RC pt 2 What I've used for reading/phonics...

I fell in love with the reading/phonics program from Eastern Mennonite Publications**, several years ago. It is called: Beginning Steps to Reading. (Here's a link to a blog where a lady has laid it out really well.) It is similar to Rod and Staff but on a somewhat slower pace I think. Its simple to teach and easy to understand, with lessons laid out in the teacher's edition which gives a sense confidence to even a newbie. The curriculum is set up to be done in approx. 90 lessons. With my children, I took it a little slower, to make sure they were remembering and/or going over the harder lessons for days, if needed.

I didn't purchase everything that went with it such as wall charts and some of the flash cards. I knew that I would not use them or I could make my own if I saw they were needed.

I discovered that there was so much 'stuff' for the students that I could get 2 or 3 children through one set and order just what I needed, since I already had the Teacher's Manuals.
(I used Rod and Staff with my oldest btw.)

The reader is the BEST that I've ever came across. It is filled with easy to read stories from the Bible. The first lesson reads "God made man. Man did sin. Sin made man sad." That first page sold me on the book!

Above is a book, The Victory Drill Book, that I found to be a great benefit to my readers on all levels. The book is filled with word lists and has an outline in the front of the book that states how many words a minute that each grade level should be able to read. The drills build mastery and confidence in all readers.

As you can see from the pic above and the pic below, I kept some Rod and Staff things to use as well. The Bible Nurture Readers are wonderful!
The neatest thing about my children using the EMP program, was that once they got through around 50 to 60 lessons- they were ready to read! So, I let them! I had them use the Bible readers and from there, we worked from the Robinson Curriculum list starting with the Arthur Scott Bailey books. I let them read to their heart's content and when I went back to go through the remaining phonic lessons, they already knew them. They had learned the correct sounds by reading! (This would go right along with the Moore's and Montessori.)

One of my children did not fair well with either of those types of lessons and I used the book below to teach him to read while he sat beside me on the couch. These short lessons were about all his attention span could hold to!

It is a blessing to now have all 6 of them sitting around the table reading!

A beautiful sight!

**Address:

Eastern Mennonite Publication
40 Woodcorner Rd
Ephrata, PA 17522

Excerpt form Ben Franklin..provisions..

(from The Autobiography of Ben Franklin)

"....the stores arrived at the camp as soon as the wagons. They consisted of twenty parcels, each containing:

6lbs loaf sugar
6 lbs good Muscovada do (dark sugar, likely a cane sugar from what I understand)
1 lb good green tea
1 lb good bohea do (this was an extravagant tea, I believe the kind dumped in the Boston Tea Party)
6 lbs good ground coffee
6 lbs chocolate
1-2cwt. best white biscuit (I understand a cwt to be a unit of measurement of 100 lbs)
1-2lb pepper
1 quart best white wine vinegar
1 Gloucester cheese
1 kegg containing 20lbs good butter
2 doz. old Madeira wine
2 gallons Jamaica spirits
1 bottle flour of mustard
2 well-cur'd hams
1-2 dozen dry'd tongues
6 lbs rice
6 lbs raisins

These twenty parcels, well pack'd, were placed on as many horses, each parcel, with the horse, being intended as a present for one officer."

Robinson Curriculum (Part 1)...me and my RC

Here's what the RC looks like all packaged up. Mine is a little different. My box is square instead of rectangular. It has pages that you can flip through that the CD's slide into. (Similar things are sold at WalMart and other places to store CD's in.) Here is a great summary of the RC by the creator of the RC, Dr. Art Robinson.

The above is how I've put some of them together. A few of the little books, I bound with yarn and poster board covers. The kids thought that was cute! One here was even bound in cardboard. (Younger kids like it when they look more like a real book.) When they get older....and the books get larger, more pages, finer print, etc. I've just put them in the cheap little 3 prong portfolio folders that are like .05 or .10 cents at the beginning of the school year. (The older kids have longer books and sometimes they may take 2 of these (folders) and a few times it took 3.)

