Bugs in a gui. Beans wouldn’t hold still for a photo and then HubbaHubba couldn’t get his phone out to video record them doing groundwork together fast enough.
She’s growing up way too fast. They both are.
Jan 242012
Nov 022011
I thought I had a good phonics program. It looked good, it checked out pretty well, and I really liked how it was put together. However, the Bugs hated it. It was rather slow moving, overly repetitive for her and she continuously complained that she wanted a workbook. I hadn’t seen any programs with a good, well thought out workbook for phonics, and I really didn’t want to use a workbook for phonics since we lean towards a rather ecclectic approach to school with a combo of Charlotte Mason and Classical blended together into what works for us (and I try to avoid workbooks and busy work as much as possible).
I had about given up on the idea of reading lessons for the time being for the Bugs. Each day started to drag on and on and we were not getting along too well during that portion of school. I tried livening it up for her, but she wasn’t buying it. Each day turned into a worse struggle to get through phonics than the one before.
And then, a miracle of sorts occurred.
I was given the opportunity to review Memoria Press‘s Classical Phonics and First Start Reading program as a part of the The Old Schoolhouse’s Crew. I was rather leery as it looked to be so full of busy work. However, we dove in, and we haven’t looked back.
Bugs fell in love with her new phonics workbooks the very first day she saw them. To say she was excited the day we opened the box is an understatement. The three workbooks are not near the busy work I thought they would be. They have pictures that start with the letter you are learning that day that you can color and tracing exercises with the letters as you learn them and then the words as you quickly (by lesson 3) start sounding them out. It is designed to give children quick success in sounding out words early in the program to help motivate them to keep moving forward in their quest to learn how to read. After begging to not have to do her phonics every day, Bugs now begs to do it and to do more than scheduled. I absolutely can not believe the difference this program has wrought.
I love how easy this program is to teach. The teacher’s manual is a breeze to go through and follow. The student workbooks are not overly visually stimulating or distracting at all, even with the coloring pages. They are all clean and easy to use. The Classical Phonics book is very clean and not distracting either. However, Bugs doesn’t quite like it as much as her phonics workbooks. However, I find it very easy to use. This program is very thorough and well put together. It isn’t like any other program that I have seen or used as a child. To say that I am impressed with the results is the understatement of the year thus far. Bugs went from fighting me in every phonics lesson in two different phonics programs to begging to do it. She is taking what she is learning about putting letter sounds together and applying it to other books now. She didn’t make the transition of the knowledge to do so until we started Classical Phonics and First Start Reading. Part of it may be because she has matured a bit more as the year has progressed, but I really think that the workbooks for First Start Reading have helped tremendously in this area. In fact, she even has tried sounding out more words in her vast collection of books than she has ever before.
I love this program and I highly recommend it for children who love workbooks. And also for moms who like little prep work and an easy to follow teacher’s guide. In fact, I plan on using this with the Beans when it comes time for her to start phonics.
At the time of this post, you could purchase Classical Phonics from Memoria Press for $14.99 and First Start Reading for $22.00 or with the teacher’s guide for $29.00.
To see what my fellow crewmates had to say about this program, and a Latin program from Memoria Press, go visit the Crew’s Blog.
I was given Classical Phonics and First Start Reading by Memoria Press as a member of The Old Schoolhouse’s Crew. All opinions are mine and mine alone and no other compensation was received.
My husband has his degree in Music and Worship. As such, he is extremely…um…picky in regards to what we expose our children to musically. For instance, HubbaHubba won’t permit most of what is passed off as children’s music in our home due to the quality, or lack thereof. As such, we find ourselves listening to quite a bit of the different styles of music, everything from classical, chants, contemporary Christian, praise and worship music and soundtracks.
With our love of music (we normally have some playing in the background as we go about our day), we want our girls to have an understanding of music history. I know, that sounds utterly boring to most people, doesn’t it? I mean, yeah, let’s learn about dead people, like in history (sorry, for the sarcasm, I personally am a HUGE history buff and excel at it, and my daughter’s seem to be loving it too, which of course makes me happy). How can you make the study of what is a very boring subject for most people fun? Well, let me tell you about A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers offered by Timberdoodle and produced by Bright Ideas Press.
