Grammar Program

I like my new grammar program. Here's a couple samples of Sparkle's work based on it.

Here's a writing assignment.


Here's a sentence that Sparkle made up and analyzed for fun. It resembles some of the sentences we do for school, with the addition of a picture. I love how she drew the movement lines around the fish.

Egg Hunt

This was the first year since I've been able to enjoy our church's Easter Egg hunt without having to help out. The first year that I've actually been able to watch my kids gather eggs.



Sparkle was quite willing to sit on the bunny's lap, but Glitter wanted nothing to do with him.

retired shoes

After much heckling, I finally bought a new pair of shoes and retired my old pair.

Blink

Glitter's new favorite card game is "Blink!" We discovered it from the other family at dance class that liked the math cards that we had. I find it hilarious that they bought the same cards we have, and now I've bought the same cards they have!

Photos from the science museum

Earlier this month we went to the science museum for Sparkle's class. That day we got to see the butterfly exhibit.




Here are some butterflies.


Not a butterfly:


Lunch was a lazy picnic in the grass.


Another girl in the group got a packet of crickets to share. Sparkle was brave enough to try not just one, but two!


After lunch we got to see the exhibit on magic. I couldn't take pictures inside the exhibit, but there was a live magician in the gift shop.

Photos from old nature walk

Here's some photos from our nature walk from two weeks ago when we finally ventured away from the front of the gardens.

Here are some beautiful magnolias.


These turtles were real. The pond also had some ducks that were fake. Sparkle was quite upset when we realized that the ducks were fake.


Here's a tree trunk with a big hole. It reminded me of Peter Pan.

nature walk

We had an amazing nature walk today. The weather was warm. The sky was clear. It was a great time to be outside.

Entering the gardens we saw the "Snakes" sign. When we first saw this sign from a distance last week, Sparkle immediate got excited because she wanted to see a snake. I burst out laughing, because, of course the sign is warning parents and kids to stay away from any snakes. When I told Wander about the incident, he wanted a picture of the sign. So, this week I took a picture of the sign.



Next, we went in search of the Honey Locust tree at the gardens that Wander wanted pictures of. We asked at the office and got very clear directions. (The girls also got their customary hand stamps.) The Honey Locust tree is a really funky tree. It has spikes growing out of its trunk. I had Sparkle take a mental picture of the tree and recite the name a few times so that some weekend she can show Wander the tree, even if I'm not around.



Then Sparkle spotted a Yucca plant. I don't know why she's interested in this plant. Wander probably told her something neat about it.



Next we sat on the swing. We didn't even play the observation game. Glitter wanted to draw, and soon after Sparkle wanted to as well. Sparkle drew a bean from the Honey Locust pod.



As the girls were swinging and drawing, one of the rangers in the park walked by and asked us if we wanted to see a snake. Sure! (See beginning of post.) The ranger led us through the gardens to one of the small ponds. Sitting on a log dam was a large snake, sunning itself.



The ranger had Sparkle identify the snake based on a set of snake pictures that he had. It was a diamond-back water snake. Both girls watched the snake for a while. Sparkle drew it. Although the snake was coiled up and we couldn't get a good view of it's head, Sparkle drew the snake stretched out. As she explained, she didn't know how to draw a snake coiled up. Sparkle also drew the snake with a forked tongue sticking out.

Then Sparkle and the ranger had a rather lengthy discussion about snakes. Turns out that Sparkle knows more about snakes than I realized. It must be all those snake books that she checks out of the library that I never see her read. Now, thanks to the ranger, she knows even more.



After the snake discussion, we got to watch a squirrel with a bushy tail spring back and forth from a small tree to the top of a bird-feeder, totally ignoring the anti-squirrel device on the bottom of the post of the bird-feeder.



On the way out I tried to get some pictures of the girls. They look so cute running through the gardens in their long dresses and flip-flops. I also pointed out some paving bricks with names and dates in them, and we had a mini social studies lesson.



I love our Monday afternoons. Sparkle even made some decent book choices at the library today.

Glitter was tired

Glitter had a busy day at the farm with Wander and Sparkle. She played hard and got really dirty. She didn't get enough nap in the drive home. She didn't even have enough energy to finish her supper: mac 'n cheese, her favorite.

