Hello my name is Kel and I'm a paper snob. Oh and some AAS student pages I made up.

Yes, my kids can and will write on notebook or loose leaf paper, but only if they have no other option.  Why?  In all honesty, because their mother is a Paper Snob.  There I admitted it.  I'm a Paper Snob.  What's a Paper Snob?  It's someone that refuses to use anything less than 28lb, 98 brightness paper in her color laser printer.  I hate the way plain old 20lb paper is see through.  I like to print front and back when at all possible and don't want to see the backside of the paper showing through.  

Now that I got my confession out there, on to the important part of the post, the All About Spelling Student pages I created. 

I thought if I made some pages the kids would stop sniping at me about the unbearably thin 16lb loose leaf or notebook paper they've been forced to use so far this year. 

I made a page for level 1 or 2 work (in the beginning or level 1 you won't need the phrases or sentences part, but you can just print the front), one for levels 3 and up (I've only used up to 3, so I hope the set up for 4-7 will still work), as well as one for when we do mastered review.


I'll explain what's on them...




1. 5 random words or 10 random words (this is where we would write words from our review section of the word cards) we do 5 a day at levels 1 & 2 and 10 a day for level 3. I always shuffle our cards before taking out the first 5 or 10. We do this 3 days out of the week, which is usually how long it takes us to get through all but the sentences of the steps.


2. Spell on Paper, this is pretty self explanatory. It's where they would write the 10 words from that step from the spell on paper section.


3. More Words, for those that like to use them. I put a place with lines to write 10 of those words.


4. Phrases and Sentences,again pretty self explanatory. It's where they would write the phrases and/or sentences for that step. 


5. Writing Station, this section starts half way through level 3.


Mastered Review page is for when we have a mastered review come up in the levels. It has check boxes for the phonogram and key cards and then a place to write 15 phonograms from sound cards and 25 words from the word card sections.  When I do a mastered review we don't do all the cards or they'd take us forever.


I know not everyone will do AAS the way we do, but I thought I'd put them out there for anyone that may be interested.


Here is a link to them in Google Docs
Level 1 and 2 pages


Level 3 and up pages


Mastered Review page


I hope a little bit of my time this afternoon will help out a few others.

Weekly Review -- March 12-16, 2012

This was a hard week to get school done.  The weather outside was beyond perfect.  Temperatures were in the High 70s to Low 80s most days, so we spent lots of time outside, but still managed to get a bit of school work done.

Annika

... had another great week at vision therapy, then we stopped at the library for another batch of picture books.  She loves reading them because the stories are short and don't overwhelm her.  They also tend to have harder vocabulary than the typical leveled readers or chapter books that most at her reading level choose.

... completed lessons 74-77 and Quiz 11 of Teaching Textbooks 4, which wrapped up the chapter on angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, perpendicular and parallel lines, squares, rectangles, perimeter and area.  PHEW, that chapter covered a lot!

... wasn't sure about sticking with All About Spelling, but after talking it through with me decided that with a few changes to our approach that it would be the thing to stick with.
...told me she's finally ready to move on in her phonics study.  We had to take a break due to her getting overwhelmed, so we focused on just reading.  We now plan to use All About Spelling as a phonics program with her, but we'll move at a faster pace than with spelling.  We'll go back to the beginning and go through it quite quickly, but this way we'll review all she knows before jumping into the thick of it.
... had another great week bowling, every game of hers was over 100, and she set a new high score for herself with a 129. 

Everett

... completed unit 5 in Junior Analytical Grammar on Subjects and Verbs.  He did great and scored another "Mastery" level or and A on his test.

...completed lessons 69-72 and Quiz 10 in Teaching Textbooks .  This wrapped up the Decimals in the Real World Chapter.  He was excited about this chapter which included topics like balancing a checkbook, stock prices, and using a calculator.  The last two lessons started the Percents chapter, which he's loving and says it's really pretty easy.

...completed step 14 in All About Spelling 3

...had a lot of fun at bowling this week and had a few games in the 80s.

