls, because it is a lot of repetition from when Kailyn worked through AO Year 7. Louisa is a bit different, of course, as all our children are and I did adjust a few things because of that. 

Planning 9th Grade with Ambleside Online

We are officially entering the high school years at our house with K! We will be using Year 9 in Ambleside Online, adjusted to meet her needs. It's no joke that there is quite a bit of extra planning needed in preparation for these upper years! I found myself quite overwhelmed at times and am hoping I haven't overdone it with the book load, but we can always cut back and move things around if she finds it too much work. This daughter is a high achiever and loves to learn about such a variety of things that I think she will really enjoy the books and still continue to read in her spare time :). 

Reflections on Y6 and Y8 with Ambleside Online

I can't quite wrap my mind around it, but we are done with school! We just finished Year 6 and Year 8 with Ambleside Online and it was fabulous. I feel like I also learned a ton, right alongside them!

Watercolor Narrations from Y6 & Y8 over the past few weeks

Homeschool Quarantine Update

We almost died... thanks to quarantine stress. I kid but not really. 

The beginning of April was rough - the stress was coming from all sides (church ministry, homeschooling and life as a family) and suddenly, I just couldn't handle it anymore so we took a much needed break... it ended up being a two week break and it was definitely worth it. We did a lot of outside playing, spring cleaning, celebrated the twins turning three years old and had hours of reading for fun. The older girls did some drawing, composing and writing, too. Now, we are back at it and just have a few weeks left of our school year!

Circle Time Plans 2019

Circle Time is where we gather around and enjoy school together! This is probably one of my favorite times because it includes all the riches and extras that make homeschool unique and special. We essentially have two Circle Times here because it makes sense to utilize naptime for things that require more concentration and quiet-- if you know what I mean.

Planning Year 6 (Form II)

And now we are getting to Louisa and all the wonderful books in store for her. When I look at the curriculum lists for my girls, I am kind of in awe of all the learning they get to do! What a privilege to learn with real, living books and ENJOY learning all the while!

So, here are the plans for Year 6 - this is all thanks to Ambleside Online, with a few tweaks here and there specific to Louisa.

Planning Year 8 (Form III)

It's that time of year where the planning is in earnest! How am I typing Year 8?! I really am amazed that we have made it this far... when we very first started homeschooling, my thought was to take it a year at a time and don't commit for the rest of our lives but now I don't see any other way for our family. It really is a blessing despite the challenge of five children and all the work it takes to make it happen smoothly.

2018-19 in review

The girls had a very successful year and completed Years 5 and 7 with Ambleside Online! After posting my last review of the previous year, I feel much less frazzled and overall much happier with how the year turned out compared to last year this time.

For our Circle Time sessions in the morning, I had set out to accomplish quite a bit but it took me an entire term to realize that it was not going to work with the younger kids needing so much attention. I was listening to a podcast or reading something that reminded me that the younger kids are just as much a part of our school as the older ones who are actually doing the work. It's not like I can expect them to sit still for long or explain to them why they need to be quiet, so instead of fighting with the situation in frustration, we made a switch that saved our school from extinction. We included the younger kids as much as we possibly could. I didn't really want to give up my quiet time during the afternoon nap but it was the only way we could make progress and make it all work. 

S

A Look Back at Form II

I have neglected our poor homeschool blog for too long and recently found this post that I had compiled last year around this time, but never actually hit "Publish!" So, I am posting it now, especially because it is encouraging to me (a year later) as we have made some good progress on quite a few things that I was up in the air about or unsure of! I plan to do another similar post for this past year too and will definitely try to be more consistent in posting here!!!

**FYI: Form II is grades 4-6, usually ages 4-12 (sometimes over 12)

We finished our school year at the beginning of June, but I thought I should write a review here for my sake. We followed AO almost entirely but did make a few adjustments here or there...

Ordinary Things

"The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children. "

I recently read this quote by G.K. Chesterton and thought how appropriately this applies to our ordinary, everyday, homeschooling lives. We don't get to see flashy test scores or receive standing ovations or applause from a crowd for being faithful in little things but these little things do add up over time and I think we all need to be encouraged to be faithful.

Year 5 Planning

So, here are my Year 5 plans for 2016-17! So glad to be finished!!!! It's such a relief to know I have every day planned out and that I don't have to think any more about curriculum!

For Bible, as explained with my last Year 3 post, we are going to finish our Picture Smart Bible survey and then start reading through Bruce Ware's book. We'll also be reading from the OT & NT 4 days of the week. They will also have personal Bible reading/devotional time in the afternoons or evenings.

Math- Horizons Math, book 5

History- Ambleside Year 5

Geography- Ambleside Year 5

Shakespeare- We'll be reading Twelfth Night, As You Like It and Comedy of Errors.