During supper Wander announced that he had to go to the store this evening, and invited the girls to go with him. As usual, Sparkle jumped at the chance to go out with Daddy. On the other hand, Glitter said that she was too tired; she wanted to go to bed. I jokingly asked her if she wanted to put herself to bed right after supper. (Normally Wander or I put the girls to bed. Glitter's never done it by herself.)

I expected that Glitter's normal love of being with Daddy would make her run after him as soon as he got ready to leave. I was wrong. Glitter cleared her dishes and calmly watched Wander and Sparkle drive off without complaint. Then she came and gave me a hug, announced that she was going to bed, and marched up stairs by herself.

I was too flabbergasted and curious to follow her up. Instead I listened for and heard the sounds indicating that she was using the potty and brushing her teeth. I figured that I needed to head upstairs before she started her shower, as an unattended four year old in the shower isn't very safe. I was just in time to floss her teeth (she hasn't figure out how to floss her teeth herself yet), and then she climbed into the shower.

release me

Wander and I were making a Glitter sandwich. She was smooshed between us in a friendly hug while we sat on the stairs. Suddenly, she wriggled around, calling out, "Release me!"

Release me?
Huh?
Where did that phrase come from?
How about, "Let me go!" ?

tough week for Sparkle

It's been a tough week for Sparkle. Wednesday she had a guinea pig pee on her and her face turned into a mass of lumps. Thursday she bombed a math test I gave her. Then today at the dentist we found out that she has an abcess in one of her teeth and the tooth will have to be removed.

guinea pig

If you end up having a guinea pig pee and bleed on you, don't touch your eyes. Even though Sparkle washed her hands, within an hour, her eyes were swollen closed and she had itchy lumps all over her face. Fortunately I was able to give her some chewable benydral after we got home and her face is returning to normal. She is no longer terrified of going out in public.

I'm thinking of ... game

We tried a new car game. It starts, "I'm thinking of ..." I don't remember if I got this game from a book or from the internet.

My earlier version of this games was "I'm thinking of a number that ..." followed by some way of figuring out the number. Glitter got easy questions, like "I'm thinking of a number shown with all the fingers on one hand." Sparkle got more difficult ones, like, "I'm thinking of a number that represents all the fingers, toes, and noses in the car."

We branched out into more general stuff in the car today. Even Glitter got into the spirit and was able to keep up with her sister. She got ones such as, "I'm thinking of a creature that has wings, but isn't a bird." They kept guessing different types of birds, so I added clues. Eventually, I got to "I'm thinking of a creature that has wings but isn't a bird. It is small and colorful." Glitter also got, "I'm thinking of a place with lots of books that aren't for sale." Sparkle came up with some outlandish ideas , and it took the girls a long time to get this one considering where we were driving.

Another fun one was, "I'm thinking of a place, in Texas, where we've all seen an eagle fly in real life." Sparkle had some strange answers, including New Mexico, Dallas. Then Glitter kept repeating Sparkle's crazy answers. They didn't get that one until I added, "And where we've eaten a turkey leg." The girls didn't figure out the last puzzle until we were in the parking lot. "I'm thinking of plastic blocks with circle knobs on top. They come in different colors, like red, yellow, green, and blue. They connect using the knobs on top. We have some at home and they are fun to play with."

Sparkle wanted to get in on the game, and came up with some fun ones. One of her favorites was "I'm thinking of a bird that has wings but doesn't fly." She also came up with "I'm thinking of a place that has dragons that can move."

Glitter tried to come up with questions too. Her questions could be confusing, but were usually easy to guess because they were typically the same answer as a previous question.

So, I'm slowly gathering a repertoire of favorite car games.
- I'm thinking of ... (a number or a thing)
- Phonemic awareness songs (Diddle Diddle, Name Game, Apples and Bananas)
- Observation Game
- I spy

I need to start writing down these games so that I'll remember them for future road trips.

tadpoles

Each week at the library I have Sparkle check out a science book and a biography along with whatever other books she wants. Usually she never reads these books. Last week I decided to sit down with her and have her actually read the book she checked out. The science book was a book about tadpoles. As Sparkle read, I asked her what she was thinking about. Turns out the whole time she was reading the book, she kept looking at the pictures and thinking about squishing the frogs and tadpoles. After we got to the end of the book, I threw up my hands in frustration. No wonder she doesn't get anything out of the library books. She spends the whole time looking at the pictures wanting to poke and squish things.

