Wordless Wednesday: August 26, 2020 (w/linky) - Even More Callie

I don't take a lot of photos these days. If I do take a photo, more likely than not, it's going to be of Callie or of the kids doing something cute with Callie (unless it is for a review).

I'm not quite understanding how she got up on top of the refrigerator, but Amelia was involved somehow, and then she wanted to take a picture.

Callie just loves this little gray elephant named Peanut. 

Harold thought Callie would like some time on the banister. I had to snap some pictures before telling him to take her down from there.

RAAWWWRR

Looking forward to seeing your Wordless (or not so wordless) Wednesday posts this week.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button on your Wordless Wednesday post or in a list of Wordless Wednesday linkies. Just link it to my Wordless Wednesday permalink please.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Improving Writing Skills with Structure and Style for Students {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

One of the subjects I haven't been focusing on very well in our homeschool has been teaching the children to write. Not handwriting, but the mechanics of proper writing. Let me tell you a little secret. This is a subject I am not the greatest in myself, so I am not quite sure how to properly teach the children. So, I was thrilled when we were given the opportunity for the younger children to try out Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level A from the Institute for Excellence in Writing®. This is a company we have come to know and love. The children recognized Mr. Pudewa's voice from when we reviewed Developing Linguistic Skills Through Poetry Memorization several years ago. Plus the older girls had used Phonetic Zoo for their spelling.

IEW®'s Structure and Style® for Students curriculum is available at three different levels. Level A is for children reading at a 3rd-5th grade level, Level B is for children reading at a 6th-8th grade level, and Level C is for children reading at a 9th grade level or higher. Currently only Year 1 is available; however, Year 2 is expected to be released next spring. 

The Structure and Style curriculum for each of the levels is 24 weeks in length. It's composed of both physical and digital components. We received both the Teacher's Manual and the Student Binder in the mail, and we were given access to the online "Forever Streaming" video lessons via an activation code on the instruction card that came in the binder. These lessons are available to us as long as we need them and can be used by multiple children. We are also allowed to photocopy the student materials for use within our family. 

This writing curriculum focuses on the following skills in seven units:

• Unit 1: Note Making and Outlines
• Unit 2: Writing From Notes
• Unit 3: Retelling Narrative Stories
• Unit 4: Summarizing a Reference
• Unit 5: Writing From Pictures
• Unit 6: Summarizing Multiple References
• Unit 7: Inventive Writing

A Scope and Sequence tells us what reading passage we will be reading in each lesson in the units, the "style" we will be working on, if any (not every lesson has a new style to learn), plus literature suggestions. 

There are daily lessons laid out in a chart that is available in both the teacher manual and the student's sheets. There are even suggestions on how to adapt the schedule for homeschool versus classroom setting and different weekly schedules. Both the videos and the physical portion are necessary for the program. Each week the students will view the lesson with Mr. Pudewa teaching, during which he will tell them to get out specific sheets for that section of the lesson. 

Mr. Pudewa is teaching a group of students in a classroom setting, utilizing both the student sheets and a whiteboard. As viewers we can listen to his and the children's answers and then pause the video and discuss the lesson ourselves. These videos range from around 40 minutes in length to an hour and 15 minutes, with the average being just over an hour in length. The daily breakdown suggestion is to watch the first half of the video and work on the lesson and then watch the second half the next day. At the beginning of this course, the additional days are used for retelling the story from the Key Words Outline; however, the workload then increases, where students are expected to use those days to write their rough draft and then final draft of their story, using the notes they have taken, and making sure to include the style, or dress-up that has been learned. 

The children learn to read through the stories, one sentence at a time, underlining and writing three key words. 

The rules for the key words are explained.

Then we also learn about the different ways we can "dress up" our writing, such as adding -ly adverbs or the problem way to add who/which clauses, using strong verbs, and more.

Then the children are to rewrite the story, using the keyword outline to help them remember the story, and using the different "dress-ups." They are to write a rough draft, which I then edit. Then I rewrite it for them, and have them copy. I don't plan on doing the rewrites throughout the course; however, the children weren't used to having to skip lines, and they wanted to start a new line for every sentence, so I want to make sure they get used to how they should be writing by copying mine for a while.

There are also worksheet type pages as we work through the curriculum.

I appreciate that the Teacher Manual includes and inset of the student page, along with notes for the parent/teacher.

Plus a look at the "Board Notes" to help guide the children after the video is over. 

And can I just say, I absolutely love Mr. Pudewa's humorous style of teaching, and the anecdotes he includes and the fun they are having in the class. For instance, during the story of The Fox and the Stork, he slyly played a game of hangman using an -ly adverb that was quite tricky to figure out. 

We are very much enjoying joining in with this class on their writing journey, learning to look for key words and learning about new dress ups to add to our writing. I love the incremental approach, where we have been learning new styles as we go along, and having to remember to use them in the rewrites. I appreciate that both fiction and nonfiction passages are included. And I love that we are working on vocabulary during the course. I definitely recommend Structure and Style for Students, and plan on using it throughout the coming school year with the children. 

You can find the Institute for Excellence in Writing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Structure and Style for Students. You will find reviews for each of the three levels.

Supplementing Our Homeschool with Resources from Super Teacher Worksheets {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Thanks to the Homeschool Review Crew, we had the opportunity to review Super Teacher Worksheets for the third time. The first time was five years ago, back when I still had preschoolers. The second time was three years ago when all of the children were elementary school aged. This time around, I have children who are 8, 10, 12, and 13. Due to the fact that the majority of the worksheets are designed for elementary school children, I chose to use this with Harold and Hannah these past several weeks. 

