Language Arts

I really have a love for the English language as an art so I am very selective when it comes to my children's language arts curriculum. I have looked into many programs and even tried a few. Most English lessons out there are based on repetition which quite honestly is boring even for a person who LOVES English. English can not be learned by rote. 

Last year we tried Rod and Staff English. It was thorough. You can't finish that book without knowing the structure of the English language inside in out. You can't finish that book without falling asleep or wanting to beat your head against a wall. You can't finish that book without HATING English. Actually you just can't finish that book. 

The problem with teaching English by rote is that it is necessary to understand the reasoning behind language structure because quite honestly the rules don't always apply. There are just too many rules anyway. I don't even know all the rules. How can I expect children to? The best way to learn a language is through immersion. We know that is true with the spoken language. It is true with the written language as well. 

I am a Charlotte Mason homeschooler. Charlotte's philosophy on homeschooling came from years of experience educating children in a classroom and at home. She came up with a system for teaching language arts to children without using rote instruction. 

• Literature- Exposure to great literary works rather than text books and "twaddle." Even preschool age children should be exposed to nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and fables not just beginning reader type of books. Many of the reasoning behind the structure of the English language can be gleaned from reading well-written pieces of literature. 
• Narration- The retelling of a story in the child's own words instead of filling out worksheets with fill-in-the-blank questions. Children can start giving oral narrations in preschool. Once they are able to write fairly well, they can start writing their narrations down. 
• Copywork- Copying well-written literature for handwriting practice also teaches grammar, spelling, structure and character. 
• Dictation- Writing down a phrase, sentence, paragraph, and eventually a full paper as it is read using proper spelling and grammar. 

This time last year I had already thrown out our Rod and Staff English book and pulled out my copy of Simply Grammar instead. It was so refreshing. It was so easy that I wondered if it could really be teaching them everything they needed to know. The only problem with Simply Grammar is that it is too short. It needs to be supplemented to even make it a full year much less through several years of education. Many Charlotte Mason homeschoolers use copywork alone as their daily grammar. Copywork is wonderful but I feel they need more instruction on writing; outlining, editing, creating a research paper, etc., if I want them to be successful in college. 

Then I found Queen Homeschool Supply's Language Lessons. These lessons are like an expanded form of Simply Grammar. They incorporate all of the key elements of Charlotte Mason language instruction and also teach the things that children need to know to be successful in college. Each book builds on itself. In fact they are not listed by grade level but rather by skill level. This way you know where to begin for each child. There are 180 lessons in each book, a full year's worth. We do one lesson per day. They are short and sweet. My kids LOVE them. I love them too. 

We are coming to the end of our school year. Soon the tax return will be coming in and I will be ready to order next year's curriculum. It is time to evaluate what has worked and what has not worked for us this year. Without a doubt we will be keeping our Language Lessons. In fact I think they are already in my cart waiting to be purchased. 

Weekly Wrap Up Week 23

• In Language Lessons, Twizzler finished copying his poem from last week and started to learn about nouns. Skittles studied a painting and then wrote a story about it. 

He was a shepherd in the field. One day the king came to him and said, "God told me to send you to Greece." So he set off. The first night he was very happy but the next night a bear ripped up his tent. Now he was tired and cold. The next night he gets there so he takes a nap. He was carrying bibles to Greece.

• The boys worked more on their multiplication facts on the worksheets I made for them. 
• Skittles picture study this week was "An Attentive Friend" by John Edward Cobbett. I have started having him write his copywork onto regular lined paper to get used to not having the extra lines. Twizzler's picture study was "Les Prunes" by William Bouguereau. I taught him that "les prunes" is French for plums. 
• In history we read about Alexander the Great. I had Skittles write me a brief narration each day about what we read. I had Twizzler fill out a worksheet I made. There is one spot for a sentence and a picture for each day of the week. 
  
• Twizzlers spelling words were all practicing the 'ou' sound. Skittles words showed the many ways to make the 'or' soundat the end of a word; aur, ure, er, and or. 
• Skittles finished reading the books, Greek Legends and Stories by M.V. Seton-Williams. Twizzler read the story of The Three Wishes. 
• Skittles is learning about Space this month. This week he drew a scaled version of the solar system on a roll of paper. He measured out the distances of each planet from the sun. Twizzler's new science book arrived today. He is learning about his 5 senses this month. This week he focused on sight. 
• Hershey practiced cutting with his scissors a lot. Thankfully, thus far, he has only used them appropriately to cut paper.

