Jr. Analytical Grammar

"Like everything metaphysical, the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language."

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein

When I had been homeschooling a couple years, I read Susan Wise Bauer's book, The Well Trained Mind. It was surprisingly simple to understand and gave me a few great ideas for organizing our school. I carefully took note of which curriculum she recommended, and because Rod and Staff Grammar was both on her list and available for free or cheap through used book sales and the publisher, I went with that for our grammar studies. I used R&S Grammar with my four oldest children, and along with all the books they read, it seemed to work well at teaching them the parts of speech.

My twelve year old son, however, was not as keen on continuing with R&S. He had a hard time with the vast cultural divide between himself and the culture of the publishing company, and grew weary of some of the colloquial sayings that are included in their lessons. Although I was a little annoyed with his annoyance, (I owned the curriculum, and was not keen on buying a new one), I was willing to try something different. 

We inserted a year of Easy Grammar, which might be very easy for someone who had more of an education than me, but I felt that the instructions were often a little light, which left some confusion. I did however, love their clear explanation of prepositions, so I am not ruling it out altogether for future years. It could simply have been an operator error.

Meanwhile, I read a few reviews of Analytical Grammar, and grew excited about giving it a try. I find that with my 12 year old, he does much better with more teacher involvement. He is a people person and wants the interaction. Because of this, and the fact that I am full time schooling his two younger siblings as well, I decided to try using Jr. Analytical Grammar with him and his 8 year old sister. 

It has been a wonderful asset to our homeschool this year. The lessons are very simple, but offer exactly the amount of review that these two need. The curriculum is simple enough for the 8 year old, but also gives my older son a good review of the parts of speech and their usage that he had previously learned in his use of R&S and Easy Grammar. I am enjoying teaching both of them the same material and having one set of material to grade. Although Jr Analytical Grammar was designed  for 4th and 5th grade students who are not quite ready for the more in depth coverage of grammar included in the regular Analytical Grammar program, it is working well as a grammar review for my son.


I also appreciate that Analytical Grammar is so clear and concise. The lessons are easy to understand, and build in a very logical way.  First nouns, then proper nouns, then articles and adjectives, and so on. As well, it is laid out differently than Easy Grammar and Rod and Staff, this is wonderful for us, because at the beginning of the year when we have lots of energy, we are now learning a different set of information. Instead of spending the first part of the year on prepositions, ala Easy Grammar, we now have the chance to get really good at identifying nouns, pronouns, articles and adjectives.





























Although I truly believe that the most important way to teach your child good grammar is to read to them, and require them to read, great books, their ability to identify parts of speech will be a huge asset in their ability to communicate well. As an aspiring writer, I too am grateful for all the grammar review that I am getting. I need it and am thankful that we can enjoy studying grammar together.

Here is a video from the author, R. Robin Finley, with more information about Jr. Analytical Grammar.

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2015 Curriculum Plan

   

                   

            

As we soak every moment out of summer, I am simultaneously planning and purchasing for our upcoming school year. This year I will officially have five students, although my oldest student is only in my school this year, because I discovered through trial and error that trying to get scholarship funds to a Christian college is much easier if you are applying as a freshman than as a transfer student. For this reason, my oldest son will do one more year of high school to better prepare him to transfer as a freshman, and hopefully get some financial help with his schooling. I will update next year, with the results of this experiment

I will also be sending my other high school student to community college with the oldest three. This is another experiment. Only time will tell if it is a good one. He took an online class at the community college last year and scored well, so I feel it is worth a try to let him take two days a week of classes with his older siblings. Although I am presently not willing to send my children to public school (aside from my spiritual objections, I feel that high school wastes a lot of time) I do believe that older boys especially might benefit from the instruction of someone other than their mother as they grow. Especially this mother. I love teaching the younger years, but because I tend towards being a little better at relationships than consequences, having the experience of a classroom with a teacher who doesn't love them, might benefit my kids as they grow. So far, it has worked well for my students, and we will see how this one does.

Without further explanations, here is the plan.