Fast forward a few days.

We are dropping Glitter off at preschool, and we cross a little bridge over a drainage ditch. Sparkle looks down at the muddy water below and tells me that there is algae down there, and tadpoles eat algae. Can she go look for tadpoles? Okay, sure, but I'm staying up here where it's dry. Sparkle exuberantly runs down and a few moments later exclaims that, yes, there are tadpoles there.

Fast forward a few more days.

Sparkle wants to play with play-dough. Okay, it's spring break, go ahead. Sparkle makes a round ball and tells me it's an egg. Okay. I give the obligatory customary look and return to my own thing. A few minutes later, Sparkle calls me back. She's made play-dough models of all the life stages of a frog. Then, at my suggestion, she makes labels for them.



OMG, how do you teach such a kid. One day I'm exasperated that she's day dreaming about poking pictures instead of reading her book. Then a few days later, she's finding real-life ways of applying the information from the same book.

daughter dates

Wander got lots of daddy-daughter time with Glitter over the past weekend, but he missed daddy-daughter time with Sparkle. So, this evening he invited Sparkle out for pizza and a visit to the pet shop (her choice). That left me with Glitter. Not wanting to bother cooking for just the two of us, I decided to take Glitter out. I was quite pleased that she chose a Chinese restaurant. I was even more impressed that even though she didn't know the name of the restaurant, she could describe how to get there and the shops around it.

In addition to getting supper I wanted to get some shopping done, so I gave Glitter a choice - food first, or store first. She chose the store. I found holding her hand as we walked through the parking lot very sweet. While at the store, I noticed some kid's flip-flops on sale. Even though flip-flops are about the only shoes Sparkle wears, Glitter has yet to own a pair of flip-flops. So, I dug through the bins to find a child's "small." The flip-flops were a bit big for Glitter, but not humongous, so I bought them for her. Glitter insisted on changing into them as soon as I finished paying for them, so the cashier kindly cut the tag off, and Glitter proudly walked out of the store in her new flip-flops. She even managed to keep them on her feet the whole time at the restaurant.

Grammar Comparison

Since I compared Miquon Math and Math-U-See, I felt pulled to do a similar comparison of two grammar programs: KISS Grammar and MCT LA.

When I was looking into language arts programs, I was initially drawn to KISS Grammar. Then later I was drawn to MCT LA. The few reviews that I could find from users of both programs implied that the programs looked at grammar in a similar way. For example, neither one does diagramming. Both programs think that grammar is important and worth studying. Both programs admit that some sentences present interesting grammar problems. Both programs promote understanding the purpose of every word in a sentence. One reviewer even thought that KISS Grammar was a great preparation for MCT LA.

I used only a few pages of KISS Grammar, and have only started MCT LA. However, I now think that the two programs have as many differences as similarities.

*Price*

KISS Grammar is free. You can download all the workbooks for free and print as many copies as you want. MCT LA is not. Given that there are many wonderful, less expensive language arts programs available, many users are initially put-off by the price tag of MCT LA.

*Origins and Audience*

KISS Grammar was written by a college professor for students starting in the second grade. As far as I can tell, the author of KISS Grammar hasn't taught elementary school. MCT LA was written by a former classroom teacher who specializes in gifted education and is now an author/consultant.

*Book Design*

KISS Grammar is a word document or a series of web pages. KISS uses some famous artwork and cute pictures. However, the images are just for decoration. On the other hand, in the MCT LA books, the artwork is an integral part of the design of the book. Even details like the length of the line separating the subject and predicate in a sentence are carefully designed to support the instructional material.

*Workbook vs. Discussion*

KISS Grammar is set up as a series of workbooks or worksheets. Although there are some instructional pages, the bulk of the pages is worksheets with a bunch of sentences. MCT LA on the other hand, has very little worksheet activity. Instead the pages are sparse with simple explanations, some examples, and lots of room for discussion.