 

I linked up with...

History Notebooking Pages

In case you have been wondering what happened to me the past couple of weeks, I have gone back to work. That is making it hard for me to keep up with the blog. We are still keeping up with school work though.

Last week in history they learned about Moses leading the people out of Egypt.
In science they learned about the different kinds of trees and their uses.
Skittles learned how to write a letter in Language Lessons and Twizzler learned how to find the subject in a sentence.

• This week we are taking a pause with our ALHOW history book and taking the opportunity to dive in and study a little bit more about Ancient Egypt from The Story of the World Vol 1.  I am not interested in using SOTW as my main history book because I prefer Queens story telling and journal. I just really love ancient history and since there are only 28 chapters in ALHOW and we are not going to be doing review weeks, I thought a brief layover in Egypt would not be a bad idea. To be clear, I have not changed curriculum, I am just reading something different THIS week. Today we read about how the Egyptians over threw the Nubian people and after taking their gold, they absorbed them into their culture. There was even a Nubian Queen, Queen Tiye. Since I do not have journal pages, I made my own page for them to write a quick narration about what we read. 

We do history 4 days per week but I made one for a 5 day week also in case anyone wants to use it. 

These are 100% free for you to use. Just right click on them and save them as an image to your picture folder. Then you can print them as an 8x11 sheet (full page).

• In language today, Twizzler learned how to find the predicate in a sentence. Skittles addressed an envelope to his great grandmother. 
• We read the final chapter in the story of Mother Oak and Oakie the acorn. He is now a sapling and his mother tree has been cut down to be re-purposed. After the reading the boys looked up a mocking bird in the field guide and drew a picture of it and wrote down some of the facts about them. 

Fried Out Friday

Friday is co-op day.

• Hershey was in my Preschool class. We had a lot of fun learning about transportation. We connected an airplane to a cloud for our prewriting. We made a counting train for math. We made a stoplight for our craft. Then we traveled around the room like airplanes, trains, boats, horses, etc. Finally, just for fun, we went on a bear hunt. 
• Skittles tried to build the tallest tower with cups, toothpicks and packing peanuts in team building. 
• Twizzler made a person out of boxes and straws. He said it was Batman. He had to color it black and gray because the only paper was colorful. 
• Skittles and Twizzler played sharks and minnows in P.E. 

We took a break for a while and visited with grandparents who just come home from vacation. Then we went to Worship by the sea. I can't tell you how blessed I am for going there. My cup was filled both literally and figuratively. I was surrounded by love and prayers. It is humbling to see how greatly God cares for my little family. Hershey brought me some pretty little flowers during the service and afterwards I took my 3 boys for a relaxing walk on the beach. I came so close to just sitting at home tonight feeling sorry for myself but I made myself get out and go. I am so glad I did. 

• Skittles had to complete some sentences by adding either the subject or the predicate. Twizzler had to read a story about an animal and then narrate it to me. He chose to read, The Saggy Baggy Elephant.  Twizzler looks in the book to help him remember the way the story went. 

"Today I read about the baby elephant. It likes to dance it does 1, 2, 3 kick. And it does that almost 2 times. There was a bird that laughed at that little elephant. And he lived alone and he was trying to lose some sag. He rubbed his skin but it came down with dozens of wrinkles. Then he saw a tiger and he asked him, 'How do you have your skin fitting?' He likes to work out. Then the tiger said, if you can't do it. I can nibble off some pounds. But he said no thank you. He ran and rolled on his back, walked on his back feet, and walked on his front feet. He got to the lake and had a drink. The parrot came and laughed and told him that he should go in the water to loose some pounds. But when he went in the water, there was a big hungry crocodile looking at Sooki's ears. Then Sooki ran to a deep dark cave and cried. Then Sooki peeped out to look out and there was a hungry lion. He ate some animals but he was still so hungry that he could eat an elephant. Then a big herd of elephants came and made the hungry lion jump and ran away as fast as he could. Then  they partied. They did 1, 2, 3 kick again. And then Sooki said he wished he was as big as them and that is the end and there is just a picture. "

• Skittles is learning Roman numerals still. He got 100%. Twizzler is learning about the months of the year. The poem was confusing him. I could never remember it either. I taught him the knuckle trick. 
• Skittles read Chapter 3 of The Story For Kids. Then I had him narrate it to me. 