                              

1st Grade Boy

Math Mammoth, Level 1

Prescripts Scripture Cursive

Spell To Write and Read/All About Spelling

Explode The Code Book 2

    

Rod and Staff Reading, Grade One, readers only

Mystery of History, Ancient Times

    

Apologia Flying Creatures

    

4th Grade Girl

Math U See Delta

Bible Copywork

 Jr. Analytical Grammar

I.E.W. Ancient History Writing Lessons

Spell To Write and Read

    

Memoria Cursive

Ancient History Reading List

Mystery Of History Ancient History

Apologia Flying Creatures

8th Grade Boy

Life of Fred Algebra

                                             

Bible Copywork

Jr Analytical Grammar

 (I will do this as a class with the younger sister,

 followed by Jr. Analytical Grammar Mechanics or R&S Grammar)

Theme Essays with Co-op

I.E.W. Ancient History Writing Lessons

Ancient History Reading List

Apologia General Science

Studies in World History-Stobaugh

                                             

  

10th Grade Boy

Algebra-Community College

Theme Analysis with Co-op

Ancient History Reading List

Beginning Painting-Community College

Philosophy 1 (audit Community College class with older siblings)

English 1A (semester 2)

Studies in World History-Stobaugh

Spanish 2-BJU

12th Grade Boy

Study hard for SAT

Chemistry- Community College

Geometry- Community College

U.S. History

The children also do martial arts and ballet for physical education, as well as music lessons, for, well, music.

For science and history, we will focus more on notebook pages with illustrated and written narration than on using tests or worksheets to assess their progress. We will do experiments and hands on work in our co-op.

For Bible, I am using Long Story Short and The 18 Inch Journey as my curriculum. We will also be reading through the Old Testament and copying Bible verses. 

                                            

    

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Westward Expansion

We have been having such an interesting year, studying
Early American History. It is hard to believe that we are in the last three months of the school year already! It is flying by. I often wonder if I am doing enough schoolwork, but seeing my children excited about what they are learning, reassures me that we are on the right track.

We recently got together with friends to celebrate our studies of the pioneers and westward expansion. These get togethers are one of the highlights of our history studies. While at home, I read lots of great books to the children, we do map work, and also journaling, but the monthly co-op meetings are when we can delve into hands on projects that require more preparation.

At this months get together we made butter! This was actually incredibly easy and group friendly. We simply poured cream into clean mason jars, screwed the lids on tight and let the kids go crazy shaking them until a nice lump of butter had formed. I took a picture of our butter after we made it, but then when I was going back through the photos, I couldn't figure out what it was and deleted. It was yummy, if not photogenic. 

The butter was spread on fresh baked bread, the best of pioneer treats, and eaten along with tortillas, and cattail tubers which we had harvested from our pond. A good study of the pioneers and westward expansion wouldn't be complete without talking about some of the foraged foods that they ate to survive.

We also drank tea made from nettles. Not the tastiest of drinks, but super healthy and according to research, a good traditional remedy for all manner of illnesses, including allergies and anemia.

Another thing we do at our co-op meetings are oral presentations. I feel that being able to give a report is an important part of homeschooling. It is also a helpful motivator for my children to do well on their journaling projects so that they have something good to share with the group. We have been alternating Draw Write Now books with fine art postcards from Mommy It's A Renoir for art journaling prompts. These go nicely with narration exercises, and if we are not feeling creative enough to come up with an original narration, we simply copy the sentences from Draw Write Now as well. These journaling pages then become oral reports for the younger students.

Draw Write Now, Book 5: The United States, from Sea to Sea, Moving Forward (Draw-Write-Now) Mommy, It's a Renoir!

The oldest of my four students still in my homeschool prepared a report on health care, or the lack thereof, during the time period we were studying. My 12 year old created a stop motion Lego movie about Civil War Sea Battles. I love seeing them use various technologies and mediums to prepare their presentations.




For map work, we looked at where the Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled, as well as what area the Louisiana Purchase encompassed. Later, we traced U.S. maps and labeled them with the route which the Lewis and Clark Expedition took, so many years ago.



Back at home, I read to the children from "Sacajawea" by Della Rowland, while they made a tent and pretend fire which they roasted pretend marshmallows over. Or maybe it was bear meat on a stick?
Stories are great at providing prompts for imaginative play. They also do so much to expand your children's vocabulary, these are a few of many reasons why we make a high priority of reading aloud. I also have a basket of books based on the period we are studying, which my children are encouraged to read from as we work our way through the year. If possible, I give my older children books which include source documents. I want them to be aware of what the thought process of historical figures was, and not just hear their stories through a modernist filter. 

