LIFE OF FRED

Life of Fred isn’t the miracle math curriculum that most people think it is. I think so many people say it’s fantastic and that it has solved their math problems–it sounds like a miracle. And when others hear these comments, they think it will solve their children’s math problems as well.

But Life of Fred is just like other math books, but it takes a different approach. It is, in my opinion, better than most math books, but it is not perfect. To be perfect, it would have to have legs and a mouth.

Life of Fred sets up excellent word problems that make children think. In fact, the whole book is one word problem. So if your child has used Horizons or some other math curriculum that has mediocre other math problems then following up with Life of Fred will be really helpful.

The couple of weaknesses we’ve seen,

Life of Fred flies by. Sometimes the number of problems is just right. But when a child misunderstands the foundational information in the lesson being taught, it will make the following problems, not only challenging, but downright, frustrating.

This happened to my daughter with percents. She got decimals. And she got fractions. But she missed something with percents. (I know what that something is by the way.) So she is spending a little just working problems from a Spectrum workbook, only the problems she needs to reinforce what she’s missing. These problems will come from Spectrum 6 and 7.

After the Spectrum book, we’ll be going back to Life of Fred. ALso, to make the work meaningful to her, I’m incorporating math talk about percents in our everyday lives. It takes a little focus for me to do that, but I think that will make more of a difference than the workbooks. I’m doing this right now with my 5 year old and multiplication. He doesn’t understand multiplication at all. But yesterday, I introduced it with chocolate chips. So when he’s setting the table for 6 people and he has to get 2 glasses of water at a time, we’ll focus on how many times he has to get the glasses–3 times. Therefore 2×3=6.

Math has to be meaningful and in context. That is why Life of Fred is so good. It makes math meaningful and puts the problems in context. Most math books do not do this in a consistent way. They take individual word problems that aren’t related and throw them at the children. The child has not been drawn into the why of the problem and there seems to be no reason to do it. I totally get how frustrating that is and would be.

Anyway, I totally recommend Life of Fred for anyone frustrated with traditional math texts, or if you just want a challenge for your student.

MBT’s (The ugliest shoes I own)

I just received my MBT’s in the mail yesterday.  My 3 year-old asked if they are clown shoes.  He’s right, they look like clown shoes.

But am I ever excited.  I have been wearing a 30.00 boot from Amazon.com because of my neuroma.  And as long as I amnot overly active, I’m pain free.  But the problem with the boot is I have to wear one regular shoe and one boot.  This means my hip gets out of wack. (When your foundation is messed up, your whole body gets messed up.)

Well, with the MBT’s, the rocker bottom is more pronounced, offering me more support.  And I get to wear two shoes that are the same.  I feel like a new person.

I’m going to wear them for the next couple of days and test them out to see if they also leave me pain free.  If so, next week the kids and I are heading back outside for some exercise–walking for all of us, and extra play time for them.

If this doesn’t work, I may be having surgery.  If it does work,  I’ll be wearing these ugly shoes at every event that I may have the pleasure of attending–including church.

But if I can get running again, I’m in 7th heaven.

NOT ONLY CLASSICAL READING AND WRITING

I am trying to workout names and websites and all of that stuff. I am sure that I’ll be making many more changes as I find the time. I am testing out new websites; they’re not all working.

I have been absent for a long time because I’ve been so busy.

First, I have to decide if I want to have surgery this holiday season for my foot.  I’m pretty healthy, but my problem is bio mechanical.  My nerve in my foot is caught between two bones that unfortunately are unnaturally close together in my foot, unlike in most people.  I’m praying about that and researching what my other options might be.

Also on the homeschool front, I’m switching to an even more Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling. The more I read, the more I stop trying to re-invent everything, the more I realize how efficient, easy, and effective Ms. Mason’s methods were and still are. She knew what she was doing.

If you have perused my blog you know that I have used many writing programs, I have followed many subjects as laid out in The Well Trained Mind, and I have spent a lot of time researching math programs.

