Phonics as an Observation of Beauty - Resources

I want to start off this post by making one thing very clear: this is not a required reading list for homeschool moms or parents of pre-school or elementary aged kiddos.  This is a nerd list for those of us who get a bug for finding out more and want to read further.  As Julie Bogart/BraveWriter would say, this is a list for #awesomeadulting.  If you'd rather work on hand-lettering or become a nature guide, please, please, move on past this list without the tiniest shred of guilt.  But if you are cracking your knuckles and getting your Amazon wish list ready - enjoy, my friends!

I studied elementary education in college.  Sadly, the class I took on teaching the language arts was poorly taught.  But the textbook was phenomenal.  Though we didn't even crack it as a part of the class, even then, I had the inkling of an idea that it was a gem and so I saved it.  After college I taught second and third grade.  I still didn't open the book because, as it turned out, teaching children the mechanics of reading wasn't part of my job.  The kindergarten and first grade teachers were all about doing that.  But if kids hadn't mastered it by the time they reached the second/third grade loop (I taught kids for two-year loops) then they were considered behind and needed remediation.  The reading specialist, speech therapist or special education teacher handled those needs.

So it wasn't until I became a homeschool mom that I ever pulled out Phonics for the Teacher of Reading by Marion A. Hull.  It was this book and others like it that opened my eyes to everything that was going on "under the hood" of our language.  As with operating a motor vehicle, it is possible to drive without really understanding how the engine works (ahem) but for some folks, getting in there and figuring it all out is a real thrill.  That's me with phonics.

Phonics for the Teacher of Reading is written like a self-teach manual.  You read and fill in the blanks to test what you've learned.  In and of itself, it is a pretty neat phonics investigation!  The edition I own is pictured above.  But because I was in college over 15 years ago, it doesn't appear to be in print any longer, though copies can be purchased used.  A new edition is available, however, called Phonics and Word Study for the Teacher of Reading.  I can't vouch for it personally, but if I didn't already own the above title, I'd be tempted to get the newer edition (actually ... I think I'm tempted to get the newer edition anyway!).

Also on my phonics shelf are Word Journeys: Assessment-Guided Phonics, Spelling, and Vocabulary Instruction by Kathy Ganske [I have the first edition but a newer one is now in print] and Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction by Bear et. al. [I own the second edition, but the one currently in print is the sixth edition].  I used both of these to develop spelling lists and word studies when I taught in the elementary school classroom and now use them as a resource.  These books are great for understanding how a child develops as a reader and speller and for assessing where your child is in his developmental journey.  These were actually textbooks for continuing education classes offered in my school district, but they can be purchased and read by anyone!

Teaching Phonics & Word Study in the Intermediate Grades: A Complete Sourcebook by Wiley Blevins is a resource I wish I had had as a public school teacher.  It does a great job of explaining and giving helpful advice for teaching on syllabication - how to see words in "chunks" and what those chunks might be.  All of my children developed this ability naturally without much help and instruction, except my oldest son who has needed a lot of explicit instruction and practice.  However, it is through working with him on this material that I re-discovered my enthusiasm for knowing what makes our language "tick"!

Finally, another (free) resource I have enjoyed is Mommy Speech Therapy.  My third daughter had speech delays, which prompted me to do a little research on how I could help her at home.  This site was hugely helpful.  And, though I no longer need to use it for the original purpose I found it, I have really enjoyed learning more about how speech and language work and how our mouths form the shapes needed to make the sounds we say!  Click on the "Worksheets" link at the top of the homepage for a list of all of the phonemes she addresses.  Want to geek-out on language coolness?  Check out this free printable to whet your appetite.

This is by no means an exhaustive list; it is really only a peek at my bookshelf.  Please share in the comments if you have other resources you love or have found helpful!

