Reading Like a Historian

It took me some time to realize that Ken and DJ needed more challenging work. They needed work that moved beyond there already mastered skills in research work. I found a perfect history program for them for FREE. Reading Like a Historian is geared toward 6-8th grade. This program can be used as a stand alone or as a supplement. You can use any history book you want, it covers US History and World History. There is another progam for highschool, Historical Thinking Matters which I think is awesome too, and I am excited to know what direction we are going as far as how we are approaching history. It is what I was looking for in a history program all of my life as a homescholing mama of middle schoolers! :) 

If you get a chance I would browse through it and see how it may work for your family or classroom. I believe that it enhances the Montessori child's education as well. If we look beyond the materials and stay focused on the Montessori Philosophy we can see how purposeful it is to be able to Read like a Historian. Also I see plenty of opportunities to incorporate those true Montessori Materials in a very natural approach. 

                                                                         

We are going back to our first book in the History of US series by Joy Hakim as we have decided to really tackle US History. This has given us a chance to do the introduction lessons that are included in the program. 

                                                                         

These are the concepts that we have covered so far. History in our home is always met with great anticipation, it is requested to be done often. We laugh and really get our debate on. This is another great way that you can encourage your child to speak up, and challenge in an appropiate way. Yes! Children challenge us adults, because that is how they learn.

"The adolescent must never be treated as a child, for that is a stage of life that he has surpassed. It is better to treat an adolescent as if he had greater value than he actually shows than as if he had less and let him feel that his merits and self-respect are disregarded." - Dr. Marie Montessori from Childhood to Adolescence

   

Friday Freewrite

On Fridays we make sure we incorporate Freewrite into our day. For reading and writing we have pretty much dumped all other language arts programs, in favor of Brave Writer. We have always read a book daily together and using this philosophy just makes sense for us. This time around I read individually with each of the kids instead of all of us reading the same books. They love to read and write, this program feels so natural. Some day we will bust out our Sentence Analysis work, but really First Language Lessons did a great job of teaching sentence diagramming. We left off of First Language Lessons more than halfway through, we will pick it back up again when their need for worksheets arises again.

                                                                     

This was their writing prompt today. Can I say I have some kids full of imagination? DJ wrote a story about "If You Give a Rat a..... " and Ken wrote about how candy is marketed to kids based on "holidays", and  how Gummy Rats make for a good treat in someone's trick or treat bag.

Keep them Writing!

Note Taking and A Coloring Book

A few books have been getting a lot of attention from DJ and Ken.

Ken absolutely loves the writing style and pictures that are inside the Student Atlas. Kennede decided that she would like to learn about note taking and uses this book everyday to practice that skill.

                     

                                                                               

 Ken loves to change colors while she is note taking. What I like most is how she is attracted to note taking, it wasn't any where in my lesson plans to teach this skill. I love following the child!                                                                               

                                                                            

DJ has been enjoyng his new coloring book. This book takes learning about zoology to another level. Although it is written for a college audience he is understanding quite well. Let's just say the student has surpassed the teacher in this subject area :)

                                                                             

He loves his highlighters, I just think this was such an awesome idea of how he incorporated that into his work.

All is well!

How We Do Spelling

They are very good at asking how to spell words that are meaningful to them. Frequently they record the word in a need to know place just in case they may need to know how to spell the word again. Lately, they have been asking for formal spelling practice. I did like All About Spelling, but for them it was "too much like a script", that had everything to do with me. I started to dislike the style of the lessons, although they were learning I dreaded spelling. lessons. I decided to come up with something that would keep this subject exciting, challenging, and consistent. 

                                                                     

I came up with a list of possible activity ideas to do with the spelling words, this certainly isn't an exhaustive list. They may and I hope that they will come up with another way to study their words.

                         

                                                                                

I decided to use the National Scripps Spelling Word List for 2013-2014 School Year . They will also be using Quizlet to hear the pronunciation of the word, and for other fun activities that are available on their website. I made a matching the word to the definition activity. They love stuff like this, and I still like offering self correcting material.

DJ's spelling words will always be color coded blue, and Ken's will be red.

 The spelling work is contained inside two pouches. The smaller pouch which holds the words goes inside the larger pouch that holds the definitions. I was out of blue ribbon so for this pouch DJ has to remember that that his pouch has a green ribbon.

Here it is shelf ready, or backpack ready :) We start adding spelling into the mix this upcoming week.