Here's Kayanna with one of the little cardboard bound readers.

I have a few of the books in paperback. I've found them at the Goodwill for .59.

I've also added a few books to the collection. Some will be optional, some mandatory.

The upper grades have finer print which equals more words per page.

(That's important as you try to keep check with how many pages per day that they are reading. You want to make sure that they are not day-dreaming, etc.)

This is about a 3rd grade reading book. I think it's one of The Rover Boys. The print is a little bigger. (The RC has a built in way to adjust the print/size of the page.)

The 'books' also have these handy-dandy pockets.

I put the vocabulary exercises in them and as each kid reads through the books, they take their exercises out.

The main vocabulary sheets are stored in here and not too neatly I might add! These have the vocabulary word and the definition. (Each book has it's own set of new vocabulary words.)
(For each book, I have the kids copy the vocabulary words and definitions one day, another day they will use each word in a sentence, when those two things are done then they will work through the vocabulary exercises that are printed from the RC and are usually stored in the pockets of each 'book'.

These buckets were bought at Walmart. As you can see, they have an open side. The tops are also open but have fold down handles and are stackable.

This is actually standing in a closet; they were in the dining area at one time.

These are our printed books. And the top has a portable filing system where grades, assignment sheets, and tests are stored. (Each kid must get an assignment sheet every Monday and fill out every day. They write the Math lesson completed and their scores, the story they are reading and number of pages that they read, as well as check off the vocabulary. (They also have to write down the time they started each subject and the time they finished.) These can be printed free of charge from a link on the RC site. I have also made up an assignment sheet just for Bible and typing.)

These old drawers were taken from an old chest. They match perfectly to a set of bunkbeds we have and slide nicely underneath. That is where each kid keeps his work when not in use. Two kids share one drawer. All pencils,, notebooks, etc are kept in the drawers.

*

Each child has a math book, answer key, the current book they are reading, their assignment sheet, and 3 to 4 notebooks. One notebook is for math, another is for vocabulary, a third is for their writing, and some of them keep an extra one for their Bible work while others just write their verses in the writing notebook. We buy the spiral notebooks when they go on sale at the beginning of the school year for .05 to .10 cents each. Outside of school work, some of the kids like to keep other notebooks for various things. A couple of the kids like to write made up stories and write their own comics, so how could I say no to that?

These are a suggested addition to the RC that Dr. Robinson recommends. They are older and do not have the biases in them that current books do. They are The World Book of Knowledge and with much prayer, I was able to get this set off ebay for about $15! (He specifically recommends that parents use materials dated from the 50's and earlier.)
The kids also use these books for their written assignments often.

Their writing assignments can be copywork or their own writings. Most of the time I let them make the choice, but there are times that I give specific things.

*

As per Dr. Robinson, we start our mornings with math. As per Dr. Robinson and the kids personal preference, we use Saxon math books which must be purchased separately once the children have learned basic math facts which are on the RC.

Math lasts for 2 hours.

The rules vary on how much work, slightly. If they are having a tough time, they can slow up to half a lesson. If they are having an easy time getting through the lessons, they do every other problem and work two lessons a day. But most of the time, they just work one lesson a day of approx 30 problems.

(Currently, two of the children are using the same math book so one child has to do reading first.) Then after math, the kids do two hours of reading. Usually they are only reading one book during this time. My oldest is in high school so he is the only exception. He has a couple of subjects that he can switch around.

After math and reading are complete, the children then do their vocabulary. This time can be 15 to 30 minutes.

Then they do their writing assignments as above.

The children then have to write their Bible verses two times each.

Then they take 15 minute turns on the computer doing their Typing assignments.