"Well I read that um Joseph was being tricked because his father liked Joseph most. He loved him so much that he gave him a colorful robe and his brothers were jealous so they threw him into a well. Judah said, 'Just throw him into the well. Don't hurt him. After all he is  our own flesh and blood.' Then they found some Ishmaelite traders who were going to Egypt so they sold Joseph for 8 ounces of silver. He became a slave to the general. His wife loved Joseph but Joseph did not want to upset his master so he ran away from her and left his coat. The wife lied and said he had attacked her so the general put him in jail for a couple nights. Then the pharaoh had bad dreams and so he got Joseph because no one else knew what his creams meant. So he could tell him his dreams. His dreams meant there would be 7 years good food and 7 years no food growing. So Joseph said to stock up on all the food on the good years so there would be enough food for the famine. Pharaoh made him right below him and ruler of all Egypt. The only reason Pharaoh was above him was because he is the one who sits on the throne. Pharaoh saw that God was with Joseph and he was wise so he became ruler. He saved his brothers from death during the famine."

Mesopotamia

We started our lesson on the tower of Babel today. I spent all morning digging up activities and videos about Mesopotamia. I am so excited. I LOVE ancient history. This is going to be so much fun. Here are some of the links I found.
Answers in Genesis
ABC's of Mesoptamia
Cradle of civilization HUB
Hands on Activities
Video on Ancient Sumer

Here are our happy moments today.

• Skittles finished his final quiz in Teaching Textbooks 4. He got a 92%. 
• Hershey sorted out counting bears and counting chips into colored cups while his big brothers did their math. 
  
• Twizzler's copywork was very nice today. He is doing much better now that I switched him back to manuscript paper. Hershey colored a picture of a clock and traced a letter C with mom's help. 
• After we read about the tower of Babel. The boys colored a picture of one and wrote a narration in their journals. Skittles colored his a sandy brown because he assumes it was made of sand stone. 
  
• Hershey wanted to do spelling with his bothers so I handed him a blank piece of paper and a pencil. He proudly scribbled away. 
• In science the boys read about the squirrels that live in her branches. Skittles narration, 

"Mother squirrel had some babies. As she was going to gather food Trixie the other squirrel came along and they had a talk about last year the hunters came and killed a mean squirrel. Then mother squirrel talked about Oakie the acorn. They were going to have him for a treat in the winter. They talked about how mean the people were for hunting. Mother Oak said, "You can't have that acorn for a treat. That is going to be a tree." Whenever the babies got near the bird nest they would get yelled at to not to get too close to the bird's nest. Mother Oak would warn them not to fall off the branches. They knew not to go too far because of a sense that they had."

Then they did some research about gray squirrels on the internet. 

• Twizzler showed Hershey how to play a song on the piano... Well he tried to at least.  The result was loud and adorable. 

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First Day of SCHOOL

Public school does not start for one more week here but I decided to start early so that we can take frequent breaks as needed without getting too far behind like we did last year. 

We started off our morning with pancakes for breakfast. That is the boys favorite. 

After breakfast I asked them to pull out their binders so we could go over how to use them. Even Hershey had his binder. 

We started off with Language lessons. 

Skittles lesson was to write a narration about a picture in the book. There were questions to answer orally but I had him write the answers out in full sentences using proper grammar. It is still less work than he was used to doing last year using Rod and Staff English and I want him to practice those rules daily if possible. 

Twizzler just gave me an oral narration for his picture. He was so excited when he answered his 4 questions and I said, "Okay you are done." 

Hershey colored a letter A for apple. I helped him trace the A, "down, down, across." Then I let him color it. I have a plan for this page at the end of the week.

Twizzler was the first one done with his Language lessons so I sent him off to do his math. Right away he got the first two problems wrong. Then the next problem was 36x7. He claimed that he forgot how to multiply. DEEP BREATH. I tried to work with him through the problem but he forgot all of his math facts. So I had him copy all the multiples of 6.

Skittles math did not go well today. I had to call in for reinforcements. Gpa came over to help him. I wish I had the patience to do it with him but I just don't. It never ends well. Math... I hate math. That is all I am going to say about it since this is a happy blog.

Hershey played with a shapes puzzle. I was very impressed that he was able to complete it very quickly with no help. 

Then we did history together. We read about the first days of creation. Then the boys did a page in their journal. I asked them what the expanse between the 2 waters were. Skittles said, "The atmosphere and the clouds."

Twizzler called it the sky. 

I am working with Hershey to memorize his first bible verse, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." He colored a picture with the verse.

