Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing Review

We've spent the last year working through a language arts curriculum with a strong grammar component. Madison has only just completed second grade, and I was quite impressed by what they were asking and expecting of her, and I've been developing a new respect for the necessity of grammar in the early grades and we're looking at what we'll be starting with third grade at the end of the summer. Today I want to introduce you to Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3 from Hake Publishing.




We used Saxon math in kindergarten and for half of first grade, so I'm familiar with the way the program is set up to spiral. Following in the traditional format of other Hake and Saxon materials, Grammar and Writing 3 utilizes incremental development combined with frequent review to help students master the material. It isn't something where you'll have a unit on subjects, and then put those away for a while. Once something is introduced, it will build throughout a few lessons, peak as the focus, and then remain very visible for a while, ensuring that mastery is really attained.


To be quite honest, the first twenty plus lessons felt like review for Madison, given what she did in grammar throughout second grade. She was quite familiar with subjects and predicates, how to attach the modifier or article to nouns and verbs, and how to do a basic diagram. She was familiar with capitalization rules, plurals, and past tense. However, I find that to be true in the beginning of most curriculum, and I don't think skipping to where things become unfamiliar is the way to go. We used these lessons as a way to get acquainted with the style of the curriculum.

As with other products we've used from Saxon, this is a "no frills" workbook. No color, illustration, or cheerful distractions fill the page. It is solid text, start to finish. The vocabulary is rich, and it assumes a solid third grade reading level. There is not a lot of room to write answers. Madison still doesn't have the neatest, smallest, handwriting, and her biggest frustration was getting her answers to fit in the very limited space.

To be quite honest, even though the material wasn't difficult, getting Madison to complete the pages was a bit of a chore, which we struggled with a bit. She's a good worker, and we worked through it together, but it was dry for our taste.

From the teacher perspective, coordinating the various parts of the teacher guide and student book was a bit annoying. You can't deviate from the script in either book, or you'll find yourself missing things you're supposed to copy from the teacher guide, test days (they say every five lessons, but that isn't always the case) and days to go to the writing lesson. Although it's scripted (actually a drawback from me, something I always avoided as a classroom teacher), the teacher needs to be quite involved in keeping things together and prepared.

There are 111 lessons, along with test days. Each lesson is scripted in the teacher's book to take about 45 minutes to complete. In addition to the 111 Lessons, there are also reproducible More Practice Lessons found in the back of the Teacher Guide. Interestingly, the prompt to do one of these sheets is not mentioned in the Teacher Script, but only found in the Consumable Textbook lesson between the Practice and Review Set. There are also 22 test days. Coordinating with the test days are writing lessons with a separate workbook. We worked through a few of these lessons, even though we hadn't always quite reached the point where we'd be directed over there. These lessons work on the fundamentals of good, clean, writing. Creativity is not the focus, quality sentence and paragraph construction is the goal. For Madison, an extremely reluctant writer, this was actually ok. She didn't need to worry her topic wasn't interesting enough, she just needed to follow the rules. She could do that and did it successfully.

It is interesting to note that Madison steadfastly refused to have her picture taken showing any completed work. She did not like the way the pages looked messy when she completed them, she said her handwriting looked too big, and she didn't want people to see. She's normally a pretty open kid when it comes to this stuff, so her reluctance to show when her own writing didn't seem to "fit" with the look of the page is noteworthy.

Is it a good curriculum? Absolutely. It's thorough, it's clear, it's challenging and it will undoubtedly produce students with a great understanding of the construction of language. Is it for us? I have to say it's probably not, at least not with my child at this stage. It didn't inspire her, it felt like a bit of a chore, where if we could get through grammar today, we could spend some time on literature or history or geography or science or anything else. Forty five minutes of our school day spent only on grammar felt like a big chunk of our time, and I know it would be a battle with her personality and make our school day drag on and on. I always feel guilty when there's a great curriculum that just isn't a fit for us, but one of the reasons we homeschool is so we can always find the right fit! For a student who is a good fit with the style, there is no question they will learn plenty with this program!

