Tag: school

Any Book is Curriculum

April 14, 2018

Any Book is Curriculum

In our homeschool curriculum, we have base books that everyone has to go through.  These are standards like Arithmetic and Language Arts.

I add vocabulary workbooks to teach etymology.  Once etymology is learned, the student usually finds spelling and vocabulary far easier so only some use vocabulary or spelling workbooks.  The main way students continue learning spelling and vocabulary is along with writing assignments.

We have a base of standard History.  After the first book, we move to whatever textbook teaches a section in which they have an interest.  Any history book is accompanied by writing assignments at the end of each unit, chapter, or small book to recount what has been learned and how it compares with other texts.

Literature study usually coincides with history of an era or region.  I find  it fun to teach history as a story of  the people; which includes their writings, lifestyle, scientific achievements or lack thereof, and culture.

Basic science is usually learned hands-on in our house through the chemistry that can be found in the kitchen, biology learned from our animals, and physics discussed when someone trips on something or while building a new project.  Our final science books require a command of Algebra; these Biology, Chemistry, and Physics books set the foundation for and help with the transition into college learning.

But any book can be a part of a curriculum!

We’ve used novels and storybooks to write about and study culture.  We’ve used classic literature to teach etymology and practice translation.   We’ve used history books to build Lego cities.  We’ve used Lego sets to cross into history books and study culture.  We’ve used cookbooks to teach fractions, chemistry, and time management.   Any book a student reads can be turned into a book report, which requires practicing the skills of writing, grammar, and comprehension.

Therefore, we’ve discovered that any book can be incorporated into our home school curriculum with positive encouraging results!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Homeschooling Challenge: Their Own Pace

April 12, 2018

Homeschooling Challenge: Their Own Pace

One of the challenges I’ve discovered in our home school journey comes from my philosophy to never keep one student back for another.   I allow them to advance at their own pace – if this means we spend eight weeks constantly studying and restudying one concept until we find a way to understand it or flying through a subject because it instantly clicks, we learn until we truly understand.

For instance, in our classroom (aka my kitchen table) right now:

Kimberly is working 7th grade arithmetic, 5th grade language, writing reports from a 4th grade science book, and studying high school vocabulary,

Jaquline is working 3rd grade arithmetic, 2nd grade language arts, a cursive writing K5 workbook, and 4th grade vocabulary,

And Jillian is working 3rd grade arithmetic, 3rd grade language arts, using a K5 manuscript writing practice, and reading 2nd grade readers.

This example would be easy if Jaquline and Jillian were twins.  Nope.  Jaquline is 8 and Jillian is 6.  Jaquline chooses to do “the bare minimum” (aka, only what mom assigns) for bookwork.  She is more interested in tagging along with her 12 year old sister when she’s watching her online Mastering Biology lectures.  She can tell you all about Mendel’s peas (the latest lecture subject) and can explain genetic color crosses in chickens (Rebeccah and Kimberly’s continuing project) and how to avoid genetic defects (aka crooked toes, hooked beak).  When she does her division, she does it all mentally!  She never has a carrying or borrowing error in operations (this was the most common error for mom, Kimberly, and Jillian).  She reads unabridged Tolkien and Hodges and loves them.  She has a very active imagination and writes with a neat calligraphic scroll.  So, when she is working, she does very well.

But she just isn’t interested in sitting down for bookwork.

Jillian, on the other hand, is at the “gung-ho” stage of elementary school.  She’s been doing workbooks since she started reading and flies through her work.  She sometimes has to go back and redo a concept (like carrying and borrowing numbers, greater than and less than, etc.) but once she’s gone through it for five or six times, she gets it and then we will hear her “teaching” Lucas or her dolls the newest understood concept.  Jillian often does the next days’ lessons just because, “I want to do more.”  She even does extra work from the back of the books “for fun!”

Jillian loves doing sit-down bookwork.

Improperly handled, this “younger child in higher grade” could cause contention in our home.