After history, I introduced them to our new spelling program. I bought the Queen spelling books but I am using them a little bit different than the author recommends. Instead of just letting them copy the words, I wrote them on the white board. I have them read the word, spell the word and then read it again. Then I erase the word and they have to write it from memory.

After they write all of the new words, I let them see the book page and check their work. If they misspelled any word, they write that word correctly 3 times. Then I lead them to read and memorize the first sentence in the book. Then I read it to them aloud while they dictate it. If they forget how to spell one of the words, the list is on the same paper so they can look at it for help. The idea is for them to be able to recall the word from memory. This was Twizzlers first time doing dictation. He did wonderfully.

For science we read the first chapter in All Nature Sings. I let the boys take turns reading aloud. I think it helps Twizzler to read more fluidly when he follows along while Skittles reads. 

After reading, they each did their own journal page. Here is Skittles page.

And Twizzler's journal page.

Finally they began their new writing books. Skittles wrote his first sentence. 

Twizzler began cursive today!!!! He did sooo well. I was afraid that he was not ready but he made some beautiful A's. 

We did not do any reading today because we had to read for science and history. I felt like in the past we were reading too much during the day. I want them to want to read. Sure enough when we were done with school for the day, Twizzler asked if he could read a book. 

Fish

For today's post I decided to have the boys take turns narrating what we read to me.

• Today in science, Nekeek's family and the Roberstons learned to catch fish. They used their hands. They put the sun behind their backs. Kneeling a little bit. when they saw a fish they grabbed it. It said to look in the water. You can see your reflection. Go somewhere high like a bridge and you can see the fish.  ~Twizzler

• In history, we learned about a man named Kit Carson who was a very good hunter. One day he was marching with a bunch of men around lunch time. He said he left the place to go hunt and kill something to eat. He saw some elk and shot one but then there were 2 bears and he quickly dropped his gun and ran for a tree. He climbed the tree and broke a stick for a club and banged them both on the nose until they ran away. Then he got his gun and grabbed the elk and went back to the team. ~Skittles 

•  Hershey and I played on the tablet this morning. I downloaded a bunch of new games for him. His favorite was the fishy game, Nemo's Reef, a game that his cousin loves as well.  

And Then?

I have begun to correct Skittles grammar and writing in his narrations for reading. He finds this frustrating because I had not done so in the past. I think it is important to create good writing habits. I am trying to get him to find the important parts of the reading and write about it. He is reading Henry and Ribsy. Today his narration read, 

Henry figured out that ribsy just wanted to watch the garbage. cause when scooter got henry's bike to fix ribsy barked at scooter. so henry's fishing trip with his dad was saved. 

You can imagine my confusion. I had him give me an oral narration on the reading which was much more descriptive and made more sense but it was long and had many unnecessary details. I asked him the title of the chapter. "Henry and the Garbage," He replied. I instructed him to focus on that. So we tried again but focused on the garbage story line. I admit it took a bit of prompting from me. Every time he completed a sentence I would ask, "And then?"  Here is what I got,

Henry and the garbage

Henry's new job is to take out the garbage. Ribsy thinks it is his job to protect the garbage because he thinks it is Henry's. Ribsy bit the garbage man to protect the garbage. The garbage man stopped coming. The garbage bag over floed and the can top would not go on. Two dogs came and scattered the garbage everywhere. Henry and his dad cleaned up the mess. Henry's dad made a deal if Henry clipped the lawn his dad would take out the garbage. they would put ribsy in the basement when the garbage man came. 

I did send him back to correct the grammar errors but I am happy with this narration.

1. I asked Hershey, "What does a duck say?" He replied, "kack, I ah duck." 
2. Twizzler wrote a postcard to his Auntie Boo. I hope to get it out in the mail tonight. 
3.  It only took Skittles 3 tries to get his paper perfect. I would call that a success.
4. Skittles and Twizzler have been playing "Stack the States" on their tablets. I love that they are not playing Minecraft for once but the best part is, they are learning stuff. 

Snail Mail

1. G-pa read their science reading about traveling by boat in pioneer times. We did a science experiment to learn how the inside of a boat stays dry. We stuffed a napkin into the bottom of a cup and then held the cup upside down in the water. The napkin stayed dry. 
2. Both boys did a retake of their previous math that they failed yesterday. With Gpa's help they both got As. 
3. "In history they read about John Audubon hunting a panther with his neighbor. The panther was killing the dogs. He got hunters with their dogs to capture 'the beast,' They called it a beast but it really wasn't and they saw it up in a tree and they shot it. A hunter shot it with his bullet. And then the panther leaped off the tree." -Twizzler
4. Hershey has learned compassion both of his brother's and I have cried tonight. He is quick to run over and give any sad person a big hug. 
5. Twizzler loved giving his narration for me to type so much that he asked me to dictate his reading for him tonight. 