Decluttering My Life

My sister put her house on the market a few weeks ago. I don't envy her life at all right now. They had their house decluttered and cleaned and polished. Then, they had it staged by someone their realtor recommended. They put nearly everything away. Rather than a pile of mail on their counter, they have a bowl of lemons. No dish drying rack or sponge out, but a beautifully bottled soap on a beautiful decorative tray stands next to the sink. The kitchen table has a bouquet of flowers. The coffee table holds only a candle. From the main living spaces to the bedrooms to the bathrooms to the kids' rooms, everything is minimalist, clean, and ready to present itself.

It's gorgeous and beautiful, and although my sister admitted that it's nice to have things looking so streamlined and polished, it's also an exhausting way to live, and just once, she'd like to leave the baby bottles to dry on a dish rack. Now that they've sold the house, they're relieved to go back to living like normal (even with the packing and prepping for a move).

Although we are NOT planning on moving, there's something very inspiring about getting rid of clutter, especially when I have two kids who seem to LOVE clutter. We've been working on the girls' bedrooms. They can't seem to keep them clean, and quite honestly, I think it's because they just have too much stuff that they don't know what to do with. We purged three full boxes of things they don't need and at least five garbage bags full of trash, and those rooms are still full.

And quite honestly, as much as I'm encouraging the girls to simplify and purge, I'm not setting the best example. I've joked with people about how if a zombie apocalypse happens, my car will be able to keep us alive with what I can keep there, neatly packed in my trunk (well, mostly neatly). When Madison's dance teacher forgets a straw or fork for her dinner, I'm able to provide. I like to be prepared.

Yet, I can take some steps towards, while not becoming, a minimalist. I can streamline the car kit. I can make sure that what we're keeping, and what I keep stocked, is something we actually need and will use, that it's in good shape, and that it has a home, where it fits and we can find it.

I can declutter my phone, my fridge, my DVR watch list, my car, and my bookcases. I can declutter clothes I don't fit into.

I will never be able to go full on Kondo, full on minimalist, or have my house looking ready to sell at all times, but there's something to be said for a push to get the clutter out.

Laying it All Out

I can't believe summer is finally here! I also can't believe that summer is already here.

Adam and I had all these plans for things we could do since we don't have dance nationals dictating summer vacation this year. We were going to go to Maine! No, we were going to go south! No, we were going to take a big trip! No! A few weekends! No!

Yeah, so now it's June and we don't have much planned. Truly, Adam and I are terrible planners when it comes to stuff like this. We really are. Once we actually decide and schedule and book, we're great at the little details. But when it comes to making the decision and taking the leap to get the trip ON the calendar, we stink.

But assuming we do get our trip out of the theoretical stages, I'm actually in pretty good shape with getting us ready. We've done enough road trips now where I know how to keep everyone happy.

For example, if it were up to Adam, we would attempt to spend the absolute least amount of time in the car with the absolute minimum amount of luggage necessary. He's a straight road, no stop, if you can't fit it in a carry on you don't need it kind of guy, and I'm a scenic route, plenty of breaks, be prepared for anything girl, so we've had to merge our styles a bit.

But we do know the basics now, just based on previous vacations. We make sure my old and finicky car is up for the challenge. We give the girls a budget, even teaching them the term "per diem", so they don't bug us for treats and souvenirs every few minutes. We plan our route and timing to make the day time driving interesting and save the boring parts for when the sun goes down.

We may not know where we're going yet, but we do know how we'll get there when we do!

Too Wired

The wires are taking over.

I had a moment of frustration the other night. Both girls have a kindle and a "phone". I have a kindle, a phone, and a fitbit. All of these devices charge in my bedroom overnight. The girls are definitely not allowed to keep anything in their rooms after bedtime, and having everything charge together seems like the right choice. BUT, this means that MY bedside table is full of rectangles with wires dangling about.

That's not mentioning the laptop plugged in on the dining room table (my makeshift office), the iPad that lives in the kitchen, and Adam's collection of personal and work devices, all of which need to be charged.

There are black cords streaming out from behind nightstands and tables and counters everywhere I look. That doesn't even take into account the chargers in the car (all necessary, naturally), or the appliances that actually need to be plugged in, like TVs and toasters.

