Market copy:
Could a tulip be a good place for hide-and-seek? Could a bit of dandelion fluff be a pillow? They could be, if fairies live nearby. This book invites kids to have a backyard adventure searching for the tell tale signs of fairies who might be residing all around them. Not only can children"search" for fairies in the book's unique blend of art and photography, but they will also be encouraged to discover the wonder and magic in nature, whether in a backyard or a local park. The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies is a perfect title for summer!
I heard about this adorable picture book a few months ago and jumped at the chance of sharing it with my daughters before its paperback release in a few weeks.
THE TIPTOE GUIDE TO TRACKING FAIRIES by Ammi-Joan Paquette is filled with gorgeous illustrations, and the story is sweet and whimsical.
As a homeschooling family, nature study is very important to us and an integral part of our children’s education. Now that it is warmer outside, birds are singing, and plants are blooming again, this story was the perfect catalyst for my daughters to go on their first outdoor exploration. We cuddled together, shared the story, and they took off to the backyard, hunting for their own fairies to discover!
While my thirty-year-old Mom’s opinion is helpful, the praise that is most beneficial comes from the author’s intended audience. Here is my children’s honest opinions:
Cali, five years old:
That story was awesome! When they found the fairies at the end, it was the best!
Jordan, six years old:
I thought the story was great because it had fairies that are very girly. When the fairy found her slipper, it was my favorite part. I also liked it when they found the secret message. Then she turns to her sister and says,
Let’s go look for some clues! Let’s go look for fairies!
Need I say more? This story would make a wonderful Easter gift for the children in your life. It is already available in hardcover and the paperback edition will hit the shelves April 15th.
I was granted the opportunity to review this book via NetGalley and Tanglewood Publishers. (paperback publication 4/15/11)
Read More...
Summary only...
It has been another wonderful week of learning this week at the whole Keep the Way Christian Academy household. The main topics of the week were: Jesus the Light of the World, Mayflower and Pilgrims and Stars.
Two weeks ago we went to Austin for an impromptu mini-vacation, and while we were there, we went into a Borders store that was sadly closing. The good news is that we were able to get some good books, including new curriculum for Handwriting and Spelling! If you remember from previous weeks, Spelling has been my all time biggest failure this year, as far as consistency goes. Well that problem is now fixed and we are really loving our new approach!
Here is how the rest of the week broke down:
Breakfast Time Table Talk:
- We are still focusing on our first Memory Verse, John 8:12. The girls have had it memorized from week one, but we are following the curriculum as provided in regards to this and just really working on internalizing it.
- During Character Training, via the book EVERYDAY GRACES, we read about the life of Louisa May Alcott, poems by Blance Bane Kuder and Florence Bone, and tales from Aesop and Hans Christian Anderson. The theme is Loving Your Home and I just continue to adore this time together. Love love love this book!
School Room Topics:
History:
- The Pilgrims have landed! This week we have discussed the Pilgrims in depth, reading through THE STORY OF THE U.S as well as AMERICAN PIONEERS AND PATRIOTS. Their entire history from London, to Holland, through the hard journey across the ocean on the Mayflower, to the rough beginnings once they landed has been discussed and acted out. They also each dictated a summary for their Notebooks.
- This is Jordan's notebook page: Once Squanto helped the Pilgrims make plants grow faster by putting a dying fish in the hole next to the seeds. Then when he was dying, he asked everyone to pray so he could go to heaven.
- This is Cali's notebook page: Pilgrims came from England on a boat named the Mayflower. When they got to America, they planted corn. They put a dying fish next to the seed. Squanto came and they had a feast.
- I should explain the dying fish comment they both made. Apparently they were taught to put a fish next to the seeds while planting, but I am sure it was a regular fish at the time--I don't really know. But both girls faces automatically went a little traumatic at the idea of being buried alive so I told them they were dying and then it was suddenly okay.
Handwriting:
- Because of their age, I really wanted to focus on fundamentals and slowing things down a bit here. I think we will go with a curriculum next but for now we are using Kumon workbooks and the girls are loving it. Can't beat them being excited and asking for more pages, right?