Well, for the math programs I’m keeping everything the same.  Horizons and/or Singapore math followed by The Life of Fred for my older two–9 and 10.  My younger boys are now using Shiller.  I love it and they love it. It’s so easy to implement, and easy to modify as I see fit.  (You know me; I have to modify. :- ) )

Well, for science, this year we’re using Elementary Apologia Zoology.  I love it; they love it.

For history, we’ve gone to Tapestry of Grace because I really like that it presents  so many options and I can tweak to my heart’s content.

For writing, my oldest has used Classical Writing, but no more.  My oldest son has used Writing Tales, but no more.  My middle son was going to use Writing with Ease, but no more.  Instead, I have re-read Charlotte Mason and decided that Ms. Mason’s methods are the best fit for us–narration, copywork, and dictation.

Now the name change–

I have modified my ancient history books located here, and reformatted them according to some guidelines I received from Linda at Higher Up and Further In.  I came across her blog years ago and took it upon myself to send her a copy of my Classical Reading and Writing Copybooks.  She was so kind considering she didn’t know me from a man in the moon.  She gave me some very positive feedback and some tips on how I could make my books better fit the learning methods of Ms. Charlotte Mason.  I digested her feedback, but decided against making those changes for many reasons.  One being that I wanted to stay more classical.

Well, fast forward to this summer, and I have to admit her way was better.  And after re-reading her email, the changes she recommended were really minute compared to the benefits to be received from them. So to my Classical Reading and Writing Copybooks, I have added guidelines on oral narrations and written summations to go along with the copywork that was already there.  I have also added additional dictation models to the appendix so that my children can take dictation from separate models that are different from the copywork models.  (I still think that dictation from the previous day’s copywork model is a good idea.  Ruth Beechick and others recommend this method, and I plan to occasionally implement it with my kids.)

Also, I have added a grammar guide in the Appendix for teaching one part of speech per month.  I recommend that children circle all nouns for month 1.  For month 2, they circle the nouns blue and all the verbs red.

Dictation is changed from what I call “cold” dictation to Charlotte Mason’s “studied dictation”.  I like this so much better!!!  I really hated the idea of constantly dictating sentences to my children that they had never seen.  (This is why I recommended using the same model for copywork and dictation.)  As Andrew Pudewa says on his TWSS video, “You can’t get something out of a brain, that hasn’t been put in it.”  Btw, I really like IEW and think it is an awesome program for using with older children that already know how to write.  I think it blends nicely with Ms. Mason’s methods.  Also, “cold dictation” as far as I can tell, reinforces spelling mistakes for children since it is inevitable that they will be covering words that they have not been taught before.  At least, that is my concern for my poor spellers, so considering all of these issues, we have “studied” dictation a la Ms. Charlotte Mason.

And to be totally clear, I have not sent Linda another copy of my book.  I was more than blessed to receive her feedback back in 2006.  I actually can’t believe that I made such a big request of her the first time and I don’t want to impose on her kindness again.

Well, that’s about it.  Write from History ancients is available now.  I still have the year 3 Classical Reading and Writing Copybooks available but for how long, I’m unsure.  The modern history books are being updated to the Write from History format and will be online sometime in the spring, I hope.  That will depend on surgery.

And on the other writing programs, I wouldn’t have purchased them if I didn’t think they were good.  I still use IEW in co-op.  My son finished Writing Tales 1 last year, and it was good for him.  He really enjoyed the creative aspect of it.  Classical Writing is a fantastic program still, but it’s too time consuming in my opinion.  I believe it’s too incremental, but if you can handle all of those increments, it will get you where you want to go.  And finally, the same with Writing with Ease.  It’s from Susan Wise Bauer, so you know it’s fantastic.  But WWE is also very incremental and regulated in how many lines to read and which questions to ask.  And, well, that’s too much for me.  I like open-ended learning for my children.