Natural History (Science)- Like I mentioned in the previous post, I have given much consideration and thought to the science approach, and am going to veer away from AO (not completely) and follow what Nicole recommends over on her blog. I am actually using her brand new elementary science (Astronomy) for Term 1. For Term 2, we are going to study Engineering using this book (I think Kailyn will really like this one):

For Term 3, we will be studying Weather, using this great book by Eric Sloane:

 We will also be reading books on our specific special studies and trying to do consistent experiments/object lessons.

I am still keeping the Nature Lore book that AO has chosen (The Christian Nature Science Reader 5) and will have Kailyn still read through Great Inventors and their Inventions. She will also be reading Wild Animals I Have Known during her free reading time.

Bible Memory- Together we will be memorizing 1 John chapter 3, Psalm 8, The Nicene Creed and 1 Peter chapter 1.

Literature- Ambleside Year 5

Grammar- Simply Charlotte Mason's Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well. We'll also be doing regular dictation exercises.

Poetry- Ambleside Year 5

Foreign Language- we used this book for Latin last year and still have quite a few lessons to work through.

 We'll also be learning Spanish together (both girls) during Circle Time. I found this book (Spanish in 10 minutes a day) for $1 at a book sale that I plan to start with and then supplement with other online resources.

 

I am also looking at Speekee-Spanish for kids. It's a rather inexpensive monthly subscription and looks to be decent.

Nature Journaling - we'll be continuing this but more like the suggestions of scientific observation from John Muir Laws book.

 

This is such a cool book. Highly recommend it if you want to get you or your kids started with nature journaling. I am now realizing what a proper nature journal should be and how closely tied to science it is. He offers free lesson plans on his website as well that I want to try and implement once a week or so.

Composer Study- We'll be studying George F. Handel, Amadeus Mozart and Frederic Chopin.

Artist Study- We'll be studying Leonardo da Vinci, John Constable and Edgar Degas.

Hymn Singing- I listed all our hymns for 2016-17 in the previous post. Basically one hymn a month.

Folksong- We'll be going back to our American Folk Song book and continuing to work our way through it. The girls get such a kick out of those old songs. Their personal favorite is "Greensleeves." :)

That wraps up Year 5 planning for 2016-17... we'll be starting soon!

Year 3 Planning

I'm just about done with planning for the 2016-17 school year!!! Yay!!! My girls will be following Ambleside Online's Years 3 and 5 pretty closely. I am making a few minor (and some major) changes and am looking forward to sharing how it has all worked out. If you're not a homeschooling mom... feel free to tune out at this point... no offense will be taken :)

These are my plans for Year 3:

Bible- We are finishing up the Picture Smart Bible survey that we started last year. Then, after we finish, we will read through Big Truths for Young Hearts that we will all read together during our Circle Time every Friday.

Math- Horizons Math . We used it last year and liked it just fine. Lots of repetition.

History- Ambleside Year 3

Geography- Ambleside Year 3 (We chose the Komroff book for our main read and will use the Freedman book as a supplement/resource)

 

 Shakespeare- We will be reading The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night and As You Like It.

Natural History (Science)- I have been listening to A Delectable Education podcast over the summer and am going to be following their suggestions for the sciences. It has caused much weeping and headaches on my part but I think I am finally content and at peace with what I have decided. Anyways, instead of doing one Nature Lore and then a science book, I am having L read two Nature Lore books all year long. If you are really curious which books I picked out, email me... otherwise just go here to pick from Nicole's fabulous list.  :) We are also adding in Special Studies books (changing from term to term and to be read in free time).

Bible Memory- Memorizing Scripture was so good last year! For this next year, I have picked 1 John chapter 3, Psalm 8 and the Nicene Creed, and lastly, 1 Peter chapter 1.  I know the Nicene Creed isn't Bible but Psalm 8 is short and I wanted to fit a creed in. :)

Literature- Ambleside Year 3

Grammar- We'll be using Spelling Wisdom & Using Language Wisely from Simply Charlotte Mason.

 

Poetry- Ambleside Year 3

Foreign Language-  Spanish! Using as many free resources as I can find.

Nature Journal- We are implementing more dry brush drawing and a more scientific approach to Nature Journaling this year. To inspire us, we are going to buy these for each of us:

Winsor Newton Sketchers Pocket Box Set

Composer Study- I've picked different composers for my girls to study than the AO rotation. For what it's worth, we chose Handel, Mozart and Chopin. I mainly picked these because I want to cover the majors before moving to the lesser known composers. I also tried to pick a famous composer from each of their time periods but that also had good, living books for us to read.

Picture Study- I've also chosen different artists for us to study this year, based on our time periods but also I tried to pick artists from the portfolio choices that Simply Charlotte Mason has provided. I chose Leonardo da Vinci, John Constable and Edgar Degas (he was not one of the portfolio options but oh well).

