Home Sweet Home Education

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

STATIONS!

Several years ago, a friend told me about how she set up "stations" around her house for her child to go through. These stations are educational places that provide opportunities for learning. I'm not exactly sure how she set up her stations, but the idea sounded grand, so I ran with it!

I wanted to give life to the resources in the house that were being neglected and that I knew the children would enjoy spending time with. I found a bunch of hands-on resources, set each thing up in it's own place and gave it a number. I have always made twenty stations, but you can make as many or as few as you want. Twenty stations gave me enough time to get some things done around the house. Since the children could do most of these activities independently, this was a time for me to unload the dishwasher, fold a basket of clothes, etc. I was close by if they needed me, but still able to be productive around the house.

I then made a page of directions for each child. They had to read the directions for each station and check off each station as soon as they completed it. One child carried the directions with him from station to station while the other left the directions in one spot and came back to it in between stations. Also, one child would go in order from 1 - 20 while the other hopped around to wherever he wanted to go next. The point is to give them a fun and extraordinary learning experience, so I was flexible and let each child do it the way they wanted to. My children LOVED stations, and I wish I would have done it more often.

I've done this several times, and some of the stations are the same but not all of them. I changed it up as the children grew older and as our interests and studies changed. It's been since 2010 since we've done stations, but after writing this post I feel inspired to see what I can come up with if anything. My children are older now, so we have little time for these fun, little extras. Here are some pictures from one of our days doing STATIONS!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Times Tales: Multiplication Math Facts

I first heard about Times Tales from Jeannie Fulbright, and although I completely trust her recommendations, I wasn't sold on it right away. After all, not every program works for every child, so would this program work for my children? I decided to give it a try, and I'm so glad I did!

Times Tales is a multi-sensory approach to learning the most difficult to memorize times tables:
3x6,3x7,3x8,3x9,4x6,4x7,4x8,4x9,6x6,6x7,6x8,6x9,7x7,7x8,7x9,8x8,8x9,9x9.

My children have totally different learning styles yet this program was effective for both of them. I started using it in the summer of 2010, and I still use the flashcards every week.

Here is an excerpt from the Times Tales website:
"Times Tales is a creative, innovative mnemonic-based program that makes it fun and
easy to memorize the upper multiplication and division facts. Times Tales uses cute, simple stories to provide students with a "memory peg", allowing them to quickly recall otherwise abstract facts.

Students are introduced to each number as a "character" that makes sense in some way. For example, the number seven is Mrs. Weeks because there are seven days in a week. Once students learn the number characters, they learn short, simple stories where the numbers interact in some way. Students simply picture two number characters together to recall the story, which includes the answer to the multiplication fact. It's amazing how much easier it is for students to recall a simple story, than an abstract fact!..."

I used the big flip chart (not the DVD) to teach my children. I followed the directions in the Teacher's Manual with one exception. Instead of my children saying the two digit answers as two separate numbers such as "3, 6" I had them go ahead and say the number the proper way such as "36."

When I taught Part 1, it took about 45 minutes. As soon as we finished reading and talking about the stories, the children took the Part 1 test. Both of them scored a 100%! We continued to review the stories and take the Part 1 test again every day. Not only were the children successful, but they enjoyed the process.

I waited a month before I taught Part 2 to ensure that the children had definitely memorized Part 1. It took closer to an hour to teach Part 2. I gave them the Part 2 test and again, they both scored 100%!

At that point, I began to give both the Part 1 and the Part 2 tests, so on Mondays and Wednesdays they took the Part 1 test and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they took the Part 2 test. Somewhere in there we managed to squeeze in the flashcards for additional review. The tests and flashcards were our supplementary math for the entire 2010 - 2011 school year.

For the 2011 - 2012 school year, we stopped taking the tests and used the flashcards every now and then as review along with traditional flashcards. First, we go through the Times Tales flashcards (which doesn't take very long but provides a good review) and then we go through the traditional flashcards. This school year (2012-2013) we have been using this flashcard method once a week, every Monday. Although both of my children know their math facts, I want them to get faster. I have been noticing lately that they are super fast with their recall.

I'm so proud of how hard they've worked, how far they've come and how much they've accomplished. Over the last couple of months, they have even managed to memorize the 11 and 12 math facts, although I have never pushed them to memorize these. They just did that on their own as we went through the traditional cards that included these facts. So they've exceeded my expectations! Yeah!

These are the traditional Multiplication Flash Cards we use:

I bought our set years ago at Staples, but you can order them online through Hobby Lobby:
Trend Multiplication Flashcards

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The Sentence Family: Introducing Grammar Through Art and Story

The Sentence Family is an extraordinary grammar program, and I'm still surprised that I didn't hear about it sooner. This is our 9th year of homeschooling, and over the years I've been consistently obsessed with researching and talking with others about different homeschool curriculum, so for me to have not heard of this FABULOUS program before is surprising to me. EVERYBODY should be talking about "The Sentence Family" when the subject of grammar comes up! It's effective! Plain and simple; it works! And for those of you that are wise with your money- It's cheap! Only $12 from CurrClick!

As the subtitle suggests, it is an "introduction" to grammar, but it is a thorough introduction that creates a good, solid foundation to build upon. Children learn about the four types of sentences, the parts of speech and how to diagram sentences in a fun and engaging way.

Someone recently asked me, "What ages or grades is it for?" Children are all so unique and ready for different things at different times, so I think it all depends on the child. It was created for a 4th grade class, but more importantly, keep in mind that it is an "introduction" and not a complete program.

The program uses story and art to teach grammar. Here are several snapshots of what we've been doing over the last few months:

The Sentence Family is one story, and each lesson is like a new chapter and introduces a new character. So every time you read, you learn about a new member of The Sentence Family. Afterwards, the children sit at the table and draw the character just as it is drawn in the book. Every detail has a purpose. For example, the king pictured above taps his staff on the ground at the end of each imperative sentence he says. This leaves a mark on the ground which represents a period. Imperative sentences end with a period, but on occasion they end with an exclamation point. You see both a period and an exclamation point represented in the picture.

By the way, the directions in the book suggest using 12" X 18", heavy paper. It's easier for the children to draw big pictures, and the heavier the paper the better because it won't tear easily.

The program is color coded! A few times throughout the program, children are asked to underline words in sentences. Each part of speech has it's own color. It starts out simple. Nouns are blue and verbs are red. As the other parts of speech are added, children will learn that adjectives are green and adverbs are orange, and this is all tied into the storyline.

Here you meet Preposition (purple) and see Noun (blue) and Verb (red). When you read the story, you will learn why Verb's hat is falling off, why Noun is leaning against the tree and why Preposition is pointing to Noun! It's all very interesting!

We did all of our diagramming on the dry erase board. I believe this was less intimidating and more fun than doing it on paper. We diagrammed the first sentence together, and then the children took turns diagramming the rest of the sentences.

The program also teaches how to diagram prepositional phrases, and ends with diagramming interjections!

I enjoyed reading the story of The Sentence Family with my children and spending time with them as they drew their fabulous pictures! It was a wonderful experience, and I'm going to miss it all. I loved it so much I even turned their collection of drawings into books as a special keepsake. We've talked a few times about how they need to come out with a Part 2!

Click on this link if you're interested in learning more about The Sentence Family from the school that created it:
St. Michael's Orthodox School

Click on this link if you'd like to purchase it as an ebook:
CurrClick