Plans for 3rd and 1st

Rebekah brought it to my attention that Thing1 is no longer a beginner. At the end of third grade, he will be halfway to junior high! And Thing2 is a 1st grader. It's gonna get real for him this year.

Here's the plan for both of them:
Classical Conversations Memory Work from the Foundations Guide along with printables from CC Connected.

If we don't do anything else in a day, we do this. My favorite way to keep track of practicing the memory work is to use a Charlotte Mason memory box. Here's a link to an instructional video.
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Story of the World Volume 3: Early Modern Times

Of course, this book contains wonderfully told stories. But the activity book provides enough corresponding literature suggestions to keep us busy for the next three years. The maps and coloring pages are great, too, but not as useful to us this year. Unless it an epic battle scene, the boys really don't care to color, and we get enough geography from CC that we can usually picture the general location we are reading about. Our routine is to read a chapter while coloring from the activity book then type up a narration page with a picture cut and pasted from the Internet. The narration pages go into their history notebooks. We try to have library books from the activity book's corresponding literature list on hand always.
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Apologia's Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology

Apologia's Exploring Creation books are just plain fun. The pre-made Notebooking Journals are an unbelievably simple way to compile a super cute science notebook. Thing2 is excited that he has his own notebooking journal this year.
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Song School Latin

I add one new thing each year. This year it's Latin. Hopefully it will be profitable.
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Here's what we've got planned for the third grader:

Math-U-See Gamma

Slow and steady is the name of the game for Thing1 and mathematics, and Math-U-See fits the bill. Plus, Mr. Demme's short lessons on the DVD are much more effective than my blundering.
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Growing With Grammar, Level 3

Levels 1 and 2 served us well. Considering that this is our last year before Essentials of the English Language through Classical Conversations, why quit now? Level 3 introduces diagramming sentences. (I am excited! Nerd.) I considered buying Digging into Diagramming for extra practice, but then I realized that it doesn't take a $15 book to practice diagramming.
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Writing With Ease, Year 3

Agenda for our third and final year of WWE: Reading, narration, copywork, dictation; repeat.

I have decided not to buy the workbook this year. Instead, I am going to use McGuffey's Eclectic Readers (John Wiley and Sons, 1879) for the exercises. If it doesn't work (i.e. we skip it because it takes too much time to prep), I will just download the workbook. I'm also toying with the idea of using the McGuffey's for spelling as well. More on this endeavor later.
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Prescripts Cursive Words and Drawing: Math Terms

Normally handwriting books are the first thing to be dropped when we are short on time, but these books have them writing things they should be memorizing anyway, so it seems more productive.
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The plan for our first grader:
Alpha Math-U-See

I already had everything but the student workbook from when Thing1 did it two years ago. After buying the workbook, I decided to make copies of the consumable pages this year. These books get expensive!

Thing2 did well in the Primer math book last year, and I don't regret my decision to do the kindergarten math program. I think he will be well prepared for Alpha this year, but I am still bracing myself for the task of making him memorize all the addition facts.
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Growing with Grammar, Level 1

I discussed here my decision to use GWG and Writing with Ease in first grade for Thing1. I was satisfied, so we are doing it again. My worries about it not being enough for a well rounded language arts are obsolete. With Classical Conversations memory work, GWG, WWE, Prescripts, and all the reading we do in Story of the World, I believe we cover language arts sufficiently.
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Writing With Ease, Level 1

This was easy because I already own the Level 1 workbook in PDF format. I like being able to print of the pages as I need them.

With the workbook, there is virtually no preparation for these lessons, and the book excerpts are always interesting: Little House, Peter Rabbit, Caddie Woodlawn, and The Railway Children to name a few. Both Level 1 and 2 workbooks stretched Thing1's reading repertoire because he almost always wanted to read the whole book after he heard an excerpt from it.
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Prescripts Cursive Letters and Coloring: World History

Why not start cursive in the first grade like they did in the olden days? After this year, I will know. Each opening has a page of cursive letter practice and a picture from the Timeline Cards that he can color.
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Finally, to pull it all together, I bought a Well Planned Day planner.