Phonics as an Observation of Beauty

I do not intend to make any sort of statement here about the "right" way to teach reading or phonics.  I'm not taking pot shots at sight words or a whole language approach.  I'm not advocating any particular scope and sequence, any methodology or curriculum.  What I'm doing, instead, is just sharing those "That's so cool!" moments that happen as I work and read with my kiddos.  In fact, instead of just sharing our moments with you, what I'd really love is to give you some jumping off points to help you to have some of those moments in your own home - with your own children or all by yourself as you enjoy a good book or just ponder our crazy, fantastic English language!

I've created a page called Phonics Investigations (see the tab at the top of the blog) with the basics of this post where I can add links as they are created so that you can access - all in one place - these fun phonics "experiments".  I'm also going to create a post on suggested resources and another one on how to implement the investigations.  I'm planning to post about one additional idea a week, but we'll see how that goes.

I'd love for this to be an interactive activity.  Perhaps you can share in the comments of each activity what your kids discovered!  Also, if you have questions, or (probably more likely) if your kids have questions, like "Why do we spell it that way?" or "Why is that a rule?" please let me know!  I'm not an expert.  But I am kind of a dork about this, and my kids have sort of latched on to that enthusiasm, so we would be thrilled to "product test" a new investigation and share it with you!

If you haven't already done so, please sign up to receive posts by e-mail (see the box on the right-side of the blog?) so that these investigations (and other ideas) can pop up right in your inbox!  Happy investigating!

New Directions ...

I originally began this blog as a way to process out loud about our homeschool math experiment.  I will continue to blog about that as interesting things pop up.  But since I've laid out the basics, now I'd like to start a few new threads.  Here's what's been rattling around in my brain ...

Finding Beauty in Phonics

Recently, I listened to Sarah Mackenzie interviewing Andrew Kern.  Andrew Kern was encouraging moms/parents to be about the business of opening the eyes of their children to beauty, to be intentional about regularly putting beautiful things before their children.  Sarah Mackenzie asked "What would you say to a busy mom who says she doesn't have time to put beauty before her children because she has to teach math and phonics?"  Kern's response?  "I would say that math and phonics are beautiful!"

We've already been growing in our understanding of math as something beautiful to engage as a topic of conversation and to enjoy.  Recently, in my efforts to make more one-on-one time with my new reader and with my struggling reader, I've rediscovered the joy of uncovering new and curious things about this language that we read, write and speak.  I'm hoping to share little nuggets of interesting information and also ideas for phonics "investigations" with your kiddos.  I am hoping that this series will be of use to a wide range of folks - mamas of the littlest littles who want to prep for teaching pre-readers to older elementary kids who want the chance to dig deep into why English does what it does!

Math in Real Life: Board Gaming

Call me a snob if you like, but I'm not a super huge fan of "math board games".  In my experience (though I'd be happy to find a counterexample) most math board games put a higher priority on "educational" content and a lower priority on balanced mechanics, gameplay and replayability.  Plus, I'm not convinced that playing "educational board games" really counts as "living math" ... or perhaps it does, but only to the level that word problems count as "living math": something created to resemble real life for the purpose of teaching a math concept.

I'm not against word problems.  And I'm not against educational board games.  But what I really love to do is to play board games - real board games that were made primarily to be fun to play - and to engage with the children about how our understanding of mathematics facilitates our ability to play well and to make good choices in the game.  Our family is somewhat of a board gaming family so this is already a passion of ours and I want to help the children explore how math relates!  Want to join us in this exploration?

Mama as "Marriage Counselor"

Sure, academics and thoughts about academics take up a big portion of a homeschool mom's brain.  But for anyone (homeschool mom or not!) who has more than one kid, sibling interaction is a big part of the day and guiding them is a big part of a mom's job.  Over the last couple of years the Lord has really been re-formatting my thinking on this and my role in helping siblings to navigate disputes has shifted from the role of a "judge" to that of a "marriage counselor" - helping each person to know how best to love another with whom they live side-by-side, share space and possessions, clean up after and to whom they have a life-long commitment!

I certainly don't claim to have any kind of "silver bullet" that will "fix" sibling problems.  In fact, that really isn't my goal in my own home.  Rather, my goal is to use the "sticky spots" that commonly arise to teach my kids lessons that will have broad application throughout the course of their lives - lessons on how to know and understand their own hearts and on how to love others, even when those others are acting like enemies.

