Simplicity | Alone Playtime

Before we had our children, Brian and I read On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep (On Becoming... Book 1) by Garry Ezzo (highly recommend to all parents of newborns). The series continues on up through the teen years and is a wonderful resource in dealing with the day to day process of parenting from a Biblical perspective. As part of a baby's day, they recommend alone play time. It begins in the playpen, and as the child grows and develops it moves into their room or a designated play area in your home. However, let me just clarify, alone playtime is not to be used for extended periods of time, and as a parent you are always watching and listening.

Alone playtime is designed to teach your child that they can play without Mommy's constant stimulation, and it gives Mom a chance to do some things that are necessary for her home to function or just a time for her to sit quietly for a bit. 

When Addie was about a year, I would sit her in her room on the floor with some toys around her and then stand by her door. The first several times it was for five minutes. Then gradually it increased to 10 minutes and so on. Basically, as she grew, so did her alone playtime.

Now that we have two children, alone playtime is essential. When siblings are around each other constantly, having some time to play alone is important. I have found that when alone playtime is over, they are bother excited to get back together.

Alone playtime is sometimes needed because of a child's personality. Our daughter Addie is a very social person. She would rather be with others constantly. Her personality needs alone playtime to teach her that it is possible for her to have fun alone without anyone else around. Our son Ian loves being with his sister, but his personality desires some alone time without the stimulation of others.

The hardest thing about alone playtime is the guilt that moms sometimes feel when they allow their child that time without them. I know. I have felt that guilt as well. Yet, what a gift we are giving our child! We are teaching them the art of finding ways to entertain themselves and giving their imaginations room to soar. 

Alone playtime takes some time to teach and learn, but once the idea becomes an established routine in your home, you will treasure that time for the benefits your whole family will enjoy.

24 Books We Are Reading This Summer to Prepare Us for Classical Conversations Cycle 3

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This coming year, we will be joining the Classical Conversations method of education. I am so excited about this upcoming school year!

Classical Conversations has a three year cycle- Cycle 1, Cycle 2, and Cycle 3. This coming year, every Classical Conversations group around the world will be working through Cycle 3- American History.

Because Classical Conversations is designed in the Foundations years (K4-6th grade) to give parents a skeleton to work from, we can add as much or as little as we want.

I have already begun putting books on reserve in our library to be available to us during the school year based on the history theme for each week, but I also wanted to be able to use some of the great books I have collected over the years. Some of the books, my 6 year old can read on her own, and some are definitely going to be Mommy/Addie reading time material.

My goal is not to fill Addie's head with tons of information. In fact, if we do not finish reading all of these books, I am not going to worry about it. We have the whole school year to read great books about our American history and heritage. My goal is to make Addie familiar with names, places, events, and moments in our history so that when these things come up in conversation, school, the news, shows that she watches, or other books that she reads, she has something to refer back to, and mentally she can start piecing together what she has already learned to the new information she hears, reads, or sees.

Some of the books are purely historical, some are biographies, and some are historical fiction. I want to have a good balance in there so my lover of books doesn't get bored or lose her love for reading. There is one video series in here that I have scheduled for us to watch at lunch time during the school year.

Buttons for General Washington (Carolrhoda on My Own Book.)
Great Women of the American Revolution (We the People: Revolution and the New Nation)
The Story of the Boston Tea Party: Cornerstones of Freedom
Colonial Clothes (Colonial Quest)
Christopher Columbus: Adventurer of Faith and Courage (Sowers)
The Long Way to a New Land (I Can Read Book 3)
And there was America,
And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? (Paperstar)
Sam the Minuteman (I Can Read Book 3)
Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos
They Made a Revolution: 1776
Thanksgiving Is
The Mayflower Adventure (The American Adventure Series #1)
Squanto, Friend Of The Pilgrims (Scholastic Biography)
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving
Pocahontas Indian Princess Weekly Reader Books Edition
Pedro's Journal: A Voyage with Christopher Columbus, August 3, 1492-February 14, 1493
The great proclamation,: A book for young Americans
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor of the Telephone
The Story of Sacajawea: Guide to Lewis and Clark (Dell Yearling Biography)
The Life And Words Of Martin Luther King Jr. (Scholastic Biography)
America : A Patriotic Primer
Liberty's Kids - The Complete Series
The Story of Thomas Jefferson, Prophet of Liberty (Dell Yearly Biography)
 
I'm linking up with The Squishable Baby, Happy and Blessed Home,

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons | A Review

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I was not supposed to be the one to teach my children how to read.