"In the beginning Toad never gets a letter and Frog sent him a letter. He gave it to the snail which was the mail man. And the snail didn't get there on time. Frog and Toad sat on the porch and they waited and when the snail arrived, he got the letter from Frog and that was all." 

Narration

One of the learning tools I use to increase reading comprehension is narration. I start narration very young. Let me give you an example. This morning Hershey brought me a book that I have read to him a million times. I read it to him once all the way through and then I asked him to read it to me. He did really well. It was only a 5 page book with a very simple story line. 

Page 1 "Elmo. Where Manket?"

Page 2 "Cookie cookie. Mon-ter. Ta-da. Here Manket. Here Elmo"

Page 3 "That is that. That the bubble. And Elmo. A baby crying"

Page 4 "Swing, bike, gown-gown (playground)"

Page 5 "Go go car" 

Twizzler is at the stage where he can read the books to me and then give me a brief oral narration. I let him flip through the pages to help jog his memory. Today he read, Frog and Toad, A Swim.

Today in the story, Toad and frog went swimming around a river. Toad was putting on his swimsuit. They jumped into the water of the river. Toad went looking for frog and frog told the turtle, 'You should see Toad in his best suit.' He called the lizards. He told the snake. He told the two big dragonflies. Frog told the field mouse and then they all gathered around the river bank. They begged frog to come out and he went on a rock that was near and they all laughed. The turtle laughed. The lizard laughed. The snake laughed. The field mouse laughed and frog laughed and then Toad walked away. Frog was looking at him and Toad picked up his cloth and went home. And that is the story.  

Skittles is reading Shipwrecked! The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy. He usually reads one chapter per day independently and then writes a short narration about what he just read. Today he read, A Japanese Boy In New England. 

Manjiro walked on the first draw bride he saw. Manjiro who was sixteen had never done school in his life. The Whitfields bought a farm in New England that had fourteen acres of land. Manjiro was amazed. In Japan a person could only have a small yard. 

When we finish our history and science readings, I also ask the kids to give me an oral narration on what we read. For those subjects I let them tag team it. In history we read about John Audubon. 

Twizzler: We read about John Audubon living in the wild in the woods he had to go in the woods to study the birds. He was a good shooter. His friend asked him to shoot his cap and his friend threw it in the air and he could shoot it. 

Skittles: They said John Audubon was a good shooter but the hunters were better. You know that tip of a candle? They could shoot off the tip of the wick and the candle was still burning. While he was living with the American Indians, someone had to fight a bear and the Indian won with a little bit of help from Audubon. The Indian stabbed it a few times with a knife and then Audubon shot it. He used to climb trees and collect eggs but he would not take all the eggs. He just took what he needed. 

Twizzler: He wanted to experiment it and he poked little holes and blowed through them.

Skittles: He blew out all the stuff in it and then strung the egg shells together. He would also keep the egg and he drew them to make them look real. He went to France to be a writer and painter. He also collected birds. He decided they didn't look real enough so he decided to put the live birds in a cage and then he painted them. And that is how we have our Audubon Field Guide book. 

In science we learned about the different kinds of bees and bee impersonators. They copied a bible verse and they drew pictures of the bees. I hope this helps Twizzler with his fear of bumble bees. We have to walk past them to our car every day from March to October. I have had to carry him to the car screaming many times. Maybe having read in his science book that bumble bees a reluctant to sting, he will become more brave. 

Oh and I had no idea that there were no bees in America until the 1600s. Europeans brought them over here. My whole childhood people told me they are vital to the ecosystem. APPARENTLY NOT! The ecosystem did just fine before bees showed up. On October 15, 1492 Columbus wrote in his journal that all the islands were, "extremely verdant and fertile." Sited here 

10 Reasons to Get Out of Bed

I woke up feeling sad today. I really wanted to throw myself a big old pity party and lie in bed watching chick flicks and eating ice cream. BUT I had kids to take care of. I am glad too. They got me up out of the bed and soon I had better things to think about. LIKE... 