With the first instance where we had a student (our second one) surpassing another (our first one) in a subject, it caused concern for my husband and I because we didn’t want to “make learning a race” or “pressure” anyone.  Then we noticed the elder asking the younger how to figure out a problem.  They weren’t racing each other or fighting, one wasn’t irritated that the other was “over” her: they didn’t see it that way.  They treated each other as individuals and helped.  So now, we don’t worry about what “grade level” one child is at compared to another.  We continued to allow them to move through our “curriculum books” as they are able.

I’m careful to emphasize to my students that they are not in competition with each other; they are in competition with themselves.  Learning is competing with yourself.  We are to work to the best of our personal ability and strive for our best.   This is the same for anything in life!  We are to edify (build up) each other.  We don’t brag because that is cutting others down.  We rejoice when others succeed.  We rejoice when we succeed.  We are happy when we help each other.  We are thankful when others help us.  As iron sharpens iron, so we are to help each other and build each other up.

When love guides your life and reflects in your homeschool world, you foster a culture of mutual education where each student is treated with respect.   Your students learn to help others, rejoice with others, and ask for assistance when they need it without fear of ridicule.  That is part of my ultimate goal – teaching them to live in love.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Creating Characters: Web of Deception

February 11, 2018

Creating Characters: Web of Deception

The first of my epic fantasy novels to be published, Web of Deception, has some of my favorite characters.  It took over seven years of development and several revisions to complete this work.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I never thought it was really done!

I wasn’t writing for a specific audience at first.  (Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, at the time, I was writing for myself as a young adult fiction enthusiast.)  I chose a semi-autobiographical lead.  I imagined myself as Jordan.  Since I was fourteen years old when I started, he originally started out at fourteen.  There were also about 280 pages of exploits and adventures in Ja’hline!  Later, as I became more advanced in my writing profession, I realized that none of these “school stories” did anything to help advance the actual plot; it just gave an extended view at the culture of Swavaria and the emerging character of several players.  This did solidify the characters in my imagination.  I knew them because I had been slowly forming them.  As I hit “delete” on over 280 pages of material, I chose to see it as an exercise in character development  rather than a humongous loss and waste of time.  Today, any one of my series books and most of my novels have a separate file with in-depth biographies and feature traits of each character.  (Usually, even supporting characters like Darren from Brantley Station Saga and General Wrynn from Web of Deception have pages of biographical information on them!)

The character of Kalam was one of the easiest for me; when I started reading this story aloud to my younger brother, he loved it and wanted to be in it.  This led to the creation of Kalam, a younger character included in the group.  This younger character had expounded strengths and the quiet, reserved, thoughtful nature of my brother.  It was easy to develop him.

Several other characters had “base” humans – those I pictured with modified talents or enhanced abilities to keep reminding me of the core of my character.

Jordan was what I imagined myself to be should I be in a fantasy adventure.  His character was actually drawn from attributes I admired in various historical figures and fiction characters from favorite tales.  Jordan was a hodge-podge of strengths I wanted and weaknesses I felt inside me.  The turmoil he feels throughout the book is something any adolescent would likely feel to some degree – we all feel like we are fighting a raging battle between our inner good and evil wolves, don’t we?  (Which wolf do we choose to feed?)

Chloe was my first character that had no “base” human for me to draw from.  She was developed to be the bold opposite of Jordan.  Alike in many ways, but different in certain extremes, Chloe and Jordan complemented each other and fueled a growing fissure of uncertainty throughout the journey.

Sometimes, characters build themselves because of a vacuum created in my work: Corgi was pulled back from the scrap board and I needed a character to compliment him.  To fill this gap bloomed Seva Natalia.

Overall, the characters I create appear to come alive inside my imagination, spill into my dreams, and take on their own lives as I record their adventures on paper (or screen).  Often, the same or very similar characters pop up in various works!  This is because I tend to lean toward strong, noble, intelligent characters and  love tossing in my “bit parts” guys when I can.  (You know, like Gabby Haynes popping up in hundreds of westerns always playing the same sidekick?)  My grizzled, uncouth military leader, wizened salt-and-pepper crowned mentor, sassy bossy no-filter child, and a few others pop up under a variety of names and faces to keep my readers (my girls) yipping, “Mom!  He’s from your other book too!” when they find one of these bit part characters.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

A New Spot for Adventures

Naming their school work spots! Today is at the Tortuga past the Black Spots and the Outer Rim…

January 23, 2018

A New Spot for Adventures!

