Today I Changed My Tagline

I'm wondering if you caught that very small change- a letter that makes the world of difference in meaning.  Did you catch it?  Probably not.  I don't have a lot of followers.  I'm not sure who really pays attention to what I write, but I'm excited for the changes.

Well, let me start with a little background info.  This summer I was the worst homeschool parent ever.  I was too involved with my own endeavors- my own education- my own interests.  I pray to God that I did no damage to my child.  She's enjoyed every second of freedom.  She's enjoyed every Disney Chanel show, every independent art project, every chance to ride her bicycle inside the house, every crafty outfit whether for herself or her dolls, every computer game, every LPS youtube show- she's enjoyed freedom.

So as I'm getting ready to get in gear for the school year, I began to experience significant fatigue and sickness. I hadn't been eating well, so I attributed the sickness to that, but when it persisted I couldn't help but think about all the deadly things it could be.  I went and got vitamins with iron. That helped a bit, but still, something didn't feel quite right.  Ginseng comes next. A little better, but still not out of the woods.  So after about a week and a half of the bed, as I was getting ready to to set myself a doctor's appointment, I decided that a pregnancy test was in order.  Just the month before, it said no.  I assumed this result would be no different.  To the contrary, it was. I was excited, and left the test on the top of the counter so that my husband would see it when he went to the bathroom. I left it on top of the visual test explanations.

Men!!!!  As he went to wash his hands, he noticed. He asked what it was, and then asked was I pregnant.  Me- "You didn't see the visual clues right there."

Him- "Just tell me."

Me- "It says we're pregnant."

Him- "Congratulations. Good night." And off to sleep he went.

Thinking that there was some kind of mix up, I believed myself to be about 10 or 11 weeks pregnant.  In the clinic they show me two lines, but one is very faint.  This leads the nurse to believe in my timeline.  She thinks the line might be faint because I was a little further along.  Here comes the ultrasound. "Oh, it looks like you're only 7 weeks pregnant."

Oh, was I upset, disappointed, etc. You mean to tell me that I start getting sick at 5 weeks and that I have another possible 7 weeks of sickness?

But since then, I've had a chance to put on my rejoicing shoes.  It's only been a week, but I am happy to change my tagline from "Beecause my busy bee keeps growing..." to "Beecause my busy bees keep growing... BeeYond ABC."

Yes, it's early, and I know many things could happen. My husband and I are both older (he, more so than I), but we are prayerful that things will work out.  Please send whatever prayers, positive energy, affirmations, or whatever it is that you do as long as it's short of devil worship.

Thankful for my busy bees.

Faith

20 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

This idea came from the wonderful women of the Mahogany Homemakers group.  Because we are more than homeschoolers, here are my twenty answers.

1. How old are you?
I'm in my thirties, and I feel like a grandma...

 2. Do you prefer tea or coffee?
I'll say tea, but I'd rather have water or juice 

3. Are you married? How long?
Yes. I've been married 8 years.

4. What were you doing with life before becoming a mom?
Lifelong student, I was. I was just finishing my masters in music when I learned I was pregnant.

5. What is your favorite color? green, but also any muted color, like a muted beige is the business...I like orange, too.

6. What do you (or would like to do) in your spare time?
I love learning to code for the web and beyond. My first language that I learned in college was Fortran. I started out as a civil engineering major. Then I taught myself HTML years ago. Over the summer I began learning more about javascript, Ruby, JQuery, HTML5, CSS3, and BOOTSTRAP.

7. What are you watching on TV nowadays?
I like reality shows. A lot of the scripted shows I like just don't stay on the air. So it's just easier to stay with reality shows- the ones with longevity like RHOA. Of course there's Scandal, but sometimes they do too much.

8. What was your favorite TV show as a child?
Cosby Show

9. Do you have any tattoos? Do you want any?
Nope. I couldn't think of anything to get while I was young.

10. What is your dream vacation? Any place with a great, clean beach and people with good sense.

 11. Did your husband match the "man of your dreams"? (for example, you always imagined marrying Mr. Tall Dark & Fine but fell in love with Mr. Short Light and Decent Looking)
The answer is a swift no, but he is the most beautiful person I'd ever met.