(I will be doing a part two and show you a little about how I print the books, how I teach the younger two, and some other things!)
*********Update: this lady has put together a very nice list of all things RC plus many freebies that will work right alongside the RC.*******

Early Childhood Education vs. Moore Approach

Raymond and Dorothy Moore are not strange names to most home schoolers. Their 'Better Late Than Early' attitude towards learning/teaching, won me over with child #1 who would often nearly cry during a phonics lesson the first year that I tried to teach him to read. (This child who struggled at 5 and 6, tested at 10th and 12th grade levels by the end of 7th grade BTW.)

The Moores were likewise no strangers to "early childhood education" and the push that the government often will give it. They began their battle for homeschooling after "an article first published in Harper’s in 1972, at the time when California was considering a law to make school compulsory for children as young as 2 years, 9 months."

As election time nears, this issue is being brought up so I thought it appropriate to share the following study with you.

Below, if you feel like reading:-), you will find that the Early Childhood Education Program (aka "high quality program"- with certified teachers and the works!) that was pushed in my state, TN, had some interesting results.

It seems that the children who were in a ECE program fared better in K and 1st, but by the time the students were in 2nd grade, there was NO significant difference in the children who were in these programs compared to those children who were not.

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The Pre-K Now report praises Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D), calling him "among the
nation's leaders in high quality pre-K innovation and funding." They note that Gov. Bredesen's pre-K investments have increased by more than 200 percent since fiscal year 2006 and he's recommended another 31 percent funding increase for fiscal year 2009.

The Tennessee program is considered a gold-standard. It meets 9 out of 10 criteria for a high-quality program set by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER)--such as preschool teachers with teaching credentials, small class-size, and comprehensive early-learning standards.

Yet, despite this extremely high quality program, an interim study on the program's progress done for the Tennessee Comptroller's Office finds no lasting academic value for Tennessee students who participated in the public pre-kindergarten program.

Two groups of students participated in the study. The first consisted of pre-K students who were identified in assessment records and then individually matched to the second group - other students with the same demographics who did not attend preschool. As the study's authors note "this rigorous precision matching technique was employed to construct a random sample of non-pre-K students that matched the pre-K group as closely as possible in all possible respects given the data available for the analysis."

The report conducted by Ohio-based Strategic Research Group finds that the advantages of participating in Tennessee's public pre-kindergarten program disappear by the time students reach the second grade.

The study shows that children who attended pre-K performed better in reading, language and math in kindergarten and in the first grade than students who did not attend pre-school. However, by the second grade, there was no statistically significant difference between those who went to pre-K and those who did not.

(*********Taken from the Reason Foundation.)

Toner Refills CHEAP

This is the site from which I order my toner refill. I almost typed freefill, I guess cause that's pretty close to the truth!

The price for the refill for my printer is $5.99 and that will print 2000 sheets

AND

for $6.99 I can get enough toner to print 3000 sheets.

Pretty amazing, huh?!?!??

(ANY OTHER ROBINSON USERS OUT THERE????? This is a sweet deal!)

The last time I filled mine up, I got more uses out of it than I did a new cartridge. The new cartridges cost about $50 on line and about $65 at Staples.

I know that you are just fitting to get there, so here's the link: TonerKits.com or you can click on the pic above!:-)

That's my tip for FRUGAL FRIDAYS !!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

gRaTiTuEsDaY

As school is starting and things are being reorganized for those wonderful and busy days ahead, I stopped again, to thank the Lord for His Provision.

I promised Lyn a little more about this story so here goes; Many years ago, I noticed the RC (Robinson Curriculum) and was intrigued by it but never thought I could do it for several reasons. 1. I thought I had to have a curriculum that looked kinda like a 'real' school curriculum. 2. I thought I would need everything else plus this to make it all work. 3. I just tried to trust God to provide and guide because there's just so much out there that looks good and when it comes to books--- I AM THAT BIG FAT KID WITH CANDY! I want it all! :-)

But years went by, more kids came, I had kids tested, etc. I became more confident to a certain extent in my abilities and in theirs.

Then harder times hit, and still more. We found ourselves looking for resources to homeschool for free and also at homeschooling scholarships. Well, I ran across a dear lady who...to cut this short...was able to get me the Robinson Curriculum.

