Under the weather, but still teaching!!!

This is my 3rd day in a row being sick with a head cold.  Yuck!  My sweet DH even came home at lunch today to watch the kids and let me sleep some more.  Even though I was sick, my DD was demanding to do school....who could deny a precious 4 year old her reading, handwriting, witing journal, 2 math, and 2 social studies (Scholastic News - Grade 1) lessons??!!

I can't believe she wanted to do so much!  It's so great to be able to teach her quickly and as she asks for it, even while sick.  She is always telling me how fun school is, so I'm happy that she's happy.  We'll probably still read a few library books before bed, too.  I'm so glad she enjoys this as much as I do.  It's very gratifying!

Find of the Week: MINDsprinting.com

So I'm going to try a new theme on my blog...a find of the week!  I come across tons of awesome resources every week, and I'd really like to document my favorites (at least once a week).

This week, I revisited a site that I'd glanced at before but never looked at any further.  The site is MINDsprinting.com and, for now, it is free!  I was able to give my DD a reading and a math placement test.  From these results, I found that she is reading at a 1st grade reading level (just like the other 3 tests had said - I guess that's pretty darn accurate, eh?) and a kindergarten math level.  This is not bad for a 4.5 year old, right? :) 

Here comes the cool part - after you take your FREE assessments (there is also a reading comprehension test for older kiddos), you can join their site and get lesson worksheets customized based on your child's results!  Each child can have their own information saved within the system.  The worksheets are excellent and you can save them to review later.  Sometimes it even gives you extra sheets that you could download for extra practice.  Once your child has finished the work, you record the results and it gives you your next lesson for them based on the completion of the past lesson.

I love this service!  The website says that it will go up to around $30/year per student and I think it's WELL worth that price when/if it changes to that.  The scope and sequence of their curriculum is very thorough and I feel that it is complete.

You will still need to instruct your child in the lessons (unless they already understand what is being presented).  At this point, that's no problem because my kiddo is so young and I still know everything she's covering.  This went along very well with what DD has been learning in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.

I encourage you to check out MINDsprinting!

Completed Reading Assessments...

So I've been doing some reading assessments with DD and am thrilled to say that she's reading very well and at a 1st+ grade level (at 4.5 years old!). I'm beginning to think this homeschooling thing works..lol

I did the assessment here: K12 Placement Tests and she passed the Basic Phonics Assessment with a score of 90 (86 needed to pass). I've done 2 other reading level tests (though they are terribly informal in comparison to this one!) and she was placed at a 2nd grade reading level on one and a 1st grade, 6th month reading level on another.

I'm telling you that The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading really works!!!

Wow it's been a long time!!

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so very long since I've blogged. I haven't been entirely tied up with having a newborn and 2 young kids, but I have been tied up in trying to maintain the household and getting through the holidays!
We've been homeschooling, but not at the same speed and with the same gusto as before. It just hasn't been practical for us, but we'll be doing more soon.
What I love is that DD has been learning to read more and more. We haven't done many reading lessons, but she has been reading to me a LOT from readers that we have. I got out some Hooked on Phonics readers we'd gotten free from another homeschooling family a while back and she can already read several of the "real" books (the ones that don't just have 3 words a page). At first, she resisted and told me that the words were too little and that she "couldn't" read this kind of book by herself. Now she reads them alone with VERY little assistance!
We've taken the approach of reading where I read what she tells me to (usually a page or a sentence) and she reads an equal or greater amount. We keep taking turns until the book is through. It's going VERY well!

I did an assessment with my DS today. He will be turning 3 in about 3 weeks and I wanted to see where he was at. He did very well!
Letter Name Sound
-----------------------------
A Yes No
B Yes Yes
C No Yes
D No No
E Yes Yes
F Yes Yes
G No Yes
H Yes Yes
I No No
J No No (Though he did tell me that it "says JUMP")
K No Yes
L Yes Yes
M No Yes
N No Yes
O Yes Yes
P No Yes
Q Yes No (he said it says "k" and then said "like duck" - so close!)
R Yes Yes
S No Yes
T Yes Yes
U No Yes
V No No (he said it says "buh")
W No Yes
X Yes Yes (and said, "like FOX!")
Y No Yes
Z Yes No (said it says "sssss")

I guess the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD is paying off! :) I'm so proud of my little 2 year old son and his retention of the letters and their sounds. We'll keep loosely working at it and it'll make reading instruction easier in a year or two for sure!

We played around a bit on Starfall.com today. They have printables for each letter of the alphabet and on them there are suggestions for little games. SIMPLE things like jump if the word I say begins with the /j/ sound or stay still if it doesn't....or thumbs up if the word I say begins with /s/ or thumbs down if it doesn't. The kids LOVED this! DS played along copying his big sister. DD had a blast! She thought it was silly and creative and fun.

So far, so good!
I'm considering focusing mainly on this kind of thing for the next little while and adding in some math instruction as well.

Speaking of math, does anyone have any experience with Math Mammoth? Does anyone know if Grade 1 would be appropriate for a mathy 4 1/2 year old?