Creative Writing:
- For Cali, I realized that we had come up with all the parts of her paragraph for her recollection paragraph before on Mississippi, but never actually wrote it. So we started the week doing that, and then moved into our new topic.
- This is Cali's paragraph: I had fun being with my family in the woods in Mississippi. I went on the four-wheeler with Paran David and went through a sprinkler. I went through it more than one time! The water got on my head and when I got back, Paran David said I looked like I went into a swimming pool! And I went into the woods with Nanny Donna and saw a bunny. It was light brown, and he stayed with us for awhile by the bush, but then he ran off because he was afraid. During the day, Hayley, Jordan, and I had a pretend camp out! We watched movies and we ate marshmallows! I got to give my family really big hugs. I liked being in Mississippi!
- The rest of the week was spent discussing the Parts of a Story (plot, setting, characters, and conflict). As I am sure you know, I loved this lesson and we had fun breaking down The Three Little Pigs together, and then she did Cinderella on her own. This was a lot of fun.
- For Jordan, we worked on adding detail to our sentences, in particular in how things move. Examples she came up with was prowling casually, crawling sluggishly, and creeping.
- Then Jordan dictated a paragraph to me with the leading line, "I wish I could go to . . ." I was very impressed not only with her three points, but the detail she put into them!
- Here is Jordan's paragraph: I wish I could go to a hockey game. The best part of hockey is it has ice skates. The very, very, very super cool part is when they try to get the puck away from the goalie and into the goal! It's like they're trying to get a Princess into a castle and past the ogre! Hockey has action, excitement, and surprise. Action appears when they try to get the puck paste the other team. The excitement is when we can see if they get hurt and fall on their bottom when they are first learners or professionals who win the game. And we don't know who will win, so the surprise appears when we find out who will win. When you go to a hockey game, it's like you are watching a movie, but you are in the movie!
- For the record, we've never been to a hockey game, but apparently we need to! Jordan has also been creating more and more poems that we are planning on putting together and putting up on Barnes and Noble's self publishing format.
Spelling:
- Woo hoo, no more hiding my head in the sand! Both girls are enjoying their new workbooks. Cali is using Grade One in the Master Skills Series and Jordan is using Spectrum's Grade 2. For Jordan we could have easily gone to Grade 3 but some of the activities they did with the words were a little more advanced considering her age (6) and we wanted to give her some confidence going into this new curriculum. For Cali (age 5), this grade level is perfect. Very happy here!!
Reading:
- Jordan finished ahead of schedule reading RIDING THE PONY EXPRESS. She reads on her own, comes to discuss it with me, and comprehends beautifully.
- Cali is moving along with reading through the Bible and gaining confidence daily. She reads quite fast and I continue to be impressed.
Read Alouds:
- We finished SQUANTO, FRIEND OF THE PILGRIMS this week. The girls loved this story and I loved that it was a great first autobiography and worked so well with our History.
Math:
- Since we had hit a wall at this point, the 2 facts, the last time we did this curriculum, I decided to just take a week reviewing what we have done and doing math games. It has been fun and we shall see what next week brings!
Science:
- The girls loved learning more about constellations, galaxies, and particular stars this week. Next week we move onto Bread and Yeast experiments.
So that is how our school week went. How about yours?
Have a Great Weekend!
Read More...
Summary only...
Yes, I am aware that it has been three weeks since the last post and only one week in our homeschool curriculum. Isn't homeschooling wonderful? :-)
Two weeks ago the Houston area was below freezing more days than not, and in the middle of our homeschooling week, the energy company decided it would be a great time to do rolling black outs in freezing temperatures. After the 3rd time the power went off in the same hour, we packed some goodies and hiked across the yard to my parent's house with the lovely generator. Now, freezing temperatures, power outages and hanging out at MamaRosie and Crawdaddy's house is just way too exciting to get school work done, so we took the day off. The next day was just as cold and we all started feeling a little icky so we took the next day off.
