The Drawers: the nubmers have velcro on them. When Basia completes a drawer, she moves the number to the side of the drawer. She always knows exactly how much school she has left for the day.
Drawer 1: Read aloud. Poetry, some fun (Silverstein and Prelutsky) and some more classic (Oxford Book of Children's Verse). Books planned: Follow My Leader, Henry Huggins, Homer Price, Little Pear, Mountain Born, Understood Betsy, The Year of Miss Agnes, The Wheel on the School, Viking Adventure, Leif the Lucky, Marco Polo, Door in the Wall, Sword in the Tree, Minstrel in the Tower, Castle Diary, Secret of the Andes, Corn Grows Ripe, Pedro's Journal, Robin Hood.
Read Alouds
Drawer 2: Memory work: Continue to recite all previously-learned memory work and add (much found in Living Memory by Andrew Campbell): Books of the Bible, "Duck's Ditty", The Lord's Prayer, Latin Table Blessing, "Trees", "God Be In My Head", "How Many Seconds", "Ten Commandment Song", "Leisure", The Sanctus, "Psalm 100", "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod", The Beatitudes, "Remus and Romulus". Actually writing this list out surprises me. We have never really done much Bible-related memory work before, so that seems like a lot. Last year she memorized a lot of poems relating to the Ancient history she was studying (from Modern Rhymes about Ancient Times series), but I haven't found a similar selection for this year's history. Hmm. I'll have to look harder. I also want to add in some memory work related to astronomy, but I haven't found anything I love, yet.
Memory Folder: new material in front, practice current page daily until learned; all previously-learned material is moved to Days 1-5 to be practiced once per week. When she gets older, firmly cemented ones will be moved back farther to only be practiced once per month.
Drawer 4: This is the reading drawer. Basia has dyslexia, so we will continue to remediate reading and really do intensive work this year. We are working through Blend Phonics and will continue until we finish it. We are also using some online lessons from The Phonics Page. If it seems that she still needs it, we will go back to work with The Barton System, moving on to level 4. I have lots of new books on this subject, so our year may progress in a variety of ways after Blend Phonics. Spelling will be included with our phonics and will be a big part of our reading time. We may go back to some Spelling Workout B, but I will more likely create my own spelling program based on her needs. Dianne Craft has a great way for teaching spelling that has worked really well for Basia, but it is so labor and space intensive. It works, though, so we will use it whenever it seems she has struggles with certain words.
Starting in September, the books Basia will read will come from the Veritas Press First Favorites program.
Our favorite new supplies for reading and spelling practice
BREAK TIME FOR BASIA
Drawer 5: Arithmetic. Math U See will be her major program, with supplementation from Singapore Math, Miquon, and continuous work through Two Plus Two is Not Five. Once she finishes Two Plus Two is Not Five, I may very well buy the book again and have her start it over. That is how important it is to me that she REALLY get the basics cemented in her brain forever more.
BREAK TIME FOR BASIA
Drawer 6: Story of the World, Volume 2: The Middle Ages and Activity Book. We have had excellent results learning history just like described in The Well-Trained Mind, and we will continue this path. Days of Knights and Damsels will give us extra activities when we so desire.
Drawer 7: Apologia's Astronomy. 2 times per week. I even bought the giant lab kit, so we will have no excuse for not doing the experiments. Science is not my favorite subject, however, Basia loves it. I am making a commitment to be more intentional about it this year for her sake.
Summer science fun
Drawer 8: Telling God's Story, Year 1 for Bible study. Basia participates in Children's Church at our church but doesn't get real Sunday School. One expectation of pastor's kids is that they know a little something about the Bible. This is our solution for this year.
BREAK FOR BASIA
Drawer 9: Art and Music. I stink in these areas and fully admit it. We have lots of art study books that we will read once or twice a week: How Artists See Feelings, How Artists See the Elements, Child's Book of Art, Art Fraud Detective, Looking at Paintings: Families, and a few books on specific artists. She'll also use Watercolor for the Artistically Undiscovered and Creating Clever Castles and Cars when I'm really motivated. For music, Jon is going to do a very informal music history lesson with the kids once a week or so. We are basically going to expose them to various artists and genres of music, starting with Michael Jackson. Basically, we'll play some music, maybe watch some videos online, and chat a bit about the artist at breakfast. I probably need to get Basia into piano lessons so she will at least have a chance of learning to read music...
Art supplies at the ready
Drawer 10: Practice Tae Kwon Do forms. Yes, this is part of the school day because that is the best way I have found to make sure the kids practice a bit at home.
Drawer 11 and 12: anything fun/educational I want to add from time to time: puzzles, geoboards, dot-to-dots, mazes, logic puzzles, geography games or map memory work. Spanish language activities and vocabulary cards/books may also be put in these drawers.
A few of the games that may find themselves in Drawer 12
Notes: Not every drawer is done every day. On park days and PE days, we won't do science, art, or music. Science is only done a couple times a week. Bible, history, and writing are often 4 days a week. Reading and arithmetic are the absolute must-do drawers, no matter what. We sometimes take Fridays off to hang out with Jon on his day off and then make up for it on Sunday. There is very little desk time for Basia, and breaks are taken when she needs them. Music playing and gum chewing help Basia focus better during math. Being able to move around during other subjects is just part of how we roll and how she best learns. I print out weekly and quarterly schedules from Donna Young for planning in advance. I personally don't do grades or report cards at this age because I am right there with her and know if she has learned something, and we do not move on until she has. Our school day typically starts between 8:30 and 9am with breaks as needed. After lunch, the kids have "outside time" for at least half an hour and then "silent reading time" in their rooms for an hour. Basia is often done with school before silent reading time but will finish after SRT, if needed. Basia does not yet read for the full SRT hour, so she will listen to books on CD (we love those by Jim Weiss) and play quietly after she reads for a while. Oh, and we school year round, taking breaks when we really need one, when family visits, or when we have somewhere to go.
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