Super Teacher Worksheets is a wonderful resource for busy homeschool parents. However, it can also be used by teachers, as they do offer school licenses. We have been given a full year's membership with complete access to all the available worksheets. When we first reviewed this site five years ago, there were over 10,000 worksheets available. There are currently over 16,000 worksheets for parents and teachers to choose from in many different subjects. 

You'll find supplemental worksheets in the following areas:

• Math
• Reading Comprehension (grades 1-6)
• Reading & Writing
• Phonics
• Early Literacy
• Grammar
• Spelling Lists (grades 1-5)
• Chapter Books (literacy units)
• Science
• Social Studies
• Holidays
• Puzzles & Brain Teasers
• Teacher Helpers (teaching tools, award certificates)
• Pre-K and Kindergarten
• Worksheet Generator 

When you first come to the site, you will notice these subjects listed on the left side of the screen, along with a listing of topics to choose from.

When you click on the topic you are interested in, you will come to a menu that shows a listing of the available worksheets. I appreciate the fact that it gives a description and also the grade each worksheet is appropriate for. 

What's really awesome, is that you can use the site for free, though you won't have access to the full collection of worksheets. As shown in the screenshot below, the site indicates which worksheets you have access to with the "free" icon.

If you click on any worksheets that do not have the "free" icon, as a non-member, you will be shown a preview of the worksheet.

Once I am logged into my account, all of the worksheets are available to me.

I debated what I wanted to use with the children, and I really didn't want to overwhelm them as we were supposed to be on our summer break. I also wanted to use this time to decide how I would use this site during the upcoming school year. 

Obviously we are no longer in need of any of the preschool materials, but I have to say, I am impressed with all of the different resources available for learning the alphabet, numbers and shapes, along with phonics and sight word materials. I just wanted to share a few of the things that stood out to me. 

Printing Practice

Letter Recognition and Matching

Alphabetical Order

These, along with many others (such as games and flashcards, phonics resources, and sight word materials) are definitely resources I would have utilized if our children were still young enough. 

But alas, my children are growing up, so I decided we would focus on several different subjects. We have been using Reading Comprehension, Spelling, and Daily Math Word Problems. Plus I checked out the science offerings. I also have utilized the Worksheet Generator.

There are Reading Comprehension worksheets for children in grades 1-6. You will find fiction stories, reader's theater (little plays), poems, non-fiction articles, biographies, short passages, and read-aloud practice. The child will read the story/poem/passage and will then answer different kinds of questions, work on vocabulary, and also have opportunity for some creative writing of their own.

I've decided, once the school year starts, the children will have 2-3 of these to work on each week. 

I also liked the look of the Spelling List resources. I appreciate that the lists are logically organized, and phonics-based, though there are sight word lists as well. First grade begins with short-a words and works its way through all the vowels, then goes on to long vowels, and then blends and digraphs. Second grade it similar, though the words are harder. Harold and Hannah have been working with the third grade spelling lists. These begin with long and short a, moving on through the other vowels, different blends, and consonants, then homophones, easy to confuse words, and more. 

As a parent who has watched her older children struggle through spelling in public school due to word lists based on words in stories that are being read, I truly appreciate the organization of these spelling lists and we will continue to use these this year. 

I love that there are different activities for the students to use throughout the week. 

Writing each word twice. I have the children write once in print and once in cursive.

Alphabetical Order

Finding and fixing the misspelled spelling words

Unscrambling the spelling words. This has proven to be a bit tricky for Harold, but we will continue trying.

Hannah had no problems with it though.

They even have crossword puzzles (which help with vocabulary too because they learn what the words mean) and word searches.

I also decided that I would give them a daily word problem in math to work on.

I was a little confused because the site states there should be enough for a full school year, yet I am only finding five week's worth of problems for each grade. I'm assuming that means they are working on adding more.

Seeing as we have been learning about biology, I thought it would be fun to use some of the science resources. The children enjoyed this Butterfly Word Maze and are hoping to do similar activities for different topics. 

So, my plan for our school year is to give the children 2-3 reading comprehension stories, plus a new spelling list each week. They will have daily math problems, starting with the word problems and then moving on to the daily review worksheets (which there do seem to be enough of for the year). And then I will see what other math, science, social studies, etc, worksheets we can find to accompany what we are working on with our normal curriculum. 

That brings me to the final aspect of the site that I wanted to tell you about. I absolutely love the word find generator. I am able to put in any words we have been learning about in our other subjects. So, when we were learning about cells and DNA and such in science, I made them a biology word search.

It is so easy to use this resource. You just choose your level, give it a header and a title, you can list who created it, and choose to alphabetize the word list. This is a great option, because then the parent can just enter the words and the generator alphabetizes them for you. Then you enter your word list, following the instructions.

Super Teacher Worksheets is a wonderful resource for parents (and teachers) and one I highly recommend. There are so many worksheets and other printables that can be used to supplement your curriculum. 

I also invite you to check out my first review and my second review of Super Teacher Worksheets to see some of the resources we have used in the past, and what we thought of those.

You can find Super Teacher Worksheets on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Don't forget to click on the banner below to check out what my fellow Crew Mates though of this wonderful resource.