Last week I (aka the teacher) was sick as a dog. I literally stayed in bed almost all day for most of the week with two wonderful little nurses. Of course, education is a lifestyle for us, so learning moments were constantly being worked in, but we took the week off the curriculum all last week, too.
This week was a half week since our curriculum is set up in 4 day blocks, starting Monday on Day 3 would just confuse everything. So the girls did a lot of reading (and playing Nintendo DS) while I got some writing done, and then we picked things back up on Wednesday.
All that to say, we had another wonderful week in our homeschool, even though there was some lag time in between. :-) And we are all excited to have a belated Valentine's Day Fancy Friday with our homeschool friends tomorrow where we will be doing crafts and having goodies!
Breakfast Time Table Talk:
- Bible time had us beginning memorizing our first Memory Verse for the year. John 8:12- "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
- We read Exodus 13:21-22 and Nehemiah 9:7-12 where God led His people through the wilderness with a pillar of fire at night, and we discussed how Darkness can never overcome light. Today, we made switch plate covers that say "Jesus is the light of the world."
- Our Character Training with the book EVERYDAY GRACES is centering on sibling relationships and the importance of getting along with each other . . . which I am all about! It could be a coincidence but I have seen a marked improvement in their play time in enjoying each other's company more, so thank you Everyday Graces!
- Our Manners Devotional is still going well. We've talked more about greeting and what to do when others are handicapped (and I was glad to have this opportunity to talk about sensitivity with this subject) or have a cold and can't shake your hand (very important right about now!).
School Room Topics:
History:
- North American Indians has been the theme of the week and we have learned about the various tribes, home styles and hunting habits, along with Native American sign language. We are continuing with our Squanto read aloud and the girls are really engaged in his story. Very, very pleased with My Father's World so far!
- We also got some library books on this topic and by far, their favorite was THE ROUGH-FACE GIRL by Rafe Martin, which is a retelling of the Cinderella story. Out of all the retellings we've read, this may be my favorite!
Handwriting:
- We have finished the alphabet a letter at a time and I am right now debating on whether to start it back up again for reinforcements, look for handwriting books that break it down more, or continue back with tracing copywork. But they are both doing very well.
Creative Writing:
- Cali's assignment this week was on Field Trips. She wanted to write about her field trip to Mississippi where she got to visit her Nanny Donna, Paran David and Taylor and Hayley. Highlights of her paragraph include riding the four wheeler with Nanny Donna and spotting a rabbit, riding with Paran David and going through the sprinkler, pretending to be on a campout with Hayley in Nanny's room, and being able to hug her family. (cute, right?) I am continuing to notice a big jump in Cali's ability to tell complete sentences and thoughts and her creativity, and my goodness does she have a memory on her!
- Jordan's writing took another step this week. First we talked about strong vocabulary and using better verbs--a HUGE topic for me with my writing. We talked about how it is "okay" to say you walked to the mailbox to get a package but what else could you say that would be more interesting, and other scenarios. She did excellent with this and came up with "flying to the mailbox," "sleepwalking home" after a boring event, and "racing to a friend's house." Then with paragraph work, we took last week's assignments and first made them into complete sentences. This could have been really easy if I followed directions or even just said "Oh, she's six, let me just write what she says," but I know what she can do so I wanted to challenge her. I taught her how you should mix up your sentences to add variety, not simply have every one be, " I like this because . . ." At first, she gave a little push back but after explaining it a bit more, she started smiling and came up with very exciting, interesting sentences. I was very proud. The next step was putting those sentences into a paragraph. I am enjoying this style of breaking down the paragraphs as I think it makes each step very clear. Very pleased with Sonlight for both girls.
Spelling:
- (Hiding head in sand) I have found my weak link. The hard part is that one of them works best on the computer but doing that during school time slows things down with both of them wanting to be online at the same time, and after school I need to be online for my writing. No excuses, this is my failure . . . for the second week in a row. Obviously I have some work to do here!
