Alternative Spelling Lists

Since my daughter who is using Logic of English is older (11yo), I decided to add the alternative spelling lists provided on the LOE blog.    Lists 1-4 and 6-9 include videos taught by the author.

Logic of English Alternative Lists

A few of the words on the first list are easy ("mob") but others have been a fun challenge ("squalid").  My goal for 11yo is mastery, so we will be working at a much slower pace on these lists.  For example, this week we are working through lesson seven in the book and also using alternative spelling list one.

note: The slower pace (one lesson per week) has been a better fit.

Tired

Viola/Cesario and Sir Andrew Aguecheek

It was a crazy week.  Go, go, go.

Saturday - special choir mini-retreat (17yo), birthday party (15yo), major grocery trip

Sunday - sat in the car for three hours while 17yo attended a single adult congregation, took her home for 10 minutes to change into her formal choir uniform, sat in the hot car for another 30 minutes while she sang at a fundraiser, stayed up late making several meals

Monday - early morning seminary (dad drove!), tech rehearsal for "Twelfth Night" (15yo and 17yo), choir rehearsal (17yo)

Tuesday - early morning seminary, tech rehearsal

Wednesday - early morning seminary, dress rehearsal, afternoon church activity (11yo), evening youth activity

Thursday - early morning seminary, hair appt. (15yo), 1pm  & 7pm performances of "Twelfth Night", Dad and I manned the ticket table and helped with concessions, cast party until 12:30am (someone else drove!)

Friday - standardized testing (15yo), Biology class (15yo and 17yo), haircut (15yo), 8:30 - 11:30pm drove 15yo to her sister's house (took a wrong turn, was lost, delay because of an accident, missed a dead deer and a live possum)

I'm probably leaving out something.

I am tired.

Missing school

This past week was almost exclusively Logic of English.  With learning the ropes AND doing full lessons (learning phonograms, spelling rules, spelling list, grammar, composition, and vocabulary development) it took a lot of time.  This next week we'll be slowing down the LOE train but my teens are going to be performing in a play, Twelfth Night.  School for the 11yo will be squeezed in between me chauffeuring her sisters to play rehearsals every day.  Somewhere in all of this driving around to various activities I also need to wash clothes and cook for people.  There isn't going to be a lot of extra time.  School time with 11yo will be the first casualty.

I miss our regular subjects (Greek Myths, Latin, History, etc.).  Is life ever going to be normal?

Logic of English - Lesson Four

Much, much better!

• We were forced to split the lesson into four sessions due to chauffeuring my older daughters to and from their play practice.  
• I tried to rely on my brain more and on the script less.

The Future?

As much as I want to propel her forward I need to take into consideration that 11yodd's brain needs time to absorb and practice using the information that is being thrown her way.  I want her to own it!  If we try to maintain a lesson a day it may be like too much rain on dry ground.  The water runs off because the ground is too dry to absorb it.  I don't want to create a flash flood.

So now the question is...just how fast do we move through the material?

Logic of English - Lesson Three

This is an excellent program.  I am the problem.  I know I should break the lesson into several sessions, but I ... just ... can't ... make ... myself ... do ... it!  I am killing our love of learning.  My 11yo has never been excited about school but today I could tell she was seriously fried.  Me too.

Logic of English

The one thing she DOES like is the games.

My goal for tomorrow (lesson 4) is to break up the lesson into at least three sessions.  

Logic of English - Lesson One

Logic of English

Hoo Boy!  This is a well laid out program but the first day of any program always takes forever. 11yo is easily distracted but once she discovers the pattern of the lessons it will be much smoother.  Ditto for me too.  Thankfully today's information wasn't new to either of us.  We knew the phonograms A-Z from using All About Spelling (AAS) and the grammar from Rod & Staff English.

The phonograms are a little different from what we learned in AAS.  "I" and "U" have one extra sound and "O" has one less.  We (okay I) decided to stick with four for "O."

The lessons will be longer than AAS even when we get the hang of things and move through them more quickly.  I may need to split up the lessons into two or three sessions during the day.  AAS lessons are typically 20 minutes while the suggestion for "struggling readers and spellers" in LOE is 75-130 minutes per lesson.   Of course that includes grammar and some composition.