1. Twizzler's tablet suddenly won't turn on. I can't see anything wrong with it. It has not been dropped. It has been charged but it won't turn on. My tablet has a broken charger port. It could take several weeks to get a replacement. Twizzler was very sad that he was not able to play Monkey Math. He tried to do a Teaching Textbooks lesson but I think it is going to fast for him now. He needs to back up and spend some more time on addition and subtraction. So I got out an old workbook and let him do a couple of pages on that. When I handed it to him he said "Oh this looks like fun." Quite a compliment for a math worksheet. 
2. Skittles and his buddies built a fort during park day. They walked all over the park collecting palm fronds for the walls and roof. They also collected sticks to use as weapons against.... enemies? 
3. Hershey learned how to swing on his belly. He watched some older kids do it and decided that looked like more fun than the baby swing. He also had fun scooting around on a friends Razor Rip Rider trike. 
4. I talked to some of the other moms about possibly getting Skittles enrolled in a robotics program for kids. I got some great advice to mull over. I think Skittles would really love it. He wants to be an airplane pilot one day. 
5. In history we read about Andrew Jackson. Twizzler said "He was named after his father. He was hit in the head with a sword but it wasn't a big cut it was just a small one, like this (makes small motion on forehead) Then he tried to run for president but he did not win that one. Then he became a navy man."
6. I was so proud of Twizzler today because he actually read his English assignment and answered it on his own. 
7. When dinner was ready, Hershey ran to the window and yelled to his brothers who were on the playground, "BUBBAS!!!! DINNER!!! GO!!!"
8. After dinner Skittles said, "Don't worry mom I will take care of dessert." Then he went into the kitchen and pulled out a pie that I bought and said, "Mom can you come slice the pie?" So much for taking care of dessert for me. LOL
9. Oh and all 3 boys helped me clean out the van today. I wish I could get to it more often. As it is, I only get to clean it out about once per month. While we were cleaning it out we got to see our favorite dog in the neighborhood. The kids had fun loving on him and chasing him around the car wash area. 
10. The kids got out our guinea pig tonight and let her run around the house. That is one seriously LOVED little pig. 
    

WE ARE BACK!

We got back into the swing of things today... We are starting week 15. Almost halfway done with the school year. I was hoping to be on week 17 by now but we took more time off than I had planned for.

1. Twizzler read the first few pages of Owl at Home to me. I am so proud of him. He read slowly but he was able to sound out every single word. 
2. Skittles has been reading The Indian in the Cupboard during our break because he was a week behind in reading. He also really likes the story. 
3. Hershey has been playing with his Leaptop that he got for Christmas. He really loves to dance to the music. He sits beside me while I am working on my laptop and types beside me. 
4. Twizzler started multiplication today. He was very excited about it. He did very well.

Here is Twizzler's narration for our history reading. 

George Washington went to another state, I can't remember which one. It had a long name. He saw a person that they got into a war with and the person said, "I'm going to hunt a fox." In the morning, Ummm... There was a captain and he heard a war going on and he ran and he saw George Washington won the war. 

Here is Skittle's narration of our history reading.

George Washignton went to Trenton and because he was going to a battle against Cornwasomething.... It's a really long name, oh yeah Cornwallis. They were waiting because they were across the lake and they said, "I am going to catch that fox tomorrow." because they called George Washington a fox. They knew that would happen and George Washington knew that would happen, so he snuck out and left a few people to keep the fires going and the digging sound going and as soon as Cornwallis was asleep they went to Trenton to fight the other troops and Cornwallis thought it was hunting and it was actually a battle and he tried to win. It was a hard battle but George Washington won in the end. And that's the story. 

Book Report CM Style

I have been having fun making worksheets. I decided to make some worksheets for my 8yo to use for his literature. Up until now, I have not asked him to do anything more than an oral narration for his literature. I think he is ready to show a little bit of what he is reading. I even included a page for him to draw a picture from the poem he read each week.

Science Narration Pages

I have been pretty pleased with my Vocabulary pages... The kids have been working hard on them. I decided to try and make some other notebooking pages that might help us run through our other subjects more efficiently. 

Until now, for History and Science, I have simply given my 8yo a blank sheet of notebook paper and let him write down one or two sentences about what he learned. I do this after his oral narration. It is easier for him to recall information after he has written it down. I just have him highlight something important. 

I made some worksheets for his Science. If you would like a copy just click on the image, then right click, save image as. Then choose a file. You can print it out as a "full page fax print".