And ... Scoping!!

In addition to blogging here, I'm also hoping to start "Scoping" on Periscope soon on each of these three topics.  If you have a smartphone, you can download the Periscope app and follow me @hswotrainingwls (if you're on your phone you can click the link to find my profile).  I'd love to see you there and to have your interaction and input.  (Of course, I'd love to have your interaction and input here, too!)

Family Math

I promised that I would give you a glimpse of what family math looks like around here.  I know folks are wondering "Is this method sustainable?  Will you really be able to cover all of the things you need to cover for a range of different ages and abilities of children in a whole-group setting?"  So here is the answer: "I don't know!"

I really haven't done this long enough to know if there are cases where this model will prove more challenging.  But I have definitely seen many beautiful aspects of this approach.  Let me share with you a few anecdotes and then a few observations.

Examples:

• We did a review of the concept of place value using play money - hundreds, tens and ones - over the course of a few days.  The children practiced exchanging between hundreds and tens and between tens and ones.  We experimented with what happens when you add, subtract or divide a three digit number, and which order (hundreds, tens, ones vs. ones, tens, hundreds) makes the most sense for each process.  My ten, nine, eight and six year olds were all in participation.  The older three have definitely mastered the concepts of regrouping and their application to the three operations we examined.  The six year old showed a clear understanding of place value, but not as great a fluency with "regrouping" and didn't apply it to the operations.  That's OK.  She's learned some and become familiar with the concept.  She'll have plenty more exposure to it in future.
• I realized that, though my six-year-old can tell time fairly well, she was having trouble taking into consideration the movement of the hour hand as the minute hand makes its way around the entire clock face.  I planned to take a moment during math time to talk about this with her, but since the older children were sitting nearby, the conversation turned into a discussion of percentages and proportions with the older children when one of them said,  "So, if the minute hand has gone 25% of the way around the clock, then the hour hand should have also moved 25% of the way between two numbers ..."  This reminded us why it is that we refer to times as "a quarter past" or "a quarter til" and we also talked about the reason (historically) that the minute hand is larger than the hour hand.  We also discussed that situations like this illustrate the usefulness of percentages, because they allow us to make comparisons between the parts of two different-sized things.
• We are now studying Geometry.  Sometimes we read one of the Sir Cumference books.  All of the children (except the baby who still takes a morning nap) sit and listen as I read.  We have also done some hands-on activities.  The oldest four participate and the younger two (ages 4 and 3) go back and forth between being engaged and doing their own thing nearby.  For example, as we explored perimeter and area, we used Blokus pieces to make rectangles of different sizes and to calculate the perimeter and area in the pretend units of a Blokus (B) and a square Blokus (B²).

Thoughts:

• In pretty much every other subject, my approach has been to teach the older kids and let the younger ones listen in and glean whatever they are able.  Why not math?  It can't hurt, right?
• If math is a conversation, then each person can engage at the level to which he is able.  Older children can bring more complex ideas to the table and younger ones can pick up on the simpler aspects of what we're learning.  Math really isn't as compartmentalized as we tend to think - there is so much overlap and interconnectedness.  And making connections between previous learning and current learning is a huge piece of what education is all about.
• Math as a conversation easily overflows to other times of the day (like lunchtime) because we've all been a part of the discussion, not just Mama and one kid.
• When other children are getting a concept and one is not ... Do I stay on that topic and approach it from a different angle to see if I can make it clear?  Do I determine that that one child just isn't developmentally ready, and move on, figuring that she'll grasp it later on another pass when she is ready?  Do I find a chunk of time to work individually with her on that topic?  From where I sit right now, it seems like any of the above would be a viable option.  I know how to track what has been mastered and what hasn't.  So if not everyone is on top of a concept, it doesn't have to stop us from moving forward and doing the next thing as a group.