Today we discovered the Tortuga!  Lucas and Jillian spied dozens of turtles from this vantage point.  We were also visited by a crane.  (Lucas screamed “Baby bird is cold!” because the crane folded his long neck up like Becky hiding in a blanket.)

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Here in the middle of a long walkway over a gentle pond, sits a pretty octagonal wooden pavilion with two benches.  Kimberly and Jaquline have been naming the locations where we do schoolwork and wait for Christina and Rebeccah to come out of class.

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Kimberly: “It looks like a turtle.”

Jaquline: “No, The Dead Marshings, because the water is black.”

Kimberly: “But it’s so fun.  This place should have a fun name.”

Jillian: “There’s bunches of turtles here!”

Kimberly: “What’s the name of the turtle in Wild Kratts?” (A favorite TV show about animal-loving brothers who turn into cartoons to save animals.)

Jillian: “Tortuga!”  She jumps around.  “Let’s call this place the Tortuga!  It looks just like it and we can see turtles.”

I tell them that Tortuga is Turtle in Spanish.

Kimberly: “Perfect!  It’s shaped like a turtle and we can see turtles from it!”

Jaquline: “So this is our Tortuga, the turtle ship to see turtles from.”  (Jaquline decided the benches on the outer ring overlooking the water would be the Outer Rim since they “needed a Star Wars spot.”)

Three more turtles rose to the surface.

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Lucas spied them, ran to the edge, and introduced himself to them.

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Jaquline and Jillian peeked between the floor planks to watch turtles swim underneath them as they created their sentences for Language.

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Lucas announced the arrival of every turtle, bird, crane, and bug.

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Kimberly took a break from arithmetic periodically to point out new sunning turtles on the edge of the pond.

So now they have the Stone Table, the Black Forest Table, the West Wing, (all of these are picnic tables), the Black Spots (we are reading Treasure Island right now and the black metal tables are round – so they are the Black Spots), the Tortuga, and the Outer Rim.  I wonder what other imaginary places the girls will find hidden on the college campus!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

Home School Organization

A little about our home school organization.

November 2, 2017

Home School Organization

So I’m one of these crazy people who can’t stand anything to be out of order.  I use to freak out trying to keep the house looking like a picture in a magazine…

This was until God smashed me with the realization that while life is in my house, it will never be perfectly clean.  (Note to self: NEVER be PERFECT!)

We also homeschool.  This means in addition to the normal kid toys, clothes, and assorted paraphernalia, we also have a stupendous collection of schoolwork items.  This all has to stay organized.  (Organization has paid off repeatedly as the girls move into high school level courses and dual enrollment.)  So I looked for an easy way to keep organized.

My first step at this organization was the purchase of three letter envelope sized Boxes upon which I wrote “Christina’s Schoolbooks,” “Rebeccah’s Schoolbooks,” and “Kimberly’s Schoolbooks.”

These boxes hold all current textbooks, notebooks, and school “tools” (pencils, pens, crayons, etc.) for that student.  I only had one “student” at the time, but the littler girls felt big to have their crayons, art supplies, and activity books in a “school box” too.  They also aren’t too heavy for a 5-year-old to tote around.

The students are responsible for their box and keeping their books and supplies in good order.  (Mom “issues” normal supplies like notebooks, primary crayons, pencils, pens, erasers, mathematical instruments, and books.  Usually, they like to buy their own “extras” like markers, colored pencils, or work pens inscribed with their name.)  This helps with responsibility.

Bingo!  I scored a short, sturdy wooden bookshelf that held my boxes perfectly!  **One (Jaquline’s) is missing in the picture, but that’s because she was using it!**

This allowed me to add the next 2 boxes (they were only 1 and 3, but Jaquline kept asking about her school box) and a third set for notebooks, charts & flashcards, and shared coloring & art books.  (Granted, we have a full-size bookshelf with art supplies and games and three full-size bookshelves with the supplemental school books – mostly history, science, technology, readers, and encyclopedias.)

