Adventures in Mama-Land

What?!  Adding curricula?  Am I nuts? Well, first things first.  Naomi finished the Explode the Code series a month or so ago and I wanted to move her into a series of phonetically rule-based spelling books.  Except I couldn’t find any that were no-nonsense, quick and easy, with lots of independent work (like Explode the Code) and no teacher preparation.  We tried Spelling Workout last year and both hated it, and I have since looked over any number of spelling books before finally discovering the one I wanted:  Rod and Staff.  Those of you in the know will have already gasped and fainted, so for the rest of you, Rod and Staff is a Mennonite publisher of Christian curriculum materials in a wide range of subjects.  They’re not just a little Christian, they are a LOT Christian.  Still, I was so excited by the samples I saw that I decided to order the books and “work around” any issues in the texts… and there ARE many.  Um, well, first l...

A couple of people have been asking on the boards, as I was at this time last year, how to transition from phonics to spelling.  The assumption out there in education-land seems to be that phonics is baby stuff and spelling is how big kids learn.  Maybe they’re thinking of BOB Books and their ilk.  Since our disappointing experience with Spelling Workout earlier this year, and our return to Explode the Code, I have realize that this popular perception is not necessarily the case.  Why would they make Explode the Code books all the way up to level 8 and beyond – at least to a Grade Four level – if phonics becomes irrelevant (or less important) the minute a child is reading somewhat successfully? In fact, it’s only now that Naomi’s reading fairly well that the phonics rules are starting to make sense, and Explode the Code guides her gently through understanding and navigating the maze that is spelling in English. The only thing I really liked about Spelling Workou...

Now that Naomi’s learning that some words are more complicated than others, with hidden letters and non-phonetic syllables, her spelling hasn’t necessarily improved, but it’s definitely gotten more complicated. Yesterday, in the middle of four long, involved interviews and making Shabbos, I messed up my back pretty badly and all I could do was sit at the computer playing Solitaire (in a previous era, I would have taken to my bed, but honestly, the computer chair was the most comfy thing!). We’ve been so very busy that the prospect of a day off was a treat for the kids and they promptly and wonderfully went off and did their own thing.  They played outside for a while, then built train tracks in the basement together.  Then Naomi came up and asked for paper to do a “collage.” This sheet of “scool werkc” is what she came up with, and it took her a good long time, giving me tons of peace and quiet.  Click the picture to see more detail.  It includes (clockwise f...

Okay, I lied:  it’s not a poem for Shavuot.  I’m Ashkenaz and proud, and for once, if you want to read the poem, you’re going to have to read it MY way. Shavuos - here’s how you say it: Sha, like you’re shushing a baby; Voo, like the French word for youse; Iss.  Who doesn’t like a holiday that rhymes with KISS ??? Now that you can say it, there’s a free printable PDF version of the poem here . Also, it’s a bit late for this year, but be sure to check out my Shavuos learning for kids (not just for homeschoolers!) resources roundup page here ! The Tzaddik:  A Poem for Shavuos   Hundreds of years ago, far far away, A tzaddik is dying; the end nears today. He drifts in his dreams as he turns in his bed, His worries for Yiddishkeit swirl round his head.   “If only,” Rebbe Alter murmurs out loud, “If only I knew, if a glimpse were allowed, A glimpse of the future, to see how they fare, Carrying Torah to the ...

Just like the one I did for Chanukah ! To receive a free PDF of this very simple print-cut-staple easy reader for Shavuos, featuring all the usual cute borrowed Internet graphics you have come to love from my printables, please email me directly at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, and I’ll pass it along!  (ideally, you’ll have a colour cartridge to print it with – something I am lacking at the moment) Sorry, it’s not direct-downloadable this time.  That’s my gift to myself:  I love to find out who’s reading and using these things!  (and get a chance to say hi to readers)

I mentioned the other day that I’d invested in the Evan-Moor Literature Pockets Nursery Rhymes book and was enjoying it, despite its being a “canned” curriculum…  well, here’s another purchase I have utterly failed to mention:  Enchanted Learning . Okay, not a purchase so much as a membership, and I caved and spent the $20 for a one-year membership back in February. Yup, this site is the cheesiest of the cheesy, but it SO often has just the right printable at just the right time.  A booklet on fire station math for the week we went to the fire station, a musical instruments something or other, or a parts-of-a-tree diagram to label and/or colour. Their geography resources can be pretty ugly, I must admit.  Looking at the maps just now as I wrote this, I noticed that they are clear enough, but the fonts are blocky and hard to read.  And the arrows pointing to the smaller countries are distracting – sometimes to the point of obliterating most of the country...

