Copywork Lives On

Right after Islamic Studies, the muscle memory in my children's feet take them to the kitchen table. It's time for copywork. A tenet of the Charlotte Mason method, copywork has been faced with a gamut of emotions over the past couple of years from all smiles to tears. I've been consistent and it's paying off. Remember Yasina, my leftie, her English handwriting used to look like Arabic sometimes! My poor child, we found out that she was truly a leftie kinda late in the game. Well, she's made a full recovery. Amir has always had a neat, controlled penmanship, and copywork has just helped to refine and enhance his fine motor skills. I've also been able to introduce punctuation, grammar, and proper spacing into our daily practice. Copywork in our house serves as a reinforcement of memorywork--so we copy the Surahs or Lessons that we are memorizing.

Spelling Word Journal

In an attempt to take freshen up our spelling word activities and began composition instruction, we began a spelling word journal. 3 times per week, the children chose one on the week's assigned words, draw a picture, and write 2 to 3 sentences about what they have drawn. I stress capitalization, punctuation, and expressing a complete thought. I've found this to be a great creative outlet and a wonderful to allow the children to combine penmanship, grammer, spelling, and composition skills.

Summer and Next Year Homeschool Plans

I’m almost done planning for next year, Praise God! I’ve been blessed to find some great products that I like and the children love, so for the most part we are going to continue using those with a few new additions. I plan to still remain as hands-on as possible and keep simple yet fun.

This summer we’ll participate in the Harkins Summer Movie Program and the local library summer reading program and weekly shows. I’ve also complied a list a craft activities to provide some indoor entertainment. We’ll also have a scheduled pool day. The Arizona summer is no joke and bored is a bad word in my house.

Here’s the line up for next year:

Quran/Islamic Studies
We will continue our study of the Prophets of God through the summer. Memorization work will include Surahs 108, 110, and the Refuge Prayer for the start of next year.

Penmanship
Copywork will resume through the summer and next year. Amir will begin cursive writing instruction in September. Yasina, if she is ready, in January. I plan to use Handwriting Without Tears to start Amir off. I’ll use Zaner-Boser for extra practice and copywork when he’s ready.

Reading/Phonics
Explode the Code is still working well, and I have no plans to stop that train. I’m ordering the last 4 books next month. We discovered Real Kids Readers at the library and the children really like them because the pictures are of real children. The twin’s reading skills are progressing nicely which is more important to me than anything. Reading truly is a gateway skill. Also, both children read aloud to me every morning.

I also plan to add the Beyond the Code workbooks series to our routine next year. The product is published by the same company as ETC, but focuses on reading comprehension skills.

We are currently reading Stuart Little by E.B White aloud. When we finish we’ll watch the movie. I haven’t decided what we’ll read aloud next. Amir and Yasina want to read The Complete Collection of Winnie the Pooh, but I wanted to save it until Sana is a little older so I don’t have to read it twice. Honestly, I really didn’t appreciate the importance read alouds until we read Charlotte’s Web. Now I’ve read more picture books to my children than I can count, but reading a story in chapters forcing the children to first remember what happened, then make deductions about what will happen next. Also the influence of quality literature on their vocabulary and my children’s speech patterns is simply profound.

Spelling
We’ll keep using Natural Speller which provides you with lists of words with the same spelling patterns for Grades 1-8. Instant pudding test and spaghetti noodle practice have made this subject a fav in my house. We also use letter tiles to practice and keep a spelling notebook where we record words.

Grammar
We’ll continue using Growing with Grammar, completing book 1 and moving on to GWG 2. We’ve been doing this orally for the most part and have been enjoying it. I’ve found this curriculum to be very well thought out and logical. The exercises are age/grade appropriate and provide plenty of practice.

Math
Math U See is still working for us. I’d like for us to have the addition facts through the 9s memorized by the end of the summer. We’re currently working our way through the Alpha and Beta levels, taking a break here and there to concentrate on money, time, and measurement. Our current routine looks like this:

Counting to 1000 in increments of 100

Skip Counting with Number Snakes 2s, 5s, 10s

Fact Review--I say 2 + 2 is . . . , they scream 4 or we spread out printed numbers on the floor, I call out a problem and they run, jump on the answer, and say it out loud. The Math U See website provides an online drill. I’m looking into some more computer games for review.

Math U See lesson/worksheets (usually 1, sometimes 2 a day)

Science
Next year we will be studying the human body using two experiment, hands-on activity based books, Head to Toe Science by Jim Wiese and Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body by Donald M. Silver, Patricia J. Wynne .