12. Would you go to an adult roller skating party?
Of course. Are you planning it?

13. As a teen, were you the social butterfly or wall flower?
In between.

14. Have you traveled internationally?
Does Canada and Mexico count?

15. Do you know how to swim?
No, but I wish I did.

16. Do you prefer a bath or shower?
Shower.

17. What is your favorite movie genre?
RomComs

18. Do you have any pets?
No, thank the Lord.

19. What is you favorite music genre?
jazz, r&b

20. Would you participate in the "Real Homeschool Moms of Your Area" reality show?
If I can wear a uniform of scrubs and a head scarf, maybe.

Curriculum Considerations

Finally, a post! It's been all of 96 years (3+ months) since I've tended to this blog. I've been working on some things and learning new skills and moving, all of which have lead to me not only neglecting my blog, but my homeschool.
If you don't know, my daughter will be a second grader this year. During my little hiatus she's become very accustomed to watching tv and creating things from paper. She made a whole doll fashion line with paper and glue. She's been playing in water a lot lately, too. She even cut arm-wholes into a piece of fabric to make herself a wrap dress.
Before the school year begins, I hope to do a brief summary of summer. It will be very brief because we didn't do a lot.
Skipping to the nitty gritty. Our homeschool curriculum will be a bit of this a bit of that. I only plan on buying one complete commercial curriculum (math), but here is how we'll move forward. Click each subject to expand or contract.

Reading/ Language Arts

Feeling a bit conflicted about this one. Her reading comprehension level at this point is around the 6th grade level, but I don't want to skip because other things might suffer. For example, her fluency wouldn't be at 6th grade level. She has a great vocabulary, but as we move forward, the vocabulary that she has could be a hinderance to reading higher level books. She is an extremely accurate reader. As it stands, and it really may change, we're going to skip 2nd grade reading (for the most part) and try to work on areas that may be lacking, combining 3rd and 4th grade reading. We'll try to improve her reading level a bit by reading on level and beyond, often. We'll be using our vocabulary log and reading logs to help us along.
The main component to our ELA class will be Lucy Calkins' A Curricular Plan for the Reading Workshop, Grades 3 and 4. Most of the selections are things I already have on hand, given to me by other teachers who no longer needed the materials or bought from 2nd and Charles in Woodbridge, VA. 2nd and Charles was my favorite place to get second hand materials. I haven't checked, but I'm hoping and praying that there is one in ATL.

Reading Workshop

Lucy Calkins' A Curricular Plan for the Reading Workshop, Grades 3 and 4

Poems, Old and New

Lots of books below, on, and beyond her reading level.

Fluency

Building Frequency, grades 2-5

Fluency Practice, 3rd grade

Teaching the Brain to Read: Strategies for Improving Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension

Grammar, Capitalization, and Punctuation

Free online McGraw Hill Treasures Grammar and Writing, grades 2 and 3

Capitalization, Punctuation, and Spelling, grades 2 &3, by Karen Kallaher

Grammar: Parts of Speech, 3rd grade

Punctuation in Practice, 3rd grad

My own approximation of Shurley English- I pulled the parent guide from offline and that should be good enough for what we need.

Comprehension

Teaching Reading Strategies in the Primary Grades

Short Reading Passages with Graphic Organizers, grades 2 & 3

Comprehension Cliffhangers: Mysteries: 15 Suspenseful Stories That Guide Students to Infer, Visualize, and Summarize to Predict the Ending of Each Story

Reading Comprehension, 4th grade

Vocabulary

Vocabulary Building with Antonyms, Synonyms, Homophones, and Homographs

Vocabulary Expanders, 3rd Grade

Word Study Learning Packs: 15 Reproducible Learning Charts with Easy Lessons and Activity Sheets to Build Vocabulary

Vocabulary words encountered through our reading.

