Ancient History, Week 3

First Farmers, First Towns

This week was a continuation of last week's study of stone age cave dwellers. Since Tessa didn't do anything particularly picture-worthy, I decided to use this space to show and explain how we define the dictionary words from History Odyssey.

Even though Tessa is working at the first grade level in most subjects, her coordination and hand muscle strength is closer to that of a typical kindergartner. I knew that having her copy entire dictionary definitions at her age would suck the life out of history for both of us, so I use the free version of ZB FontsOnlinePlus to create fill-in-the-blank copywork sheets. I also make enlargements of corresponding dictionary pages at 200 percent on a copy machine.

First, I have Tessa copy the dictionary word, which I already have printed on her copywork sheet. Then, we look up the word together in a children's dictionary and read its definition. (We use Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary, which we like, but I wish the definitions were a little shorter and simpler. Dictionaries with shorter and simpler definitions do not seem to have the majority of the words used in History Odyssey.) Next, I pull out the copy of the dictionary page that I enlarged to 200 percent. We read the definition again on this sheet and compare it to the copywork sheet. Tessa underlines the missing words on the enlargement of the dictionary page. Finally, she fills in the blanks on her copywork sheet using the underlined words.

This week's dictionary word was "town." Defining the word also served as Tessa's handwriting lesson for the day.

Monday

• Read Usborne: Ancient World by Fiona Chandler (pages 4-5).
• Completed corresponding Blue House School ancient world worksheets. 
• Completed HO map work for Lesson 2, Main Lesson Part 1 and Part 2.

Tuesday

• Read How People Lived by Jim Pipe (pages 12-15).
• Completed draw and color.
• Watched Stories from the Stone Age: Daily Bread (parts 1-4) by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Stories from the Stone Age: Daily Bread is a nice documentary created by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It may be viewed for free via YouTube. I downloaded it from YouTube user AllHistories who uploaded it in fifteen ten-minute segments. The first four segments show how the Natufian people evolved from nomads at the end of the last Ice Age to the world's first farmers. Although this series is child-friendly (at least the parts we viewed), I did edit out the first five minutes of part three. It shows a burial scene. It's not particularly gruesome, but Tessa doesn't always deal well with human actors playing dead. Had the deceased not had blood on his head, I probably would have left it in. There is also a human skeleton in part one, but she didn't have a problem with that.

If you're like me and have major problems streaming videos from the internet, check out SaveVid.com. It can be used to save videos to your hard drive where they can later be played without interruption. After doing this, I transferred and then played them on our Kindle Fire.

Thursday

• Looked up and defined HO dictionary word for Lesson 2, Main Lesson Part 2.
• Read Usborne: Ancient World by Fiona Chandler (pages 16-17).
• Completed corresponding Blue House School ancient world worksheets.

* HO = History Odyssey

Finally! Handwriting We Like...I Think

If I would have started this blog a couple of months ago, I would have written a lot about our handwriting struggles. Handwriting Without Tears for Kindergarten was perfect for Tessa. I have no complaints. Used with the key components, it's a very good program, especially for young learners. However, Handwriting Without Tears for Grade 1 was a flop for both of us. I started loathing their signature double lines. From watching Tessa write during other subjects, I knew her handwriting could be quite good for her age, but I just wasn't seeing it during handwriting. Half of the first grade workbook is pretty much identical to the kindergarten one. I guess it's good to be consistent and familiar, but for us, it was just too much of the same ole thing. Granted, it may not be as bad for students who don't school year-around or jump right into the next level.

Handwriting Without Tears for Grade 1 - Without headlines, Tessa's tall letters are inconsistent and often way too tall.

After looking and thinking, looking and thinking, I finally bought a Zaner-Bloser for Grade 1 handwriting workbook for her. The font isn't too terribly different. I had Tessa continue to form letters the Handwriting Without Tears way. The pages are four-color, feature cute little illustrations and the lessons are easy to divide into smaller portions. It was a breath of fresh air...for about a week. What was the problem? Zaner-Bloser prints on high-gloss paper, which is very SLICK. In addition to concentrating on proper letter formation, Tessa worried about her pencil slipping across the page. It wasn't worth the frustration. We had no choice, we chucked it. After a one-day jump back to the Handwriting Without Tears for Grade 1 workbook (needless to say, that didn't go so well...again), I decided to copy the remaining Handwriting Without Tears for Grade 1 content into ZB FontsOnline Plus, which is Zaner-Bloser's wonderful free online worksheet maker. I love that I can adjust the line spacing by choosing different grade levels.

Zaner-Bloser for Grade 1 - Zaner-Bloser uses four-color printing, features cute illustrations and the lessons are easy to divide. Tessa completed these pages over five days. Unfortunately, Zaner-Bloser prints on high-gloss paper, which is very slick and caused Tessa needless frustration.

ZB FontsOnline Plus - A worksheet I created using Zaner-Bloser's free online worksheet maker. I copied the remaining Handwriting Without Tears for Grade 1 content into the program. I wanted to use Handwriting Without Tear's worksheet maker for the font, but they do not currently offer a triple-line option as far as I can tell.

We pressed on with my revised Handwriting Without Tears worksheets. Every time I pulled one out, Tessa broke out into a fit of uncontrollable itches and yawns. It was a struggle for her to form one full letter without some part of her body itching. I took this as a sign that I needed to find something drastically different. More looking and thinking...

Thank you, Scholastic Teacher Express Dollar Deals! Hiding within categories I never would have thought to look in for handwriting curriculum, I found these (plus, a few others for later).

 

We started 15 Reproducible Cut & Paste Mini-Dictionaries this past week. I divided the words among three days, so Tessa copies five themed words every other day. She also hones her hand and finger muscles by coloring, cutting and pasting the corresponding pictures into the booklet. Although I think she knows, I've been careful not to call it handwriting. I think I'm on the right track, as she actually asked to work on her mini dictionary first the second day. My plan is to rotate the eBooks above every couple of weeks to stem off monotony.

After writing the selected words, Tessa colored the corresponding pictures.

Then, she cut them out.

Finally, Tessa pasted the pics into her mini dictionary. 

Update: We have since abandoned most of the Scholastic eBooks mentioned above. As fun as they were, the line-spacing used in them is ginormous. After trial and error, I discovered Tessa's handwriting is better when smaller. I switched back to creating my own handwriting worksheets with ZB FontsOnline Plus. I use the line spacing for Grade 3. In addition to copying specific letters and words, I allow her to practice a little creative writing...she gets to create her own sentences using words she selects from word banks. Handwriting is going quite a bit better now.