For all this wireless world, my world seems to be full of wires. And they are ALL OVER.

I don't know how to remedy this. We need to keep things charged. I don't think we're overloaded, we seem to have a normal amount of "devices" and things that need electricity, but yet I don't see the clutter everywhere.

Maybe it's just that I'm trying so hard to declutter, and these wires, knowing they CAN'T be tossed out, and are just mocking me?

Maybe it's that I'm just focusing on the little things so I don't have to focus on anything big?

Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll figure out the solution!

Silverdale Press Review - White House Holidays

The girls LOVE history. I think most kids do, especially when we take it out of the "textbook" context (not that my K and 2nd grade daughters are doing much in the way of textbooks) and turn it into a story. Two years ago, when Madison was in kindergarten, she loved learning about the presidents and she had such fun impressing random adults by listing the presidents in order, or throwing in random facts about the less famous terms. This year I hoped Reagan would pick up the baton (with two children both named after presidents, we had a legacy to keep up) but it wasn't the right year for her and we put it to the side. What hooked her back into learning about the presidents was the White House Holidays Unit Studies from Silverdale Press LLC. Now she had some context she really was interested in!

The White House Holidays Unit Studies teach the history behind the following American Holidays:

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Valentine’s Day
• Labor Day
• Veteran’s Day
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas

The beauty of unit studies is that we can all work on them together. Madison doesn't feel babied and Reagan doesn't feel like she's in over her head, and I'm learning new facts right along with them. This was clearly the case with these particular studies. They were easily adaptable to everyone. These units all include optional hands-on projects mostly intended for the elementary student.  They are simple and don’t require too extra supplies OR too much printing (a pet peeve of mine with printable curriculum or unit studies).

We started with Veteran's Day, because of a discussion that was sparked a few weeks ago by Memorial Day. We started talking about both holidays and what the difference was, and how they started. It seemed perfect. The most intriguing thing about these unit studies is that they are all taught from the perspective of the president who sat in the White House when the holiday was first created.

 

We moved on to Thanksgiving next, and quite honestly, we're still in the thick of it - only halfway through the four lessons. In our family, unless we have good reason to, work on each unit study over the course of a month, so we can dig in without abandoning the rest of our daily curriculum. Most of the holidays have 3-5 lessons, and you can complete a lesson in a day, so for us, that puts us right where I like to be at 3-5 weeks. I know plenty of families who make unit studies their primary curriculum and could complete one holiday a week - and that's an amazing thing! But that's not how we work, so in three weeks we just finished our Veteran's Day.  We'll keep working through Thanksgiving, which so far, seems to be correcting a lot of misconceptions my kids seemed to have picked up!

Overall, all three of us really enjoyed working on this together, and I think we'll keep up with the rest next year! These are engaging lessons that take things kids can really relate to - holidays! - and tie them in with how they came to be celebrated by a country at large.

MaxScholar Review

The girls are still in those early elementary years when direct, explicit, instruction in reading is key. Yes, they pick up a lot from life, but it's also important to get a strong foundation in reading and spelling. Every once in a while, I realize that I've let a hole develop, and I know I need to jump right on it. Both girls have been strengthening their skills in different ways with the Reading Intervention Programs from MaxScholar.

MaxScholar utilizes an Orton-Gillingham approach with a focus on phonics, phonemic awareness, reading of words, fluency, and writing to build reading skills in struggling readers like dyslexic students, ESL students, and those who have gaps in their reading foundation.  This online subscription is accessible from any internet ready device. MaxScholar recommends Chrome. I don't use Chrome as my default, but it was actually a good thing. I made MaxScholar the Chrome homepage, so the girls could navigate their way to the program without me.

The Reading Intervention Program features 3 distinct programs your student can work with to improve their reading skills. Each program begins with a placement test so that your student is at the precise level for them.

•  MAXPHONICS works on mastering phonemes and letter sounds by using a variety of multi-sensory, online lessons that include videos, practice drills, and games.

• MAXREADING uses highlighting, outlining, and summarizing strategies that help your student master reading comprehension.

