One Day at a Time...: "We will, we will, ROCK these!"

So if you are interested, (you might not be) here is a list of Common Core Literacy standards that I found for free! What are "Common Core Standards," you ask? They are a measuring stick for what children should know at the grade level indicated throughout the entire US, only a few states haven't gotten on board with these. Before these, each state had their own set of standards and it was always such a mess when moving from one state to another to teach the very same thing or grade- each was slightly different than the other.

So, if you like my "objectives" from the lesson plans- you would want to download these now while they are still available. I looked them over and it was nice to see what I can work on in terms of future goals, and I thought of how I can work more of these questioning techniques into my plans for our other subjects. They are truly simple and easy to incorporate. If you have any questions just post a comment or email me- I'd be happy to help. :)

This is a sample from the Kinder level...

see didn't I tell you you'd like these?

Now everyone give yourselves a pat on the back, you can all take the day off... JUST KIDDING!

But seriously we should pat ourselves on the back if our kids are exceeding any of these- that means we "rock!"

You feel better already knowing your child can do this blindfolded, don't you? Well, ok maybe not blindfolded, but you know what I mean!

And who would have thought, our prepositions would not only be used, but also memorized by Kinders?

I <3 Classical education!

Here are the rest of them and remember... no stressing! I'll cover all of these over time!

"We will, we will, ROCK these!" (Thump, thump, thump!)

Ok, maybe I'm the only one singing in my blue robe...

Most good curriculums cover these- so this really shouldn't be very different from what we already own. I heard that many colleges actually specifically recruit homeschool kids. Why? Because they are so well loved and cared for? Well, yes, but their reasoning is because they have many great skills ready to be successful for college and they are usually heads and shoulders above their peers. So this is really a little something to help you see what they should now and make you feel better knowing they do know it.

If you are like my family, you might have your child in a curriculum that matches his ability and not his "school age/ grade"- if that is the case- go with their school age grade for standard match up. So for example if your 1st grader is reading at a 3rd grade level, match up the standards for him at 1st grade, not the other way around.

If you want the rest of them for free, you have to go to the site that publishes them, but they are by no means as pretty as the other ones. Here is the actual site for all ages even up through high school! :)

Can I get a "Who Hoo" from the crowd?

Another fun thing you can get from the Secret Stories site is these little illustrations for vowel combinations.

Of course I had ones similar to these years ago, but lost them in one of my moves...

I made up stories of why the letters didn't "behave"- even today I talked to Tony about how the "mean E" pinches the other letters and makes them say their name. Of course he loved it and we ended up spending quite a few minutes going over vowel consonant vowel (VCV) words. So if you have a child that loves stories and illustrations, they will probably love these cards.