Streamline Frustration While Developing and Implementing Your Own Curriculum

This blog could easily be called The Real Gangsters of Homeschooling. Sometimes its a fight just to figure out what to teach. With all the many options from which to choose and all the competing viewpoints, it all can become a blur. Not to mention you still have to design, plan, and implement lessons without knowing what your child's response will be. It can all be very intimidating, but before you go spend you lottery earnings or your retirement savings on curriculum materials, check out some of these tips on developing and implementing your very own curriculum.

Run To The Fight, Pick A Side, And Join In

Developing your educational philosophy can be a fight that you shouldn't avoid. My advice for developing a curriculum is to run to the fight and by that I mean run to the controversies. Find all the controversies and disagreements you can find about how something should be taught. My go to example of course is sight words vs. phonics, or better yet, common core vs. the no-name curriculum from before. Based on your own research, pick a side and start fighting. Get dirty. Go hard for what you believe. Those controversies can point you to what activities to avoid and can guard you when you're developing what it is that you will do. Research, pick, a side. Test your research. Get feedback from your child. How does your child respond to your educational approach/ philosophy? Does it match how he learns. If not, it's cool. Change your mind and jump ship. Go hard for something else.

Steal or Hijack

When it comes to developing your own curriculum, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Every possible way to teach 2 + 2 is 4 has probably already surfaced, and if for some reason, you're going to come up with a new way to teach material, looking at the creativity of others could be helpful in getting your juices flowing. Don't be afraid to know your state's standards and even try to put your hands on curriculum maps. Do the same for commercial curriculums. You don't need to purchase them, per se, but look for a table of contents online, or unit tests. This can give you some clues to or even the actual scope and sequence for each curriculum. You don't have to copy these or even use them for your curriculum, but use the knowledge gained from what others are doing to develop your own materials. Then implement, test, regroup, relearn, and reimplement.

Before you decide on what to teach in reading (maybe math,too), it may be necessary to check to see where your child is. There are plenty of commercial (some are expensive) products to help you gather information about your child's reading level. You probably can find Fountas and Pinnell testing information in your local library, or try readinga-z.com. There you can find instructions for checking your child's reading level. This access to their online program is about $79/ year, but they offer a 7 day free trial, where you can download daily from their site. They also offer free 7-day memberships during teacher appreciation week and again just before school starts in the fall. For early readers, I really did love readinga-z. I never bought the program. Those free times have been enough for us, but for more than one child or for classrooms and coops, the price would be well worth it.

I would suggest if that you have a very young reader that you start from the beginning with phonics. Lots of times children who learn to read early basically from memorizing sight words, generally are fluent readers sooner, but also are less accurate than students who learn using phonics. I've asked so many 4 year olds to come read to me and their fluency is great and they gather the correct meaning, but they aren't accurate readers. Without proper guidance this could become a problem later.

Once you've decided what to teach and in what order, google and pinterest (yes, these are verbs now) away for teaching ideas and activities.

To help with avoiding frustration:

Confer With Your Accomplices

1. Try to include a morning meeting or circle time with your children before you jump into learning. Sing plenty of silly songs (you can make up your own) and/ or include a movement component. For the little ones you could do weather and calendar. Whatever traditions you come up with try to include a talk back time. Now you might want to guard your talk back time because your circle time can get away from you, and sometimes that will be OK, but keep the circle times short- generally, 20 mins tops. A little too short is better than a little too long. Also, once you've gone through it a couple of times, allow the children to run it. During this time you can go over what it is you plan on doing for the day.

   Even now with my 7 year old, if I gather that she's not ready for learning, we do a circle time, or cut away from our work just to sing and/ or touch base. This works amazingly well to get her back on track.

2. Before each new subject or activity, let them know what it is you're hoping to accomplish and why and how. Once you've completed your lesson or activity, assess immediately to see if they got it. Ask for feedback. How do they feel about what they learned and how they learned it? How would they have gone about getting the lesson across? Your child may be able to articulate a method that works, or they may be aggravated that you're asking so many questions. Either way is fine.