I loved the idea of it, but at first glance, I panicked a little thinking "I gotta print all this?!?!"
But I learned, a lot and fast. And I knew I had to have a laser printer or I would never be able to get it done with an ink jet. (Slow and couldn't make it through one book without running out of ink and I broke the one that I had, trying!)

I prayed for days....it's even written in my Bible, as I waited for God to move. Well, we got access to a little extra money after a good bit of waiting and we went to Staples. I knew we'd have it tough, especially when I'd heard that they would be nearly $300 on average and maybe a sale for $200 on a lower name. Not to mention the ink/toner was something like 50 to 75-yikes! But I soon learned that they can print thousands of pages..... but, we didn't have that much money. What we had was set, and we needed God to do something.

So, my DH just finally told the kid we really need something really cheap. Well, the precious little lad said, "There's one in the back that's actually a fax, along with a scanner and printer. It's not exactly what you are looking for. It's older, a little slower, but its on clearance and to be honest with you, I was going to buy it myself." Well, low and behold....it was only $50! And it was a laser printer!

But the best part is God's signature on this whole deal.....lemme explain. When we got done and checked out, the total that we had verses the total of our purchase was just pennies away from one another! We didn't get over that for days!

But now, the really cool part is, you can get toner refill online now for between $5 and $10! (with S+H) That prints around 2000!

So my Gratitude this week is over what God has given us for school. He knew what we needed. He knew how long we would have the need. And for those of you who don't know much about the RC, it takes them all the way through 12th with even a few college courses on it. So, this year, my only spending was our 5-cent notebooks to write in (a little over $5 worth of them) and a box of copying paper! Oh, and a few more 5-cent portfolios.

How's that for frugal?

And the best part of all, is that my kids love it! They actually have a blast reading these books!

I am so thankful to the Lord! He has been so precious to my kids! Hasn't he been to yours too?!?!

More Gratituesday? Click HERE!

***p.s.

Please don't think that I am knocking ANY other curriculum, I'm not. My post is simply to share about God's Provision. We have many different things around here from other publishers that we've picked up over the years from all sorts of places, prior to getting the RC, some of which are still used. My little ones are using a Mennonite phonics program from which I had leftovers from the older kids. Again, my post is about God meeting a need and how much it has blessed!

Homeschooling- at our house

We use Robinson Curriculum! And we love it!

The four older children sit at the table and do their homework.(Ages 15, 12, 10, and 9) They know what is expected and the only problem that I usually have is talking. 'magine that?!?!

Sometimes they have a problem that they cannot understand but for the most part they work completely independent. When they do get a little stumped on something, they usually help each other before I can reach the table!

The younger two children (5 and newly 7)are the biggest 'treat' of homeschooling right now. I have a corner set up in their bedroom that is the 'phonics school' of the house. I spend 1 to 2 hours a day 'teaching' them and thenI give them written work to do. Often they will do that at the table in their room. What is cute is they sometimes make up their own homework so they can be at the table with their brothers. The younger will write sentences and the other will copy her reading book. I never try to stop that!

We use a 3R's curriculum and add what we like. The children do Saxon math for 2 hours a day, they read for 2 hours a day, they write for 1/2 hour a day, and they work on vocabulary for 30 minutes a day. Sometimes these areas run longer, occasionally shorter. I add things depending on interests and needs.

The oldest is in his first year of high school so he must have things added in to fulfill credits, including an extra hour in the evening of reading. That is either literature or history.

The other children LOVE to read literature but I have added a couple of history and science books which hasn't bothered them a bit.

We take a lunch break and when possible we take a break and go outside for our Vitamin D!

We school 5 full days and 1/2 a day on Saturday.

Our evenings are usually free-time with a minimum of chores. Games are played, sometimes I read to them. Some computer time is given, and yes some television but there are many days when no one seems to want it on. Our TV time is usually spent with the Walton's!

I have been surprised at the games they make up to play! Perhaps I'll write about them soon.