Homeschooling

Logic of English: Foundations (Review Continued on Line Upon Line)

Published on February 27, 2013 | 3 Responses

A few weeks ago, I overheard my kindergartner talking to his baby sister.

“Are you an i, u, v, or j?” he was saying in his sweetest voice. “Because if you are, you cannot come at the end of an English word!”

This he repeated a few times over the next few minutes as he played with her toys, talked to her, and otherwise engaged in his own world of play with his sister, who was just delighted that he was nearby.

Apparently, my son internalized one of the most recent spelling rules we learned far more than I had realized. We had reviewed the rule a few mornings before this event. The manual had suggested repeating the rule in a “silly” voice and then again in another voice. I thought that was ridiculous, but I did that with my son anyway. And then, days later, he was repeating the rule to his sister without even realizing he was rehearsing his English lesson.

I will be posting more about my homeschooling curriculum on my new homeschooling blog, Line upon line.

See the rest of my review (to lesson 60) of Logic of English there.

Introducing… Picture Book Learning and More at My Store at Teachers Pay Teachers

Published on January 28, 2013 | Leave a response

I feel that, in many ways, my blog is transforming yet again. For a while, I was an eclectic book blogger, blogging about everything from the new releases to the oldest of classics. Then, I focused on classics almost exclusively. For the past year, I’ve been reading a lot of history books, but I’m still getting my classics read and reviewed. I still love the classics first and foremost.

You other book bloggers may have noticed my presence has decreased significantly in the book blog world. So much is happening right now in my life, and it has been like this since my dear little Strawberry was born nearly a year ago! Wow. Amazing how quickly a year passes by. I still intend to keep this blog a reading blog, highlighting the books I’ve been reading, both fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature (from picture books to the occasional young adult). But there is so much more to my world these days that I can’t avoid letting some of it slip in.

Part of that will be occasional mentions about what I’m working on for homeschooling. You’ve seen my children’s picture book mentions that relate to what my son is learning: I have also been busy working some of the games and activities that Raisin and I have enjoyed into products that would also work for teachers in a classroom or other homeschooling parent.

My store at Teachers Pay Teachers has seven products so far, three of which are free. I hope to keep adding more products as the weeks pass, mostly because I am enjoying the challenge (yay for design!) but also because I have created many products for my son already that I think I can rework for a larger group and other people.

One project that I have been thinking of for months is teaching about poetry through classic picture books. The first in that series is up in my store (Introduction to Rhythm) and the second (Introduction to Rhyme) is in progress. I also have a unit on Paul Bunyan based on some favorite picture books.

So far, I love the design aspect, and I’ve had some success in the past two weeks since I joined the site. If you are a public or homeschooling teacher, I’d love to hear if these products help you. Also, what are you looking for to make your teaching easier? I’d love to create new lesson plans that could be of use to you.

Logic of English Foundations

Published on December 17, 2012 | 4 Responses

Raisin and I are only done with a little more than 40 of the lessons for the Kindergarten language arts program Logic of English Foundations. However, he enjoys it so much that I feel it is time I discussed it briefly on this blog.

LoE Foundations is an “all in one” language arts for 4-6 year old homeschool teachers or classroom teachers. Beginning with phonics, Foundations teaches children to read, to write (both a manuscript and a cursive instructional workbook are available for the handwriting instruction), and to grasp the basics of spelling. So far, I have not encountered any grammatical instruction or lessons on the mechanics of writing but neither of those are typically included in a kindergarten level program, I don’t believe. The program is to have about 180 lessons. After the first 40, students have learned how to write the 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet and can successfully read a large number of words by sounding out the phonograms. (more…)

Apps for Android: Mantano Reader

Published on November 12, 2012 | 3 Responses

Yes, this is primarily a books blog, but I’m finding that I am using other media, be it ebooks, audio, video, or even digital and pocket-held games, more frequently. It may happen that I go a day without opening a physical book for myself, but I won’t pass a day without reading something, it just might be via my nook or an audiobook, etc.

As I begin my homeschool journey, I’ve been searching for apps to help me. But I am one of those people without Apple products, and many of the posts on apps for kids relate to iPad. Today I want to talk about the Reader app I’ve enjoyed the most. I use this for myself, not just for homeschooling! It’s my most essential app on my tablet! (more…)