Factore Tree ~ Customized Math Lessons ~ Get a TWO WEEK FREE TRIAL!

As a first year homeschooling mama, I always looking for resources to assist with my daughter's education.

I am fortunate enough that my daughter actually enjoys math, it's reading that she struggles with - but that's another story!

Even though she enjoys math, I feel there is always room to learn more and improve on her skills.

Factor Tree is an online tool for helping children in preschool to sixth grade supplement their math education.  The curriculum is focused on tailoring lessons to meet the needs of each individual child.  To achieve this, Factor Tree requires your student to take an assessment test.  The results of this test are then analyzed and a custom curriculum is created to target and improve weak areas, while accelerating progress in areas of strength.

Factor Tree is completely new to me and I have not used it before.  However, they are currently offering a FREE two week trial - NO credit card needed!!

Simply go the Factor Tree site and enter code:  "BzzAgent" to receive your two week free trial! 


I will be back to let you know what my daughter and I think! I'm hoping it will be a great addition to our studies!


But that is just one mom's opinion.


Have you tried Factor Tree?
Let me know your thoughts!

I learned about Factor tree through my membership with BzzAgent

Workboxes: Making Them Work For Us!

Previously, I wrote about the homeschool organization system of Workboxes.  I still have not purchased Sue Patrick's book (though I know I probably should), but I have seen the system in place on several different blogs.  I have seen how different families adapt the system to suit their needs, so I decided to alter it for my family as well.

I still do not have the system perfected for us, but I can tell you that I am loving it so far!  I certainly do not use workboxes as they were intended to be used though.  For starters, workboxes are mainly used to encourage independent work for the student, but I use them more for me; to keep me on track and organized.  Maybe next year I will use them as intended, but for this year, I think my daughter needs my direction.

Also, I have not implemented the number strip schedule, nor the removing and turning around of labels etc.  I have simplified the system to work for us....for now.

So here is what I have done.

First of all, the original system calls for 12 boxes per child.  We are only using 6 per child and some days do not even fill all 6.  I numbered the boxes using some "room decorations" I found at the dollar store.  My daughter choose stars for herself and my son chose apples.  I do not remove the numbers every day as the system suggests.  Our numbers stay attached to the boxes.

Another difference in our system is that  I do not use a wire cart to hold our boxes.  Our space is very limited at the moment since we are not currently in our own home.  So, our boxes are actually on top of my son's dresser.

For my daughter, each of the boxes gets filled with the worksheets, manipulatives, supplies etc. for each subject that we plan to complete that day.  We use a rotating schedule throughout the week for our work.  Every day we do phonics, handwriting, math and some sort of craft.  Monday we do science, Tuesday we do social studies, Wednesday we do Bible and Thursday we do art or readiness skills.  Friday's we usually do not do any work at home, but go on a some sort of field trip - usually a trip to the library or to our local theme park where we have passes.  Sometimes our "field trip" day changes if there is a special activity at the library or somewhere else that we want to attend on another day.   If that happens we just switch our days around.

For my son, the boxes are filled with hands-on, mainly Montessori type activities.  He has transferring activities using a spoon or tongs, pouring exercises, sandpaper letters, lacing beads, blocks to stack etc.

I hand my son a new box as soon as he gets bored with the last.  My daughter follows a picture schedule to know what comes next in our day.  As I said, her boxes contain all the items she needs to complete the work for our main subjects, however that is not all we do in a day.

I found some great daily scheduling cards on a blog, Homeschool Creations.    On her blog, Jolanthe has a PDF download of these cards as well as a download of her weekly workbox  grid.  There are some great pictures there that show how she uses the system for her family.

I downloaded, printed and laminated the schedule cards and the weekly workbox grids for our use.  However, unlike Jolanthe, I do not attach cards in advance to each workbox grid for every day of the week, I only set up one at a time the night before.   I also do not require my daughter to flip them over when a task is completed - mainly because I do not have the velcro necessary to do that, but I think I may do that soon.