My mother was.

I had never taught anyone how to read before. As a 4th and then 5th grade teacher at a private Christian school, my job was to teach reading comprehension and how to develop critical thinking skills while reading a passage.

My mother had taught me how to read by the time I was two and a half years old using SRA DISTAR by Siegfried Englemann., which my father's cousin, a New York public school teacher, had given her because her school was throwing it out. I remember the spiral bound books and games my mother would play with me using the books. Sadly, Mom passed away a couple of weeks before Addie was born, so I had to come up with a new game plan.

Right before Addie turned one, I saw a commercial for the Your Baby Can Read series. I bought it, and faithfully sat with Addie every day to watch the videos, play the games, look through the books, and review with the flash cards. Within 6 months, she did learn to recognize what each card said, but she was unable to translate her knowledge outside of the cards, videos, and books. (The series is no longer available for babies- it is available for kids, though. Instead there is now a series called Your Baby Can Discover. I personally do not have experience with this product.)

We began watching the LeapFrog: Letter Factory and in no time at all Addie began recognizing her letters and the sounds they made. By the time we began Kindergarten, she could read small words. The curriculum we were using at the time (Christian Liberty Academy Satellite Schools) had a reading program that required a lot of writing. She became frustrated and reading became a dreaded subject for us both.

Mid year, I switched her over to A Handbook for Reading, Phonics Textbook (A Beka Book Reading Program) which gave her the phonics foundation she needed. The pages had colors and fun pictures and the words were grouped in easy to read sections. But she still had no confidence in picking up a book and reading it.

Frustrated with reading and having passed my self-imposed timeline for teaching my daughter how to read, I began asking my father if he remembered which reading program my mother had used with me. After a few phone calls and emails back and forth he remembered the initials SRA. I began researching and discovered that the program my mother used for me was still around, just under a different name- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I ordered it and began working with Addie as soon as it came in.

The lessons are designed to be 20 minutes long- perfect for little ones who have short attention spans. Each lesson covers more than just reading. Children are taught to sound out words by "saying it slow" and then reading words by "saying it fast." They also learn the concept of rhymes and how to make up rhyming words through daily oral exercises. They are also taught how to write the letters they are learning to sound out in each given lesson. Sound blends like "th" and "ch" are visually attached to teach children how the sound works.

Lessons are taken in small steps. For example, the first two lessons only teach the sounds for "m" and "s". The type for the sounds to be read is nice and large making reading less intimidating for children. (This had been Addie's biggest issue. She would only read books that had large type in them because she was afraid of reading small type words.)

As the book progressed, I found myself splitting lessons in half. They can be a bit intense the further into the book you get. I had to remind myself that the goal was for my daughter to be able to read with confidence and understanding- not finish the book in 100 days.

One particular thing I loved about the book was that as we reached the last quarter of the book, the type gradually became smaller as the stories became longer. Addie never noticed the size change.

The evidence that she could finally read above her grade level with confidence and speed came one evening as I was preparing to review her Awana verses with her. I opened up to what I thought was a new verse, and she responded, "Oh, I already know that verse." She then began reciting it to me complete with reference. I asked how she had learned it, and her answer was, "I read it, Mom."


Recently she picked up our copy of Now We Are Six and read it in two days. I wasn't sure about her understanding of the book, but when she told me about the poems she was reading, I knew she understood. I was curious to see what the reading level for Now We Are Six was, so I researched it online. I discovered that it is at a 3.6 grade reading level.

God gave me an incredibly smart child and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons gave her the skill and confidence to enjoy and love reading.

At this point, having enough books on hand for her is my biggest challenge.

Review- First Language Lessons

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Teaching grammar was always so frustrating for me when I taught in the classroom. So needless to say, I was not looking forward to teaching the subject to my 6 year old daughter.

In the classroom, We had a huge text book that had 170 lessons in it, covered every single part of speech, sentence structure, punctuation, creative writing, and expected students to become proficient in the subject by the end of the school year.

How do you get kids to understand the difference between a subject and a direct object, memorize the list of prepositions and then identify them in a sentence, diagram sentences when all of the parts of speech get jumbled up, and figure out if wind is being used as a noun or verb?

It was frustrating.

