Adventures in Mama-Land

A few new “Daily Program” additions I’m trying out as we enter what will hopefully be our first real week of school. We may not stick with all of them through the school year, but I thought they’d be valuable, and they are included in my TeacherFileBox subscription:  Daily 6-Trait Writing , Daily Science , Daily Word Problems and A Word A Day . I’m not married to any of these, so I’ll just see which Naomi likes, if any, and go from there.  If I had to pick which one was the most important, I’d say the 6-trait writing (I don’t know what the traits are).  Although Charlotte Mason doesn’t really encourage “creative” writing at this stage (narration is sufficient to ensure that they’re articulate and voicing their own thoughts), I think it’s fun to explore and pick apart the mechanics of good, vivid writing.  The exercises are low-key and only require a sentence or two of actual writing. Also new this week, the next artist in our Meet the Masters cu...

Hobbling around on two feet now – mostly without crutches!  (but also mostly sitting down…) Today was a relatively “bare-bones” school day:  JUMP math, HWT handwriting, ETC3 phonics, First Language Lessons, and then our kind-of-weekly (haven’t done one in two weeks, though!) Literature Pockets.  Happy feeling of the day – I pulled out Explode the Code and Naomi Rivka said, “Yay – phonics is FUN!”  We never ever ever ever would have gotten that reaction with Spelling Workout.  It puts my soul at ease knowing I did the right thing pulling out of that program.  And frankly, she’s learning just as much spelling, with more words and more continuity, in ETC.  Note to self:  never doubt myself again! This week’s nursery rhyme is “To Market, To Market,” for which we made yet another puppet and clearly haven’t practiced the poem enough, as you can see from the mostly-silly video of the kids rehearsing.  As much as I feel like all these puppets...

Turns out we’re doing  “school lite” because our days are so eaten-up by everything else we’re up to.  But that’s fine with me! We started with math, and I actually hauled out the rods again, because (in my opinion) the JUMP Math book didn’t go into enough detail on pairs that make five and pairs that make ten.  I want her to know these in her sleep, and we’re getting there.       Whenever we have to use the rods, I am grateful – every single time – for the free play she did with rods over several months at the beginning of last year.  Making staircases, making trains… it looks like nothing, it looks like playing around, but she KNOWS the rods like nothing else.  If I say a number, she grabs the right rod without thinking.  And she knows instinctively which ones go together to make tens and fives.  Yay for automaticity!  Once we’d worked in this for a bit, we went on to the worksheet, and she did great. She’s been doing ...

After a year of planning and evaluating various options for Year 1, it’s finally done – our super-schmancy, fine-and-dandy Complete Jewish Homeschool Curriculum!  Sort of.  It’s an ambitious list, and I’m scared I won’t be able to do it. Points to keep in mind: I’m flexible.  If something doesn’t work, I drop it – period.  Maybe pick up something else, or maybe drop the subject if it’s not a crucial one.  I am very open to this, though I think everything I’ve chosen for the year is do-able. It LOOKS ambitious, but most of it is just extensions of what we are already doing.  Nothing here will be a big surprise if you’ve been reading this blog all along. Most lessons are VERY short!  Depending on the lesson itself and Naomi Rivka’s co-operation, an average lesson is about 10-20 minutes.  Some subjects in some weeks will really involve ZERO additional minutes; they’re just books included in our regular family reading schedule.  A ...

Last week, Naomi Rivka and I read this Christina Rossetti poem from First Language Lessons: Brown and furry Caterpillar in a hurry, Take your walk To the shady leaf, or stalk, No toad spy you, Hovering bird of prey pass by you; Spin and die, To live again a butterfly. Over in the Well-Trained Mind forums, I noticed that one of the mamas commented about this poem, “I wish I didn't say-spin and die.”  I assume because DIE is a very blunt word.  But honestly, I am happy that the poem says DIE and not anything else. First because in this case, it’s a happy ending – the caterpillar emerges again as a butterfly.  But second, because that’s really what happens in nature, in the real world.  Death is all around us, and frankly, a caterpillar is a better way to learn about it than a zeidy. There ARE no good euphemisms for death.  Pretending there are is just silly, in my blunt (and even possibly wrong) opinio...

Once again, with a federal election upon us (the last one was municipal), I have set up a family election, this time for Prime Minister.  Instead of ballots (because some of us are illiterate ahem, sorry, PREliterate), I set up a “ballot box” that allows a single pistachio to be inserted near the face of the chosen candidate.  There are mugs underneath to catch the pistachios (and labelled with the proper candidates’ names, to prevent tampering). Here’s Naomi, practicing casting her ballot – for herself.  She’s a bit excited because she won last time, with four votes. I’m thinking of opening up this election to friends and neighbours, so if you live in the neighbourhood, come on by and vote anonymously! In other news, we’re back to our regular stool school (oy, can you spell distracted ???) stuff… EASING our way in because all of us are rusty, to say the least.  Today, we did math – some skip counting and then a regular JUMP Math session; easy, easy! – ...

I think I have finally found a rhythm for school that works for us – yay!  Of course, now we’re going to hit Purim and Pesach and blow the whole thing out of the water, but I am happy to have hit a bit of a stride nevertheless, after months of false starts. I have discovered that most of what we cover are “3x” subjects – we need to touch on them briefly three times a week or we both forget and lose continuity.  So what I’ve started doing, for most subjects, is a rotation of two days on, one day “break”, one day on again. So, for example, the Handwriting Without Tears / Explode the Code combo, which we always do together because I have a theory that it makes her handwriting in ETC neater.  We did it on Sunday, we did it on Monday.  We skipped Tuesday.  We did it again on Wednesday – and done for the week!  It’s a good feeling, being able to put the books away, knowing we have done ENOUGH for one week. Another rotation:  Hebrew with Kriyah v’Od, ...

I know most of my readers aren’t local, but here’s a plug for a lovely bookstore where I spent a leisurely hour this afternoon:  The Batner Bookstore . I had to buy some texts for Elisheva’s school there last year, so discovered this terrific store – I’ve been back a few times since.  I believe it’s Jewish-owned, but they carry lots of the curriculum-related material from many of the private schools, including Christian ones. They have a lot of brand-new 50% and cheap secondhand books and texts, so you can usually find something worthwhile for a great price.  The shop is tiny and the location, in a nondescript plaza near Yonge and Steeles, slightly obscure – I almost drive past it every single time.   Got some history stuff for Story of the World next year, including Famous Men of Greece and Famous Men of the Middle Ages (annoying titles to read until you consider that there were few opportunities for women to become famous). A few more books, including our ...

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