Home from the Tetons, starting a new school year

We just got back from our family trip to Grand Tetons National Park.

Our reward for driving off at 8 am: a stunning Tetons view.

I've seen a lot of parks, but this was my first time there. We had a home base at Jackson Lake Lodge due to Dan's work but the kids and I were able to play everyday while Dan was at his conference. My favorite part of the week was seeing a moose for the first time in my life. We prayed to see one and were given one eating right next to the street! We started keeping Nature Journals during our trip and tried to draw bisons. Apparently, a "still" bison actually moves a lot, so we resorted to drawing flowers and grasses.

Now that we're back, and learning isn't getting in the way of homeschooling, we're getting back into gear with respect to homeschooling. We're going to give KONOS a month's trial since I really want to use a curriculum that facilitates my children learning together. We'll also read through the Mr. Q Science book as a science spine. Otherwise, our curriculum isn't much changed from last year, with The Writing Road to Reading replacing it's knock-off, Spell to Write and Read and Anna doing her own math this year. 

Final Silent E Page - We did it!

While I was waiting for my sister's labor to really start, I read The Writing Road to Reading and had my eyes opened.

Now, I wasn't unfamiliar with this approach. Actually, we've technically been "using" Spell to Write and Read (which is based on it) off and on since October. However, the opinions she wrote into her book really put me off, such that I had a hard time reading it. Additionally, what she writes a very long book about is only the first chapter of The Writing Road to Reading because WRR is just so much more succinct. 

Suddenly, I caught the vision. THIS was what I was trying to do. It really wasn't so hard after all. Sanseri's book had just overwhelmed me.

We're back on track now, reviewing all phonograms visually everyday and writing eight to ten from dictation everyday. We've reviewed the first three sections from the WISE guide, which we did during the fall, and today started covering new ground.

We did the Silent Final E page. Wow. It wasn't hard. We just had to do it.

Quizzing, which I felt so opposed to before, isn't hard. It is just a different form of practice. Of course John has never gotten a bad spelling test back before (and won't be this year, either). I'll just put a dot over the wrong word, let him fix it, and then put on a star sticker to cover the dot. Then, we'll review it in future weeks.

Amazing - I'm going to be following two programs almost to the letter. We're all happier that way.

SWR - for our family

I'm trying to figure out how to use SWR in a way that accomplishes my goals: good spelling, exposure to Christian virtues, comfortable reading, logical thought, without having it take over my life. It seems to take a good 45 min to 1 hour to do the whole thing everyday, which would be fine if I didn't have any other goals for our homeschool time.

Here's what I'll be trying for the coming four weeks, though we'll take off a few days around Christmas. We'll be following a four day per week schedule, doing ten words per week, and having no "tests."

• Everyday: review all phonograms visually, read thirty flash cards, and focus writing one letter perfectly
• Day 1 - copy and write the week's focus phonograms
• Day 2 - write the week's ten words
• Day 3 - write the week's words on flash cards and make sentences by arranging them
• Day 4 - write a sentence from dictation and correct it

This won't lead to the sort of mastery that SWR promises, but that level of mastery seems to be coming through reading for J. Anyways, we'll do all the words over next year as is suggested.

J's consulting teacher has suggested we start the practice of ten minutes of daily journaling. We might implement that concurrently and see how things go.

Torture reading?

I've bought and read all about Spell to Write and Read and can't decide if I like it.

I like intensive phonics and have become a better speller by working through it myself, but I can't get over her phrase "torture reading" to describe early reading by children who haven't already memorized something like 200 words (which, in SWR, they have examined phonetically and not just memorized by sight).

Torture reading? I can barely get books out of my son's hands and he's well on his way to memorizing words - by seeing them in books all the time.

We started with some super-silly phonetic readers which had my son laughing out loud, but after about a month of those, he moved onto anything and everything he could get his hands on, but usually real books that he had heard me reading aloud in the past. That is how we've moved into a whole-word phonetic blend, with difficult words he can recognize by context within a sea of decipherable words.

We pick up SWR every few weeks and work through a word list. We've made our way through 60 words so far and my son knows about 40 phonograms. I don't know if it will stick at some point. I'm glad we're doing it, but I'm still in the dating phase.