Word Study/ Spelling

Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction

Words Their Way: Word Sorts for Within Word Pattern Spellers

Words Their Way Word Sorts for Syllables and Affixes Spellers

Building Spelling Skills, Workbooks for grades 2, 3, and 4

Writing

A Curricular Plan for the Writing Workshop, 2nd and 3rd grades

Math

RightStart Math Level C

Here's a sample: Level C Sample.
Looking at the objectives (you can see them in the sample), I'm super excited about the skills we'll acquire. People say that this is equivalent to 3rd grade math. I think it's more like the end of 2nd and complete third, but who really knows. I'm super excited.

We'll supplement with adaptedmind.com

Science

We will also continue with SCRATCH to help her to think like a coder. Once a month we will be going to CoderDojo. Hopefully, she can be a part of the robotics classes, there. If not we'll take the SCRATCH classes. We'll also work on Khan Academy's javascript course, online. I'm not crazy about this one because it's not bare javascript. Once finished, she won't be able to just sit and type and have something without the Processing JS library. I feel the same way about some of the robotics kits. If a child doesn't have a kit, would they be able to make the robots? The kits are valuable. We'll try that approach through classes, but we'll also do our own robotics work without the aid of a kit.
Again, we are trying to combine grades 2 and 3. We will be using GA's curriculum map which has 6 units/ year. For both years, that makes 12 units. We'll do 8 units and will try to cover the other four by linking them to our units or just through our reading. Of course as we get closer, we will find books to support our efforts. Below are our Science units with some of the supports we'll use. We will also continue with SCRATCH to help her to think like a coder. Once a month we will be going to CoderDojo. Hopefully, she can be a part of the robotics classes, there. If not we'll take the SCRATCH classes there. We'll also work on Khan Academy's javascript course, online. I'm not crazy about this one because it's not bare javascript. Once finished, she won't be able to just sit and type and have something without the Processing JS library. I feel the same way about some of the robotics kits. If a child doesn't have a kit, would they be able to make the robots? The kits are valuable. We'll try that approach through classes, but we'll also do our own robotics work without the aid of a kit.

Properties of Matter

Melecularium Teacher's Resource

Ms. Nucleus

Energy

Energy for Every Kid: Easy Activities that Make Learning Fun

Ms. Nucleus

Pushes & Pulls

Ms. Nucleus

Night Sky

Digitalis Education

Life Cyles/ Habitats

Ms. Nucleus

Rocks, Soils, & Fossiles

Ms. Nucleus

Pollution & Conservation

Ms. Nucleus

Magnets

Magnets: Mind-boggling Experiments You Can Turn Into Science Fair Projects

Social Studies

In GA, K-5 Social Studies basically covers American History, along with some civics. Second grade is all about GA, and 3rd grade social studies deals with the setting up of the American government along with the rights and freedoms supposedly given to Americans through democracy. I am going to use GA's curriculum materials found here supplemented with books and maps. I may try to organize both years chronologically, together, or I may just do 3rd grade curriculum first and then come back to the 2nd grade materials. We will definitely supplement with Lessons from History and use iOS apps and Globalmania for geography.

Spanish

We only made it through 3 lessons of Pimsleur Spanish in our supplemental homeschool last year. It's not super exciting to do, but she sits and repeats. It's plenty of repetition, and even with 3 lessons and very little effort, I'm pretty impressed with what she can do. Click here for the results of lesson 1. We divide each lesson into about 3 to 4 sessions.

Art

Units for each element of art (internet research).

Art based projects (internet research).

Drawing course (from somewher off the internet).

Physical Education

Either softball or soccer with rec league.

Ballet/ Tap.

Youtube Yoga

Introduction to meditation.

Music

Music Theory Objectives

Review, quarter notes, eighth notes and reading notes on the treble staff.

Be able to define the word interval and recognize a half step and whole step by sight and sound.

Construct a major scale.

Sing various scales.

Baroque music and composers (will probably use The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians)

Musical Traditions of the Manding (internet resources)

Just singing and playing fun/ Times to enjoy music.

Homeschool performances.

Sight Sing-a-Song

Kodaly Today