The Story of Sacajawea: Guide to Lewis and Clark (Dell Yearling Biography) The Journals of Lewis and Clark (Lewis & Clark Expedition)
Little House Nine-Book Box Set

American History is full of fascinating people, and I am studying it again, with some of the most fascinating people that I know. I hope that your children, and your studies, bring much joy and inspiration to your life as well.

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Reading Comprehension With Winnie the Pooh

Reading comprehension could be taught with a tedious workbook and a list of questions to ask or multiple choice options, but my preference is to teach it with the use of narration. Narration is the art of telling back what you have heard. As Charlotte Mason stated, 

“As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should ‘tell back’ after a single reading or hearing . . . A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages” (Vol. 6, preface).

In this excellent post from Simply Charlotte Mason, the simplicity and fun of narration is explained, I for one am a big fan of keeping things simple and fun, while maximizing quality literature. 

Having slogged through a boring grammar workbook for most of the year, I decided that my younger children needed a break, so we started a narration series with Winnie the Pooh. 

I read a chapter and then I have the children tell me what I read about. The more details the better, and narration improves with practice. This quickly lets me know how much they understood and absorbed from the story.

After the oral retelling, they spend some time writing sentences or paragraphs about what we read and drawing a picture to illustrate. I rarely get complaints from such a fun assignment, and it is nice to get a break from all the workbooks.

Even my youngest son got excited about the story, gathering his Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore to act it out. Rather unfortunately,  in his quest for a realistic retelling of Eeyore's lost tale, he cut the tail off the poor, sad donkey. However, a few stitches can hopefully fix this and I do love seeing him enjoying and reliving a good story.

A Poem From My Daughter

In between studying for a chemistry exam, planning a bridal shower and fighting a nasty poison oak outbreak, my oldest daughter wrote me this poem. Needless to say, I cried.

To My Mom

When I was a little mite

I dreamed of queens and gold and jewels

I thought of famous ladies

With their diamonds and their silks

Olive oil and baths of milk. 

My mind imagined graces,

beautiful, perfected laces.

Examining and turning
les femmes of history,
I realized with a startled visage

none, not one of these damsels, 

could hold a million candles

to the one that is you.

There is in you a grace so sure,

a love which has, which will endure.

A face so breathtakingly beautiful,

Helen of Troy would be held so dull.

This was when I was a little mite,

but now I am grown.

My hypothesis is tested and found right.

I live now in a reality with a created being,

who lives a life of solid meaning,

the fairest of fair among all the women.

by Emelie Pepito

An Ocean of Fun-Activities for Preschool and Early Elementary

                                      

I have been a bit uninspired with my children's schooling lately. resorting to just stacking up workbooks for them, instead of bringing in the creative Montessori and Charlotte Mason inspired projects that I and my children love.

However, I recently liked the Living Montessori Now page on Facebook and got some wonderful ideas  from the posts there. Because we are doing the Swimming Creatures from Apologia book for science this year with our co-op, I decided to use the ocean as a theme for our Montessori inspired activities this week.

First, I sorted through our book basket and put in there all our readers and drawing books that were related to the sea and sea creatures.

             

Next, I showed the children the Draw Write Now book six that features ocean creatures, and provided them with paper that features blank areas for drawing with lines below for writing sentences.

I also put together a basket of our assorted sea creatures with labels so they could match the words with the objects. I also put beginning sounds on the cards in cursive and print so that my pre-reader could use the activity just for initial sounds and my older child could match words with objects.

We also worked on sea life puzzles, counted the sea creatures in the basket and classified types of sea creatures. A quick search on Pinterest would yield many more activities. 

The Charlotte Mason part of our study involves a fabulous read aloud. In this case, Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling. This is a wonderful, imaginative story which tells about the journey of a Hermit Crab from diatom to crawling crustacean. I first read this story aloud when we lived in Mexico, and at that time we had a little hermit crab which we were able to observe while we were reading. Alas, we don't live right by the ocean at this point in our lives and so keeping a hermit crab is out of the question, but we are enjoying reading the story again, this time with my younger children.