Last year as I looked into teaching my daughter classically (check here for a list of all of our 1st grade curriculum), I came across First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (Vol. Levels 1 & 2) (First Language Lessons) and got an overwhelming feeling of "We can totally do this!"

First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind does not intend to make a child an expert in every aspect of grammar in one year. Instead, the goal is to have the child become so familiar with two or three parts of speech in the course of one year while slightly glancing at other aspects of grammar, such as noun-verb agreement, in a "no pressure" kind of way.

I love the book I purchased last year because I am able to use this same book for second grade as well (Levels 1 & 2). Each year has 100 lessons and those lessons focus on a few aspects of grammar only.

In first grade we learned about nouns, pronouns, and actions verbs, although the full definitions of each of these three parts were taught and memorized the entire year. I honestly thought if I heard the definition of a noun one more time, I would stick cotton in my ears. Towards the end of the year, we also learned about the four different types of sentences. We also learned the art of answering questions in a complete sentence and how to summarize a story that we had heard. Throughout the year, we also learned how to memorize and recite poetry with proper poise and diction.

Looking ahead to the 2nd grade section, the other parts of speech are taught, Nouns, pronouns and verbs are reviewed, and other aspects of grammar (punctuation, capitalization, etc.) are also taught and reviewed throughout the entire year.

The lessons are simple and are done orally with the child. There is a lot of "repeat after me" and repetition throughout the year. Any concept taught can be turned into a a written assignment, and the ideas for the assignment are written in the book but are made relevant to the child. When we learned about nouns being a "thing", the instructions for "enrichment acticities" were to have Addie look around the room we were in and list the "things" that she saw (I had to give her the spelling). Other times, there was copywork which was either based on a poem we were memorizing or something relevant to the lesson for the day. Some days had no copywork.

The only supplies needed for our Language Lessons were pencil, paper, and crayons. Because a classical education uses actual textbooks or just books in general, I will be able to use this same textbook when Ian enters 1st grade.

My favorite part of this curriculum was that my daughter actually learned grammar!

The fact that she truly understood what she had learned in grammar this year came at the dinner table one night. Pronouns had been our focus for about a week at that point, and I was glad for our break from nouns. As we were talking Brian used the word "he" in a sentence.

Addie immediately shouted out, "You said 'he!' He is a pronoun!"

I don't know what my favorite aspect of the moment was- seeing the concept click in her mind outside of "school" or the expression on Brian's face that his then five year old could identify pronouns.

Whether you are choosing a classical method of education of a traditional method, I would highly recommend First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. What a great way to give your child a strong foundation in grammar. 

Homeschooling | Our First Two Weeks

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Woohoo!

Two weeks into the school year and we are still happy about school!

As I have mentioned before we are following The Well Trained Mind method of homeschooling. I knew that the traditional schooling method was not working for us last year. There were days of crying, frustration, and wanting to just give up.... and sometimes my kindergartener had a rough time, too!

I began looking into different methods and curriculums and stumbled upon Classical Conversations. The curriculum follows the trivium of learning and just made sense to me (I like things that make sense). I looked at the price and felt that, for the time being, it was too much for us.

So I continued my search.

As I was listening to the Simple Mom podcast one day, she and her guest were speaking about the curriculums they use to homeschool. The show's guest mentioned that they use Classical Conversations, and the show's host said something like, "Aw! We wish we could do that. We are doing The Well Trained Mind which is basically the cheaper version of Classical Conversations."

Light bulb! (said with the accent of Gru from Despicable Me)

I love having my children around, but that day I could not wait for naptime. As soon as they went down, I got on the computer and began researching, comparison pricing, searching EBay and Amazon for books, and ordered the curriculum guide- The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (Third Edition) .

After two weeks of school I can say with full confidence that, by the grace of God, we have finally found the perfect method for our daughter!

School begins for us after everyone is dressed, hair is combed, and dishes are washed- anywhere between 8:15-9:00 (every day is so different).

School is only done in the office. We have a sofa(bed) where we sit (or the kids lie... or roll on.... or drape themselves over....) for most of our work and a pint sized table and chair for Addie to sit at for her writing assignments.... but sometimes the floor works just as well.

None of our work ever leaves the office (except for spelling homework that Daddy does with Addie on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday). I want "school" to be contained in one area of the house for a feeling of freedom and relaxation throughout the rest of the day.

