Day 31: Explode the Code

It's Peanut again.... Today, she finished a book...... Let's start with last year, where I introduced her to the pre-literacy books "Let's Get Ready For the Code". These books taught her to write the consonants of the alphabet, lower case and upper case letters, and their sounds. She spent just a few days on each letter, enough to make it stick, but not to be boring. She liked it much better than other phonics books that we had tried, so I figured we'd stick with the books if she succeeds. My hope is really that she learns how to read this way.

She finished all three books fairly quickly. So this year, we officially started with the "Explode the Code" books. There are 14 books in total. The first book started with the letter family of -at and moved slowly through more and more families, including all five vowels. We only did one page a day, so we moved really slowly. I want her to want to learn how to read, which she still doesn't want. So I am trying to find a balance between letting her lead without giving up all control - because then we wouldn't learn at all, right? Some of the exercises she liked, others she didn't so much. Those were usually the ones where she had to write the words multiple times. It was also hard for her to read sentences on her own in order to match it to the picture shown in the book.

At the end of the book, so today, she had to read the two paragraphs you see on the left. It took her while to figure out all the words, but in the end, she was so proud of herself that she read that much and figured out the riddle. She beamed as you can see on the right. Now we are off to book 1 1/2. I do want her to repeat a few things before we are moving on to book 2. Hopefully soon, she will be ready to skip the half books, and just reads on her own. Until then, we practice every single day.

There is a good review by Cathy Duffy, the author of '100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum'.

Day 30: Ear ache remedy with essential oils

Yesterday was a rough day. Coqui fell ill and we had to head over to the doctor who confirmed that he had an eye infection that resulted from rubbing his eyes too much due to his allergies. When the doctor checked his ears, she said that his right ear had some fluid in it, so if he developed pain, we should come back. Sure enough, he started to have some pain this morning. They were at a friend's house because I had a doctor appointment, so it took us some time to get home. By the time we got home, he was in pain. So I did a quick research online, found some remedies, and applied them.

Now, they did not work as instantly as Coqui wanted them to work, but I think they did. From laying on the couch crying to jumping around with his sisters, not even an hour passed by.

So I used purification first, I put a drop around his ear, all around, but not inside! I used downward motions because I wanted to see if I could drain the fluid that way. Then I put a drop of thieves over it. And for good measure, I used the headache roller that I made on Sunday because it had some of the ingredients in that I found online (like PanAway and Tea Tree). I made him put a pillow over his ear (applying heat is good too for the fluid to drain), too. He was better within an hour and hasn't complained since. I used this one more time, just to make sure.

Now why does this apply to homeschooling? It so does. My kids learn about plants and their natural healing power. They learn that medications have their place, but that we should try to improve our lives with natural remedies rather than popping a pill every time they tummy hurts - and trust me, kids say that a lot! Now my kids will ask to get some peppermint on their tummy. They ask for lavender when they have a cut. They also ask me to diffuse their favorite smell during school time: joy and peppermint. It smells so good that we have a hard time concentrating, lol.

Day 29: A Reason For Handwriting

When Coqui was in Kindergarten and First Grade, I did not use any formal curriculum - I put my own stuff together. But I didn't know any better. My homeschool network has expanded quite a bit since and so has my repertoire of curriculum. When Peanut started to learn her letters, we used A Reason For Handwriting, a wonderful program for little ones.

The very first book was just awesome. She learned a letter a day, and with each letter came an animal that started with that particular letter. So we learned about that animal (science!) and then she had to color it, and then add something creative to that picture. She loved it!
That creative part was so down her ally. The second book is drier so far and she is not enjoying it as much, but she only has a few more days of simply writing her letters before we dive into learning letters and words with Scripture. Now that is the part I am excited about. Not that we don't learn Scripture already with our weekly program, but I think the more Scripture the kids are exposed to, the more will stick eventually.

We like that the lessons are short and to the point, we never spend more than fifteen minutes a day in this book. At this age, short is still better than overload. I totally love the way they explain the letter formation: with a tree house. It's ingenious - a tree house is visual and kids can totally relate to the parts of a tree house. I shared this with a friend and she was intrigued and adopted this. Also this book shows how every stroke of the letter is formed with arrows and numbers, so the child learns (or now is reminded) how to write it correctly. Now why is this important you ask, because correct writing of the printed letter will make it easier to transition into cursive writing. And yes, I totally agree with teaching cursive writing, but we will get there in a different post.

Day 28: English From The Roots Up

Let's talk Latin and Greek.
I learned Latin in my ninth and tenth year of school, it was my fourth language after Russian, English, and French. My parents thought it necessary to know some Latin for any further foreign language. And it did help. I learned French faster and easier, and it helped me with the little Spanish that I know. Understanding is always easier than forming a sentence to communicate.

So it is natural to me to want to expose my children to some Latin. Now I think they are still a bit too young for proper Latin and / or Greek lessons - and I am not trying to attempt them speaking it fluently anyways. So we took the middle pathway, I picked up the book "English From the Roots Up". There is a volume One and Two - we are still in One.

The book is intended to help students understand English better, so their Spelling or Writing will improve. But I think it works the other way around as well. For now, the exposure counts. So we are working our way through this book.

The way we use it: we pick a new word per week and work on that word and it's uses in the English language. We are using these worksheets to fill in the Latin or Greek word, and then study their meaning. At the end, we review some older words, and once in a while, we play Match with the flashcards. It's a fun and easy way and Coqui enjoys it.

Day 27: Table Manners

I recently read one of those funny articles about Germans and their habits. It was called 26 signs you were born and raised in Germany. Some of these are plain funny, other could come from any other country in the world (mostly), and a few are very German habits indeed. So is #1, which states that table manners are very important to us as Germans (and to our parents).
Oh, it is so true. My parents were very adamant at teaching my brother and me proper table manners. Now as a child, I only thought of it as annoying and obviously unnecessary. Today as a parent myself, living in a country where this is less important, I find myself sounding like my mother! It has become very crucial to me to instill good table manners in my children, knowing they won't see it much around them. In a country where finger foods are not only common among children, it is hard to stand firm on the importance of being able to use fork and knife. So my parental mission is just that: to instill proper (German) table manners.

Undoubtedly, I don't believe that children should not be taught to operate a knife properly. It is, after all, part of the table manners. Now one starts with a child-friendly knife, small and dull. So my children got handed a knife at a very young age, just like this one: Gerber Graduates Cutlery. Then we worked on learning to use a real butter knife. And so on..... Today, I have my five year old cut the bread with a real bread knife, my eight year old cuts all his meats by himself, and as you can see, my two year old is very busy practicing her skills with the knife because she wants to be just like the older ones.