Sing along
Back-to-School
Back-to-School.....
Does anyone know the rest of the words?
So long as you have a snack-pack, does it really matter?
Are your boots tied up tight?
Do you hope to not get in a fight????
It is back-to-school time, here, at the Accasius Page School
in what is our 4th year of home based learning.
New for this year, I would like to introduce our mascot
Accasius Armadillo
I love him a lot.
(Drawn in 1979, by Ben Sargent.)
(Drawn in 1979, by Ben Sargent.)
((Posted with his permission))
Over the years, our learning environments have varied greatly, in
location, organization, & visualization.
No matter what I planned
we always seemed to migrate back to the kitchen table
& less always seemed to be more
in what resources we needed available all the time.
.
This year, we have this
Eric Carle Alphabet, world maps on the white board, color words above & a calendar station
This Calendar station has moved with us, twice, & is one of my greatest ideas ever.
We don't do a scheduled calendar time, we tried & then we wanted to stab each others eyes out.
I have found with this board, the kids have to work to identify days & months, in relation to whatever they want to know.
We can talk about when, or how far away something is.
They can see it, & they can touch it.
We can talk about how to spell things
(Tuesday & Thursday are tricky!)
The month Labels include weather markers, or holidays
(Seasons, Order)
WE also, have a book corner.
We have books!
This is only part of them.
So many, I have had to catalog them into like subjects.
We are also, the only people in the civilized world, who still, both, own & use encyclopedias
BOOKS!
I love books
This year, we are trying a less is more plan.
Last year, we tried a boxed curriculum, & while it was great & covered all the bases,
it was meant for use in a one room, Mennonite, school house.
which, initially, attracted us to it.
If it's meant to be taught by a teenager, with an 8th grade education,
how badly could I mess it up?
Sadly, it was a lot, a lot of busy work.
We don't need to be in school for an 8 hour day.
There is too much fun in the world, to be chained to a school book alllllllll day long.
Henry, will be in 4th grade this year.
Math-
This is from a Mennonite Publisher, and is really great for student directed learning.
We tried computer based math, but a clever boy figured out which buttons to push & didn't actually learn any math.
I really enjoy pencil on paper.
show your work!
Language arts-
A great combination of spelling & grammar, also student directed
Of all the books, in all the world, this one had to come to my house.
I am so excited for this one!
It is a book of creative writing prompts/ journal.
Henry Hates writing, anything, capital H.
This book is so, so fun, I don't think it will be a struggle.
Other
The amount of love, I have for this publisher is great.
This is a Mennonite book, so things are a little different (4 food groups),
but they don't expand on ideas that we would rather not expand on yet-
this year features body systems.....
It's American Geography!
I am trying to work myself up for this one....
George & Mary, will be in 1st grade this year
The 3 R's + Science
Reading-
Sight and Sound reading is a really cool, video program, that can, potentially, be totally free!
You, the parent, have to do, very little teaching.
Teaching reading, is probably the most overwhelming part of all of this.
I am excited to outsource it, this year!
I did have to shell out for the book of reading sheets, because our printer has entered old age, & isn't real excited about printing any more....
Otherwise, you can download & print the sheets for FREE.
Check them out.
Other-
A more in-depth nature study, that really gets into the why's.
Everyone also has a primary journal, with the divided top & bottom pages for writing & illustrating,
plus a regular composition book- which I like better because the pages are meant to stay in.
We have also added Hebrew School , this year.
This great program features easy, & colorful handouts covering the Jewish year, beginning Hebrew vocab & intro to the Alef-Bet.
And now.... the back to school picture
#Winning
I think this year will be great
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