A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers is a year long (32 weeks) curriculum covering the history of music and various composers through the different periods of music with a Christian world view. You start with Ancient music and go to about 1350 BC and cover the Psalms, chants and cover what a Mass is. Then you move on through the music of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and then the Contemporary period. This curriculum was designed for children in middle elementary school on up basically, but I used it with my K/1st grader (5 y.o.) and my 3 y.o. preschooler with some adaptions with no problem and I intend to keep using it and then repeating it in a year or so and going more in depth with it.
There is a suggested method of use for the curriculum for during the week. And we tweaked that somewhat. We wound up playing the music more during the day as the Classical music did make the girls more peaceful and mellow (hey, that’s an added benefit! They were also more diligent with their other school work if I left the music to play). They also love to dance to it. So, they would flit around the living room dancing when they felt the need to. I also would have them color in coloring pages I found in the Appendix while listening. Bugs has been great about staying in the lines for a while now, but she was way more careful while the music was playing to do so. And the Beans is finally figuring out how to stay in the lines now while she is listening to the the music while coloring. And she colored longer than she normally would as long as the music was playing (I really appreciated that one. Her Wednesday night Bible class teacher had to take to bribing her to get her to color in class like the other children. Beans just isn’t fond of crayons, she much prefers markers as her medium of choice).
The girls really liked learning about Bach, Joplin and already recognized the music of John Williams (the study goes up through him. Daddy plays Star Wars soundtracks quite a bit as he loves the music of John Williams so the girls are well acquainted with it). They loved the faces for the composer cards, but didn’t like filling out the cards yet (still mastering writing and copywork) so we did dictation and question and answer sessions instead of filling out the papers (which we will do a notebook the next time we go through the curriculum since they will be able to handle that better). They loved learning about the lives of the various composers from long ago and getting to hear what they wrote. Bugs now asks me what is playing whenever we have the classical radio station playing.
HubbaHubba was even impressed with how well researched this curriculum is and with how it is laid out for study. He loves how easy it is to adapt for littles all the way up to high school level work. And let me tell you, in regards to music curriculum of any sort, it takes a lot to impress him.
I like how easy it is to teach. Music selections are all hyperlinked in the appendix. They tell you what to teach and have the information right there at your finger tips. Print off the notebooking pages you need and just go with it. You could easily adapt the notebooking pages into lapbooks if you so choose. You can look up extra books in the children’s section of the library to supplement with more info on the composer’s lives for some read aloud incorporation even. I know our library has a section of picture books about various composers that would add so much to the studies.
Again, this is very well put together for an easy over view of the composers who shaped music history. It is easy to use, takes little time to add three times a week to your schooling (or more or less depending on how you tweak it for your needs) and is one of the easiest homeschooling products to adapt to your children. I look forward to more wonderful products form Bright Ideas Press and will be checking them out when it comes time to find our school curriculum for next year. To see what others had to say, go visit Because Mom Said.
For more Music for Homeschoolers ideas and curriculum, go here. And for a free homeschooling catalog from Timberdoodle, go here (believe me, the first time I got one in the mail, I drooled over it for weeks…) and they have even more online.
As a member of Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers in exchange for a frank and unbiased review. All opinions are mine (and HubbaHubba’s) alone, and no other compensation was received.
Sep 132011
This contest is now closed.
Theo, Teaching Children God’s Word is a new offering in the realm of children’s ministry/Biblical/Theological offerings.
I was expecting full length (20-30 minutes) episodes. These lessons are short. 5 and 9 minutes long to be precise. While I was disappointed in how short each of the episodes were, my girls weren’t. They really seemed to like them and begged to watch them again, and again.
The two episodes are Saving Faith (9 min) and Good News (5 min). Their titles are pretty self-descriptive. Theo is an older, grandfather type individual who talks directly to the children and doesn’t dumb things down with theological terms. Bugs seemed to understand what he was saying, but then she and her sister are being taught the Bible and theology in homeschool now. So, they have a greater understanding than a lot of children their ages probably do. My husband thought the words used was above the normal young child’s comprehension range. But in regards to our children, it isn’t. There are two mice in the series who provide comic relief of sorts from Theo’s explanations and while they are funny, might have been better worked into the story.
