Checking in!, Just wanted to say hi... :-)

Thought I'd stop by and see if anybody's here these days and find out who has exciting plans for the upcoming school year. We didn't exactly stop for the summer, but we certainly switched to a lower gear. I've been ramping things up for a couple of weeks now, and hopefully next week will be our first "real" and "full" week of school.

How 'bout everybody else???

We're starting somewhat this year as ds4.75 is kindy age. Mostly it's me trying to wrap my head around what needs to be done and start to get organized- not that I take kindy too terribly seriously. Here's my "thinking out loud" list I sent to DH yesterday:

Jewish studies
*davening - Shema Koleinu siddur
*parsha - My First Parsha Reader and aish.com family pages
*Kriah: alef-bet letter recognition - letters and vowels (Kriah Step-By-Step by Esty Wolf?) chinuch.org
*basic Hebrew vocabulary - Torah and modern Hebrew http://www.akhlah.com/
*Jewish stories (the thin blue books - can we get more?, other Jewish story books we have) free Jewish stories online http://www.jewishbktown.com/

Secular
*MEP math - reception (kindy) and some of the Year 1 if appropriate http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/me...ary/default.htm

*Read lots of quality literature daily - see Charlotte Mason list here http://amblesideonline.org/00.shtml

*Alphabet recognition followed by basic phonics if he seems ready/interested: http://www.donpotter.net/PDF/Word%20Mastery%20-%20Typed.pdf

*Starfall.com to support learning letters/learning to read

*pre-Handwriting activities http://donnayoung.org/penmanship/teachhw.htm - I read this article http://donpotter.net/PDF/Cursive%20First.pdf and think we should begin teaching them to write in cursive first

*Biology Buddies - Oct-Nov-Feb-March-May-June http://www.swanlake.bc.ca/biology-buddies.php
*Fiddle Lessons
*Swimming Lessons
*Walks, play, fun

Wow you guys are organised.

I have no 'official' plans of teaching them anything. They are starting their sports, karate and homeschooling club again. We'll hopefully be able to get some play dates every now and again for their sake and mine.
Mendele got a 'nasty nature kit' from Horrible Science so we'll do some experiments and probably learn a bit about bugs (he loves bugs so thats easy).
We got some clay to make something with, we'll probably continue our pyrography project of making a sign for our door.
We generally learn most when he comes up with something and he gets really intto it. OVer the summer he was very interested in Lizards so we made a questioner together and we went to see some lizards in a pet shop and he asked a member of staff the questions. Then we went online and read more stuff about reptiles and saw some youtube clips and went to the library got a book. We then got a blank book that we wrote all he learned into it and he made pictures in the book so its his own book that he made.
We'll probably do more of that but I havent got anything planned.

I was feeling kinda unorganized and unmotivated.......
I just have so much going on that there are many days where formal learning is minimal and I am just trying to be imma to everyone and run the house etc;
Trying to meet everyone's different needs, different ages, stages, learning styles, academic abilities, fitting it all around my 2 yr old's therapies and
just being consistent is a challenge right now, although we have started learning about the upcoming yomtovim we are doing math, well at least 2 kids are and 2 are not really. We have been watching the merlin series and since my 3 boys are now totally taken by swords, knights etc; we are reading up about medievil europe, king Arthur, knights etc; We do timelines, and so have connected the start of the middle ages to the fall of the roman empire which happened after the destruction of the 2nd temple.

Yesterday, I picked my 3 younger boys up from a friend and as we walked out the door there was a spider on the doorpost and their friend's mother was trying to shoo it out and was visibly scared when my 11 yr old looked at the spider and said " oh don't worry that's not a brown recluse"! ..... she said "that's homeschooling for you"
So, yes, while we may not be on "schedule" right now, these kids are learnig all the time about so many things and it is nice to see it it sometimes:)

There was some debate / discussion about this on the Ambleside list... interesting to think that "print first" isn't Halacha mi Sinai, so to speak.

Nice to hear about everybody's plans (or lack thereof!).

Do you all consciously try to get together with other homeschoolers?
What about specifically Jewish homeschoolers?

Just curious...

Elisheva, my dd2 learned D'nealian (sp?) printing that was very easy to transition into cursive. It just isn't as loopy so it's easier for littler lands.

Gili, if you are interested, it's nice to tie in medieval history with some Jewish history too, like Rashi, Rambam, ets. who were all part of that time period. It kind of humanizes people who otherwise we only really see written as commentaries on a page of text.

If you would like any reading material/lessons on it, let me know. There are some really fascinating things about medieval Jewish history and it's probably the least well known or understood period in our history in general.

(Oh and a plug for me...I'm teaching Ancient Jewish History as well as Zionism and Modern Israel on room613.net this year).

@ImaRunning
re: Ancient Jewish History - I'm trying to figure out how to tie it in with Story of the World, our main history spine. So far, we've just covered Avraham, and then the Babylonians. But I want to keep bringing it back to Jewish history as much as possible...
Are there any books you can recommend that read as easily as Story of the World (which we're enjoying very much)?
I have a book by Seymour Rossel, which covers a lot, but I don't love it.

popping in... but not much to say. i haven't planned anything particular, just following our interests. interesting to read what everyone else is doing though.

we were at the museum sometime a little bit ago, and it really struck me that I was talking about brontosaurus (I think thats it) and this young adult/volunteer started telling me how that dinosaur never actually existed. It was two different skeletons put together, and a scientific mistake, or something. So anyways, that really got me reflecting on what did I really learn in grade one? The one thing I actually remember turns out not to be true! Nothing to do with homeschooling... just, I don't know, makes me think about what we teach our kids.

Yup, I remember the brontosaurus, and learned years ago - luckily, before I had kids - that most of it is now called "apatosaurus."
What I remember from elementary school could be summed up in very few words: "ancient sumerians and simple machines, dinosaurs, pioneers, Japan." (In no particular order, obviously.)
The ancient Sumerians / simple machines unit was the product of two very gifted co-teachers in a two-grade classroom. They were amazing and the whole thing literally stuck there forever because of how vivid they made it.
Oh, I forgot "the night before Xmas." I had to recite it at the assembly every year because I was the smallest and cutest kid, and also perhaps the only literate one.
And the Lord's prayer. (yes, in public school)
Fun!

Yes, please I would love recommendations for books etc; especially since I am covering ages 8, 10, 11 and 15.
So far we started with wikkipedia for a short introduction to jews & medievil times.
I have the book Gluckel of Hemeln ( Me & older 2 dd's read) for my 15 year old but it is about a later period and I really haven't found much about the earlier periods. Jewish history books I have right now in english are Sand & stars and 2000 years by shloss.
thankyou, I really appreciate it
btw, Iam happy for you & for room613 what age is the class geared to?
3 of my ds's did took some of the classes there last year but, sadly it didn't work out for us.

R' Wein tapes are still great. We listened to some during our recent car trips on vacation, and it was a big hit with 12+. Not so much the 7yo.

For instance, we listened to the tape on Rabbeinu Tam, and R' Wein made it a point to describe the historical period that he lived in, including an overview of the purpose of the Crusades and the sociological factors that caused it and those that caused it to fail.

Sorry I didn't reply yet, we were away for a few days. Bli Neder I will dig out my files and get some recommendations up.

Jay3Fer, what age/reading level?

Well, 6.5 (First Grade)... and a 3-year-old tagging along.

I learned D'Nealian in school as a child. I haven't fully decided yet. I do know that historically cursive was sometimes taught first and I know that learning cursive first is recommended for children with dyslexia. Just looking to lighten the workload a little but I'm so inexperienced that I'm just feeling my way along.