New Ideas!

A few discoveries I've made over the last few weeks:

Alphabet Printable Activities : I made Madelynn a preschool book with handwriting practice worksheets from this site.  It gives you the option of printing out worksheets that teach "standard block" handwriting or D'Nealian handwriting.  I like D'Nealian.
I also included in her homemade preschool workbook the pages from Essential Math A and some Kumon maze pages just for fun.  She is also beginning to learn all of the sounds of the phonograms and we are working on blending, but I think she may need more time for that skill to come.
I realized that I really don't like Handwriting Without Tears' cursive letters, so I'm switching everyone to D'Nealian font.  The good thing about D'Nealian is that it can easily be found online for free.  For instance, I made cursive worksheets for Savannah and Charlotte from this site.

I also ran across this blog:
http://www.simplyconvivial.com/

She has some interesting ideas on how to make some subjects more independent and interest-led.  I have discovered for myself that interest-led studies make a more profound impact on a child than derived studies; this is obviously because they WANT to learn the topic.  Copywork has been an enjoyable activity when I have allowed them to choose the sentences.  Now, because of that website, science will be interest-led. 
I have all of the Exploring Creation books by Apologia.  The girls have to read one topic from any Apologia book (about 3-4 paragraphs) and write a summary of the topic in their composition book (Charlotte: 1-2 sentences, Savannah: 2-3 sentences), and then illustrate it, daily.  It works!  And what a great exercise that is!  Reading, composition, grammar, handwriting, and independence all wrapped up in one.  This takes the place of Writing With Ease... I was going to pick WWE up again for 3rd grade, but now I don't have to... whew!  It's torture to me.

Speaking of torture, I've dropped Phonics Road for now.  This coming year Savannah will do R&S English and dictation from Spelling Wisdom, marking (Spalding style) only the words she misses.  I will keep going through the Ayer's list with Charlotte and mark the words, which is pretty much what Phonics Road level 1 is.  It really is a good exercise.  It's just so....  boring.

Another idea from that website is in regards to geography.  I don't have a formal geography program for the kids.  We just have big wall maps that we actually refer to quite often.  However, the lady on the website has her kids fill out a blackline map every week until they can fill it out without a reference, and WE are totally going to do that too. 

So.. I bought this: http://www.exodusbooks.com/details.aspx?id=28636
And this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1426300883/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00
And this: http://www.amazon.com/Geography-Songs-Cassette-Larry-Troxel/dp/1883028043/ref=pd_sim_b_2

And one more new idea!  We are going to get serious about poetry memorization by using Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization by IEW.  I just have to find it used... I'm not paying that much!  There are four levels of poems, each level containing 20 poems.  You just start with the first poem and master it, then move to the next until all 80 poems are memorized.  There is a youtube link on the website that explains why this is an important exercise, if you're interested. 

Oh and this:  an online music notes drill.  I might have my girls do this too.
Anyway, that's all for now.  Just thought I'd share with all my fans. ;)

(chirp... chirp...  ...chirp...)