Their writing is coming along. It is so neat to see how they are progressing, not just in writing, but in all areas of life. Remember when they took their first steps? Well, it is like that feeling all over again when they learned to read or write their name. I am enjoying reading their short compositions each day. MaryEllen (10yrs) likes to write poems and Donnie (9 this month) adds a little to his story each day. Funny though, because Donnie has always been my little rhymer. He is pretty good at it too. We will go back and forth saying silly things in rhyme off the top of our heads. It can get pretty hilarious.

Anyway, I put together the Rules For Composition in pdf if any of you can use it.

RULES FOR COMPOSITION

The following twelve rules should constantly be brought under notice of the student.

1. Make short sentences.
Say all you have to say about one thing, or under one heading, before you go to another one.

2. Let each idea form one sentence.

3. Let each sentence have one principle subject only.
Be careful that a proper predicate is given with each subject.

4. Let every new sentence begin with a capital letter.

5. Where short pauses are required insert a comma.

6. When two sentences are thrown into one, separate them by a semicolon.
Example— “The sun and the wind once disputed as to which was the stronger. They agreed to try their strength,” becomes—”The sun . . . stronger;” so “they agreed,” etc. A semicolon is often followed by a conjunction.

7. Use an “exclamation mark (!)” after all interjections, or words and phrases used in an exclamatory manner.

8. Place an “interrogation mark (?)” at the end of every direct question.
Example —”What do you say?” but not after an indirect question, “He asked me what I said.”

9. The words which people say, must be put between “quotation marks.”
When the actual words of the speaker are not given, as when the third person is used instead of the first person, inverted commas are not used. Children are very often uncertain on this point.

Example— He said, “It is time to go home.” Here the quotation marks are required; but they are omitted if the sentence takes this form —He said that it was time to go home.

10. Do not use the words “so,” “then,” “but,” “and,” very often.
This can be prevented by making short sentences, inserting a full stop, and beginning another sentence with a capital letter.

11. Be careful in the use of the relatives “who,” “which,” and “that.”
‘Who’ does not refer to animals or inanimate things. Children often insert unnecessary relatives, for example: “A man (who) was walking down the street, when he saw…”

12. When the exercise is finished, look it over carefully, and correct where correction is absolutely necessary.

Rules For Composition (56)

Blessings,

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They are set up that older kids can take the guide and can do the work themselves. I plan on doing this with the Geography guide for MaryEllen. Of course I will check her work and be there to answer any questions, but it can be used for self-study.

Early American History By Rea C. Berg / Beautiful Feet Books This study guide is designed for the student of American History who desires to understand the hand of God in the American saga. Seeing God’s hand in the events of the past gives us vision and hope for the future. We have therefore carefully selected literature that best embodies this truth.

The kids and I are enjoying the Trailblazer books tremendously as our read alouds. They are nicely written where they keep the kids attention and a when you get to the end of the chapter, they leave you hanging enough to make you want to keep going.

I also like how they explain in the beginning which parts are true and which parts they added to the story. At the end of the book, they will give a brief biography of the character the book was written around.

The Mayflower Secret, Trailblazer Series #26 (William Bradford) By Dave & Neta Jackson / Bethany House Thirteen year old Elizabeth Tilley and her family have been waiting for this day for months; the day the Mayflower sets sail from England. The trip seems especially rough for Dorothy Bradford, the frail young wife of William Bradford. One night, Elizabeth discovers Dorothy alone on deck. Thinking the woman wants to be alone, Elizabeth returns to bed. But the next morning, she awakes to the news that Dorothy has disappeared! Afraid that William Bradford will blame her for his wife’s death, Elizabeth tells no one what she saw that night. When they finally arrive in the New World, many passengers become very ill. Several of them die before the new colony is established, including Elizabeth’s parents. Left an orpahan, Elizabeth must deal with her terrible secret alone. If she dares tell the truth, will it ruin her chance for happiness in the new colony? Recommended for ages 8 to 12.

Along with the Mayflower Secret, we are reading William Bradford, Pilgrim Boy. This is the story of William Bradford’s childhood. The kids like how we jump from reading about when he was a boy and then to when he is a grown man in The Mayflower Secret.

William Bradford: Pilgrim Boy By Bradford Smith / Beautiful Feet Books Young and old alike will enjoy this thoroughly researched and personable biography of the first governer of Plimouth Plantation. Read about Bradford’s difficult childhood in England and see how he was being prepared by hardship and los to face the challenges of his adult life. 200 pages, softcover.

We are using The Light and the Glory for Children as a spine for our history reading. So right now along with our Mayflower adventure, we are reading chapters 5-9 which will also include the Puritans arrival.

The Light and the Glory for Children also has questions you can either have the kids do on their own, or you can use them as discussion. We use them as discussion. So after we read a chapter, we will answer the questions together giving any insight we might have.

The Light and the Glory for Children By Peter Marshall / Baker Has America seen the last of its courageous Christian heroes? Put your kids on horseback with evangelist George Whitefield, in Valley Forge with president George Washington, and in many other historical places where believers stood for righteousness—and they’ll be inspired to continue God’s work in America! Includes study activities. For ages 9 to 12. 174 pages, softcover from Revell.