• MAXWORDS builds vocabulary skills by focusing on prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots syllabication and spelling rules to improve reading comprehension and fluency.

 

 

Students and parents have independent logins, and the program automatically returns them to their correct lesson when they log back in. This is very helpful for us, as the girls don't always remember where they're supposed to be and what they're supposed to be doing. When I log in, I can see how long they spent on each program, what they did, what their scores were, etc. Parents also have access to a wide variety of additional downloadable resources including lesson guides, readers, sight words, drills and even workbooks.

So far, Madison has spent most of her time in MaxWords. She's been doing word sorts this year, and I realized that she had NO idea what open and closed syllables were - we've never discussed syllable types. We started with the few that I thought she'd pick up easily - R-controlled, Cons-le, and vowel teams. This was incredibly helpful for her as she words on breaking down longer words.

Reagan is still a new reader, so she spent time with phonics. She knows her letters and sounds, she knows word families, but blending sounds is still something she needs to work on.

Overall, the girls really enjoyed using the program, and I really liked that they could work independently at my laptop while I focused on the other. We're heading into our "school lite" for summer, and I think that we'll keep MaxScholar going to keep our reading skills moving forward!

Running Low

I can't tell you how many times I've just been rushing around and realized, wow, I am starving. Weird.

Oh, maybe it's because, although I harp on the kids to eat breakfast, I didn't have a crumb myself.

So now my tank is empty and it's not fun for anyone. I'm cranky, I feel like a hypocrite, and once again, I'm going to end up stopping and grabbing whatever I can find to keep me going. The consequence is worse.

A little while ago my car was running HOT in traffic. It would be fine when we were cruising along, it was fine when I started driving, but in stop and go? In highway traffic? My little heat light would flicker, just quickly at first, where I thought it was just a trick of the light, but then a little more obviously. I'd get worried, but then the road would clear and it would go off. Turns out? Low coolant. Not super low, just enough to be irritating. A quick check and top off was all I needed to avoid a potentially BIG problem.

When I'm running low, ignoring the little reminders, is when my headaches start to creep back in. It's when my temper gets shorter. It's when I become a little foggier, a little less productive. We aren't in crisis mode, but I'm not taking care of myself.

Same thing happens around the house. I let things slide. I ignore the little flickers letting me know that it's time to take care of things. I stop short of crisis, but it's a bigger fix.

This summer, I'm trying to remember that. I'm trying to remember that checking in is necessary. Do we have food around for easy meals that I can eat? Have I done laundry recently enough where we have plenty of pool towels? Have I checked in on the state of the girls rooms/bathrooms? How are the fluids in my geriatric car?

Am I low? Or am I ok?

The Little Things

Adam and I are engaged in a small, unspoken, yet undeniable battle.

Adam works from home (and travels).

I homeschool the girls (and run them to their various activities).

We are both home a lot, yet also both leave a lot. Our leaving time, though, isn't exactly "wow! I'm out of the house and FREE" time. I have both kids with me, which means cluttered backseat and bickering and lots of driving and dropping and picking back up. I'm not escaping for friend time or to the spa. Adam may get to travel, but it usually means airplanes, and office buildings and hotels in different zip codes, not vacations or relaxation.

So both of us cherish those little moments. And for some reasons, one of those little moments is...

...getting the mail.

Both of us love getting the mail. Rain, shine, cold, warm. We have a long driveway, so you get a nice walk in, you're alone, and it's a nice chance to just breathe.

Mind you, the mail itself isn't all that interesting. Usually 90% of it is worthy of an immediate dump in the recycling (if you're me, that is. Adam usually puts it on the counter, even when it's obvious trash). The most interesting thing I read recently was our new car insurance policy.

Yet both of us LOVE being the one to go get it. And we both get super annoyed when we realize we've been beaten to the punch and have no excuse. I think we've both been guilty of feigning ignorance just to get the walk in.

"Oh, I didn't see that pile! Oh well!" or "I didn't hear you say you'd gone! No big deal, it was a good walk".

Perhaps we should schedule it together, like a brief date, every day.

Or we'll just keep up this small battle. Little things, little victories.