Have you ever explored math in a multi-age group?  What worked for you?  What did you like or dislike about that approach?  In reading over the descriptions above, what questions come to mind?  What is concerning about that approach?  What is attractive about it?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Buy All the Things

This is the last part in a series based on this cost/benefit analysis.  Here you can find Part 1:Scoping out the Sequence, Part 2: Making the Grade, Part 3: Unscheduling, Part 4: Why DIY?, Part 5: Race to the Finish Part 6: Do Over and Part 7: Finger on the Pulse.  The last "plus" isn't truly a "benefit" but it's one of the most fun ones to write about, so here we go:

• I don't have to pay for textbooks.  But this almost doesn't count, because there is no doubt that I'll find other ways to spend the money on our homeschooling ... some of them probably made necessary by this approach.

So here are some of the things I've spent money on instead of math textbooks:

• notebook paper
• ink pens
• new binders
• compasses and protractors
• a clock face stamp
• laminating sleeves
• dry erase markers
• dry erase crayons
• clipboards
• math quick-reference card

And here are some of the things I can imagine myself going overboard and using up the entire tax return purchasing in the future:

• more math-related read alouds (recently we've really been enjoying Sir Cumference books from the library, but I'm thinking we might want to own them)
• more math manipulatives
• subscription to MathAntics.com
• our own copy of Math on the Level
• Life of Fred books
• some new board games that would be particularly relevant to upcoming math concepts
• logical problem solving activities
• lots more fun math stuff!

From Homeschool Ryan Gosling

Finger on the Pulse

This is the seventh part in a series based on this cost/benefit analysis.  Here you can find Part 1:Scoping out the Sequence, Part 2: Making the Grade, Part 3: Unscheduling, Part 4: Why DIY?, Part 5: Race to the Finish and Part 6: Do Over.  Next I want to talk about this "plus" for us in letting go of our math textbooks:

• I have a better handle on the actual, individual progress of each child and I can individualize practice not only to the specific topics each child needs to review, but to the frequency with which each needs to review.

I talked here a little bit about the spreadsheet that I use to track what the kids have learned and what we still need to cover and here about how I track what each kid needs to review and with what frequency.  (And, because I haven't mentioned it in a while, I want to reiterate that none of this was an original idea for me.  It is entirely based on the Math on the Level concept.)  So my intention here is not to re-explain the mechanics of the process, but just to share what I'm enjoying about it!

We already discussed here and here how having a separate system for keeping track of mastery and review enables me to un-link record keeping from the textbook scope and sequence.  And I wrote here about why I like being able to make up the problems myself.  All of that is facilitated and made possible by having a closer eye on individual progress.

In a textbook, topics are reviewed at some recurring schedule.  I haven't been observant enough to figure out what the schedule is.  Probably more complex things are review more frequently, because it seems like there are multi-digit addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems on most every page.  But it was commonly the case that I'd skip over massive amounts of review material on each page in the textbook, either because I didn't think my child needed to do so many problems in one day, or because I didn't think they needed to review that topic again so soon.  The spreadsheets help me to make informed choices, not just hazy guestimates.

Also, at a certain point, I realized that we could make our review more efficient by thinking about all the processes that go into a problem.  For example, in completing a multi-digit long-division problem, you are:

• dividing, obviously, but also ...
• multiplying
• subtracting
• regrouping/borrowing/carrying or whatever you are supposed to call those strategies these days
• using place value concepts
• comparing numbers
• rounding
• estimating
• possibly dealing with remainders, decimals, repeating decimals, fractions and/or dollars and cents

Add another layer by putting it in the context of a word problem and you could be ...

• averaging
• converting between units of measurement
• dealing with percentages or rates
• reducing large fractions
• calculating measures of sides or angles in geometry
• and probably lots more I haven't thought of!

So, give a long division (or other multi-process) problem and check off review of lots of concepts.  In the reverse, however, if a child continues to struggle with long division (or another complex-process problem) break it into pieces to determine where the difficulty may occur.

In a couple of cases, I've realized that I could add something to the review line-up that a child hadn't officially come across in her textbook because she grasped the concept.  In another case, I realized that even though a child had moved through a concept in her math book (and had completed problems accurately), she didn't grasp the concept well enough to be able to work confidently with it on her own.  I wanted to drop back and explore/experiment with it more before putting it back in the review rotation.