Provide Visuals

For the very young? Provide visuals for everything, or almost everything. Try to incorporate something visual at every lesson. For example, your whole lesson might be a National Geographic or YouTube video, or if you're singing a counting song, make a visual representation of what you're singing. When my child was young, our visual representation was mostly magnet board stories. I used them a lot in my music class in public schools, too. It just really adds depth to what you're doing and helps to keep the attention of the little ones.

For older students, this might look different, though. During the time I taught at a school that didn't have smartboards, I invested in an old projector from ebay. You don't have to project things, but plan ahead and use powerpoint or even free smartboard software to add just the right visual impact.

For my home I knew that I wanted a magnetic white board, but those were entirely too expensive, but I figured out a workaround. Be creative and try to find ways to make your homeschool environment a stimulating one.

Cross Reference, Cross Reference, Cross Reference

Use the theory of multiple intelligences to your advantage. Allow and plan for ideas and concepts to show up across subjects. When I was running my phonemic awareness program, I worked on isolated letter sounds. I did one letter per every couple of days. So whatever that letter was, using lots of visuals, we would go over its sound and words that either began with and/or ended with those sounds. Let's say that the letter was I, for a couple of days my child went over the sounds in circle time, again in read aloud time when we included My 'I' Book from First Steps in Reading, again during our phonics/ reading time when I found or either made I books for us to go through, again in handwriting when the same letter was the focus, and again in art when we made inchworms out of pipe cleaners, yet again in Science when observing insects/inchworms, and lastly in music when we sang made up songs about icky insects. This is easily accomplished with theme based learning, but can be done without any theme at all.

Keep It Moving

Find creative ways to incorporate movement into your learning. The movements don't even have to be related to the learning. You can try jogging in place or doing jumping jacks in between subjects, or just playing a song and letting your child jump around after something strenuous. I used to make up games where the idea is that you do something on one side of the room and then run to do something else on the other side. You can set up practice stations outside and have your child run through an obstacle course of sorts where the student would have to show some kind academic knowledge or perform a skill before running to the next station. Time it and encourage your little one to try to beat it the next day.

Take Instruction

Let your students show you what they know. Every so often, my daughter likes to play the teacher. I let her teach me the things we just learned. I ask plenty of questions, sneakily accessing any information learned. Allow for talk back times when students can teach the teacher.

Wear Your "Colors" with Pride

Congratulations, we are all well on our way to becoming a part of The Real Gangsters of Homeschooling. Ooh- Ooh(please, substitute whatever call you wish)!!! If you use any of these tips, let me know how it works out. Want to add more tips? Leave them in the comment box. Feel free to ask any questions and make any statements, and me? I don't even mind if you disagree. Leave that, too. Thanks for reading. All the Real Gangstas of Homeschooling- STAND UP!!!

Mental Math tips

Like most on this blog, this post is long overdue. Last Monday, I wanted to do a mental-math-minute type post about adding 8's and 9's, but after thinking about it, I didn't want to do anything that was a shortcut without addressing how to develop number sense. I thought about all of the background information that I deemed helpful, and this long video became the response.

In this video, I give ideas on how to develop a good number sense, share where to find some manipulatives, and show some strategies toward doing math mentally. If you want, you can skip straight to the strategies.

Now, this video is far from perfect. I didn't have a script. I make plenty mistakes and obscure noises along the way, and the volume's a bit of everywhere, so be prepared to turn up and turn down. Still, I hope that the information shared is valuable and worth any adjustments.

For Even Smaller Sums

If the things in the video are a little too advanced for your little one find addition tips for numbers 5 and under here:

For Sums 6 - 10

At the time of the above video, I was considering making another video for addition sums from 6 - 10. I probably won't, but just briefly, this is the order I would do to get me through.

1. The info from "Getting Started With Math" video.
2. Play games (make them up) to solidify addition facts to 5. Use abacus when playing games.
3. Use your fingers and the color coded abacus to learn your "5 and's..." (5 + 1 = 6, 5 + 2 = 7, etc.) to 10.
4. Represent "5 and's..." in all possible ways (fingers, tally marks, abacus, sticks, etc.)
5. Partition 6 into all of it's parts. Use the abacus to begin.
6. Do the same for the remaining numbers to 10
7. More addition games using abacus when necessary.

Thanks for checking out this blog. Hit me up if you have questions or comments.

