A Glimpse into our J-Term (J-Term part 2)

In January, our family does a J-Term (January Term) instead of our normal school schedule.

Our J-Term Schedule
8:00-9:00 The children are allowed to sleep in a little bit.  They wake up between 8-9.  I turn on the Classical Conversations Memory Work CD and they listen to that while they eat breakfast, get dressed, and get ready for the day.  They know their morning chores must be finished before the CD is over.
9:00-11:00 Read aloud and Research, grammar, spelling and language arts focused on research topic
11:00-12:00 Math games
12:00 Lunch
1:00- Free Time (No TV) I usually clean out a drawer or closet while the kids played with toys or went outside.  I let them listen to a Classical Conversations Memory work CD from past years.  It is a nice review.  Sometimes they listen to other music or poetry on CD.
3:00- The 8 year old made dinner several nights because she chose cooking as her hobby
7:30-8:30pm Math games and Read Aloud as a family (My husband even plays the math games with us

There is a lot of wiggle room in this schedule.  Sometimes  our free time was filled with piano and guitar lessons, or with our weekly homeschool group, or my private tutoring so every day was a little different.  But every day we got all of this accomplished, even if it wasn't quite the same times as listed above.

Our J-Term Focus
This year our focus for January was research and report writing.  My children each picked a topic to research.  My 8 year old wanted to research dolphins. My 6 year old wanted to research dragons. (He ended up focusing mostly on the Loch Ness Monster and now wants to go to Scotland.) I teach a British History and Literature class for third and fourth graders so my class took a break from our normal routine to learn how to research.  We learned how to write a bibliography, make note cards, make a mind map, and write a report using the cards and map. 


The 6 year old reads about St. George and the Dragon to his Lego Minecraft Ender Dragon

My 8 year old has really struggled to master subtraction facts.  In addition to her math curriculum, CTC math,  she has been drilling subtraction facts daily in a Kumon workbook.  She does ok, but it is tedious and it wasn't really helping her remember the facts. I was looking for a game to help her practice her skills.  Subtraction Splat has been a life saver! Every evening as part of J-term, we play the game.  There are two types of cards.  Most of the cards in the deck are basic flash cards with the subtraction problem unsolved on one side.  The other cards are the numerals 0-12.  The player turns over 6 subtraction problems.  Then you turn over one of the numeral cards and have to see if it is answer to one or more of subtraction problem cards.  If it solves one of the six subtraction problem cards, then you turn it over.  The object of the game is to turn over all 6 cards before the other player does.  To make it more complicated we play with 9 or 10 subtraction problem cards.
)

The 8 year old sharpens her subtraction skills using the Subtraction Splat game.

What I love about Subtraction Splat is that every time we turn over another numeral card, my 8 year old solves all the cards that are face up again to make sure that she knows the answer.  She drills the same problems over and over through out the game.  This has really helped her to memorize some of the facts.

Yesterday, I had my 3rd grader do two Kumon subtraction pages for the first time in over a month.  It only took her 15 minutes to do both pages!  (It normally takes her an hour).  She still does not have all her subtraction facts memorized, but she was much more comfortable using some of the solving strategies that she has learned.  She was VERY proud of herself.  I am proud of her, too!

My six year old also played Splat, as well as our favorite addition game Super Genius. 

This month we participated in Sarah McKenzie's Read Aloud Challenge.  Each child had to read out loud for 15 minutes daily.  My 8 year old has become a very confident reader because of this practice! It was just the boost she needed! She is now CHOOSING to read aloud to her dolls.   This is my sweet girl with dyslexia who is now reading ABOVE grade level! I'm so proud of her hard work!

Every evening, instead of watching endless Netflix reruns, our family sits around the dining room table while I read the Secret Garden aloud.  My 8 year old has become really involved in the story, talking to characters while I read aloud. She's been saying things like, "Don't do it, Mary! Don't tell Colin about the Secret Garden!  It's a secret! Stop talking to him!" I've never seen her so attached to the characters and setting.  On a rare warm day this month, she decided to plant her own secret garden, spending the entire day outside looking at things, and playing with sticks.  It is so nice to see her inspired by literature.

J-Term has been a great way to sharpen some skills in many areas.  I have seen amazing improvement in both of my elementary students in just one month.  I'm really glad we took the time to do J-Term. 

What is J-Term? (J-Term part 1)

It is so hard to get back into the swing of things after Christmas break.  My kids stay up late, sleep in, eat too much sugar, and watch a lot tv during the holidays.  When it comes to starting school again, January can sometimes be a rude awakening.  Last January my friend Claire told me her plans for the month.  She was excited to become an intern at our children's hospital.  She was able to do this because of J-term at her college. It was her experience that inspired me to incorporate J-Term into our school year.



Claire's experience during J-term led us to incorporate J-term into our homeschool.

J-Term has become one of our favorite parts of the year!  J-Term (which stands for January Term) is something that many colleges and universities choose to do instead of starting the second semester in January.  Students have many options.  This year Claire, a junior at Franklin College, spent most of January touring Europe and studying the Holocaust.  Another college friend, Samm, spent the month interning with an insurance company.

While my children are not quite ready to backpack across Europe or become an intern, I felt there was value in stepping away from our normal curriculum to focus on something they were interested in for a little while.

The Components of this year's J-Term (I'm sure it will be different next year)
Each day the children spent a good deal of time in research, reviewed our CC Memory work, the read out loud for 15 minutes as part of Sarah McKenzie's Read Aloud Challenge, played math games to help sharpen math skills, worked on a hobby and chore, and listened to me read The Secret Garden aloud.

In the following blog posts I will explain how we carried out our J-Term, what I loved (and didn't love about it) and how we dealt with a major curve ball that landed us in the hospital.