Week 23

Wow, am I behind or what? 

Just checked the camera for show and tell and I had a heap of photos of the baby on it.

Will need a few hours to get some fresh show and tell.  :)

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One of the photos of the baby.  Yeah, not so much a baby anymore.  :o)

Earlier this morning I had a shocking time trying to work with the flash on the camera.....

This week I thought I'd give Hannah some challenge words.  

Then we got that flash turned off.

Todays copywork ( for Hannah ).

Phebe pausing long enough for me to get a photo.

Composition Readiness by Chloe.  This is in preparation for the beginning of the progymnasmata next year.  Basically after reading a short story she summarizes it in 3 sentences, and does a quick little dictation too.  This is something new this week for her.

Chloe's skip counting worksheet for the day.  Quick count.  Not quite finished either.

Thanks for visiting.

How I Use McGuffeys for a 4 year old

Just a little post to do a quick show and tell about HOW I use McGuffeys { primer } to teach my 4 year old.

Preparation:  I print up a few lessons to go { in pink of course } from the FREE pdf versions available from Gutenburg.  I staple them together on a corner and keep them in my current file ready to pull out whenever I want a lesson.

Lesson time:

1.  I have Hannah look at the picture { if there is a picture }.

2.  We read and go through the vocabulary usually found in the boxes.

3.  Then Hannah reads the passage.

4.  I will usually read the same sentence after so she can hear it in my voice for comparison.

5.  I choose a sentence for copywork.  I either circle the sentence I want her to copy or I will write it out in her workbook for her to copy there.

{ Lesson - on pink paper }

{ Copywork from lesson. }

{ A different copywork from a different lesson. }

This is a new thing for Hannah, but so far, so good.

I pretty much run the same course for the older girls with the other McGuffey books, except they just get their passages in white.  I suppose I could change them up a bit if I wanted to, and I might.  I only print a few lessons ahead.  The girls might like having their passages in a different color one day as a surprise.  :o)

Reading and Copywork

We started Hannah's { 4y1m } school day with some tracing work ( the easiest form of copywork that I could think of ).  I just took a sentence out of her reading book and used one of my trusty dotted school fonts that I have to whip up a quick worksheet.  As we were going along we also briefly ran past any multiple phonograms as well.

Then we got out her current reader: Rod and Staff, Grade 1, Unit 2, Lesson 5, and she read this for me.

Then in the afternoon we had a go at doing some straight copywork.

We are still in an experimental stage.  What works.  What doesn't.  Still finding my footing with the copywork and dictation.

Copywork & Dictation with an Aesop Freebie

     Since I'm wanting to get rather serious about copywork and dictation I'm starting to look around and gather materials.  In addition it's been quite some time since I posted a freebie here on the blog so I thought that I would endeavor to supply one.  Worked out well, two birds with one stone and all.  Freebie down the page.

     While I've got you here though, can I ask you some questions?  Like, do you use dictation in your homeschool?  Does the child read or copy the passage before you use it for the dictation?  Or do you dictate it before the child has seen it?  Do you stop mid way to have the child correct any mistakes?  Do you correct it after the dictation is finished?  How often do you use dictation in a week?  Daily?  How much dictation do you use?  I'll be using it for 6 & 8 year olds.  Should I just make it one sentence per school year?

     Oh - by the way, I have been desperately wanting to ask you all WHERE do you all get your copywork and dictation materials from?  I'd like to have a little variety if I can.  Please let me know.    Am I really going to have scour all the material myself?  Are you sure there aren't some cut shorts that I can use?  What can you tell me about copywork and dictation overall?  What type of ratio should I have in regards to different styles of writing to use?  Should 50% be from novels, 30% from Aesop, 70% from the Bible.  What's your ratio?  How do YOU do it?

     I have some solid ideas but I want to have them guided and assisted by people who are already walking the path.  I've been traveling the net tonight and my trusty bookshelf too, but I'm always open to additional insights. 

So far my Language Arts courses are reshaping up as follows:

Spelling

     Websters 

     Spelling Rules with examples

     Rod and Staff - spelling by Sound and Structure

Grammar

     Rod and Staff

Reading

     Grade appropriate readers

Writing

     Dictation x 2 times a week

     Copywork x 3 times a week

     Writing Strands x 2 times a week

     Penmanship { perhaps this can be included in the dictation and copywork }

Oral Narrations

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At any rate, thanks for reading and here's a little piece that I prettied up.  Aesop is a pretty handy guy to have around the homeschool.  :o)

 I've listed 10 different things that one can use the material for.  If you think of any others please let me know so that I can add them too.

Please help a girl out with ideas and need to know information on copywork and dictation.

Today I am linking up with:

Thanks so much.