Each morning I hand my daughter the schedule grid for that day.  When a task is completed from the grid she simply removes the card and places it into an empty workbox.  In this way she still is able to see her workload disappearing as the day progresses.   Here is what our grid looks like:

The way we use the grid and the boxes is what makes our system different from the original.  Where as , I believe, most people will use one of their 12 boxes to hold a card that says " it's time for lunch", I simply put that card on our daily grid.  We use cards on the grid to show snack time, lunch time, exercise time, computer play, etc.  Boxes are reserved for tasks that actually involve supplies that need to be held together to complete the work.  I will show some pictures of what goes into our workboxes next time.

We follow the same basic schedule every day (predictability is important for ADHD kids), but the visual of work disappearing has eliminated the "are we done yet" questions!

This is the way we have made workboxes work for us.  I'm sure the system will be tweaked a few more times, but it's going well so far and I plan to continue with some version of workboxes for quite a while!

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Have you altered the workbox system for your family?
What changes did you make?

Let me know your thoughts!

Workboxes

With this being our first official year of homeschooling, I have been doing tons of research on the best ways to go about teaching my children.  I have always taught my children.  In fact, I began showing my daughter Montessori activities at the age of two.  Back then though, it was just me teaching my child because she wanted to learn.  Now, even though she still wants to learn, I have to be sure she progresses appropriately as she will be tested at the end of the year by the state.

So I have done my best to assess not only my daughter's learning style, but also my teaching style.  I am trying to find the best balance between us to make the experience as fruitful as possible.

I am not sure what personality type I qualify as, but I do recognize some of my strengths and weaknesses.  I am the type of person that needs everything ready and available at my fingertips or I will be setting myself up for failure. This means I need to be organized or I could end up spending hours just staring at the television.  This is not an exaggeration, sadly, it has happened before!  If my day is not scheduled out with meaningful tasks, I will get lost.  The down side of my need for organization, is that when I do prepare things in advance, I can lose myself in the set up!  I can literally spends hours, even weeks, planning and organizing.

Knowing this, I have been using a curriculum that has daily lesson plans for Phonics, Handwriting and Math.  This has worked great.  Mainly because I know we need to do school and it's easy enough to just open up a book and do as it says. Still, even with the lessons set up, I still have to gather materials, find worksheets. manipulatives etc. and I often scramble for those things while I give my daughter busy work.

Unfortunately, I do not want to follow the daily lessons from this curriculum for other subjects and this is where I am falling short.  I prefer to have hands on, creative lessons for things like Science, Bible Studies, Foreign Language etc. 

I have dozens of books piled next to my bed as well as a notebook filled with great ideas for lesson plans.  But they are not organized enough for me to actually use them and I can't seem to find the time to do that. So I end up lugging the huge pile of books over to where we are doing school, then I browse through them blankly and end up doing nothing.

I need a system.  Something that once it is in place, it is easy to change out for new lessons and activities daily.  I need something so that everything I need for a lesson is easily accessible - this includes any worksheets, manipulative etc. Most importantly, I need something that I can adapt for my toddler's use as well.  My son is nearly 22 months old.  He is undoubtedly very smart.  However, he has some speech delays.  Due to his speech delays, I can tell he will not be in the same place at two years old that his big sister was at that age.  This is fine as every child is different, but I still want to be sure that I am taking advantage of this crucial time to implement a love of learning.  So I want to utilize a system that will keep him engaged in something beneficial while I am teaching his big sister.

When discussing these concerns with a friend, she mentioned the use of workboxes.  She had just begun researching them herself, but already loved the concept.  So of course, I began to research them for myself.