ARTistic pursuits Review

One of my first pieces ever picked up for syndication was called "I'm Not a Crafty Mom, and that's OK". That was four years ago, and in those four years, I'm finding that I'm still not a terribly crafty (or artistic) mom, but I somehow produced kids with a great desire for visual art and plenty of crafts. We've tried a few art programs in our homeschool, but none have really stuck so far. We don't use the computer often, so online lessons aren't a long term solution we'll stick with, and if it requires a lot of prep from me, it's probably not happening for long before I flame out. The girls have both taken artsy classes in our co-op and I send them to both day long and week long art camps at a local studio, and I will buy plenty of supplies at craft stores, but I can admit that this is not the art education they deserve. After a few weeks of doing this review, both girls beg to do art lessons with the Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary, part of the ARTistic Pursuits Art Instruction Books with DVD and Blu-Ray from ARTistic Pursuits Inc.


The series is for kindergarten to grade 3, and we chose the first volume, I like starting at the beginning, although theoretically you could start with any of the volumes. Volume 1 is called Art for Children, Building a Visual Vocabulary, and it features 18 lessons, including 6 video lessons. There are currently six volumes with plans to expand the series to eight total (four years of art education!) Ideally, you'd do one lesson a week, getting through two books a year. Personally, as someone with a two kids two grades apart, I liked that I could very easily use this with both girls at once, without feeling like I was going over my kindergartner's head or talking down to my second grader. They can both do the lessons on their own level.



First of all, I love that there is not only a list of materials for the entire book start to finish (so much better than at the beginning of each lesson, causing last minute homeschool moms to panic during breakfast), but there is a picture of these supplies. I cannot tell you how helpful it is to see that. Watercolor crayons totally threw me at first, so it was nice to have a recommended brand. I gathered supplies for each girl and created an "art class box" that we used ONLY for art lessons, so we didn't find ourselves searching for oil pastels or watercolor paper, only to discover that they had been used up. Honestly, I love curriculum that really gets parents prepared to start right and be successful.  You can actually order the starter pack straight from the website to ensure you have exactly what you need. Since we already owned some supplies, and I'm pretty good with coupons and discounts and comparing prices, I was able to get two complete sets on my own for less, but if you aren't close to a craft store, it a nice option. In fact, you can bundle each book with a supply kit, ensuring that you are ready to go right from the start.

Each lesson in the hardcover textbook includes some introductory and prep advice for the parent, a concept introduction to read aloud, a full color example of art that is relevant the lesson, along with a short history and questions to ask, directions for the actual hands on work, and images to follow.

As the parent, I was guiding them along, using the prep notes and book, but I found that I was most useful to them when I did the lessons with them. Remember, I'm not crafty - so I was trying to figure things out too. We liked using the DVD together and experimenting with new things like blending watercolor crayons.

Madison's favorite toy - her dollhouse.

Now, I know I said I kept the supplies contained for art time only, and I did hold to that. But one of the biggest lesson was observing and drawing the world around them, using the techniques in the lessons. So I got them both "official" artist sketchbooks. With our every day crayons/colored pencils/markers/gel pens/pencils/whatever was handy, they did both draw quite a bit and put their observational skills to use in the sketch books. Reagan is still in the stage where she gets frustrated when things don't look quite right, but Madison filled an entire book in two weeks. They draw and create in notebooks and on scrap paper often, but these sketchbooks had them really thinking about art as a curricular subject to be practiced - like music.

Overall, I am planning to go through the rest of the book in our new school year, trying to keep the pace with one new lesson a week. I'm not sure if we'll do the rest of the volumes in order, but we'll keep things going!

New American Cursive Review

Ah, handwriting. Neither of my kids have the gift for good handwriting, and it takes effort and deliberation to go from big and sloppy to the neatly formed letters that I feel they need. Madison is a still reluctant when we do copywork in print, but she loves cursive. Something about it makes her feel adult, fancy, and it logically makes sense to her. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of cursive material intended for younger students - it all seems to assume that most kids start cursive at the end of 3rd grade at the earliest. It made sense that we review New American Cursive I from Memoria Press.




