Rod & Staff English Review--Building Christian English Series

What it is: A Mennonite grammar and composition curriculum for grades 3-8.

What you should know: This is an exceptionally thorough, traditional grammar & composition curriculum. Topics are repeated each year in increasing depth. Sentences and paragraphs are emphasized through 5th grade. In 6th grade the focus shifts more to composition and lengthier writing assignments.
     This program is full of old fashioned touches--kids are taught how to make introductions and use the phone correctly, illustrations are in black and white of children in Mennonite garb, and the text supplies copious Biblical content without proselytizing. They teach diagramming extensively. Composition is introduced gently in the earlier grades. Book reports, poetry, and paragraphs are all covered in grades 3-5. With fifth grade comes an introduction to outlining and note-taking. Writing lessons are covered with more depth and frequency starting in sixth grade.

What we love: I adore how the daily oral review practically guarantees retention. Additionally, the gentle introduction to composition has been a boon for my reluctant writers. While I do teach the material, the explanations are complete enough for the motivated and independent student to work independently.  This gives everyone a little extra flexibility. Finally, as is typical for Mennonite curricula, it is inexpensive and reusable with multiple students.

You may be put off by: If a secular program is a requirement, you will want to pass this by. Some people may find it too dry and too repetitive for their taste.  I've heard the complaint that the writing instruction is insufficient. There is one writing assignment per week, which strikes many people as not enough. (Of course, parents who want more can add additional assignments.) Children who struggle with open-ended assignments might need instruction broken down into smaller steps than R&S provides. Additionally, this curriculum may not work well for kids who cannot handle repetition, or for strong whole-to-parts learners.

How we cope: My older son is on his 4th year of R&S. When I know he has mastered the material we complete lessons orally or skip them outright. However, my other son does not need as much review, so we complete the lessons orally as much as possible, and I may not use the curriculum every year with him. Both boys have demonstrated a need for step-by-step instruction in writing, so we have supplemented R&S composition instruction with IEW. Also, I have created a cheat sheet for my older son with notes of R&S's composition instruction.

      My older son corrected a mistake of mine the other day, happily cackling that he knew more than I did. At this point, he does! If they finish this program through eighth grade, for better or for worse, they will likely know more grammar than most people.

Review: Rod & Staff Arithmetic, Mathematics for Christian Living Series

I have used Rod & Staff for math for grades 2-6.  We have been consistently successful with this program.

What it is: This is a traditional math program, with lots of repetition and review. You get a Teacher's Manual, student textbook, drill booklet, and tests. It was created by Mennonites, so there are Bible verses on the drill sheets, word problems with Biblical content, and an emphasis on practical application. R&S covers everything, students who complete the program through 8th grade will be ready for Algebra, but introduces many concepts a little later than other curricula due to a strong emphasis on the basics and slow and steady acquisition of skills. This is not a remedial math program, but is outstanding for the student who needs a slower pace, a consistent format, and/or more review. Tests are given approximately every ten lessons.

There is no kindergarten program, and we did not use the program for first grade. Second grade covers addition, subtraction, time, and money thoroughly. Third grade works on basic multiplication and division. The goal of these two years is to have all of the math facts memorized.

In fourth grade, the format changes and remains the same through 8th grade. Lessons are usually two pages long. Half of one page is taken up by an explanation of the new concept and worked examples, One half to one page is practicing the new concept, and the remaining half page is devoted to review.

What we love about it:

• The Teacher's Manual is excellent. Oral review is given for every lesson, and explicit direction is given for teaching. 
• There are worked examples at the top of every lesson. 
• Starting in 6th grade, the review section includes the lesson numbers the material was covered in, so it is easy to reread if the material has been forgotten. 
• The worked examples and review sections encourage independent work.
• Students get lots of practice with mental math; they also learn a little business math. 
• Only the drill sheets and tests are consumable; the student book and Teacher's manual can be reused, so it saves money for us.  

This curriculum is exceptionally easy to teach and learn from, thorough, and inexpensive.

Others May Be Put Off By: It is not secular.  Some people might not care for all the practice/repetition, especially in the second and third grades. R&S teaches concepts, but it is not a "conceptual" math program per se where a lot of time is spent making sure the student understands why the algorithms work. The idea is explained, examples are given, and then the student is expected to practice to mastery. After fourth grade, the textbooks can not easily be used as workbooks--problems and answers will likely need to be worked out on separate paper.

I also would recommend supplementing with, or having on hand, materials that thoroughly explain the base ten system and how it works in multiplication and division. This is explained in R&S, but not as explicitly as I would have liked. 

Our Coping strategies: My sons only have to do half of the review problems. I take full advantage of the oral review and drills to give my oldest son more time to practice and absorb concepts. My younger son gets bored by too much repetition; when he clearly understands the material, we skip oral reviews and lessons without hesitation. I also supplement with Beast Academy with my younger son for a more creative vision of math and more exposure to math concepts.

Here is a snapshot of one daily lesson in 6th grade.

This is not a trendy math program. There are no color pictures, zippy captions, games, special challenge problems, nothing like that. Nevertheless, it is the most effective and easiest to use of the many I have tried, and my kids seem to appreciate the straightforward approach. This program has become a staple of our homeschool, and I plan to use R&S math through 8th grade for both boys.

Hiking pictures

We've had some beautiful weather lately for hiking. The pictures with the dogs were taken in the woods on the way up from Puget Sound, walking through a carpet of wildflowers. The picture of a trail was taken one evening in Island Center Forest.