Although I could just keep handing over workbooks to my children, these types of hands on activities are so much more inspiring to them, and make learning as natural as playing.


Linking up with Welcome Home Wednesdays

Quick and Easy Thanksgiving Unit Study

This is a very busy season for us and our history studies do not coincide with the landing of the Pilgrims in America. Even so, I love highlighting the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving and the attitude of some of the original settlers of our country, so I set aside a day to focus on the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving. 

Chilly Little Pilgrim Boys

                         

The first part of our day involved pretending our living room rug was the Mayflower while I read stories such as On The Mayflower by Kate Waters, with beautiful photographs by Russ Kendall. We also read N.C. Wyeth's Pilgrims, pausing when they got to Plymouth Harbor to interject Samuel Eaton's Day, also by Kate Waters and Russ Kendall. A few days prior we had read Sarah Morton's Day, so we had the Pilgrim's pretty well covered in picture book form. While on the rug-ship the children also composed letters or journal entries in the words of their Pilgrim counterparts.

The Captain

                     

The children enjoyed reading the Bible, singing a Psalm and acting out the eventful journey, especially dramatic events such as a storm. Once the Pilgrims had landed in our stories, we left the rug and did a few crafts.

Intent On His Project

I found some adorable handprint turkeys on Pinterest, and since this was our quick and easy version, we made our turkeys out of construction paper that we had in the house. Unfortunately we were out of yellow, so our feet are a little pale. The example below, was obviously done by our little girl, as seen by the heart embellishments. We added some words describing things we were thankful for to the feathers, and voila, it was an easy handprint-thankfulness turkey.

Since we were also reading about Squanto and the other Native Americans who the Pilgrims encountered we then moved onto making Indian feather headbands. I used the scraps from the turkey project for the feathers and the kids stapled and made their own designs. Ella also took some scrap paper to make a corn cob.

                               

After all the crafting fun and clean up we ate our pottage, which was leftover vegetable beef soup that I had made in the crock pot last night, and then rewarmed this morning with a cup of lentils added.



                                                    
Our celebrations were fun and easy, and when lunch was over, and the clean up done, I sent the children out to play Indians in the bright sunshine. It was a nice break for them from bookwork and a memorable reminder of the life experiences of some of the first settlers to our country.

The 2013/2014 Curriculum Plan

I love seeing what other moms are using for curriculum. I can get into a rut of using what we have on hand or have always used. If it is working, it is not worth changing, but it is nice to know what is out there so I can evaluate whether I have the best fit for each child.

I don't have individual Bible for each child this year. My husband has assigned Bible readings for each day and we copy the verse that stands out to us. We also spend the first hour of our school day in worship and Bible reading. We are finishing Long Story Short which we have loved, reading the daily passages and looking for the next Bible curriculum. My second daughter is also in a Kay Arthur study group on the book of Revelation.

I also haven't listed reading selections. The older three are voracious readers, and with the next 3 I am assigning special books that they have not yet read. I usually assign books that go along with the history curriculum for the year but since this year is a special focus on art history, we are changing that routine a bit by just filling in some of the books that are important to us.

This year's plan for our family,

4 yr old (boy)

Explode The Code- Get Set for The Code

Handwriting Without Tears, Letters and Numbers For Me

Little Giant Steps-a wonderful multi sensory math program for preschool

Lots of good picture books, and listening in on our Bible, science and art studies.

SWR phonogram flash cards

Playing with puzzles, coloring, play dough and other fine motor skill activities

Swimming, going to the park, and other large motor skill activities

Calendar time, crafts and Bible verse memorization

6 yr old  (girl)

Math U See Beta

Explode The Code 41/2

Spelling Power Book A-freebie busywork for days I don't get to spelling

Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Success

Reading-Rod and Staff Readers only, BJU Heritage Studies 1

Apologia Elementary Science- Swimming Creatures with Jr Notebook

How Great Thou Art-Barry Stebbing

Drawing With Children-Mona Brookes

Mommy It's a Renoir

English For The Thoughtful Child

Spell To Write and Read

10 yr old (boy)

Teaching Textbooks Grade 6 Math

Daily Grams, Grade 6 (We started with Rod and Staff Grammar Grade 5 but it was not working with him)

IEW Writing, Finishing All Things Fun and Fascinating and then picking another book by them.