Reading:
- Jordan is a week ahead of schedule, so I let her read on her own this week. She is a very good reader and read Highlights, Animorphs and some Science books on stars this week.
- Cali is still loving reading the Bible and one day ended up reading the story about the God leading his people with a pillar of fire at night, so it tied in beautifully!
Read Alouds:
- Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims is our main read aloud right now during the day and our bedtime book is still Fairies and the Quest for Neverland.
Math:
- Another easy, almost review week for the girls where we learned the "zero" addition facts. Now a year and a half or two years ago when I started this curriculum with Jordan, we went about one more week and then hit a wall at the "2 facts." So we shall see what the future brings, but for now, it is going great.
Science:
- We got a ton of library books on stars, constellations and the sun and read them this week. The girls have always loved astronomy so this was perfect. Our plan is to go outside on a clear night either tonight or this weekend and star gaze.
So that is how our school week went. How about yours?
Have a Great Weekend!
Read More...
Summary only...
Week Three is in the books for our mostly-second-grade adventure, and things are still going beautifully. The literature based approach just fits our family dynamic and passions so well, and the books that make up the My Father's World and Sonlight curriculum are not only beautifully written and engaging, but have the girls excited to do school. And I'm sorry, that is just worth the price of admission right there :-)
So, here is this week's Bloggy Breakdown (anyone watch Tosh.o and see his video breakdowns? No? Never mind . . .)
Breakfast Time Table Talk:
- Bible time centered on three main topics this week---Jesus Saves, Living Like Jesus and Jesus as a Child. We talked about WWJD (what would Jesus do) in everyday moments and now bring it up throughout the day when problems arise, and our discussions on Jesus as a child blended beautifully with our Character Training this week on obeying our parents (Luke 2:51-52)
- Our Character Training with the book EVERYDAY GRACES could not be going any better. They love the literature selections chosen to correspond with the topic and have great discussions afterward. They are getting exposure to classic literature I would normally never read at this age, yet they are grasping the material, and the poetry selections this past week by Jack Prelutsky have even inspired Jordan to write her own poem!
Why is everything so expensive?
Everything looks so nice.
The lolly pop aisle in the corner,
Is only half the price.
And in the other corner,
There's only frozen pizza pies.
Why is everything so expensive?
I simply don't know why!
By Jordan Harris age 6
Ha! She keeps asking about getting published and throwing in all the book biz lingo she's been hearing around the house for the last few months, and it is so cute! Next on my to-do list is to buy a big book of Jack Prelutsky's work!
- Our Manners Devotional is still going well and our focus this week was looking people in the eye when they talk and shaking hands properly.
School Room Topics:
History:
- The girls are still totally loving both the Pledge of Allegiance and and God Bless America. They make their toys dance along to the CD of the song :-) (in fact, as I am typing this, Cali is singing the song to herself while cleaning up her toys!)
- Jamestown and Squanto were the themes of the week! The girls loved learning about Pocahontas and reading the stories of the children of Jamestown in AMERICAN PIONEERS AND PATRIOTS. The plan is to pick up some movies on Pocahontas from the library this afternoon and watch them this weekend
Handwriting:
- I decided to skip the copywork selections Sonlight provided this week and work more on the fundamentals of the letters this week. We worked on K-R and I am very happy with their continued effort and improvement. Next week we may just finish out the alphabet before going back to the Sonlight passage and working in letter practice the rest of the week.
Creative Writing:
- Cali's assignment this week was on dialogue. Now considering that I wrote my first novel last year and am working on my second--and dialogue is a very important aspect of that--I really enjoyed this lesson. I of course had to tailor it to her level and not point out that they are completely WRONG to keep changing the attribution (using mumbled, muttered, etc instead of just said, which is always preferred unless you avoid the attribution all together and you an action tag instead). Cali wrote about a conversation between her and Jasmine, where Jasmine invites her to a tea party!
"Oh. Hello, Cali," said Jasmine.
"I'm so happy to see you for my very first time," said Cali.
"I'm going to let you come to a tea party in my house," said Jasmine.