We review our Sunday school lesson or work on our AWANA lesson first. For us, it is a simple way of reminding our children to put God first. One morning I went right into our lessons and Addie accused me of forgetting to put God first in the day.

Next we read a fun book for Ian's sake. Right now our book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Addie has it re-memorized at this point (she memorized it when she was 3), and now "reads" it to Ian throughout the day. Ian chimes in with the "Boom Boom" part.

I give Ian a page to color, and then Addie and I work on her reading, language lessons, and writing. While she is doing her written work, I get on the floor with Bud and we work on letters, colors, and numbers.

Once Addie is done with her writing work, we move on to Spelling and Math and Ian watches LeapFrog: Letter Factory.

Next we read part of the section for the week in The Story of the World and Addie orally answers questions about the section, which I copy down for her notebook. We alternate days with the text book, supplemental library books and worksheet activities.

After history, we have science. We use the The Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia (Kingfisher First Reference) as our starting point and them depending on which animal we are studying, we supplement with library books. (I have only had one bad experience where a book on lions showed them attacking a hippo and a zebra. Ian promptly said, "I scare!" So was I, Buddy!)

As I put papers in our binder/portfolio, put books away, and write down the names of all of the books we read that day, Addie goes to the piano and practices her songs from our piano lessons.

Our school day is then officially over. The door to the office is closed and we live in the rest of the house for the rest of the day.

It takes us pretty much two hours to do our work. Although that may seem like such a minimal amount of time, I cannot get over how much she retains from our lessons. It also only takes us 2 hours because I am currently teaching one child (in a classroom setting a full 6 hours is definitely needed for the ONE teacher to attend to all 25-30 students in her class).

Ian is learning, too, but his learning time is very informal and involves a lot of play and coloring. He is never excluded. He is welcomed to join us at any point in our lessons, but he really only likes to stick around for science when we read our library book about animals. However, he has begun making the associations between letters and their sounds, knows the colors blue, green, and yellow, and can name a host of animals and make their sounds. Little smarty pants!

This year, we are only having class time at home 4 times a week. The Well Trained Mind Curriculum is designed for a four day week so the 5th day can be spent at the library or doing other types of hands on/ related projects to reinforce what has been learned. We will be using our non-schooling day at Co-op, where Addie will participate in 3 hours worth of classes with other homeschooled children.

You know you have made the right choice in your child's education when they ask daily if you can "have school time," and on Saturday night they act like the world is falling apart because you "forgot" to have school time that day.

Yeah, Lord willing, it is going to be a great school year!

Why Daddies Need to Date Their Daughters

I remember going on dates with my father.

I can't tell you how many there were, or what we did on any of the (I'm pretty sure McDonald's was involved), but I do remember that my dad took out the time for me.

The dates that I do remember the most were the last two weeks of my summer before attending college. My father and I would set our alarm clocks to the time I would need to get up in order to make it to school on time (I commuted all 4 years, one hour each way. Gas was under a dollar at the time!). He wanted me to get used to the traffic that I would be facing on my way there. On our way back we would always stop at McDonald's for their breakfast burritos.

Our dates were not flashy, but they taught me so much and showed me just how much my father loved me.

Now, we have a daughter, and Brian has made taking Addie on dates a priority as well.

So, why are Daddy/Daughter dates so important?

1. It teaches a girl that she is loved by her father, the most important male figure in her life.

Little girls want to be loved, but more importantly they want to be loved by their fathers. Having a father take the time out of his day or weekend speaks "I love you" louder than just saying those words. If a girl feels loved by her father, she is less likely to look for love in the wrong places. When she knows that her Daddy loves her unconditionally and that she is safe with him, she will know that she can take any question, thought, or idea to him and she will be safe from criticism, ridicule, and humiliation.

Recently, when Brian and Addie came home from a date, Addie was more sweet and helpful than usual (she usually is, but this was even more than what is considered normal for her). When I mentioned how sweet and helpful she was being, she flipped her hair and said, "It's 'cause I went on a date with Daddy!" Her confidence gained a boost just because of the extra time Brian had spent with her.

2. It teaches her how to expect boys to treat her in the future.

When she watches how her daddy opens the car door for her, pays for her movie ticket and pop corn, and their lunch or dinner, she knows what to expect from the young man who comes to take her on a date (when she's 30!). If he honks for her, doesn't get her door, expects her to go Dutch on the date, she will know that he does not value her the way her Daddy did.