*Memorization vs Meaning*

Early on in KISS Grammar the text tells the student that certain words (am, is, are, was, ) are *always* verbs. The student can then correctly identify these words as verbs from the beginning. However, it doesn't say *why* these words are verbs. MCT LA, on the other hand, explains what a verb is, and then has students work with practice sentences to figure out that these same words are verbs.

* Scope*

KISS Grammar is strictly grammar. MCT LA is grammar, plus vocabulary, poetics, and writing.

Both programs serve their purposes and fit their own niches. I'm glad that I found mine and that Wander was able to afford it.

separate sisters

It has not been a weekend of sisterly love. Usually Sparkle and Glitter do most activities together. Not this weekend.

It started on Friday morning. Sparkle was going on a field trip. Sparkle was excited because she got to car pool with some fun friends. Unfortunately, only school-aged kids were allowed on the field trip, so Glitter had to stay home with me. As soon as Sparkle was gone, Glitter threw a crying fit because she couldn't go.

Saturday morning, the roles were reversed. Glitter got to go to the park with Daddy, but Sparkle couldn't go because she had a ballet rehearsal. As soon as Glitter and Wander drove off, Sparkle threw a crying fit because she couldn't go.

Saturday evening, the roles reversed once again. A neighbor invited Sparkle, and only Sparkle, over for a sleepover. As Sparkle danced around in joy, Glitter threw a crying fit because she couldn't go.

The family was reunited on Sunday at church. However, the togetherness was short lived. The sleepover had left Sparkle tired and prone to crankiness. Wander was about to take the girls to another park as soon as they finished putting away their laundry. When Sparkle was unable to accomplish this routine task, I reluctantly informed her and Wander that Sparkle didn't have enough self-control to go to the park, which would only wear her out more. She immediately burst into a screaming temper-tantrum. Glitter, who managed to put away her own clothes, drove off with Wander. Eventually I was able to talk Sparkle down and she is now snoring on the sofa.

misbehaving

Yesterday was a very bad day. This morning before leaving for work, Wander had a talk with the girls about their behavior.

During a snack break, Sparkle asked me if she was misbehaving.

We'd been having a good morning, so I said no.

Then Sparkle said that, really, she was mis-behaving.

I had to think about it. Then I got it.

Sparkle wasn't "misbehaving;" she was "Miss Behaving!"

Yay for "Miss Behaving!"

Sparkle was beaming over tricking me up with her pun. She likes puns, just like her dad. She'll have to tell Wander about this one when he gets home.

I left the oven on all day

Due to an unusual combination of events, we left the house at 8am this morning and didn't get back until after 5:30pm this evening. When I got home, I found the kitchen cozy warm. Turns out I forgot to turn the oven off this morning after whisking the chicken nuggets into the thermos for lunch. Thank goodness a warm kitchen was the only result.

Wander was a total sweetie and picked up supper for us on his way home from work.

I took some pictures, but who knows when I'll actually get them off my camera.

Right now I'm too exhausted. The girls were wiped out too, which meant that they were running around like maniacs, bumping into things, and crying. At one point in the evening the girls and I were all piled on Wander's lap in various types of hysterics.

Miquon Vs. Math U See

At first glance, Miquon and Math U See might seem similar. Both use different length rods/blocks to represent the numbers from one to ten. Both systems color-code their rods.

There are a few minor differences in the rods: Miquon's Cuisenaire rods are based on the centimeter scale; MUS blocks are a little bigger, based on a half inch scale. The colors are different.

However, there are some major differences in the rods/blocks. True c-rods are smooth, without dividing lines. They don't nest or connect. MUS blocks are notched according to their values and have hollow bases. They stack well.

Users of Miquon and MUS justify the shape of their blocks/rods. MUS block users like the notches in MUS blocks because children can see and count the units that a block represents. The hollow indentations in the blocks can be used to represent negative numbers in subtraction. C-rod users like their rods smooth, because the smallest block doesn't always represent "1;" sometimes the green block might represent "1."

These differences in the manipulatives underscore some major differences in the philosophies of the programs. Here are some major differences that I've noticed when looking into the two programs.