Workboxes are an organizational system that can be used in conjunction with any curriculum.  The purpose is to have a successful, structured school day while helping your children gain independent work habits. This system was developed by Sue Patrick, a homeschool mom from North Carolina.  She has a published book that details the system called, Sue Patrick's Workbox System User's Guide 

I have not read the book, but basically from what I've seen from other homeschoolers, the way this works is like this; you use several containers, like plastic shoebox containers for instance. Each box is numbered and filled with a different lesson/activity.  Your child works through the boxes one by one, in order,  until they are all completed.  There are many more details to the system, but as I've said, I have not read through the book!

I can see myself spending hours setting this up initially.  I'm sure I would want my boxes to be cute and then I need to find the perfect spot to place them etc.  However, I think once it is set up, changing out the contents of the boxes will be not as time consuming - I hope!  I'm fully expecting to lose myself in the set-up, but I am also expecting that the day to day change after the initial work will be quick and easy.

As I previously mentioned, I mostly want to use these for my son. I can imagine filling the boxes with lots of hands-on, Montessori type activities for him.

Here are some of things I would like to include for him:

Items to enhance fine motor-skills:  Lacing beads, Lacing Cards, Puzzles, Clothes pin games, Play dough, Transferring activities using tongs, tweezers, spoons etc., Pouting activities using rice, dried beans etc., Sorting games using colored pom-poms, foam blocks etc.

Sensory Activities: Textured blocks, Smelling bottles, Sandpaper letters, etc.

Art projects: Finger Painting, Activities using glue, Stickers, Crayons, Colored Chalk etc.

Literature: Worksheets of Letters to color, Letter magnets, Picture Board Books etc.

Pre-Math Skills: Counting blocks, Big and Little comparisons, Pattern Blocks etc.

I still need to read more about this, find some boxes to use (hopefully I can re-purpose something for this), figure out where I can place them etc.

As for my daughter, she needs my assistance still with lessons -she is not quite ready for independent study.  the ADHD makes it difficult for her to stay on track without my guidance.  Still, I think this would be great for her because she will be able to actually see her day's workload diminishing as the boxes empty. Hopefully that will translate to less frequent, "are we done with school yet" questions!

I hope to be able to update you on my progress in about two weeks.  This is the deadline I have set for myself to get this into daily use.  I am going to need a lot of patience and a lot of persistence, but I think it will be worth it in the end!

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Have you used, or do you currently use, workboxes?
What do you like or dislike about this system? Any tips for getting started?

Let me know your thoughts!

Goal for Kindergarten August 2010 - 2011

Although I still need to work out the details of exactly what lessons will be taught, I wanted to post a general outline of the things I want the Princess to learn this year.

For starters, the subject areas I want to cover include:

• Reading
• Handwriting
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• Art
• Music
• Health
• Foreign Language
• Bible

I'm going to break it down now by subject what I would like to cover through the year.

Reading:

• Learn vowels vs. consonants and the sounds they make
• Read CVC words
• Read sight words (for Kindergarten level)
• Be able to retell a story in detail
• Put events of a story in order
• Write simple sentences using sight words and phonics skills

Handwriting:

• Continue to improve manuscript with focus on lower-case letters
• Introduce script?
• Write own last name

Math:

• Recognize and Write numbers to 100
• Count orally by ones, fives and tens to 100
• Name ordinal numbers first through tenth
• Add and subtract using manipulatives
• Compare quantities by estimating, weighing, and measuring
• Use graphs to gather information
• Tell time to the nearest hour
• Count coins
• Recite the days of the week and months of the year

Science:

• Understand the five senses
• Weather
• Animal Habitats
• Plants and Farming
• Recycling

Social Studies:

• Identify major religious and civic holidays
• Identify major Historical figures
• Understand our community
• Understand different roles in community (Community Helpers)

Art & Music

• Experiment with different materials and methods
• Learn how to draw some simple pictures
• Learn about music notes (different notes and what they mean)
• Learn the notes of a piano

Health

• Learn essecntials of nutrition
• Learn basic functions of the body
• Importance of personal hygiene
• Learn why our bodies are special and are to be kept private
• Safety in public places
• Proper manners in different situations

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

• Learn to count orally to ten
• Basic colors
• Common items in the home
• Animal names

Bible

• Going to follow an age appropriate Lesson Book for bible instruction

What is Your Child's Learning Style?