Blessings,

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Pros:
Self educating
Cost effective
Minimal parent preparation for lessons
Three subjects
Self paced
Used with multiple students and multiple grades

Cons:
Takes time to print books
Takes getting use to, especially if you didn’t begin this way when the kids were young.

This all I can come up with. I think the pros out weight the cons. Most of the books can even be purchased if you prefer that route.

So far we have slowly evolved into a routine that is doable. The kids still have a hard time getting started every day, but we are still working on them being more independent in that area.

One challenge was completing a Saxon math lesson a day. For a few weeks we did half lessons. If their error rate was high, I also cut the lesson down to half. The kids are both in Saxon 54, and are doing very well. I did have to learn to keep away because I tend to want to help. The kids were use to asking me for help for every little thing. For a while I would help them, but when I re-read the introduction, it reminded me that the kids need to go back and find out how to do something if they get stuck. So I let the kids know that they needed to go back and look at the examples and read the lesson again if they don’t understand.

MaryEllen did hit a spot where it was getting difficult, but I realized it was because she didn’t know all her multiplication & division facts. So we have stopped Saxon for a few weeks and we are drilling on these until they can complete all of them in five minutes. I stopped Donnie too, because I figure he might hit the same spot. Mr. Robinson does recommend that the kids know all the facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) before they begin Saxon 54. I understand why now.

The other challenge was reading for 2 hours. We still aren’t there yet, but we have slowly worked up to an hour. We started at half an hour. I assign pages to make sure they are reading and not day dreaming or talking during this time. I now join them and read an hour too.

During reading, the kids read out of a science book, history book and a literature book, 20 minutes each. Right now we are using Christian Liberty Nature Readers for science, for history and literature, we are using what we had in our personal library. Once we deplete this, we will begin to read more of what is on the RC list.

Here is a post where I mention their booklists and how I substituted books on the RC list for ones we had at home. http://albright-news.com/blog/2009/11/back-from-vacation/

One area that was, and still is, hard for me, is putting aside other curriculum I had bought. I had purchased quite a few of the Beautiful Feet Packs and am planning on using all of her studies. After much thought, I decided to keep them and either do them together as a way to spend time together researching different eras, or assign the books and use the discussions questions as book tests and some of the assignments as writing projects for their writing time.

We do have read aloud and bible time after dinner most days. I usually read for about an hour to an hour and a half. The kids draw usually.

So basically, Robinson is the 3r’s, reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic. We add bible to that in the morning also. The kids practice their memory verses before beginning their studies. I also have them read out of a devotional in the morning too.

Anything else you want to add such as music or language, comes after the 3r’s are done. I eventually want to add music, sewing, maybe latin or Spanish.

I hope that was a little insightful. The RC YahooGroup is very knowledgeable too. You do not have to be using RC to join, but simply have to have an interest in learning more about it. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RobinsonUsers4Christ

Blessings,

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Well, I decided to have them notebook the roots copying the words and definitions. We might…might add some words of our own. I remember reading in the book that you can look up some additional words in the dictionary. Later on, we might do this also.

I made up notebooking pages for the kids and I to use. One for Greek words, and one for Latin words. We will just color in the border with marker with its respective color. (You can also use crayon or color pencils.) We could have used regular notebook paper, but I didn’t like how it turned out. I thought of gluing on an index card too, but then decided to go with creating the page and printing them off. Silly probably…but….

If you are using English from the Roots Up, you are welcome to give these a try. They might even work if you are not using English From The Roots Up.

~Download Links~
Black and White
English From The Roots Up - Black & White - Greek (144)
English From The Roots Up - Black & White - Latin (112)

Color
English From The Roots Up - Color - Greek (133)
English From The Roots Up - Color - Latin (95)

Blessings,

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They did great! We actually got everything done! I am still giving us the week to get into the swing of things.

It is funny because since we have moved out in nowhere, Halloween just passes on by us. We don’t do anything special anyway, but if someone knocks we would give out candy. Now that we live out in nowhersville, we don’t get any callers. There are no decorations around the ‘neighborhood.’ I completely forgot that the day had passed. I kinda like it!

I am finishing up the next weeks copywork. I will post it shortly.

During my lazy weekend, I typed up the kids’ booklists for the year. I also typed up a ‘schedule’ if you will.

I call it Moving Right Along because it is suppose to help the kids remember what to do next. There are no times to it because I have tried that route, but it doesn’t fit our family. My husbands hours vary, so our Moving Right Along varies too. Right now he is doing 10am-8pm, getting home about 8:30. Other weeks he works 3pm-1am. So our school day might start later or get interrupted when Dad wakes up.

We are using the Robinson Curriculum, which is going very well. I decided to have the kids read what we have on our shelves along with a few books from the Robinson Book List. I substituted the Tom Swift books with The Sugar Creek Gang since we have those. I also took out the Arthur Scott Bailey books and substituted them with the Nature Readers 1-5 since we have most of those too. I need to purchase 2 and 5 if anyone is looking to sell. *wink*

This is what MaryEllen’s Book List looks like

This is what Donnie’s looks like. I only have one page for him. It is my hope that after he finished this list, he can move into MaryEllen’s.

I also made up Master Menu’s for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. I will share those next time. Having these menus has made my life so much easier. They have actually made it easier for the kids too. Now they know what to expect for each meal.

This post is getting long because of the pictures, so I will share them in another post.

Well that is it for now.

Merry Christmas,

————————————————————————

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