"Thank you!"
By Cali Harris, age 5
- Jordan's paragraph work took a step this week with introducing "home plate" which is the topic sentence. This has been actually challenging to completely explain and have her do. She keeps wanting to either talk about one aspect in particular or just re-list her three favorites/points for the paragraph. But she is doing a very good job and loves this time . .. and I learned that She Loves Homeschooling because she gets to use all kinds of pens, can be at home and her teacher is in her family and she gets to learn about Columbus, Her Mom Is Great because she is silly, laughs so much and and is beautiful (I promise this was an actual topic Sonlight had, not self created lol), and that Riding The Pony Express, The Magical Ballet Shoes and The Bible are all her favorite books, but that while the first two are ordinary books, The Bible is extraordinary. :-)
Spelling:
- Um, yeah, epic fail on this one. Jordan was ahead of schedule, though, and Gregg and I are meeting this weekend to talk about what we want to do with Cali's spelling, so um, yeah, that's okay! (ha!)
Reading:
- Jordan is still a week ahead of schedule. She read Keep the Lights Burning Abbie and is half way through Riding the Pony Express, which she is loving.
- Cali is still loving reading the Bible and one of the stories she read about was Joseph and his robe. Well this weekend, we are taking the girls to a play --Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat!
Read Alouds:
- We have added Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims into this time, so Ella took a bit of a back seat this week--but we are totally picking it back up next week. Bedtime book is still Fairies and the Quest for Neverland.
Math:
- Another easy, almost review week where the girls learned the colors of the Math U See blocks, which makes adding easier in the coming weeks, and review of Place Value. Girls loved it and flew through it.
Science:
- Ha! I totally thought I was going to have to say I failed again--last Friday's cleaning session for the family coming in town took a lot longer than anticipated, BUT we did all three weeks worth on Wednesday! WOO HOO! We have a few experiments we will do this weekend, but they are all super easy and on air. The girls of course loved doing science this week. I still think I might stick with doing massive Science days on every other Friday, just not when family is coming to town.
So that is how our school week went. How about yours?
Have a Great Weekend!
Read More...
Summary only...
Another week down at Keep the Way Christian Academy, and the girls are still loving it. I am loving our curriculum choices for the year and having fun teaching. After our long break (April -December), I was worried it would take a little while to get into a groove and find the enjoyment, but My Father's World and Sonlight have totally come through!
Here is this week's Bloggy Breakdown (anyone watch Tosh.o and see his video breakdowns? No? Never mind . . .)
Breakfast Time Table Talk:
- Bible time has had us searching for clues in the Old Testament that point to Jesus. The girls are quickly picking this up and having fun playing detective.
- Our Character Training is still a wonderful time and I am constantly being amazed at how the story snippets the author uses to portray Manners at Home (the theme of our current section) tie in beautifully with what we are learning in history! Yeah, I totally planned it that way . . .
- Manners Devotional is still going well and this week we practiced having gentleman pull out our chairs and seating us, and smiling when we greet someone.
School Room Topics:
History:
- We begin with the girl's enthusiastic Pledge of Allegiance (like REALLY enthusiastic! They spent a lot of time last Friday teaching their friends the Pledge. They think it's totally cool for some reason) and singing along with My Father's World's supplied CD to God Bless America.
- This week we learned about Columbus. Since I love ditties, I taught them the one we all know about "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." They sang that over and over again. Then a few days later, for some inexplicable reason, I started saying Columbus's three ship names over and over, sing-song style. "The Nina. The Pinta. The Sant-a Maria." You just have to trust me, it's very catchy. So now, the girls skip around the room singing this over and over again. It was cute . . .the first hundred times. But it all worked because when notebooking time came around, their narrations were wonderful.
- Daddy helped the girls make shiny aluminum boats to symbolize the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, which they then played with at bath time.