By the way, mothers with boys, it is called chivalry, and it is not dead! Teach these things to your sons, so they will treasure the young woman that God brings to them in the future. (We have a son, too!)

3. It teaches her how she is to behave when she is on a date.

She looks her best to go out with her Daddy- just like she will for the young man God will bring her way. She learns how to sit and converse at dinner and not to take up the entire conversation. She learns from her father what is and what is not appropriate behavior around boys and young men- he was a young man once, too. She learns that saying a sincere thank you at the end of the date is sufficient and nothing "more" is to  be expected of her.

I can say from personal experience that when I began dating my husband, I was able to go to my father with any question that came to mind concerning our dating relationship because I knew that, at the time, no other man loved me like my father did. He ultimately gave us pre-marital counceling and officiated over part of the wedding ceremony. I knew right away that Brian was different from most guys because of the way he treated me- just like my dad did. He always came to the door to get me, treated my parents with respect, opened the car door for me to get in and get out, and always paid for everything. I also knew how to conduct myself on each date we took.

Moms are important for the day to day teaching that goes on in the home, but there are some things that only a father can teach his daughter.

That is why Daddy/Daughter dates are so important.

Our Curriculum | First Grade

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I am so excited about the upcoming school year, and my enthusiasm has definitely rubbed off on Addie. She has told me several times that she can't wait for school time to start.

This year, I have chosen to use the Well Trained Mind curriculum guide for a classical education. I think this type of schooling is going to fit us as a family (and especially Addie) perfectly.

Because I purchased the majority of our books on EBay or Amazon (the seller site), and then we were additionally blessed by the generosity of others with supplemental books, the cost was under $100 for all of our texts (not including my enthusiasm in getting supplies and a bulletin board and those cute idea books I used to use when I taught in a classroom for 10 years). We will also be utilizing our local library to fill in all of the gaps.

Below I will list the subject we will be covering and the texts we will be using for that subject.

Bible- For Bible, we will be using our Awana workbook as our curriculum text this year. It has a weekly memory verse and a lesson with extra activities to be worked on at home.

Writing- We will be using The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease: by Susan Wise Bauer and published by Peace Hill Press. This book is designed to take us through 4 years.

Grammar- First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 1 (Second Edition) (First Language Lessons) by Jesse Wise published by Peace Hill Press. This text book will carry us through 2 years.

Reading- For our phonics practice, we are going to do a combination of things. We will be review our reading skills and sharpening our phonics rule recognition with A Handbook for Reading published by A Beka Books. We will also be reading books listed in The Read-Aloud Handbook: Seventh Edition by Jim Trelease published by The Penguin Group.

Spelling- This is the first year that we are having spelling. We are going with Spelling and Poetry 1 published by A Beka Books. Addie will be getting a weekly spelling test and homework (spelling list review with Daddy) in this subject.

Math- Again we chose to go with A Beka Books in math and will be using the Arithmetic 1 text book and the Tests and Speed Drills booklet.

History/Geography-  The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition by Susan Wise Bauer published by Peace Hill Press. As supplements, we will be using the Giant Book of Questions and Answers and the Big Book of Knowledge as well as our local library to fill in the gaps and to give more background information to what we are learning. The Story of the World, Activity Book 1: Ancient Times - From the Earliest Nomad to the Last Roman Emperor has a section with recommendations for supplemental books that I am using the library for.

Science- Science is a little different for us this year, but oh so exciting. We will have 20 weeks of animal science, 10 weeks of the human body, and 6 weeks of plants. As of right now, I have The Kingfisher First Animal Encyclopedia (Kingfisher First Reference), and Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of the Human Body. I have yet to pick up Green Thumbs: A Kid's Activity Guide to Indoor and Outdoor Gardening (A Kid's Guide series). Again, we will be using the library to supplement this subject (speaking of which, I have a stack of books on hold for me as I write this).

The curriculum choices that I made were (mostly) based on the recommendations of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (Third Edition) with the exception of Bible and Spelling.

In addition to our education at home, I have signed Addie up for classes with a local co-op once a week. She will be taking 3 classes this fall- All About Animals (fits in perfectly with our science), the Solar System, and dance.

The new school year is almost here! Are you as excited as I am?

What schooling choice have you and your family made? Homeschooling, public school, private/Christian school?

If you are homeschooling, what curriculum are you following this year?

If your children are in public or private/Christian school, what curriculum do they use? Do you do anything at home to supplement?