Adventures in Mama-Land

A few new “Daily Program” additions I’m trying out as we enter what will hopefully be our first real week of school. We may not stick with all of them through the school year, but I thought they’d be valuable, and they are included in my TeacherFileBox subscription:  Daily 6-Trait Writing , Daily Science , Daily Word Problems and A Word A Day . I’m not married to any of these, so I’ll just see which Naomi likes, if any, and go from there.  If I had to pick which one was the most important, I’d say the 6-trait writing (I don’t know what the traits are).  Although Charlotte Mason doesn’t really encourage “creative” writing at this stage (narration is sufficient to ensure that they’re articulate and voicing their own thoughts), I think it’s fun to explore and pick apart the mechanics of good, vivid writing.  The exercises are low-key and only require a sentence or two of actual writing. Also new this week, the next artist in our Meet the Masters cu...

After a year of planning and evaluating various options for Year 1, it’s finally done – our super-schmancy, fine-and-dandy Complete Jewish Homeschool Curriculum!  Sort of.  It’s an ambitious list, and I’m scared I won’t be able to do it. Points to keep in mind: I’m flexible.  If something doesn’t work, I drop it – period.  Maybe pick up something else, or maybe drop the subject if it’s not a crucial one.  I am very open to this, though I think everything I’ve chosen for the year is do-able. It LOOKS ambitious, but most of it is just extensions of what we are already doing.  Nothing here will be a big surprise if you’ve been reading this blog all along. Most lessons are VERY short!  Depending on the lesson itself and Naomi Rivka’s co-operation, an average lesson is about 10-20 minutes.  Some subjects in some weeks will really involve ZERO additional minutes; they’re just books included in our regular family reading schedule.  A ...

Other “weekly challenges”: Six Word Saturday Homeschool Diary I haven’t done one of these in a while, but I do want to keep it up, so I figure I’d better get into the habit before Purim and Pesach run everything completely off the rails around here.  We’ve had a couple of “field trip” weeks, and it’s amazing how just one outing in the middle of the week can throw things totally off for the entire seven days.  They were good trips, though – one to the fire station, and last week, to the Museum.  Naomi was playing Museum today – by making her own “coprolites” (ie dinosaur poo) out of cardboard, coloured grey and brown. I love how people online sometimes name their homeschool.  There must be a philosophy that recommends it.  If I ever do, which I probably never will, I would call our homeschool “The Smile Factory.”  Mostly because we have so many tears and screaming around here.  Luckily, most of the tears and screaming have ...

PLEASE JOIN US! If you teach your kids at home and blog about it, just add a comment below! Other “weekly challenges” I play: Six Word Saturday Menu Plan Monday   WEEKLY PARSHA:  תְּרוּמָה / Teruma SCIENCE THEME:  Five Senses – SMELL! OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:  Tuesday - Toronto Symphony Orchestra Primary concert Friday – new edition of the monthly Jewish Homeschooling Blog Carnival – get your entries in!!! Still experimenting with various formats for the weekly schedule… this week, since I’m loving Google Calendar for meal planning and family scheduling, I thought I’d give it a try for schooling.  Except it turns out there is really no good way to export entries to any other form… drat!  Anyhow, it’s very bare-bones, but here it goes! Mon Jan 31             MATH            READING ALOUD: BOB / D&J / Winter Fu...

Yup, yet another curriculum / workbook that annoys the heck out of me… and which Naomi Rivka seems to love! This is קריאה ועוד/ Kriyah v’Od (Part 1) , her Hebrew reading/writing workbook.  The entire book consists of learning all the consonants with the “ah” sounds of kamatz and patach, and it seems to me mind-numbing and dull.  The graphics are weird and the pages seem at once too “busy” and too big and sparse. Naomi always does the work in it happily, though, so I’ve been sticking it out, and even bought the second-level book when I saw it in a bookstore a couple of months ago. And then last week, I discovered this file-folder that Naomi Rivka had snuck off into her room and decorated to look exactly like her Hebrew book.  Here’s the cover – house, “letter mem” slide, choo-choo train. It’s not her best drawing ever, so I was blown away when I opened it up to discover…   … Two whole pages of Hebrew writing exercises, in exactly the same splashy colour...