Hymn Singing- I have a list of hymns (different than AO) that I want the girls to learn and put them on a schedule, so the next 8 hymns we'll learn are: A Mighty Fortress is our God, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, O God our Help in Ages Past, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Praise Him, Praise Him, O Sacred Head Now Wounded, and O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.

Folksong- We have an American Folksong book that we are working our way through and we will just continue with that instead of the AO rotation.

Hope I'm not forgetting anything but I think that's it! Year 5 plans will be posted soon!

Summer break & George Washington

We have been enjoying our summer break but Louisa asked me this morning if we can start school again at the beginning of August! I was pretty surprised but she said she misses it and likes it. But, we aren't ready (I'm not ready!) to start yet. We have about four weeks left till we officially begin.

I thought I would post some pictures from a day trip we took to visit George Washington's headquarters (when we were in NJ). He wintered in Morristown, NJ over the winter of 1779. They have preserved the "mansion" he lived in (along with all his commanders and staff) and it really is beautiful.

Louisa was given the privilege of unlocking the front door so we could all enter. She had a massive key.

This was George & Martha's room

We took a peek in all the rooms and tried to imagine 40 or so people living in this little mansion. 

It was fun for Kailyn and I to tour the mansion and learn more because we had read about it during our Year 4 history readings but things like this always help history come alive.

Some things to know if you decide to visit:

• There is a great documentary video that you can watch while you are waiting for your tour to start.


• It's a National Park, so if you have a fourth grader, you can get in free!


• Parking is free.


• Tempe Wick's farmhouse is within a close driving distance and provides more living history!

Almost done!

I can't believe it's here but next week is our last week of school! It's gone by so fast! We just have four days left but they both want to continue over the summer with some sort of school. I told them we could do some light work but I think we need to enjoy the summer together! We can always do nature journaling, too. Perhaps math could be continued over the summer and possibly Latin, but we shall see.

As I've thought about our first year of homeschooling, I have realized a few things:

1. Our family is stronger. The girls have a greater appreciation for each other, because when you take away the extras (even though they are good things, like friends, and extra-curricular activities), they are more grateful for one another. Not that they don't participate in extra-curricular things (they do!) and don't have friends but I think sometimes it can be easy to focus on those things when going to school every day.


2. I daresay, my kids are smarter and have learned more! I am pretty impressed with Ambleside Online's curriculum... their website isn't anything to write home about and it probably turns some people off but if you look past that and read up on what the AO advisory team has done, then you will see the benefit of such a rigorous curriculum. The books they have chosen have been a challenge for my kids and I am so grateful since they weren't being challenged to their full capacity at their old school. Their world has been opened through reading good, quality literature and living books.


3. I am a sinful creature. My sin has never been more obvious to me than it has every day this past year of homeschooling. My weaknesses and faults are magnified when I am trying to teach and train my children. It has been very humbling and eye-opening and has taught me to cry out to the Lord on a continual basis for forgiveness and wisdom. This is one benefit I did not see coming but it has been good for me even though it is extremely hard. I didn't realize how much I would benefit from homeschooling. I was simply looking at it as a great thing for my kids but I can see how God has refined and will continue to refine me through it. Not fun, but good.

Halfway mark

I recently realized that we are halfway through our first homeschool year!!! It's gone fast! And at the same time it feels like it's been longer than that... If you know what I mean.

The hardest part has definitely been schooling with a baby who has turned into a toddler all of a sudden! A toddler who loves to be the center of attention, of course, and does not appreciate us working at the table without her. She is very cute as you can see... Especially in her pigtails...


But man, is she a distraction. The older girls are very easily distracted by her cuteness, her loudness, her naughtiness, etc. as am I and it has become my biggest challenge. I recently read of another wise homeschooling mom who said that she needed to stop viewing her babies/toddlers as a detriment to their homeschool but instead include them as much as possible. As I read it, I was thinking, "yeah right...not possible." But I have come to see that she is right and I need to include J as best I know how. Anyways, ask me at the end of the year how that went ... Not now.

In other news, we have made a few changes to our curriculum and I think it is really going to help. Ambleside Online (our Charlotte Mason curriculum) has us read a certain book (Parables of Nature-- I'm sure it's a great book!!!) for Louisa's year but it was becoming laborious and neither of us enjoyed reading it or looked forward to muddling through it. I'm sure it's a great read for many, just not for us. So, I substituted it with this book:

Among the Farmyard People, by Clara D. Pierson. It is so much better and already I love it. It is part of a series so I am looking forward to getting more in the series, too.