Beautiful Day

The last few days have been beautiful, hot, and sunny. Tom enjoyed it in his usual inimitable way.
First, he lounged for awhile with a cup of lemonade he made with me yesterday. Then he poured in some green food coloring and told Sam the water had turned into toxic sludge.

Our week in science--heart dissection

This week we did a sheep's heart dissection. Tim took charge. Tom was able to stay and observe this time; I'm not sure why. Maybe a heart is less intrinsically gross than a brain or an eyeball. Amusingly, a sheep's heart seems to be significantly larger than it's brain,  if we go by the sheep's brain we dissected a month or two ago.

Tom probes an atrium and is impressed by how deep it is. 

Tim bisects the heart, then holds it open to show the kids the heartstrings, or chordae tendonae, which connect the papillary muscles to the mitral valve and the tricuspid valve. When the muscles contract, the valves open.

Tom jokes around with a fork. Mmmmm, delicious!

Creamed by Tom

At youth group last Thursday, it was whipped cream night. All the kids got to line up and throw cream pies at their adult leaders. Unbeknownst to me, children could select their parents for the pie-throwing. When I arrived to pick him up,  Tom was still in line to throw a pie. He kept on pointing at me and making throwing motions, but I didn't get the hint. When the surprise came, I submitted with reasonably good grace.

Tom didn't think of the camera until after I'd cleaned up a bit. 

Roman Libum Cakes, A Child's History of the World

A couple weeks ago in history, Tom learned the story of Romulus and Remus, and of the founding of Rome. To celebrate, we make Roman Libum cakes, which were used as offerings to household spirits in early Rome. The recipe included flour, egg, and ricotta cheese.

First, we rolled the dough into balls. 

Then, we covered it with a casserole dish (instead of the brick the ancient Romans used) and baked it in the oven. 

While we waited, Tom measured out the honey to pour into a baking dish.

After the cakes came out, we pressed a bay leaf to the bottom of each cake and soaked them in honey for 30 minutes. The result was excellent! Tom was sad he didn't have the appetite to eat them all. 

Our history of architecture class

So I changed up our fine arts class mid-year, changing from Story of the Orchestra, which wasn't holding our interest, to Calvert's History of Architecture. So far we have enjoyed it. We complete two lessons per week. The first lesson involves reading a chapter and answer discussion questions. The second one involves an art project. So far, the boys have drawn pyramids, created trilithons and built ziggurats out of sugar cubes. 

Here is a finished ziggurat. Each level had to be a perfect square, to represent the Babylonian devotion to mathematics, starting with 7 cubes on the bottom. So it would take 49 cubes for the base, then 36 cubes for the next row, then 25, and so on. After some fiddling, the boys realized that they could not simply move in one row as they built up; Tom built one that went from 7 by 7 directly to 5 by 5 before he realized this. 

Cow Eye dissection

This year we are doing Human Anatomy for science and one of the highlights has been the chance to do dissections. We dissected a sheep's brain a few months ago and grossed out our house cleaner, but failed to get any photos. We moved on from the brain & nervous system to the eye and snapped a single picture. Tom delicate stomach kept him in the next room, and Tim and I wrote off any future career in medicine. Sam sat next to me the whole time, but lacked the fine motor coordination to actually do any cutting, which was harder than it looked. The scalpel that came with the kit was not really up to the task; I really should have used one of my kitchen knives, but just didn't want to. So I sawed away with the scalpel and tried not to maul the eye too badly in the process.

Here is the eye after it has been cut in half. The bits on the left are from the thick cushion of fat swathing the eye. After it was opened the vitreous humor leaked out and we were able to examine the lens, which is the yellowish disc in the center. Sam and I both held it up to our eyes and against the newspaper to see how it magnified things. The iridescent part on the lower half is called the tapetum and is only in animal eyeballs. That surface reflects light back out through the eyeball at night and is the reason for the "glowing eyes" we see whenever we shine a flashlight in our dogs' faces at night. 

A Second Trip to Zoo Lights

The second time we went to the Tacoma Zoo, we combined a trip to see Zoo Lights with a Shark Tank Dive we'd given the boys as a Christmas present. The zoo allows four people to lower themselves into a cage in the South Pacific Aquarium for an hour with sixteen sharks. The boys got to see Nurse, Sandbar, Sand Tiger, Blacktip, and Wobbegong sharks.

The boys were fitted with dry suits, masks, and regulators. They also learned how to clear water out of their mask, how to descend comfortably, and how to signal underwater. 

The zoo diver made sure each person lined up on the side nearest the glass for pictures.

Here's Sam trying to relieve pressure in his ears.

Tom is giving a wave. He said that he could see us through the glass very clearly, which means that when you think a shark is looking at you through the glass there, you aren't kidding yourself. The sharks are very curious and come over to check out each new group of divers.

Then they open the door.

And the kids are allowed to peek out, one at a time.

The black and yellow stick at the top left corner is a prod the zoo diver would have used if any shark had actually tried to enter the cage. One shark did come right up, but immediately turned away after a gesture from the zoo diver. Needless to say, all of the sharks in the tank are nonaggressive. 

Jellyfish, Summer 2016

The waters of Puget Sound teem with jellyfish in the summertime. Here's a nice shot of Sam looking down at one.

Winter weather

Here are two shots of the beach, and one of the chickens dust bathing by the side of the house.

Christmas, 2016

We had a lovely, low-key Christmas. Here are pictures of the tree, a favorite gift, the boys doing what they do best, our conure, and Tim making the Christmas trifle.