Open-ended learning is what I call curricula that presents children with more than they can do, but does not require more than they can do.  If they can do more, they should.  If they can’t, they keep at it until they grow into it.  It’s hard to find products like that.  But TOG is one of those products.  It presents children with many options but none is mandatory.  Here’s my twist to Mr. Pudewa’s quote above concerning the brain, “Put in a lot, take out what you can get.”  I can’t help it, I’m from the country.

WRITING WITH EASE by SUSAN WISE BAUER

I love this textbook.  It is really great. Dr. Bauer has done a great job in developing a writing program for the younger group.  It clearly explains how to use copywork and dictation in order to teach grammar and writing to 1-4 graders.

And while it’s simple, I think some of the skills are pretty tough–like memorizing a paragraph after hearing it a few times during dictation and then writing it down from memory.  I am not quite sure how I would do on that test myself.

Edited:

On this original post last year, I mentioned that I had planned to use WWE with my children. This was before I modified my Classical Reading and Writing Copybooks into Write from History.

The Write from History books are more complete and thorough in teaching writing than my original copybooks.

I posted about this elsewhere, but I decided to adapt my own copybooks to follow the Charlotte Mason method. They were very similar to begin with, and only needed slight modifications.

The Charlotte Mason method of teaching writing includes the following:

Oral narrations (immediately from the first reading)

Written summations (Written summations are a precursor to full written narrations. Over time they will write their narrations.)

Copywork

Studied Dictation (Studied dictation is different in that students are taught and encouraged to study the words they will be writing. Students are not expected to reproduce what they have not yet covered. This also helps spelling.)

Grammar study using the copywork models

Btw, if you opt to use Writing with Ease, I think you’ll be very pleased with your end results.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

I have been on vacation for 2 weeks and then had my nephew here visiting with us for a week.  Around that I’ve been working on the copybooks for Ancient History.  I’m thrilled to be almost done.  Year 1 lower grammar is finished for ZB manuscript.  and Year 1 upper grammar for ZB cursive is almost done.

After I finish these two–sometime Monday, I plan to update the year 4 for modern history books and put them in the various fonts and then place them on LULU.  My kids have actually used the modern books over the last year and I am really pleased with how they’ve turned out.

Once these are done, end of next week, I have to start formatting The Fun Spanish Level 2.  The Level 2 material has been translated and only has to be cut and pasted (that doesn’t sound right, but I’m in a hurry) into the new books.  The covers for all of these are done and ready.

Also, when I have taken a break, I’ve purchased all of our supplies for next year.  I need to come up with a schedule still.

5th grader

CW Homer B and GWG 5 (I still have to purchase GWG)

TLP (co-op)

MFW Geography (Co-op)

TOG (yr 1 redesigned)

Analytical Grammar

(I know this is too much stuff.  But I wanted it all.  So here is my plan:  Do TLP, MFW with co-op and AG at home for 10 weeks.  When AG is over, do CW Homer B with GWG spliced in their rather than Harveys.  Our literature will all come from TOG.  We’ll do TOG lite.  We’ll do TOG rather than Bible study, so I think it will work.  But if necessary, I’ll drop stuff–probably CW Homer.  Actually, I think my dd10 can handle it because she has already read the first semesters books for TOG and the TLP books covered at co-op.  So she’s already ahead.  Basically, she reads a book or more a day–an oddity in our family.   MFW Geography seems really lite, especially since it will be at a co-op.)

Lof Fred Decimals followed by

Dolciani pre-algebra for the remainder of the year

Latin Prep with the workbooks

Fun Spanish Level 2 (once I finish it)

Apologia Zoology (coop)

Piano lessons weekly

Drama coop

Art lessons weekly

3rd grader

Same as his sisters, but replace CW Homer with WT 2.  If it’s too much I’ll drop it as well as TOG ancients.  I dont require as much from him.

Rather Latin Prep, he’ll be doing Lively Latin.

1st grader

Various Readers

Shiller Math

Copywork

Writing with Ease (When he is ready using our copybooks for models.)