A Couple of Reading Resources

In one of my last posts, I talked about what I planned on doing to help my DD along with reading. We've decided to spend a lot of time on vocab, and since she's reading above level, the biggest challenge has been understanding some of the text that's above the 5th grade reading level. Her gaining access to understanding is dependent on her becoming familiar with otherwise unfamiliar words. So I've decided that we're going to read and read and keep reading. In her reading when she encounters a word she isn't sure about she is to log that word.

I've created two logs as resources. One is for logging the books read, and the other is for logging vocabulary words encountered in those books. During her 30 minute reading, she's to log the words, and at a later time, she is to go back through the book and use context clues toward word meaning. Her instructions are to try to use the clues while reading, but writing them down at that point would take too much time away from reading.

Info on our featured book for the next couple of days, along with it's lesson plan, can be found below. Below, you will also find vocabulary and reading logs.These logs are two pages each. In case you need more sheets for the month (and you'll definitely need them for vocabulary), please print more of the last page of each document to suit your needs.

CLICK for Daily Reading Log	CLICK for Vocabulary Reading Log
	Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
	Reading Level: 5.5
	About: The lives of ten amazing African-American women are included in this book about the search for human rights in America. From Harriet Tubman leading slaves along the Underground Railroad to Shirley Chisholm running for the Democratic Party's presidential candidacy, the inspirational acts of African-American women are celebrated.
	Lesson Resource Link: Here

Two Black History Lessons

Basically our Black History has been reading books and discussing. Hopefully we'll have time to do more. If you're looking for books to read, then there are 8 on my previous post. Meanwhile, I wanted to share two lessons I found that correspond to two books we've read. I'll update as I find more. Please feel free to add your own in the comments.

	Link to lesson plan.
	Link to lesson plan.

The Last Couple of Weeks In Review

Since Christmas break, we really haven't been able to get into a groove. We've had tons of frustrating moments, and we've just haven't gotten a lot done. To add to the fire, I'm trying to learn a couple computer languages, leaving less time for lesson planning. Since we're not in our house, we don't have dedicated space like before. We use our bedroom. Thankfully, I decided to change venues, making a break to the living room. Instead of just starting a lesson, I went back to how we did in kindergarten with something similar to a circle time. It was funny because she wanted to sing all our old circle time songs. The change of setting really prepared her for learning. When it's warmer, I may take her to the park a few times a week to do lessons there.

Here are some of the things we've done in the last couple of weeks. Don't judge! We run homeschool in the afternoons and on weekends, basically whenever we can. I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day. There will be no school on that day. That'll give us time to catch up on lessons, and I can actually do a deep condition on that hair of hers.

Math

This week we worked on making change. We used post-its to put prices on random items. Using real coins, we counted up from the amount charged using pennies until we got to a multiple of 5¢ or 10¢. Then we would used the appropriate coin(s) to get the original amount given by payee.

In addition, reviewed mentally adding double digits and +8 and +9 rules (+8,+9 video coming soon). I really want to concentrate on mental math, but like anything it takes lots of review and practice, practice, practice.

Writing

We're supposed to be ending our unit (which began at the beginning of the school year) in personal narratives (See Our Forray Into The Personal Narrative). She's been wanting to write fiction since the beginning. I'm getting ready to move on, but now she wants to write a book about her recent experiences. This week we began chapter one which is about two manuscript pages. For the first time, they don't include any drawings, and I like it better that way. My "bad mommy" thoughts are that I hope she has forgotten or that we can divert her attention and write a book of fiction. We need to move on from this never ending personal narrative unit. Maybe we'll do both. Who knows!

Reading

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We haven't done a lot on reading, and honestly, I don't think she's improved that much. Her teacher says it's because she's already so advanced, but for me, I do believe that she should be a year ahead of where she placed at the beginning of the year (5th grade 3rd month). She's just now begun to start reading books at school at the grade level she tested in at the beginning of the year. The only thing that I think would keep her from reading higher would be vocabulary. Her vocabulary is already kind of cool for a 1st grader. I often giggle when she uses words like putrid or abhor. They're not big words, per se. They're just words you don't hear that often from someone her age. She's getting some of the words from her gifted class, but the great thing about it, is that she's actually using these words. I learned the words just for tests, but she's figuring out a way to use them in daily life.