Another big "win" was in tracking (by color-coding) the difference between "needed to go back and correct this" (in yellow) and "needed help knowing how to do this" (in red).  In my mind, a student who can find and fix his own errors has a different place for growth than a student who needs help completing the problem.  The first one may need encouragement to work accurately, but he grasps the concept.  The second student may need that concept moved from review back to something we can investigate further.

Finally, I am hoping (though this is completely untested as my oldest is only ten) that this system will help us to know when a student is ready for algebra.  Between the beginnings of math discussion to the completion of pre-algebra, there are 146 concepts that need to be covered.  Of course, part of preparedness for algebra is a developmental maturity.  But seeing how we are progressing towards mastery of the concepts and how strong the understanding is retained through review should (I hope!) give us some clues in that direction.

Oh, and did I ever mention that I love spreadsheets?  Yea, that's just an added personality-match bonus for me.  A friend told me yesterday that she and her brother joke about spreadsheets being their "love language".  If that is a thing, then I think it might just be one of my things!

Do Over

This is the sixth part in a series based on this cost/benefit analysis.  Here you can find Part 1:Scoping out the Sequence, Part 2: Making the Grade, Part 3: Unscheduling, Part 4: Why DIY? and Part 5: Race to the Finish.  Next I want to talk about this "plus" for us in letting go of our math textbooks:

• A LOT less time spent explaining work and correcting (and re-correcting) work.

I want to say up front that what I'm comparing here isn't really, purely, textbooks vs. no textbooks.  What I'm comparing is the way we used to do math vs. the way we do math now.

Before:

"Math" every day was sitting with one kid at a time and explaining to him what to do on his math assignment.  It went something like this:

"See, they're showing you that in order to divide by a fraction, you just flip it upside down and then  multiply.  Does that make sense?  Here, try this one.  Exactly! Good!  Got the idea?  OK, so you are going to do these five problems about that.  And then how about if you do one of these ... and one of these ... one from each of these sections ... and a word problem and, sure you can do all the Roman numerals.  OK, go get your sister and tell her it's her turn."

So, basically, it was like math, minus all of the best parts of math.  There was no exploration.  No wonder.  No awe.  No lightbulb moments.  No connecting the concepts.  No conversation.  Like a Dementor had kissed our homeschool math.

Maybe we can get into all that some day, I'd tell myself.  Some day when I didn't have to spend 15-20 minutes x 4 kids just telling them what they had to do on their worksheet for the day.  Someday when I wasn't exhausted by all of the exertion of the "management" of six other people while I tried to spend an hour meeting with each of the least destructive ones individually.

And what about quiet work time in the afternoon?  It went something like this,

"Good, all of your Roman numerals are correct.  Oooh, sorry, your long division problem is wrong, so you'll have to do that over.  Stop grumbling; math is supposed to be challenging.  And, oh, wait.  Yikes!  You weren't supposed to flip BOTH of the fractions upside down.  Only the second one.  Oh dear.  I guess I didn't really explain that very well.  OK, maybe I can go over this with you tonight and you can do all these over tomorrow along with tomorrow's math."

Good fun, right??  Can you tell why the kids and I all dreaded math?

Now, all of the exploration of new concepts happens together in a group.  There is still some "people management" - there always will be - but usually the oldest four are engaged (they are either hands-on or answering with their dry erase "slates") and the younger two are coloring, which is their version of "doing math".  And quiet work time?  Sure, they still get problems wrong.  And there are still corrections to be made.  But not as many because:

1. They are only doing review work - not work on new concepts.
2. There are only five problems.
3. There is only one problem per topic, so no more discovering that they've done eight problems in a row wrong because they didn't understand one concept.

I've gotten some questions about what "family math" looks like these days.  I promise to write a post on that when I'm finished with this series (almost done!) but I have to say up front: we've been doing this less than two months!  I can tell you what it looks like so far, though, for what it's worth.