- We read a story about pioneers from Spain who traveled across the Atlantic to establish the first colony in Florida. I must admit that when I first saw one of the books My Father's World uses as a spine, American Pioneers and Patriots, I was nervous. It looked very text booky to me, and I did not want that. But I should've known better. It reads like a story book and the girls fell in love with the children, Catalina and Pedro, and loved hearing about their adventures. Mom even learned some things (like how they cooked on the boat via a box of sand and an open flame).
Handwriting:
- The girls both did their copy work on Monday via Sonlight and then worked on mastering a set of letters each day after. This week was C-J. Both girls are doing very well tracing the samples. Jordan should be ready to write on her own in a few weeks but I really want them to trace right now as we work on mechanics. Cali does really really well--sometimes cleaner than Jordan even, despite being younger--but she has a perfectionist attitude and one small mess up can break her heart on the wrong day. We just take a breath, talk about how God doesn't expect us to be perfect but to try our best, and try again.
Creative Writing:
- Cali continued working on description but focused on similes this week. We took the descriptive paragraph she wrote last week and turned each description into a simile. I was very impressed with how well she grasped this concept, and how quick she was able to come up with examples.
- Jordan is still focusing on grouping 3 main topics for a paragraph, and this week we focused on how the first topic is always the most important, followed by the second and third most important. This week, I found out her favorite subjects are (in order): Science, History, and Creative Writing.
Spelling:
- This week Cali continued on the list from week 1 as we are experimenting with finding the best way for her to learn the words. It needs to be fun and very non-pressure-y (yes, I know that is not a word and seems an odd choice in a sentence on spelling but oh well). Next week we may experiment with two nights a week working with Daddy and having it be special one-on-one Daddy time.
- Jordan finished two spelling lists this week. The first list she learned and took the test on the same day and only missed one word (she wrote cymball instead of cymbal.) The middle of the week was a little hectic so she got her new list yesterday and took the test the same day again. She scored 100%. At this rate, she will be finished with her curriculum by mid year if not sooner!
Reading:
- Jordan read 3 books this week. She was scheduled to read one entire book and one chapter of another. She read The Long Way Westward, Prairie School and Christopher Columbus. The third book was a step-into-reading I had bought one day at a used book store and threw in yesterday so she wouldn't get too far ahead of her curriculum and because it was on topic. She read the whole thing quickly. Then she picked up Cali's beginner's Bible and started reading. And reading. She sat there last night for about 45 minutes reading the Bible (Adam and Eve to Saul). The only reason she stopped was because it was bath time!
- Cali has been enjoying reading the Bible and reading ahead as well. I am noticing how fluent she is and how easily she reads the words, especially for her age (she turns 5 on Monday). Watching her sister read the past few years has definitely motivated her!
Read Alouds:
- We are reading two books by the talented Gail Carson Levine. At lunch time we are reading ELLA ENCHANTED, which the girls are loving (although the chapters this week had me speaking in gnomic and I had no clue how to say any of it.... the girls loved my gobbly gook language, though) and FAIRIES AND THE QUEST FOR NEVERLAND at night. I am still very pleased with our selections of more contemporary, girly, fun works for this time.
Math:
- This week was rather easy--counting and writing to 20--and while I could have skipped it all together (both girls can count to 1000), I went with it to focus on mechanics of writing the numbers. I am not worried about perfection here, due to their age, but it was a great excuse to tie this in. For their tests yesterday, they also had to review place value and they both scored 100%.
Science:
- Today, after I take a shower and try to massively clean the house for the influx of relatives coming up from New Orleans for Cali's birthday party, we will have MEGA SCIENCE DAY. We will put together the last two weeks of Science and do them all. Since Fancy Friday is only every other week, I think this will work well going forward. Today's experiments are all about air!
So that is how our school week went. How about yours? Any fun ideas you can share for my five year old's spelling?
Have a Great Weekend!
Read More...
Summary only...
I heard about this adorable picture book a few months ago and jumped at the chance of sharing it with my daughters before its paperback release in a few weeks. THE TIPTOE GUIDE TO TRACKING FAIRIES by Ammi-Joan Paquette is filled with gorgeous illustrations, and the story is sweet and whimsical. 
