A Healer’s Geste

School Budget: Blessed

Here are the things already on my shelves that we’ll be using for next year.

Covenantal Catechism, Book 1 Harry Van Dyken, Donald Van Dyken

Rev. Van Dyken (also author of Rediscovering Catechism) was my good friend Elly’s pastor; she grew up learning this material and she has been using it with her boys this last year. Rev. Van Dyken actually lives just a few blocks from us now, since his church moved to town (from a small town about an hour away) about a year ago. I’ve spent a little time here and there over the years with Mrs. Van Dyken and with one of their daughters who is my age, and they are lovely people. We have this copy from the classical school we were a part of starting several years ago that only had one year of Kindergarten with two students. So, seeing as it’s on my shelf (to be used now or just sit and await another attempt at a start-up), seeing as my friend testifies to its worthiness, seeing as I know and trust the source, seeing as it is exactly what I want — an Old Testament survey that draws the line directly to Jesus in every story — from a Reformed perspective, I was saved from even looking at other options in this case. I picked it up off my shelf, skimmed it, and said, “Perfect!”

The Child’s Story Bible

Catherine Vos

This is also a Coram Deo curriculum piece that now sits on our shelf, and we will use it until it is called into the service of another startup, which may or may not ever happen. Covenantal Catechism spends one week on one story, so we’ll read it from the Bible and from several story versions. Vos is great, but it is sparse on pictures and is still pretty lengthy for little ones. So, it will come off its lonely shelf this year. I’m still not sure if I’ll read it aloud or if I’ll assign it for Hans to read. I wasn’t expecting to be able to assign independent reading in first grade, so I’m still not sure how much to do so. It will probably depend on Jaeger’s ability to track with it.

The New Children’s Bible

Anne DeVries

This is the story/picture Bible we’ve used this year. We’re on our second time through (it goes through Acts) and I have enjoyed it. It has fewer interpretations woven into the story than most of the others I have glanced through (our library’s collection). Noah isn’t saved because he was the only good person, but because God loved him. However, Abraham does prove he loves God more than his son by being willing to sacrifice Isaac (even though Hebrews clearly states it was a matter of faith and belief, not love and priorities — Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead. After all, God promised seed through ISAAC. Abraham believed God would keep that promise, not that God had changed His mind. Ok, that rant is over.). The illustrations are good, too, which was important to me.

TATRAS Frank Rogers

Hans only has one more set of sounds to learn, although we haven’t read all the word lists yet. Since he is reading so well and so much, though, we’re mostly focusing on the irregular words during our school time. I am also starting phonics with Jaeger, although we’re using random alphabet books instead of the TATRAS book. He chooses an alphabet book, and as we read it together, I point to each letter and give him the sound and he repeats it. That’s what I did with Hans, and I bought TATRAS a little early because I knew I couldn’t remember ‘O’ and I was forgetting /z/ for ‘s’, etc. I don’t use TATRAS strictly by the instructions in the book. I like the material and the way it’s presented, I know my goals and I know the material, and I just work with my student. I can hardly claim credit for Hans, though, so we’ll see how that approach works with Jaeger. Jaeger can already identify all the letters and also started writing letters on his own when he draws, too, so it’s not like he’s going to be a difficult reading student, either.

ReadyWriter

My mom had these and let me have them for awhile. I’ll copy them for Jaeger to have special school work pages if he wants them. There are 16 pages of pre-writing activities. Next year I plan to purchase the Calculadder MasterPak 1 CD, which also has ReadyWriter, but for now I’m happy mom held on to it! I don’t think I can call my memories of Calculadder fond, but I did always think their correction sheets were clever.

StartWrite 5.0

I like this program a lot. I can print out my own pages for Hans and Jaeger to trace letters and words in italic. Currently they trace their names and Hans also traces the numerals and a short verse or phrase from a catechism or creed. Next year I’ll be a little more purposeful about teaching Hans how to write Italic letters on his own, copying instead of tracing. He wants to do cursive already, so I’m thinking I’ll start the year practicing the proper strokes, then print cursive Italic (the letters are the same, just joined, in Italic) for his copywork/tracing after he can do the strokes reasonably well. So far neither boys show any signs of “pencil allergy.”

Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Instruction Manual

This was either my mom’s or my mother-in-law’s, I’m not quite sure. It was in one of the several boxes they each brought over for me to sift through last year and take what I wanted and sell/give away what I didn’t. I’ve glanced through it and I’ll consult it when making copywork pages for Hans. I doubt it would be that important to have if you’re buying the workbooks, and I wouldn’t buy it if I didn’t have it, but I will use it — and not sell it — since I was given it.

Math-U-See Alpha

We didn’t do math very diligently in Kindergarten, but I’m pleased with Hans’ progress. Math-U-See focuses on using place value and blocks to explain how math works, so we spent the bulk of our Kindergarten lessons just doing the place value lessons and games over and over and over. It wasn’t until about the third time that it really clicked with ME. Then, surprise, surprise, it started clicking with Hans, too. Hmph, maybe a teacher who knows something really does make a difference. Go figure. I’m now watching the math lesson DVDs before Hans sees them now and watching them with him. (We usually do each one two or three times and go back and watch previous ones, too; apparently if a kid is starved for videos, even a non-flashy math lesson is enthralling. It’s a little sad.) Here’s a little personal tidbit. Hundred charts always bugged me growing up, and no, it wasn’t just because I didn’t like math. Why do they always end the line with ten, then the rest of the ten-numbers are on the next line, which ends with 20. It always seemed like a “one of these things doesn’t belong” problem, except no one was calling it a problem. Well, MUS’s hundred chart starts with 0 and the ten begins the second line, twenty begins the third line, etc. and I feel vindicated every time I pull it out. And, along the lines of the post’s title, my mother-in-law used MUS for awhile with her youngest, so she gave me the manipulatives last year. Blessed, indeed!

The Blue Fairy Book

Andrew Lang

I bought this at Exodus Books in person last year when the tally for some of my mom’s homeschool hand-me-downs that I didn’t want exceeded my expectations. It’s also free online, I believe. I’m not sure we’ll make it through the whole book, but it will be a fairy tale year.

Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Fifty Famous People James Baldwin

This is our history read-aloud book for the year. I printed it out from online; the Ambleside Year1 yahoo group has printable versions of the book. However, I didn’t realize before I printed one that it was incomplete; it only had about 25 or so of the stories. So I printed out the missing stories from a different file. The Mid-Columbia Library also has this title on a play-away.

Drawing with Children

Mona Brookes

I tried making lessons from this at the beginning of last year, but I could hardly make heads or tails of what to actually DO. Using it in conjunction with the step-by-step drawing books, I’ll just use the vocabulary of the elements of shapes, copying that page, and using some of the shape copying exercises on donnayoung.org.

Piano for Preschoolers

I bought this for last year, but we’ve only done it haphazardly. *I* have made progress, though. I am now positive where middle C is, and my solo singing has actually noticeably improved since demonstrating scales and singing the letter of the note with the scale, even though we’ve only done it a couple times a month. I’m going to try to be more purposeful with it this year, and actually look at the teacher’s manual to see what I’m supposed to be teaching them. It’s selling point is that even someone who cannot play the piano (that would be me) can teach this program (or learn alongside, which is what I’m trying to do, and I can play a pretty decent version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with the little color key on the keys and the colored notes on the music staff. Yeah, it’s sad, but I’m pleased with myself. I might be able to graduate from the preschool program if I stick with it. But, I figure I should at least know the preschool basics if we’re going to do piano lessons for the children, which we will).

And, the other day, as I was sitting next to my mother-in-law, watching my sister-in-law play softball, my mother-in-law leaned over and said out of the blue, “Oh, we have a globe that you can have. I read your blog.” :) And my goodness is it ever a lovely globe! So I spent 1/3 of the reserved globe money on several Dover coloring books, and I’ll take some cash to the local used curriculum fair in June (I have a couple things to sell, too) in case there are any deals to snag (I found Norms and Nobility one year, and a bundle of catechism books — Williamson, Starr Meade, Van Dyken, and a copy of The Westminster Shorter Catechism — last year).

For any of my local friends reading this, feel free to ask to see anything you want. Come over for coffee, tea, or lunch sometime and flip through pages while the kids play. Three ladies have done that for me over the years, which is how I discovered Math-U-See (a friend insisted I watch a couple lessons) and several other things on my lists for considering in future grades.