I would love to see more of the series to see if it could be incorporated into our Bible lessons in our homeschool. There is a church curriculum available now from LifeWay Christian stores (wish we had one local so I could look at it all…) and I can really see this being used in children’s ministry in the church. It does have a depth that most children’s church curriculums seem to lack.
Theo was created by Michael Joens whom you may recoginize from his work on McGee and Me and Adventures in Odyssey.
To learn more about Theo for yourself, feel free to visit the Theo Website, Theo Facebook Page, or the church curriculum from LifeWay Christian Stores. There are even iPad and iPhone apps available on the website.
Now, on to the giveaway. I have permission to giveaway two DVDS of Theo to my readers (US only please). To enter, leave me a comment. To gain additional entries (leaving a seperate comment for each) follow me on Google Friend Connect, like my Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter (in right sidebar), follow me on Networked Blogs, tweet or post this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter, and enter my giveaway for Ginny Owens’ new DVD. I will draw a winner on Monday September 26, at about 9 pm CST.
“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Well, we have finished five weeks of school already and are going into week six this week. Wow, time flies…But then we already know that, don’t we?
Bugs is dragging her feet on reading. She hates her phonics lessons. I mean dispises them. She says they are boring and I will admit, these are getting rather boring for me even. So, in an effort to create a bit more peace in our home, I’ve dropped them for the remaining time in the six week period, and I will say school is much more agreeable to both of us. I’m on the hunt for some phonics worksheets now. Bugs wants to read books and do worksheets. I figure that if I’m forcing her to do the phonics work out of her book, she isn’t going to learn anything due to her attitude and fighting with me. Yes, we have discussed the need to do our work diligently (her word of the week last week) and how we have to do things we don’t like sometimes, but if this isn’t what works for her then it isn’t going to work no matter her or my attitude. One of the many reasons we homeschool is because of how we can customize our children’s education to them. Bugs has been reading some and I’m sure she is capable of doing more than she has been the last week before we cut the oral phonics (she was sounding out j-o-b and said the word work for it…) and I think that a lot of the very repetitive work was driving her nuts.
I’ve caught the Beans trying to work ahead in her math book. I may have to put it up really high as I’ve caught her a few times trying to figure out the pages on her own. She adores doing it at least. I’m glad. And she loves her tracing workbook. I may end up with two little girls who love worksheets more than their mother does. Worksheets don’t fit into our Charlotte Mason/Classical education blend. Well, in my opinion, they shouldn’t…
Bugs and Beans helped make supper tonight. We had ham and bean soup with carrots and onions added to it. Bugs put all the ingredients into the pot after I had cut them, and Beans rinsed the beans for me. We then all made cornbread together. All I did for that was crack the egg and measure the milk. They did the adding, beating of the egg and mixing on their own. Every time I gave Bugs a direction to follow with the cooking, even with picking up the carrot peels that fell to the floor, she said, “It’s my pleasure.” We’ve been working on our attitudes when told to do something, especially with work. This all came out uncoached by me. We’ve been having her say, “Yes Mom (or Dad) I’m happy to obey,” or “Yes Ma’am (or Sir),” or “Yes Mommy (or Daddy) I will obey.” All with a happy tone of voice. This, “It’s my pleasure,” came as a shock. We haven’t been to Chick-Fil-A except once since the tornado (when the stand alone reopened two weeks ago). I’ll take such a pleasant attitude any day of the week from her.
Now, on to my announcement. I have had the privlege of reviewing several products recently that all entail giveaways. So, this week will be a week of giveaways on this blog starting with the new Ginny Owens CD, Get In, I’m Driving that will be posted in a few mintues after I get this one up. I’ll also have giveaways for a Theo DVD, The Shunning DVD and Jeremy Riddle’s new CD this week. I’ve also got a Crew review going up on Wednesday on Before Five in a Row. And hopefully I’ll get a few book reviews typed up too that I’m sure you won’t want to miss. Oh, and of course I need to resume my road trip series (sorry about not getting to it like I had hoped. The last post got spammed really badly and it’s been super busy here with the end of summer) and pictures of our attendance at Prairie Day. Bugs got to have a snake on her head. She loved it, Beans totally freaked out and nearly paniced, and I was careful to be enthusiastic, but not overly so (I’m not fond of snakes. I’m praying she doesn’t start to ask for one as a pet.)
Well, good evening everyone. I hope you are having a blessed start to autumn.
