I Need a Daily Schedule

I think some Moms really like the general weekly guidelines of Oak Meadow.  I'm discovering that I probably would do better with a daily schedule.  Why?  I am so good in getting daily math done.  I know it needs to be done every day. I have a rough idea how much we need to do.  So we do it.  Not a problem.  For other stuff, I'm really sporadic.  While I had hoped we'd have certain Science days....certain Social Studies days...it just isn't happening.  So, hopefully over the weekend I'll be working on a more detailed schedule.

Math-wise, DS finished up chapter four of Math-in-Focus.  I then switched us to Math Mammoth 4A for now...as there are only two more chapters left in 4A.

English-wise, we're continuing with Galore Park Jr. 1.  We did our first BraveWriter Friday Freewrite today, and it went really well.

DS is reading "Harriet the Spy" and loving it.

We've continued with Galore Park Jr. Science, but I've been a total slacker on OM science and any sort of hands on.

We finished the Native American creation stories in OM3, and began to work on our report on the Calusa Native Americans.  We continued with this series. Most of them, our library had, but we had to buy this one from Amazon.  Honestly, I'm learning so much that I don't mind at all. :)

Found this great resource for drawing.  It is perfect for Native American studies.  We do the copywork in cursive...and in Waldorf-y colored pencils. :)  The Oak Meadow drawing lessons haven't really been working for us. I think we came too late...or just haven't spent the time on them.  As my goal is for my kids to just have an art-filled environment, this works just fine for now.

Week 5?

OK, it's week five? Oops, I thought we were on week four.  It was a good week.  We did a bunch of different things this week.

In OM3, we continued with the stories and read about a girl of the Kush people (south of Egypt.)  DH illustrated a picture from the story and we watched a brief National Geographic clip about the Kush.

In OM4, week four of the lesson guide, we researched animals of south Florida--both those that live here now, and in the past.  Found out that 10,000+ years ago, Florida was much larger.  DS illustrated some of the animals in his lesson book.

In Galore Park Junior, we read a story about an Indian girl and did the exercises.

DS finished, "The Search for Delicious," so I had him write a "real" book report on it.  His answers were as short as possible, so I decided to use the BraveWriter partnership writing technique and basically was his scribe.  I asked the questions for the book report, and then wrote his answers.  That seemed to work really well--he gave really well thought-out answers.  So, I think we're going to do more partnership writing, and then add in some copywork to help him work on writing speed/skill.

Created a copywork sheet for DS to learn the Tashahuud in English/Arabic.  While DH can read Arabic, I don't know it well enough to help him with his Arabic script, so we used transliteration.  I used this copywork program.

Decided that when possible, we're going to do "fun" math on Fridays--so RightStart games, codes/puzzles, etc.  Today, DS did a riddle that involved multiplication tables.  You find the answer to the problem which equals a letter.  Eventually, you fill out the entire answer. "What shape does a Tyrannosaurus like best?"    "A Rex-Tangle."  LOL :)

Oh!  Finally, I found this neat Steiner verse which I really like.  We may use it next week.

I place myself steadfastly into existence

With certainty I tread the path of life

Love I nurse in the core of my being

Hope I lay into all my doing

Confidence I impress into my thinking.

- Rudolph Steiner

Here we go...

So, finally, I am actually homeschooling my eldest, Sonic.  We had homeschooled when he was in Kindy, but it has taken awhile to get back to it.  Last year was not a good year at the local public charter school.  He was not challenged at all, and began to stop handing in his work, etc.  He did great on his FCAT...but I'm not a fan of standardized tests...so a year of misery for a perfect FCAT is not enough.

I've always been drawn to Waldorf methods--especially for the younger years.  But I've also been drawn to the more academically rigorous WTM/Classical approach.  My compromise is to use Oak Meadow 4th grade this year, with stuff taken from Waldorf Essentials/A Little Garden Flower's 4th Grade Curriculum.  We're also using various BraveWriter tools, such as the Arrow for some of the OM books, like "The Trumpet of the Swan" or "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."  (I bought mine at Homeschool Buyer's Co-op cheap. :))

As we're Muslim, we'll be doing some spoken Egyptian Arabic using Michel Thomas (better IMHO than Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, or Madina).... as well as high frequency Qur'an words using this app.

I purchased my OM curriculum on ebay used.  It's from 1998.  Comparing the topics with the overview on Oak Meadow's website, I don't see a lot of differences.  Sure, we won't be pulling out a tape recorder...but as part of my goal was to get back to a pre-standardized testing type approach, I'm not worried.