וַיִּקְרָא / vayikra / Leviticus 21:1-24:23:  Read it ;  hear it .  colour it . Yay!  We’re getting back to normal after Pesach… bit by bit by little teeny bit. This is a basic overview of the parsha story in a format that can be adapted for a wide range of ages. Sources include parsha text, commentaries and midrash.  When introducing midrash or other non-pshat elements, I use the words “some people think” or similar. Please see the Vayeishev overview for how we use these narratives  in our homeschool.  I also have copywork sheets to go with the weekly parsha… enjoy! Do you remember another name for Sefer Vayikra? Toras Kohanim – “teachings for the Kohanim”! Kohanim have many special mitzvos, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t learn from them, also. Did you know that a kohein shouldn’t come close to a dead person’s body? They had to stay ready to work in the Mishkan, and a dead body made a person tamei (impure). However, to bury a c...

One of the features Naomi and I have both come to enjoy about Explode the Code are the silly yes/no sentences included in each unit.  They are good, solid reading practice – but they also indulge her sense of the ridiculous.  Today, in addition to answering yes/no to each one, she made me promise she’d have time at the end to do a tiny doodle for each of the silly sentences.  At first, she was only going to illustrate the “NO” sentences, which are fairly surreal, but in the end, she did all of them.  Here’s what she came up with! The plum is thinking, “I skip!” The skunk is thinking, “Yes, gas” as he sips from a pump nozzle. I like that she clearly put some thought into this one… Fly swatter. There’s a bicycle on the other side of the hill.  Why? I love this!  The guy is thinking “help!” Caption reads, “bump; clunk.”  Exactly the sound of slipping in the tub!

I know, I know… where was this post YESTERDAY??? Well, about twenty seconds before my family was due to arrive for the Purim seudah this afternoon, Naomi requested that we all sing a particular song.  Well, if we were going to try to sing together, we’d need lyrics. (also, wonderful, melodic voices, but let’s not push it – at least I can find lyrics on the Internet!) So I sat down and put together a page of words for a few Purim songs.  Not that there aren’t songbooks out there, but I wanted translations and transliterations, just like we have in our Chanukah book . Of course, I wasn’t able to throw much together in a few minutes, so I spent an hour or so just now putting a better song book together… just in time for next Purim!  (or Shushan Purim, if you live in an ancient walled city) Songs included (transliterations are Ashkenaz except Israeli songs): Ani Purim (I am Purim) /אני פורים Chag Purim /חג פורים Venahafoch / ונהפוך Shosh...

I ask because I am.  Or rather, a cut-OUT... hmm; a “cutter-outer”?  Whatever you call it, it's true:  I cut out the pages of workbooks, whether they're designed to come out or not. Sometimes, it's so I can save the page in our big binder, and sometimes (as with our JUMP Math text) it's because the book is too thick to write on the reverse side of the bent-backwards pages. Explode the Code isn’t unwieldy, but I have started enjoying the feeling of watching the book get noticeably smaller with each lesson done.  I think it gives Naomi a sense that we’re accomplishing something important; indeed, today was our first day in Book 2!!! Here are the books, all ready for tomorrow’s learning. And ZIP!  A swish of my brand-new exacto-type knife and they’re FREE!  Shiny, nice, easy to use and file afterwards.   Two books I DON’T cut:  Handwriting Without Tears and Kriyah v’Od.     The books open up nicely, and in the case of ...

I never thought I’d be adding a third post to my first two , but since the previous two have gotten a LOT of visits, I’m hoping somebody will read this one as well. I’ve become convinced (sad but true), that at this point in history, there are more Christians who care about these holidays than Jews.  I see two big reasons for this:  first, Jews are by and large apathetic about Judaism.  If you’re Jewish and you’re reading this, congratulations – you’re NOT one of the apathetic ones.  But most are.  Second, I believe Christianity has reached a nadir, a low point in its 2000-year history, where it has “politically corrected” itself into irrelevance.  If you belong to a Christian church whose message is so bland and friendly and open as to barely distinguish itself from Unitarianism, then of course you’re going to turn elsewhere for genuine spirituality.  People can tell when they’re being fed pablum and told it’s Irish Stew. Funnily enough, tho...