Handwriting Without Tears, Can Do Cursive

SWR Spelling

Apologia Elementary Science, Swimming Creatures

How Great Thou Art

Abeka World History

Various Literature Selections, He just finished Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis and will start Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson next.


13 yr old (boy)

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

Rod and Staff Grammar (gr. 6)

IEW writing

Apologia General Science

Understanding the Times (Worldview's)

Latin's Not So Tough

15 yr old (boy)

This year he is taking three classes at a local Jr. College. He goes twice a week with an older sister who is graduated.

Algebra 1 (Jr. College)

Elementary Music Theory (Jr. College)

Political Science, Constitution (Jr. College)

Apologia Chemistry (home)

Bob Jones Spanish 2 (home)

18 yr old (girl)

For our second daughter who has learning difficulties we chose to use a charter school this year. She just turned 18 (today) and we wanted to get the testing done and possible diagnosis before she graduates. We have done lots of private testing and therapy but wanted her to have the opportunity to go on to college or get work with the adaptations she may need. There is a lot of pressure in the charter to pass the high school exit exam, because of this, the charter has added lots of work. We are in line for private tutoring and testing for special needs so when that comes through it may prove to have been worth the hassle.

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

Holt Grammar 6 (charter, 12th grade grammar)

Holt Literature

ELA workbook (for exit exam)

Math workbook (for exit exam)

Abeka Health


The oldest children go to martial arts twice a week which helps with covering physical education. The 6 year old does ballet, I wanted her to learn to be graceful before she learned how to gouge someones eye out.

We also have the oldest 6 children in piano, voice or guitar lessons. However, I am terrible about enforcing music practice so our progress, until they start practicing on their own is slow.  Thankfully, several of them want to learn, and take the time to practice.

I am sure I have forgotten something, I was up till midnight making a birthday banner, baking a paleo pumpkin breakfast cake, consulting with my daughter on her anthropology homework and washing my husband's jeans. Life with little ones and college students is very busy, but very fun and fulfilling.

Happy Homeschooling!

A List Of Favorite Resources

We have read a few important books on homeschooling which have helped to develop our philosophy of education. We also have some favorite books and publishers that help us to reinforce our educational goals. Although we don't agree with every word in these books, and we hope you use your brain and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as you apply what you learn, they have been helpful to us.

Parent Education

A Charlotte Mason Companion

Homeschooling Methods

Loving The Little Years

You Can Teach Your Child Successfully-Ruth Beechick

Montessori From The Start and Montessori in the Classroom-Lillard, Jessen

Endangered Minds-Jane Healy

Teaching The Trivium

Shepherding a Child's Heart-Tripp

Managers of Their Homes-Maxwell

Families Where Grace is in Place

Underground History of American Education-John Taylor Gatto

Audio teaching by Norm Wakefield, S.M. Davis

No Greater Joy, Vol. 1-3, Michael and Debbie Pearl

Giving an oral presentation.

Curriculum

Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready-Oberlander

Handwriting Without Tears

Spell To Write and Read

Apologia Science

Mommy It's a Renoir

Mystery of History

Five in a Row

Math U See

Teaching Textbooks Math

Our schooling has encouraged a love for other countries and cultures.

Writing With Emotion

The different writing styles of boys and girls.

Today my children asked for one of their favorite writing projects, the story exchange. Basically to do a story exchange, each child starts a story and then after a certain time period we pass the story on to the person next to them. Each child then adds on to that story and so on until each child has added something to their sibling's story. 

This was my 6 year old daughter's first time to do this activity and she found it very distressing. She kept trying to add stories about happy princesses and little girls eating chocolate and then her brothers would take their turn on her story and add trolls and orks and goat headed men who discover that the pretty princess was actually Medusa. Needless to say, what has been a favorite writing activity was not well received by my sweet little girl.  She ended up sprawled across her bed with tears pouring from her eyes. 

Although I still think it is a good writing exercise, I may have to wait a few years, or break the groups into a boys group and a girls group. The boys want to write about adventure and excitement, while we ladies would rather write sweet stories with happy endings.  This is just one more example of how differently boys and girls learn when given the opportunity to express their God given design.

Adventure loving son.

Distressed princess.