Lucas

...wouldn't let me take any pictures of him this week
...finished lesson11 in All About Reading level 1, which had him reading 2 new stories in his reader.   
...started McRuffy Math 1 and completed lessons 1-7. He loves that it has him doing simple timed tests and the problems are starting to be written out with just numbers instead of always having pictures.  He said, "Cool, no more baby math"


Science
We did some science this week and completed week 21 in Real Science Odyssey Chemistry.  It was an introduction to matter.  Instead of using Lego pieces to build molecule models I busted out an actual molecule model kit I'd bought.  The kids had a blast with it.  I'm going to be really sad when this program is over in a couple months.  The kids have thoroughly enjoyed it.  I hope the company is able to release something new before we start the new school year in the fall.


After my reflection time about the curriculum we're using, I've decided that everything we're finishing up is what we'll continue to use.  It works and our days run fairly smooth with the programs we're using.  I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do with history next year, but I have a pretty good idea.  I have nailed down geography which is one less thing to stress over.  

Weekly Review -- March 5-9, 2012

We definitely shook our colds and had a great week.  We had to push some things to the weekend because it was just so gorgeous outside on Thursday and we knew that Friday and Saturday were going to be much colder and some rain was expected.  It worked out perfectly.  The kids got lots of fresh air and sunshine on Thursday and then buckled down Friday and Saturday to wrap up the week. 

Annika

... did great at vision therapy and then returned to the office on Tuesday for her 24 week progress evaluation.  The Dr. is very happy with the progress she's made.  There are some areas where she's increased her ability by 2 grade levels, putting her much closer to where she should be.  She was so proud of herself, as are we.

... completed lessons 71-73 of Teaching Textbooks 4, which continued to teach her about angles, the different kinds of triangles and Quadrilaterals.  She's really having fun with this chapter. 

... completed step 10 of All About Spelling level 2
... had another great week bowling.  We go  every Wednesday just as family fun, no league, but they love it.  She only broke 100 one game, but was in the high 90s all the other games. 

Everett

... completed unit 4 in Junior Analytical Grammar on prepositions and aced the unit test.  I was so proud of how he really focused and took his time with this unit instead of trying to rush through it. 

...completed Quiz 9 and received a 100% on it.  He also completed lessons 67-68, which covered checking accounts and hours & minutes to start the Decimals in the Real World chapter.  

...completed step 13 in All About Spelling 3

... said the book he's reading on Egyptian Myths is excellent.

... had a rough first game at bowling, but then asked to pay to use his own lane and did much better. 

Lucas

...finished lessons 9 and 10 in All About Reading level 1, and is doing really well sounding out words.  He absolutely loves when the lesson includes reading a story from the Run Bug, Run! reader. 
... completed lessons 100-106 in McRuffy math.


I'm at the point of this year where I'm starting to evaluate what we've used in order to determine if I'll continue with that program or find something else.  Right now there are a few things I'm on the fence about.  I love All About Spelling, but it seems to be a real slog for Annika to get through it.  I have another option on the shelf so we're going to take a break from AAS and give Spelling Power a try for her over the next few weeks to see how that works for her.  All of Everett's things will most likely stay the same.  Lucas may be getting something else for math, but I'm not sure what.  I like McRuffy, but think I may have put him in a level too low.  I may just have to bump him up now and work at an accelerated pace until we hit a more challenging part of the program.  

Weekly Review -- February 27-March 2, 2012

It seems we are finally on the mend.  We all seem to have gotten over our colds and had a good schooling week.  The weather was also simply gorgeous on Thursday and Friday so we spent a lot of time outside enjoying it. 

Annika

... had another great week at vision therapy

... finished her swim lessons at the YMCA, graduating at "Fish" level

... completed lessons 68-70 and Quiz 10 of Teaching Textbooks 4, which had her beginning to learn about angles and how to measure them.  She loved it.

... completed step 9 of All About Spelling level 2

Everett

... completed unit 3 in Junior Analytical Grammar on pronouns

...completed lessons 62-66, which means he is almost finished with his Decimals chapter, next week he'll take the quiz. Then he'll start on the Decimals in the Real World chapter which he believes will be fun.  He always like the chapters that focus on Real World questions.

...completed step 12 in All About Spelling 3

... has started reading a new book 

... is working on writing a fictional story of his own making

Lucas

...was really quite a bit ahead so we spent time re-reading some of his All About Reading stories and fluency practice sheets to work on building his reading confidence and pace.

... played lots of fun math games since he only had enough lessons in his math book to last to the end of April and I'm trying to stretch it out. 

... he also spent lots of time on geopuzzles which is a fun way to learn about our world.