The changes for Kailyn were cutting out Plutarch this term because there just wasn't time for me to go over it in a thoughtful, quiet (key word here is quiet) sitting and we were already five weeks behind from when we cut it out for December/Christmas school.

Another thing... Charlotte Mason was a huge proponent of careful study and dictation. Dictation is the method of studying a selected passage (usually a paragraph) for punctuation and spelling, and then copying it down (after hearing it) in neat copy work fashion. Her ideals are reasonable, I do believe, in terms of dictation, but it just simply doesn't work for this daughter of mine. She can study a passage for 10 minutes and still spell incorrectly. She usually gets the punctuation correct but I think she is more of a hands on learner and seeing words spelled correctly or incorrectly does nothing for her. She is a very advanced reader and a very quick reader and sees words all the time, so it is more of an attention issue.

So we are back to spelling lists but done in a kinesthetic way. I am having her jump rope and spell out loud her spelling words. I am also having her tell me how many syllables a word has, and have her think of spelling in syllables. Another idea I came across is having her spell out the word with Scrabble tiles. I have also considered having her form the words in play dough and if she would do this and stay on task, I would be all for it but she is also an artist and will get distracted and want to created beautiful letters or ornate letters out of the play dough. Another one is passing a beanbag all the way around her body as she spells the word aloud. I hear this helps the brain work both sides of the brain and so better retains information.

I found a great website that I will be using for these spelling lists that incorporates Fry's 1000 most used words into grades 1-5. It's free and developed by a teacher. It also has dictation sentences that use the spelling list words for practical understanding. It's called K12Reader.com.

The last change is that I am having Kailyn listen (while reading along)to a Kindle read aloud of Kidnapped instead of us reading it as a family. We read Robinson Crusoe together as a family last term and that was great but honestly, the girls would rather play with each other or with their daddy instead. So I am assigning during her free reading time and it is going well so far.

Thoughts on our first term

Friday will be the last day of our first term homeschooling. It has gone quickly and I have some observations I wanted to make note of:

It's been more natural to homeschool than I thought it would be. This could be because I had spent so much time preparing and knowing what our days were planned out to be but it hasn't been weird or forced. I realize that when other moms tell me, "I could never do that..."  (referring to homeschooling) they think that homeschooling is on a different level than what we as moms do everyday. And it is- kind of. But the truth is that we are constantly teaching our children. And don't we, as mothers, teach our children about prayer, about God, how to write their name, how to count, have good table manners, tie their shoes, brush their teeth, how to get dressed, pick up their toys, etc? Don't we These mothers who say they couldn't do it don't give themselves enough credit. I was one of those mothers who never envisioned myself homeschooling but like I said, I have found it to be more natural than I thought. It's an extension of the teaching that we already do every day... just different subjects in an intentional manner!

Relationships have gotten better, not more strained. The other statement that is always followed by "I could never do that" is "I couldn't handle being with my kids all day" or "My kids would drive me nuts." Ha! Of course they drive me nuts! But the irony is that the more time I have spent with them, the better we are getting along. Before I decided to start homeschooling, one of my hesitations was that I already felt strain in one of the relationships with my kids. I thought that the decision to homeschool might hinder progress in our relationship instead of help.  The fact is, homeschooling has actually helped our relationship. I am not sure why other than the fact that we understand each other better now and have more in common. I really think she enjoys the family time together and appreciates the new learning atmosphere. She enjoys the connection with me as a mom, and as a teacher and we can appreciate the new relationship we have.

Sibling relationships are stronger. This is what I thought might happen and I am happy to say that things are improving. Don't get me wrong... it isn't all lovey-dovey around here (my kids still fight!) but the tone is definitely different than last year between the older girls. They appreciate each other more since they don't have a ton of friends to fall back on, and they get along better since they have more in common. This last point is huge.  I could sense a slight rift happening last year and a general lack of appreciation for the other sister, since they had friends at school and they were each doing their own thing (somewhat of a competition). Overall, they are more kind and thoughtful to each other and it is an improvement over previous years when they were away at school. 

Their capacity to learn and memorize is quite amazing. I am amazed at how quickly they can memorize and retain the memory work. We are two verses away from having Proverbs 3 memorized and I am so thankful we have this opportunity to do it together, the three of us. It is so much harder to try and do it during dinner time as a family since it obviously isn't the best learning environment but that's what we were trying to do when they were in regular school. But to have a regular part of our day be memory work is a blessing. They have also memorized two poems each and we are working on our third hymn being memorized (all verses!). Also, their desire to learn has grown since we have more freedom to learn and study what they want. "Education is an atmosphere", as Charlotte Mason says, and now I can see the wisdom in this statement after just a few short weeks of trying to give them that atmosphere. I hope to continue to give them resources that will encourage this learning and create an even better atmosphere of learning than we currently have, though I need to think through how.