New American Cursive 1 is designed with the first grader in mind. This would mean Madison is actually a little old for this, but since she's still a beginner when it comes to cursive, she started here happily. Unnecessary strokes are eliminated - the alphabet has 26 fewere strokes than most cursive methods. Letter forms are simplified, but retain the classic form. The slant is slighter - it's not vertical, which is tiring and slows down writing - but it makes it easier for righties AND lefties. The slant used is a nice balance.

The program itself was created to be simple, clear, and effective. The focus is on accuracy and legibility. The included teaching guide suggests lessons that should take twenty minutes a day for practice in the book.



New American Cursive 1 features the character, Mr. Meerkat, As the book’s guide, he makes learning tasks fun; step by step, he shows the way to draw each letter and encourages creativity. There are clear arrow directions for letter creation, and plenty of shaded letters to trace for practice. Madison loved Mr. Meerkat, and loved the chance to color him in, and draw along with some of the pages. She loved that language too - helping the letters hold hands, climbing and sliding, even ending with a smile! I will say that Madison, at the end of second grade, but still seven, did love this, but the language is definitely for younger students. An older beginner might not love it quite as much and need something else to get them started. I'll probably start Reagan on this next year as well, along with her print copywork, and it would be right at her level as a first grader.



Memoria Press has several more books in the New American Cursive series.  There is New American Cursive 2 (Famous Americans), New American Cursive 2 (Scripture), New American Cursive 3 (Scripture & Lessons on Manners), New American Cursive 3 (Famous Quotes & Lessons on Manners). They also have StartWrite software, for using the NAC alphabet to make customized sheets for spelling words, name practice, and other extensions. I will definitely be getting this once we finish the book, since I think that the best way to practice handwriting is to write things you need to learn! Honestly, I'm having a hard time holding myself off from grabbing this right away, and I wish I'd gotten a chance to check this out along with the book! I need this software in our homeschool.

Stop Ruining Things

There was an article that went viral a couple years ago, in response to the EWG sunscreen report. The EWG report was one of those "deadly products that you probably use EVERY SINGLE DAY" article, and the response was basically "I am so tired of this nonsense".

I felt so viscerally connected to the mom who wrote the response. My kids are at the pool and on the tennis court and outside basically ALL summer. I found a spray sunscreen a few years ago that got the job done quickly and easily and effectively, and I've been bulk buying it ever since. I keep it in the pool bag, I keep another at home, and even though I am far from perfect at remembering to use it - especially on myself - I felt like I had checked "sunscreen" off my to do list.

Then a person who I swear is on Facebook just to share scare inducing panicky articles shared this EWG post and tagged me in it because they knew that - guess what - my particular favorite was in the top ten worst sunscreens, and I just about lost my mind. I didn't write about it, but when I read that someone else had, I wanted to hug her hard. 

My kids are sunscreened. My kids have not burned, despite being out all day long. And yet, unless I go online and buy some thick paste that costs ten times as much, comes in a much smaller package, is a pain in the neck to apply, and quite frankly, based on the handful of times I DID try something similar, doesn't work all that well. But now that I HAVE THIS INFORMATION, now that I KNOW BETTER, I must DO BETTER. If I keep using what I'm using, knowing it's on the list, I am clearly in the wrong and putting my family at risk.

ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!1

Scare articles annoy me SO MUCH. Somebody posts the dangers of Diet Coke, or drinking from a water bottle once left in a car, or sunscreen, or a packaged food that's been a lifesaver for on the go, and suddenly, I'm the bad parent. Never mind that when I go online myself and find actual scientific articles and studies that show that the alarmist articles are a bunch of...hogwash.   

 People are determined to ruin things. 

Can it be bought in a big box store? Probably wrong.
Can it be bought in bulk? Probably wrong.
Can it be stored in a car/basement/beach bag/purse? Probably wrong.
Does it make your life easier? Probably wrong.

I know, that's a gross oversimplification. And it might sound bitter. But this whole "the danger that's probably lurking in your house right now" smacks of someone trying to ruin a mom who thought, just for one moment, that she was doing OK.

Just stop.