Math in Focus

Well, after doing much researching on the internet, I decided to go with Math in Focus.  It's done by Houghton Mifflin but it is the Singapore Method. I really liked the look of the textbooks: very colorful, with lots of explanation and activities.  Each book has guided practice, practice, and tests.  Answers are in the back of the book.  I read that the teacher's manual isn't necessary.

The only catch is that it is quite expensive, but thanks to Ebay I got each book for around $10 to $15, which is great.  There are two textbooks per year and two workbooks per year, although I didn't see any workbooks for grades 6 and up.  There are extra practice books instead.  This curriculum is used in schools in the U.S. and it goes up to 8th grade.
,
Another option I looked at was Primary Mathematics (Singapore Math) Standards edition.  The books have more practice and have a little more explanation than the U.S. edition.  It is slightly more expensive than the U.S. version but is less than Math in Focus.  However, it only goes to 6th grade, which is a disadvantage.

Bible Town Craft

My daughter loves to keep busy with projects and crafts.  When she saw this on pinterest, she told me she had to do it.  We probably won't make all the pieces or make them slowly.  Fun!

http://www.mylittlehouse.org/images/bible-paper-toys/bible-town

World War I and World War II lapbooks/notebooks

We finished studying about the industrial revolution.  We are studying about the progressive era now and are getting ready to study about world war 1 and 2.  I do like my children to write about what they learn instead of just reading to them. Lapbooks and notebooking are great for this.

Here were some websites that I found that have good lapbook/notebooking material.  I haven't printed out anything yet and I probably need to take some time to look through everything.  Since it was so hard to find these sites, I thought I would share the information with you.  The first website has a lot of resources as well.

Although we don't have a library here, you may be able to buy a few of the books on Kindle.

http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/americanhistory2/books_worldwar1.html

http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/free-pages/free-sonlight-world-history-pages/

This last page was intriguing.  The mom did a lapbook on the FBI during the 20th century.  I may not do the exact same thing, but I think I may copy off a few pages of it (i.e. the presidents, etc.)

http://www.dynamic2moms.com/fbi-american-history

I am learning that there are some moms out there with a lot of time.  I am thankful that they are so willing to share so that we don't have to put together things ourselves!  Check out their other ideas for lapbooks!

Christmas Ideas...Getting Kids Ready for It

I wanted to prepare my kids for Christmas and really have them meditate on the meaning of it.  I found this website:

http://www.biblestoryprintables.com/Pages/BibleCrafts/NamesofJesus.html

There is an advent activity to do with your kids every day for the month of December.  We started today.  Actually, we did not print out the Names of Jesus ornaments but rather we drew them and decorated themselves.  My kids like to be creative.  My son dislikes just coloring something.  He'd rather come up with things on his own.  :)  You can either hang these on your tree or my kids decided they wanted to string them along the wall.

We also are going to read through the following passages that deal with the coming and birth of Jesus.

Sun. Is. 40:1-5
Mon. Is. 52:7-10
Tue. Is. 40:9-11
Wed. Gen. 3:8-15
Thu. Gen. 15:1-6
Fri. Deut. 18:15-19
Sat. Ps. 89:1-4

Second Week

Sun. Is. 11:1-10
Mon. Zech. 6:12-13
Tue. Mic. 5:2-4
Wed. Mal. 3:1-6
Thu. John 1:1-8
Fri. John 1:9-18
Sat. Mark 1:1-3

Third Week

Sun. Luke 1:5-13
Mon. Luke 1:14-17
Tue. Luke 1:18-25
Wed. Luke 1:39-45
Thu. Luke 1:46-56
Fri. Luke 1:57-66
Sat. Luke 1:67-80

Fourth Week

Sun. Is. 7:10-14
Mon. Luke 1:26-35
Tue. Is. 9:2-7
Wed. Mt. 1:18-25
Thu. Luke 2:1-20
Fri. Mt. 2:1-2
Sat. Luke 2:21-35

Any traditions or crafts that you will do or have done with your kids that have been really meaningful?

Math...Upper Elementary School

I have been using Singapore Math for a while.  3rd grade was fine.  4th grade was a little challenging.  5th grade is getting more challenging.

I think challenge is good, but there is very little explanation for how to teach concepts.  I have the instructor's guide and there is still very little help in there.

I actually have liked Singpore Math so far.  I think it is very strong on challenging word problems.  Now that the concepts are harder, I find my son is struggling more.  We just started learning about the area of triangles. We just started with right triangles and the book quickly jumped to finding the area of other types of triangles with little explanation.

I find that my son quickly forgets concepts we learned earlier.  I would like to find something with more practice.

What has been your experience?  Melissa said she chose to do Teaching Textbooks.  What are you all using?  What has helped?

Inventors and the Industrial Age

We are studying the Industrial Age right now.  Many inventors made inventions during that time period that changed the way we do things.  It would be interesting to make a notebook of those inventors.

My son just read a book on Thomas Edison the other day.  Here is a page that gives you notebook pages for various inventors that I found helpful:

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/inventor_notebooking_pages.php

I find notebook pages are helpful because it makes writing more interesting instead of writing on plain paper and we can clip them together with other sheets or hang them up on the wall.

Apologia...How it's Going

Well, thought you would like to know how it's going using Apologia Science for this year.  My kids love it.  I asked them if they liked this science or Sonlight better and both said they liked this one better.  They still loved the science books for Sonlight (My son especially loves books with lots of facts and information.).  The problem as I said earlier was the curriculum that went with it which consisted of random fill in the blank questions for each couple of pages or several pages.  We still enjoyed the Discover and Do videos and the science experiments.  The main problem I had was that it didn't seem to all connect together.

I think Sonlight's philosophy is to give a smorgasbord of books and information, hoping that children will catch something in the process.  I did enjoy reading and discussing the books but it was short on review and activities.

At least for the Apologia Botany book, there is reading, activities/experiments for you to explore what you learned, and various minibooks to create to review the concepts you learned.  There is a lot of scientific vocabulary to learn but I think the kids like the challenge and I don't expect them to remember everything. I am learning a lot myself! We have been going outside a lot to study the plants, which has been fun.  There is a little repetition when they ask you to review the concepts (answer questions, crossword, minibooks) but the kids don't seem to mind this since there is variety.  You get to study one subject in detail instead of various subjects that don't relate like in Sonlight.

I am also adding some Sonlight D curriculum that relates to botany. We will try to do the TOPS corn, beans, and lentils experiment.

I don't know how the other books are in Apologia but unfortunately, I had already bought Sonlight science books for next year so we will use them and maybe try to add some lapbooks to review some concepts or focus on a few concepts in more detail.  Then, maybe the following year, we will try to do Apologia Anatomy.

I would recommend Apologia for third grade and up, but I heard people use it for their young ones as well.  They have junior Apologia notebooks as well for younger children. The notebooks are expensive but the kids really like them and it saves me time.