Geography pop up book

Punctuation pup up book

3 yo (Various assortment of mess prone projects.  He loves messes.)

THE FUN SPANISH–LEVEL 1

I just wanted to be clear on what each text covers.  Level 2 will cover some past tense, modal verbs such as want to, need to, and have to.  Level 2 will also have the words from various Level 1readers on Amazon that come in English and Spanish.  After covering approximately one month of material in level 2, the students should then be able to pick up the level 1 reader such as “Junto a la Roca” and read the book.  I will suggest that children practice narrating back these stories to their parents in Spanish.

The Fun Spanish Level 1prepares students for the The Fun Spanish level 2 books.  Level 1 covers the present tense of 11 verbs–ser, estar, tener, vivir, comer, jugar, saltar, ver, oir, dormir, querer.   It also introduces common adjectives–colors and numbers–as well as prepositions.  Students also learn basic sentence structure.

Both books will have the same fun format.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT WWII TODAY

In our Reading and Writing Copybooks we covered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki today. I read to the kids the primary source document by a priest who lived through the explosion. It was completely amazing. Here is a little bit of the story referenced at Wikipedia.

BOYS AND GIRLS ARE SO DIFFERENT

Conversation at our house during dinner last night–

Setting: About twice a week my dh reads the bible at dinner.  Last night he read about Christ and we ended up discussing vanity and pride.

Dh:  So what do pretty women have to be wary of.

Ds8.5:  Men

Dd10:  Being Vain

Setting:  A separate discussion on the types of death.

Dh:  What are the different ways that people die?

Dd10:  Physical and Spiritual (She knew this from the readings he had just completed.)

Ds8.5:  Getting your head chopped off, drowning, falling in a volcano, and on, and on…

I laughed so hard that I had to leave the table.  Then to my surprise later that night, she asks me why pretty women have to wary of men.  I had to explain that when a woman is pretty, men like to be around her, and might want to marry her.  This is only a problem when the wrong men are interested in marrying her.

“Oh,” was her final response.

She really didn’t get it.  As much as she reads.  But my 8.5 year old that hardly reads at all, he totally got it.

They’re so funny.

THE ONE–A POEM I REALLY LOVE

This is for all of us homeschooling parents who wish  we had been educated differently or for those of us who wish we had just lived differently.  It’s never too late!

The One
by Everard Jack Appleton

(Public Domain)

I knew his face the moment that he passed
Triumphant in the thoughtless, cruel throng,
Triumphant, though the quiet, tired eyes
Showed that his soul had suffered overlong.
And though across his brow faint lines of care
Were etched, somewhat of Youth still lingered there.
I gently touched his armhe smiled at me
He was the Man that Once I Meant to Be!

Where I had failed, he’d won from life, Success;
Where I had stumbled, with sure feet he stood;
Alikeyet unalikewe faced the world,
And through the stress he found that life was good
And I? The bitter wormwood in the glass,
The shadowed way along which failures pass!
Yet as I saw him thus, joy came to me
He was the Man that Once I Meant to Be!

I knew him! And I knew he knew me for
The man HE might have been. Then did his soul
Thank silently the gods that gave him strength
To win, while I so sorely missed the goal?
He turned, and quickly in his own firm hand
He took my ownthe gulf of Failure spanned, …
And that was allstrong, self-reliant, free,
He was the Man that Once I Meant to Be!

We did not speak. But in his sapient eyes
I saw the spirit that had urged him on,
The courage that had held him through the fight
Had once been mine, I thought, “Can it be gone?”
He felt that unasked questionfelt it so
His pale lips formed the one-word answer, “No!”

Too late to win? No! Not too late for me
He is the Man that Still I Mean to Be!

YEAH! BRINGING UP THE EVOLUTION CONVERSATION

I always believe that the more we talk, the better. But I’m not sure that this movie is about the science. I think it’s more so about the persecution and the lack of conversation. Check it out.