Later, Rebeccah decided we needed a “non-reader” system on our boxes so we added “pictures” to the labels.  She likes everything organized too.

I created a book I call the School Planner.  (Rebeccah calls it “The One Book” as in “The book to rule all school!”) **Deceptively plain, isn’t it?**

It has everything school related in a very easy, homeschool-mom-friendly format.  (This means I can quickly enter information and file papers within my 10 or 15 minute time crunch.  I love organization, but hate spending time on it.)  One file drawer turned into the workbook paper file with one file for each student’s work by school year.  They look like steps and Kimberly has called them “the steps to college.”

Our School Shelf still holds everything current for 6 students (okay, Lucas isn’t a student yet, but he does have a backpack, crayons, and two coloring books in his school box).  Our School Planner sits on top of the School Shelf, and two sturdy boxes (perfect size to keep the workbooks snug and dust-free) sit on the other side against the wall holding all of the “next-ups.” (Core curriculum workbooks to be used by the next student.)

Our School Planner is organized by student in 4-week snapshots on each page.

On these pages, I keep a running list of reading books completed, courses completed and their GPA & weight (for high school-level), extra-curricular projects completed, and educational extras like field trips, community service, or practical learning.  The first page in my planner is my “base grade level guide” (texts I expect each student to pass at said grade level).

At the end of each school year (for us, the last Friday before our annual evaluation), I spend about an hour or two and compile all this raw data into a concise one or two page “report” I call a school year summary.

I attach a reading book list (gathered from the same data!) and if any high school level courses were completed, I add them into the student’s high school transcript.

For portfolio evaluations, I just grab the School Planner (reports go in the front in age order) and the file folder for each student for that year.  It’s easy and keeps me mostly stress free.  After evaluations, I rubber-band the School Planner pages together and set them in the file drawer with the previous years, print out the new pages with the changed dates and continue… the story of each school year in less than 1.5 inches of paper. The copy of their evaluation report (the copy of the official report on file with St Johns’ County) goes in a file folder with their name on it.  This has all evaluations and communications from the school district.  (This was a life-saver when the county changed computer systems!) **Lucas’ folder doesn’t have his name on it yet because they get to pick their colors**

Everything important with our school is in one long file drawer and one shelf.  This makes school time fun and easy – and organized!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

Birthday Day Off

October 26, 2017

Birthday Day Off

We are a homeschool family.   Sometimes this means we goof off and play games on birthdays instead of do bookwork.  But consider how much learning is crammed into everyday life!

Money skills: Today’s practicum included working and saving (racing around to do enough chores to raise the difference from their savings to whatever toy they wanted to buy for birthday sister), budgeting (oops, that pony figure is outside of my budget!),figuring tax, and checking change received.

Math and Science Lab: This included addition (1 cup milk + 1 cup milk = 2 cups milk), subtraction (Lucas dropped an egg!), fractions (1/2 cup sugar, please?), chemistry (solution versus compound, various states of matter, and a lengthy comical discussion of how the ingredients became a cake!), and even biology (answering our first-grader’s question of “does the sun help grow sugar?”).  Finally, our “home economics laboratory” produced a gluten-free chocolate cake with buttercream icing as requested.

They brought home the “best addition” to the cake – a miniature model of the Millennium Falcon, birthday girl’s favorite Star Wars ship.   (It’s her dream to have the Millennium Falcon Lego set – oddly enough, same one Mom wanted as a teen!)  We perched this on a good spot.

Language and Creative Writing: (each student wrote and colored a birthday card for Rebeccah).

Pyrotechnics and Fire Safety followed.  (This is otherwise known as lighting candles and hearing Mom’s 275th lecture on keeping hair away from flame!)

Music: (where everyone tries to get “…and many more” in the lowest baritone possible and the kazoos attempt to play some tune!)

Now for the guinea pigs to taste the experimental laboratory creation!  (A+ everyone lived!)  Creativity flowed during Art – the party hats turned into eye patches, unicorn horns, and noses.

Sometimes life takes over our classwork.  That’s okay.  We get a lot of practical work done on “days off!”

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

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