Tomorrow's plans and a few recommendations

I know I've talked about this on my other blog, and now it's time to shout the good news on this one.

I love, love, LOVE Sue Patrick's Workbox System. In a nutshell, it is a system that allows you show a child all of their work for the day in one fell swoop. They can clearly see what is expected of them, where the fun things are, where the challenging things are, and they can see how much of it they have left. This little description doesn't do justice to the system, though.

We've been doing the workbox system since we started school in August, and it has made a huge difference in the amount of work we get done, the cooperation levels, and the kids' excitement for what they are doing. Also, it keeps me organized, and that is crucial! I couldn't do what I do without it.

I wanted to share what we're doing tomorrow because I'm so excited about it. It's not really anything different from what we do anyway, but it's just so satisfying knowing that I'm helping my kids learn such great stuff everyday.

Just so you know, if you're new to my blogs, each of my kids has 12 workboxes. It may seem like an awful lot, but they certainly fill up fast!

Spencer

1 - History - read Genesis 6:5-20 and narrate (This is challenging for Spencer because his reading comprehension skills are so low. PDD and it's attendant challenges make processing information difficult, but I'm sure that he'll get better at it with practice.)

2 - Science - We're decorating the covers of their science notebooks today. Our science stuff is coming from 106 Days of Creation from my favorite Charlotte Mason website. I love the fact that so many different facets of science will be presented in the context of the creation. Over the course of the next year or so, we'll cover light, color, atmosphere, weather, geology, plants, astronomy, animals, the human body, and health. I think it'll be fun, and a really good foundation in science.

3 - Book of Mormon - I'm having each of the kids who can read already read a few verses each day. I remember watching my sister learn to read during family scripture study when we were kids, and I want that for my kids. Besides, if they can read the scriptures, they can read anything!

4 - Scripture memory - We'll start learning Moses 7:18, and practice Moses 1:39, which we learned last week.

5 - Charlotte's Web - I think one of the best ways to help kids learn to love good literature is to expose them to it early. What better way to do that than have them practice their reading in good books?

6 - Poetry - We're going to start work on memorizing Robert Louis Stevenson's 'My Shadow." Charlotte Mason believed that a child's brain craves the opportunity to memorize and recite, and can start doing it at an early age. Spence has already proven he is perfectly capable of recitation; now I want it to be something more useful. ;)

7 - Copywork - This is another area where Spence struggles, but he's getting better. He's going to start copying "My Shadow," which hopefully will reinforce the memorization.

8 - Math - I've decided to go almost back to the beginning with him in math because I'm so confused about what he does and does not really, truly know. Charlotte Mason advocates doing math with manipulatives in the early years to help kids understand math from a concrete perspective, rather than a mostly abstract one. We're doing RightStart math with all three boys. All of them are in the same book; they're just starting at different places.

9 - Reading - I'm going to read "Stone Soup" to him and he'll narrate it back to me. Charlotte Mason is BIG into narration, and again I'm hoping this will help with his reading, and listening, comprehension. It certainly can't hurt!

10 - Reading - He's going read the poem "Rover" from the 3rd McGuffey Reader. I checked them out from the library, but I can already tell that I need to own them!

11 - Piano practice

12 - Handicrafts - Charlotte Mason advocates teaching children things they can do with their hands and learn to be proficient at. If there is anything that I am perfectly qualified to teach, it is sewing! I think I'm going to start by having Spencer learn how to sew buttons on fabric. We'll start slowly, and work up to bigger and better things.

For together time, we're going to start reading "The Children's Life of the Bee" by Maurice Maeterlink. It's from Interlibrary Loan and we can't renew it, so we'll have to read fast!

David

The first 4 boxes are the same as Spencer's

1 - History

2 - Science

3 - Book of Mormon

4 - Scripture Memory

5 - Reading lesson - I love "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." I'm using it for both David and Drew, though they are in different parts of the book. It is a basic, no-frills, easy to understand and implement reading program, and it is working great for our family.

6 - Reading - He's going to read from McGuffey's 1st Reader.

7 - Poetry - We're studying Robert Louis Stevenson, and I'm going to read "The Land of Story Books" to him.

8 - Copywork - David is doing very well in this area. His copywork will be 4 short scriptures that I picked out for him.

9 - Math - Same book as Spence, just a few lessons behind.

10 - Reading - I'm going to read "Katy and the Big Snow" by Virginia Burton and "A Butterfly's Life" by I-can't-remember.

11 - Cursive practice - The other day David asked me to teach him cursive. I told him that he could learn one of two ways: the D'Nealian method which would be easier and have him writing in cursive sooner or the Spencerian method which would take longer, but help him have truly beautiful handwriting. He chose the Spencerian method and is starting to work through some copybooks I have. I'm impressed! At this point he's still practicing strokes, but eventually he'll learn to write the letters and have beautiful penmanship.

12 - Piano practice

Again, we'll be reading "Bee" together and I'll be beginning to teach him sewing, too.

Drew

He is just starting Pre-K/Kindergarten. I'm not making much of a distinction, and honestly I'm leaning towards Kindergarten. Some of his work is similar to the other boys', but most is different.

1 - History

2 - Science

3 - Book of Mormon - At this point I'm doing all the reading.

4 - Scripture Memory

5 - Reading lesson - Same as David, just nearer to the beginning of the book. He's doing VERY well!

6 - Reading - I'll be reading "The Little House" by Virginia Burton. I've loved this story since I was a small child, and I'm thrilled to be able to share it with him.

7 - Reading - I'm reading a Magic School Bus book on volcanoes to him. He is fascinated with volcanoes and lava, so I'm indulging him.

8 - Poetry - I'm reading him some nursery rhymes that I loved when I was small. We had these great books when I was growing up called "The World Treasury of Children's Literature." I read them constantly, and I bought them for the kids last year. Love them!

9 - Writing - He's practicing G, H, and I in capital letters.

10 - Math

11 - Letter practice - A friend recently gave us the Hooked on Phonics stuff, and so we're using it as supplemental material to our other reading lessons.

12 - Piano practice

Again, we'll read "Bee" and start on sewing for him.

I'm excited about all this, and though it may seem like an enormous amount of stuff to do, the kids get through it in a reasonable amount of time and enjoy it, too.

I hope you all have a fantastic day tomorrow. I know we will!