My reading plan of attack is two fold. First we'll concentrate on vocabulary. I'll present more words, reward her for using them, remind her to use them, and use them myself. We already have a notebook to write down new words, but just haven't used it that much. We'll try to do a word daily and then add these words to her spelling lists. When the word is first introduced, it'll be her job to figure out the pronunciation. Then she'll have to write sentences using the word.

Secondly, we'll institute a timed reading session everyday- thirty minutes on weekdays and two thirty minute sessions on weekends if time permits. Our library day is Thursday. I'll pick out books at our local library. She'll pick out a book daily at her school library. Some of the books we're reading are above.

Drums

Same beat as here, Non-Drumma Momma.

Gymnastics

Bridges and handstands.

Black History

For music and black history, we've been learning "Lift Every Voice." She loves the tune. In addition we've been reading about African civilizations and important figures in African American history. Next week, I plan on using lessons from Jawanza Kunjufu's Lessons in History: A Celebration of Blackness.

Grammar

Finding Subject/ Verb, Linking Verb vs. Action Verbs, Adjectives. You can find the first part of our lesson, here.

Scratch Love

I wanted to add some sort of computer science component to my DD's homeschool time. After searching the internet, I decided to let Lyla learn Scratch. Scratch won't necessarily teach Lyla to program, but the idea is that it will teach her to think like a programmer. Scratch will allow her to put code together like lego blocks. The program can be used online or off with a download. Lyla loves it, and it's super easy to start. I have some programming experience, so it's been easy for me to figure things out, but we've decided to use the free curriculum guide. Click for Scratch Curriculum Guide. To learn more about this MIT project visit it's homepage http://scratch.mit.edu

Here's our first project. The title of the project is "About Me." You can search the site to see other examples. I think hers is one of the best, but to be fair she had help from her mommy. I'm most proud of the fish. It took some ingenuity to do the tank and to get it to move back and forth in that confined space. To see the animation, first press the green play flag. Then press the fish, the sign, and the ball to get those parts of the animation going. Proud mamma...

Snow Days Provide Opportunity

For all of those who aren't familiar with the purpose of my blog, or with me, for that matter, I am a mother of one. I view the role of mother as my most important job in life. Also important is my role as wife to my husband (I have to remind myself of this lots of times), but even the most essential aspect of that role's importance is providing the environment to nurture our offspring.
I view education as being very important. I've been a teacher on just about every level imaginable, and from this experience I have concluded that a lot of what's done at school is a disservice to some of our children.

My Goto Example of Education Disservice: Sight Words

For example, I am a firm believer that not every child needs to be introduced to sight words. Sight words themselves aren't the culprit, but the idea of a list of words for students to memorize, especially when words on that list are decodable, is. I feel that sight words are used because it's easier for the teacher. No real concept is to be taught when using sight words. Sight word instruction, while sometimes inventive, is merely presenting words and helping students remember them by sight.
I taught sight words to a class of four years olds. My youngest kid of 3 progressed the fastest and within her first week in my class could recite several sight word books. Her mom was so amazed that her 3 year old was "reading." I really wanted to tell the mom that nothing about what this child was doing is "reading" and that I could really teach her 3 y.o. to read if the school would let me bring my own materials, implemented a real discipline plan, and allowed the teacher to deviate from that curriculum and actually gave time for actual instruction instead of going around the building to have useless extra-curricular classes (I love these classes, if done in a systematic way that actually produced a skill- I mean why go to a class to learn that book= libra, but not be able to construct any Spanish phrases) all day, her 3 y.o would be learning to read. But for as long as unknowing parents are impressed by the non-education of our children, these schools will continue to do what they already do.(Please see Some May Call Me the Sight Word Nazi and How I Taught My Daughter to Read.)