I decided to go with a premade paper planner this year for the first time. I am not convinced I really need it, but I want to try it out.

Again, a good school day does not have to include everything I have listed here. CC memory work, math, and language arts are the core. The rest is extra. These plans, like all plans, are a guide and always a work in progress. They are as flexible as we are. We use them to be productive, but we will not let them run our lives.

Summer BBs

Just in time for summer (Yippee!), The Husband devised his most brilliant scheme ever.

He suggested that, for the summer, we change summer lessons from a chore to a challenge by offering BBs as an incentive.  Then each evening when The Husband is home and can supervise, the boys get to shoot the BBs they earn during the day.

This plan has worked beautifully for the last few days.  It is a win/win scenario.  The kids have never accomplished so much with so little nagging (win for me).  The Husband and I have never let them shoot their BB gun so much (win for them).

This is taped to the back of the clip board for the summer:

On the second day of this plan, Thing1's goal was to earn 100 BBs.  He did a math drill in record time, two Life of Fred lessons (the rule is now one a day), and dictated and copied a 70-word letter to a friend.  Writing this much is not normal.  He worked off and on with no reminders from me all day long, and he earned his 100 BBs.  

He took his time in shooting them.  He was happy.

On the same "100 BB day," Thing2 earned 59 BBs by reading an entire book without batting an eye.  Again, this is not normal.

Thing2 was also happy.

One more win:  We get to practice gun safety, obedience, and following instructions.  The boys discovered that one safety offense means they forfeit all their BBs.

I am excited about this summer.  I hope this BB craze lasts at least a few weeks!

Stamps make anything more fun!

Okay, so memorizing addition facts still isn't fun, but these stamps helped a lot today.

 

The castle stamp is from the Knight Story Kit (Aladine Brand) from Fat Brain Toys.

I asked Thing1 the problem and gave him 5 seconds.  If he responded correctly within the time limit, we stamped it.  It felt like a game at first, although the whole sheet was a little much for him.  Tomorrow we'll try for the ones he missed with a king stamp and blue ink..

In the Alpha level in Math U See, we are to the point of learning subtraction facts.  But since we don't have all the addition facts memorized, I am taking it slow on the lessons and concentrating on memorizing them.  He knows how to figure them out, but I want him to be able to spit out the answer without having to figure it out first.  My theory is that if the addition facts are memorized, subtraction will be easy!

I was thinking...We could use stamps for lots of things other than math facts.  Any ideas?

 

Triangles

Saturday morning. I'm still in pajamas. I'm too lazy to go to the computer, so I'm posting from my phone. The boys think we're taking the day off.
We're building triangles.
The idea came from a book at the library. You're supposed to play a game with the finished triangles. But with these boys, the thrill is in the "building" rather than the game.
1. Cut the bendy end off three straws.  (Thing2's favorite part.)
2. Use a pipe cleaner with a loop on the end as a needle to thread yarn through the straws. (Thing1's favorite part.)
3. Tie the ends of the yarn together to make a triangle.
4. Toss the triangles like horseshoes and try to ring an overturned cup. OR get carried away with threading yarn through straws until the Living Room looks like one huge booby trap.

Accidental Inclined Plane

While Thing1 was supposed to be doing math, he was actually doodling with the manipulatives.  I was cooking, not paying much attention, when he piped up, "This is an inclined plane."

Okay.  Pretty sure I have not said those words since I was in school, much less to him.

While I took this picture, he was explaining that the slide outside is also an inclined plane.

Yay for Sid the Science Kid!

Yes, he is wearing a Navy Uniform with a play rifle strapped across his chest while he does math.  I did, however, remove the bowl of Nerds before I snapped the picture because that would definitely look too casual and unhealthy for school time.

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