*Origins*
Miquon was developed in the 1960's by teachers for a school environment. Math U See was developed by a homeschooling dad for homeschoolers.

*Worksheets, Review, and Drill*
Math U See has lots of worksheets. The worksheets have built in drill and review. Miquon has a few "lab sheets" as a springboard for exploration and discovery. Many of Miquon's lab sheets look nothing like traditional workbook pages. Miquon has no built in review or drill.

*Mastery vs. Spiral*
Math U See is a mastery program. It teaches all of addition before moving on to subtraction. Then it teaches all of subtraction before moving on to multiplication. And so on and so forth. Miquon, on the other hand is set up as a spiral program. Each book touches on all four operations as well as a handful of other topics. Although you can re-arrange the Miquon lab sheets to use it as a mastery program, you'd have to really flip between books or rip out pages.

*Program Driven vs. Child Led*
In Math U See, the video does the teaching and the books determine the path. However, with Miquon, the parent or child picks the activity or lab sheet and then they must puzzle them out. Parent or child might choose to work on something totally different from yesterday's work. The parent and child work together to set the pace and direction of instruction.

*Types of Parents*
Parents who pick Math U See tend to be less confident in their own math abilities or their ability to teach math. They enjoy having the DVDs to rely on and a pre-planned path. Parents who pick Miquon tend to like math themselves. They enjoy the child-discovery aspect of Miquon and the early introduction of more advanced concepts.

Numbers and Colors

I was talking with Wander about Sparkle and her color/number associations. He recalled that Sparkle's first encounters with written numbers was with foam numbers in the bathtub. He wondered if her color/number associations might have arisen from those foam numbers. Although it's been years since we've used them on a regular basis, we still have most of the foamies, so I dug them up for a color comparison.

Here is a color comparison for numbers according to C-rods, MUS blocks, Sparkle, and tub numbers:

num	C-Rods	MUS	Sparkle	tub num
1	white	green	yellow	yellow
2	red	orange	red	green
3	light green	pink	blue	blue
4	purple	yellow	green	orange
5	yellow	pale blue	red	red
6	dark green	violet	yellow	yellow/blue (6 and 9 are identical shapes)
7	black	cream	red	purple
8	brown	brown	green	green
9	blue	aqua	blue	yellow/blue (6 and 9 are identical shapes)
10	orange	blue	yellow	yellow/yellow/purple (1 is yellow, and the blocks representing zero and the letter "O" are yellow and purple)

As you can see there is a high correlation between the colors of the foam tub numbers and Sparkle's personal colors for the numbers. Sparkle has only four different colors spread across the numbers. For seven of the ten numbers (1,3,5,6,8,9,10), Sparkle's number's match the tub numbers. For one of the numbers (2), Sparkle's color matched the C-rod. For the other two numbers (4,7), Sparkle's color didn't match anything.

I'd say that Wander figured this one out.

c-rods and synesthesia?

Just before we started using Miquon and cuisenaire rods, I asked Sparkle what color the numbers from 1-10 were. Although her internal colors matched the colors of the c-rods in some cases (2 is red; 9 is blue) there was a mis-match for other numbers.

I was curious if the color/number mis-match would cause problems. So far I've noticed a couple of times when it's caused problems. Once I was check to see if Sparkle had memorized the color-number correspondence for the c-rods and asked, "What color is eight?" She answered "green" without batting an eye. Fortunately I remembered that "green" is her internal color for eight, and I rephrased my question, "What color is the rod that is 8 cm long?" Again, without any hesitation, she answered, "Oh, brown, I thought you meant the color of the number, not the color of the rod."

The next time I noticed the color/number mis-match was when she was picking out rods. I told her to pick out two of each color. So she did, starting with 10 and counting down. When she got to six, she grabbed the yellow rods. Yellow is her internal color for the number six. However, with c-rods, the 6cm rod is dark green and the yellow rod is only 5cm. When I pointed out her error, she quickly corrected herself. (Side note - if she'd been counting up, I wonder if she would have made the same error or not?)

Overall Sparkle's amazing memory is usually able to keep the colors of "numbers" versus the colors of "rods" straight. So, I think that we will continue to use the rods. However, if she weren't able to keep the two sets of colors straight, I'd have to give up the program.