This year we will begin our first official year of homeschooling! I am very excited...and a bit nervous.  I am trying to do some research now and get a basic outline of what I would like to cover throughout the year.  Throughout my searching I came across this site that had a "test" to determine your child's learning style.  Knowing your childs learning style is a great starting point for new homeschoolers.  After all, what is the point of trying to teach in a way that your child will not grasp?

The Child Learning Style Quiz is a short 15 questions.  I took the test in a matter of minutes.  My dd's results were;

The results of this assessment show that (your child's) learning style is 15% visual, 38% auditory, and 46% kinesthetic.

I think that sounds about right for her! Time to look into some hands-on activities togo with our lessons!

I think this is a great tool and I am glad I tried it out!

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Have you taken the learning style quiz for your child?
Did you feel the result was accurate?
Let me know your thoughts!

Beginning Our Kindergarten Adventure!

In about one week, we will begin Kindergarten here at our little school.  This will be our first "official" year of homeschooling. 

I am excited and nervous. 

I hope this adventure turns out to be one of our greatest yet!

Welcome to Adventum Academy

Welcome to the Adventum Academy blog! I am a thirty year old stay at home mom of two children.  My oldest (who will be know here as Princess or Peanut) turned five this year and after completing a year of Pre-Kiindergarten at a private Montessori school,  is ready to enter Kindergarten.  My youngest (who will be know as Pumpkin or little man) is 21 months old.

There are as many different reasons to homeschool as there are families that do so.  Ours is no exception.  I will share with you the main reasons though.  Let me give you a little background information.

In our state, all children who turn 4 before September are permitted to attend Pre-Kindergarten at the school of their choice for free.  This is a wonderful program that our state offers. We were initially going to forgo PreK altogether, but since our daughter had recently been diagnosed as having ADHD, decided that the social experience would be beneficial to her.  However, the school would have to be understanding of our daughter's situation. We finally chose a Montessori school.  I had already know about Montessori teachings and in fact, had been doing Montessori type activities with my daughter since she was two. Montessori is generally very child-led and almost completely hands-on activities, which is great for our daughter. We thought this would be a great compromise; the work would be familiar to her but she would still be in a classroom setting.

Well, unfortunately at the end of the year, our daughter knew nothing more academically than she had at the start of the year.  Socially she had not blossomed; in fact she had withdrawn a bit as a result of being put into time-out so often.  For being a Montessori school, the directors did not give children the freedom that Maria Montessori had envisioned.  My daughter had been in time-out multiple times throughout the year for many things including picking flowers on the playground, pretending to "cook" by mixing dirt and leaves with a stick, not sitting still during circle time etc.  Things that, to me, do not warrant isolation from peers in time-out.

As we began thinking about Kindergarten, we decided  that I could teach Princess more at home and in a way that did not dampen her individuality or creativity.  We want to gently tame her spirit, not break it.  I would hate for my daughter to lose all that makes her, her. 

Although our days are often difficult because of inattentiveness, temper tantrums and hyperactivity, I wouldn't trade my little girl for anyone in the world!  She is passionate, creative, loving,  imaginative and intelligent.  I look forward to the opportunity to see her flourish and bloom right before my very eyes!

Adventum Academy is the name we have chosen for our homeschool.  We do not NEED to give our homeschool name, but it is something we wanted to do. Princess chose the colors, I designed the logo.

So why Adventum Academy?  Well, I wanted a name that could grow with our children.  Something that sounded mature yet had great meaning for our philosophy on education.  We believe that learning is an adventure.  Every day you can learn something new if you are open and willing to go out and discover what the world has to teach!  That is why we chose Adventum, the Latin word for Adventure.


I hope you enjoy reading about this fantastic journey!