Having only had LOE for several days I think a pro is being able to see the big picture.  The advantage of All About Spelling is the gentleness of the approach.  Both programs are excellent in my opinion.

April 22 - 26

I am amazed that we are coming up on the end of the school year.  Where have the days gone?

The teens are spending a couple of days a week at play rehearsals (Twelfth Night).  They also have participated in several dissections in their Biology class recently.  This week was the frog.

11yo:
Grammar - We've been learning about adjectives this week.  The plan is to skip the last unit of R&S English 3.  Those lessons will be reviewed in R&S 4.  That means we only have a dozen lessons to go.

Math Mammoth - We are trucking along in 3A.  She is reviewing math from a different angle.  We've worked through approximately 60 pages.  We started order of operations today.

Lively Latin - We should finish lesson 4 soon (conjugating verbs).  We'll spend the summer learning the next few vocabulary lists so when we come back to it in autumn we'll be prepared to easily move through the lessons (16 total).

Classical Studies/Greek Myths - Wow!  We are so close to the end.  Only four more lessons plus a review. Theseus has killed the Minotaur and Icarus has fallen into the sea.

Christian Studies - Studied the story of Jacob and Esau this week.  I hope we can wrap up all of the Joseph related lessons before we break for summer.

Geography I - Lebanon.  I would like to finish the Middle East countries and start with North Africa in the fall.

Science - We finished the unit on stars in R&S 4 (Orion, Gemini, Bootes, Leo, Cygnus, Hercules, Cassiopeia, and Pegasus).   Health and disease is next.

All About Spelling 1 and 2

warning: another spelling post ;)

All About Spelling

Okay, spelling for 11yo isn't going as easily as I would like.  I feel like it is my fault for not actually reading through the lessons or following the plan as laid out in the book.  I am learning that I can't rely on visual and auditory alone.  It worked for me, but she needs more.

This is what worked in level one:

• she would practice the phonograms using the CD
• I dictated the words and she spelled them on the dry erase board

Here is what I hit upon today and it seemed to work well:

• showed her the word card and pronounced for spelling
• she clapped the syllables
• she spelled each syllable using the letter tiles
• on her own she decided to mark the vowels as long or short according to if the syllable was open or closed
• she pushed the tiles together and pronounced for spelling
• she wrote the word above the tiles while saying each individual sound

A real stumbling block is our relaxed pronunciation of words.  I believe using different modes of learning (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) will be powerful, however I think pronouncing for spelling will be essential for her success.

As the teacher I am now convinced that skimming the lesson won't work anymore.  I need to read the lesson and actually follow the suggested steps.

Better Over Best

Earlier this week I was trying to track down some Latin game cards I had seen recently.  I could NOT find them no matter how many piles I searched through.  What I did find was a lot of papers that could be recycled.  That's what I started out doing today.  It morphed into moving currently unused curriculum so I can have room for what I'm using now.  And then, I started to evaluate curriculum.  "Am I really going to used this?"  Oh boy!  Such tough decisions.  Perfectly good stuff going on the mental chopping block.  I will probably only have one child at home next year and it is time to let go of items that won't work for her.  Time to choose better over best.

Slowing down

Sometimes homeschooling just feels like a slog.  You want to accomplish a certain amount each day but the child's brain can only handle so much information.  Slow, then slower, then really slow.  It feels like we're trudging through mud rather than skipping along the yellow brick road.  Can I blame my "check list" mentality again?

Spelling - My goal was to make it through AAS 2 and 3 by the end of next school year.  We were moving along and then we hit a group of words which she naturally mispronounces (mixes short i's and e's).  Instead of calling out the word and having her spell it on the dry erase board while sounding out each phonogram, we've added in the visual aspect for reinforcement.  I show her the word on a flash card, say it for spelling (emphasizing the correct sounds), have her pronounce for spelling, and only then does she get to attempt it on a board.

example:
until - 11yo pronounces it  "un tell"
I show her the flashcard and pronounce the word overemphasizing the short i sound in "til"

dentist - I actually pronounce this as "dintest,"  I know, weird, huh?
Again, I have to pronounce for spelling.  I never realized my pronunciation was so poor.


We'll probably spend all week on this spelling list which means we will be behind where I would like to be.  In order for her to truly learn these spelling words, we have to move at her pace.

reminder: It's not above covering the material, it IS about learning it.