Geography
We’ll study 10 more countries next year. Traveling the world one country at a time is so much fun.

History
After our study of the prophets, we’ll begin a formal history study rooted in the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I plan to utilize The Theology of Time lecture series heavily. I found this DVD series created by an FOI that I may use as a spine for our study.

Latin Roots/Vocabulary
We’ll keep studying roots words and most our vocabulary words are taken from our readings.

Foreign Language
Spanish and I have a love/hate relationship. I really want my children to learn Spanish, but I can’t find a curriculum that suits me. I need something inexpensive, but open and go, so I don’t have to do a lot. Know anything that could fit the bill?

Fine Arts
I smell piano lessons on the horizon. I haven’t blogged a lot about it, but our artist and inventor studies will continue.

Lastly, I would like to add some computer software from The Critical Thinking Company sometime next year. Now that reading skills are established, I really want to focus on problem solving, reasoning skills, and critical thinking. I'm already sold on the Editor-in-Chief program, I'll let you know what I decide upon.

Ok, let's hear it, homeschoolers what are your plans for summer and next year?

Tips to Help Your Young Writers

Courtesy of http://preschoolmama.com/

Here are some ways to get your child practicing his handwriting skills before he finishes preschool. With most of these, you’re aiming to strengthen his fine motor skills – the ones that are responsible for holding and guiding a pencil along a straight line.

Give your child strips of paper and let her cut up into confetti. The strips shouldn’t be too thin or floppy. Make a smiley face on the upper hole where the thumb should go, to teach her how to hold the scissor properly. Start with shorter pieces of paper that she can cut with just one snip. Progress to longer pieces which need two snips of the scissor, and so on. Use blunt ended scissors. After a while, move on to snipping along a line on the paper.Draw squiggly lines, straight lines, circles. Let her cut around a picture. All these scissor cutting activities for preschoolers help control the movement of the scissors as it moves ahead to the next snip, and as it moves ahead to its goal, which is great practice for writing.

Rip newspapers. This may seem like a boring task, but you’d be surprised at how much they enjoy it. Terrific for fine muscular development. Start with random ripping into small bits, then move to ripping on a line that you’ve drawn for her on the paper. For advanced practice, let her rip around a picture. Draw squiggly lines, and let her rip though them.

Part of the problem with writing for most preschoolers comes with holding the pencil correctly. Place a piece of sponge in her palm, and let her close her ring finger and little finger around it. Now, let her use only the thumb, forefinger and middle finger to hold the pencil. Having to hold the piece of sponge with the last two fingers will make her hold the pencil tightly with the first three. Here’s how to do this.Cut out three holes in a sock, and let her insert her thumb, forefinger and middle finger in each hole before she attempts to practice writing. Again, this helps to reinforce the right way to hold a pencil.

Give her beads, or cheerios, or pasta shapes, and some string to thread.

Use lacing cards, or make some of your own by punching holes in cards – use old greeting cards. Lace a thick stringthrough.Use thin crayons or chalk pieces for practice for beginners – they are easier to hold.

Let her connect dots on paper. Use lined handwriting paper, and make two dots that will help her make vertical, horizontal and slanting lines. Have many such lines of dots for her to connect. This helps her draw straight lines for alphabet writing.

Practice writing semi circles (like the letter “C” facing both ends). Use dots again to help her get the shape right. This gives practice for making perfect circles and semi circles for alphabets later.

Let her trace the outlines of figures and drawings with crayons.Work on developing those minute finger muscles.

Give her some play dough, and let her make small balls or sausage shapes out of them, using her thumb and forefinger only .

Use tweezers for sorting activities. Let her pick up a bean or a pea with a pair of tweezers, and transfer into another bowl.

Do spooning activities. Allow her to spoon dried beans from one bowl to another using her thumb, forefinger and middle finger to grasp the spoon and transfer the beans.

Practice inserting keys into locks or keyholes.

Take an old shoe box with the lid on, and make a slit on the lid. Practice inserting playing cards into the slit with her writing hand.

Practice writing with her fingers in shaving foam, or in a tub of sand. Let her draw a picture, and sprinkle glitter inside the figure carefully, taking care to stay inside the lines as much as possible.

Play with rubber bands. Let her wrap rubber bands around plastic bottles or glasses – it strengthens those very important little muscles.

Do you have more tricks to get your preschooler writing confidently?