For the Most Part, Teachers Are Not the Problem

I am not hear to bash teachers. I am in my own regard a teacher at heart. Society has painted teachers as people who enter the field to make money, and while in this economy, there may be some truth to that, I have not met a teacher that did not want his class to do well or her students to master the state's standards. The people aren't the problem, but the approach. The fact is that there is no real way to differentiate to meet every single one of the class' 30 kids' needs. It is my experience that differentiation in the classroom is really for those who underperform. Enough is done to ensure that students stay on level. Often times lots of energy goes to bringing up those low level students, but only if there are a lot of them in the class to begin with. And then higher performing students' parents are coaxed along in order to keep their child in the class/school to bring up test scores.
If your three or four year old, or even two year old, is ready to learn to read, why wait until age 6 to teach them. Right now, my first grader can add two digit numbers in her head and extremely large numbers on paper. We're beginning to learn times tables, but have I seen any of this work come home? Will any of these skills be nurtured in any way at her school? The answer is a swift "no." On the Star reading assessment, my child tested on the 5th grade reading comprehension level. Her teacher was proud, I guess, because I heard about it from other parents before I was informed by the school. But have I seen any 5th grade books come home? The idea is supposed to be that at the end of the year, or at least at the beginning of next year, she's advanced a complete year, comprehending at 6.3. Will she this year? If so, it won't be because of work she's done at school, or even work that's sent home from school.

Conventional Schools Are Not Equipped to Meet the Needs of Every Single Child

What I expect for my child- what every child deserves- is nearly impossible for the school to do as it is set up. First of all the idea of grade levels being associated with age instead of skill or knowledge is ridiculous. The idea that you have to spend all year learning something that you can learn in a month is equally ridiculous, but how else is group education to function? I will admit that in recent years great gains have been made in differentiation with regard to reading, but this is really only on what the students read, not so much on direct instruction. Math, however, hasn't come as far along.
Everyday I ask my child did she learn anything new in her regular class. Except for one day, the answer has been "no." Now I do admit that she's exposed to different things in the gifted program. Things that I would not think to do, they've done. For that, I'm thankful.

More About Me and This Here Blog

I view myself as a part-time homeschooler. Why don't I homeschool my daughter full time? I got to come-up just a bit to do that, and believe me, I've been working on that. Academically, I got her, but some of the other things suffered when she was homeschooled due to her not being around others in her age group, and not having certain experiences. But with just a little more work on my part, I plan to eliminate these issues with my own homeschool.
My mantra is that no one at any school, public or private, is able to teach my daughter as well as I. I am my child's primary (not only first, but chief) teacher. And it's not that I'm such a good teacher. It's that I know my daughter. I've taken the time to get to know her, and at this stage (and I hope always) I am one of the ones who is most influential to her. She is the clay, and I am the primary molder. I take this job seriously. This blog documents our educational experiences.

You, My Dear, Are Qualified

How is it that I am able to teach my child with no teaching degree or certification? I do have an advantage in that I've actually taught in schools. I know how to make an effective lesson plan. Based off of the standards, I can develop my own curriculum and curriculum maps. I can read and understand the maps of school districts and compare and contrast them. I can read testing data. I can develop adequate pre and post assessments. I can ask higher order, open ended questions, basing my lesson on the essential question. I've been instructed on positive behavior and teacher efficacy. I have an advantage, but still I have to research, research, research. I research what it is that my child should know and/ or wants to know and/or what I want her to know. Then I research the best way to teach it. That's all, boo. You are totally qualified to teach your own child. Even if you don't know yourself, you can follow this model- research, learn, teach. If for some reason that doesn't work, then you contract the teaching out. Maybe you can leave that aspect to the schools, loved one, or to a tutor.

Take Snow Day Action

So if you have time during these GA snow days, instead of being concerned about the time your learner is missing from school, take the time to fill in the gaps in her education. You as a parent can do more than visit the school to help your child in the academic arena. You can do more than making sure that he gets his homework. I encourage you to take on the role of educator for your children. Work that role, rather it be daily or weekly or monthly. I encourage you to view these "free days" as an opportunity to academically educate your own child. In your researching phase, you'll probably learn that the best way to approach a subject isn't congruent with the school's approach, anyway. Follow the model and the motto. Let's say it together.

I am my child's primary and best teacher. I honor this responsibility and move through it with gratitude, knowing that I am doing what's best for my child. I am qualified by God for this position, and thusly, I take the time to research, learn, and teach.

Happy Teaching!!!