Aug. 24, 2006 - Week 2
Our family's homeschool started last week! The first week had it's bumps, but overall went REALLY well.
This will be our 4th year homeschooling (my kids are now: K, 2nd, 5th) and every year I feel more comfortable and in "my stride". That said, I feel these two weeks have been our best homeschooling yet! I don't think it is really any one thing, but these elements seem to have made a difference: a curriculum that fits my teaching style and our desires for our children's education; having a clear vision of my family's abilities (and my own); the kids being used to the homeschool lifestyle; me being used to having the kids with me 24/7; and me letting go of expectations that just didn't suit me or my children.
Last week (8/14-18) did just the basics and a few extra readings. This week (8/21-25) we are doing a little closer to a full load, but have not added in our "Family School" which will include Bible, Poetry, Shared Literture, and Nature Studies - as well as Composer, Folk Songs, Hymns and Artist Study. We'll add that next week (8/28-9/1) and then the week after that (9/4-8), we'll add our outside classes: Science Club, Ballet, PE and Drama.
That looks like a lot on paper (at least it does to me), but the Family studies are very low-key and short. The outside classes are carefully selected to suit our goals for our kids and I'm fully prepared to drop anything that becomes a hinderance!
In an effort to provide myself some school accountability, I'm going to post our schedule each week for the next month. After that, I'd like to continue, but we'll see how the first month goes. If it becomes a burden rather than an assistance to me, I'll stop.
I've seen blogs do this in the side panel, but I'm not totally confident in how to do that. So, for now, I'll stick with using the entry space. If anyone reads this and wishes to share some instructions on how to place it in the side panel (and why this is beneficial) do let me know!
Here is the work we've accomplished for this week: (Italics is used for those activities that were accomplished outside my lesson plan.)
DD - Young Kindergarten:
Handwriting Without Tears: H, K, L, U
MCP Math "K": p. 31, 33, 34, 37, 39, 40 - 45 (mostly number recognition)
Read Alouds- Mother Goose, Winnie the Pooh
"sand" writing, made bead bracelets (with pipe cleaner and beads)
DS - 2nd:
MCP Math "B": practicing addition & subtraction p. 11-13
Phonics -MCP Phonics "A": reviewing short voewl sounds p. 99, 107-108
Reading practice - Read Hop on Pop, Bears in the Night
History - Children's History of the World - Charlemagne, Alcuin, Harun Al-Rashid (ch. 47); Our Island Story 1/2 of ch. 23; timeline figures
Geography - Marco Polo ch. 1
Science - Christian Liberty Nature Reader 2 "How Mrs. Crab Gets a New Coat"
Literature - A Door in the Wall 1/2 ch. 2; Redwall 1 ch.; The Hobbit 1/2 ch.
Made a sundial; Built a "cable car" for stuffed animals to ferry them from 1st to 2nd floor; Made crochet bracelets; Made up and copied "elvish" numerals; Lots of Lego building
DS - 5th:
English Lang. Notebook: Copied definition of "helping verbs", Copied list of helping verbs
Grammar: Easy Grammar p. 12-16
Math: Saxon 5/4 p. Lesson 4, 9, 10 (we planned to do Lesson 6, but it was unnecessary). Tests 1 and 2 (which covers material up to Lesson10).
History: Lincoln's World (Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson)p. 15-27; This Country of Ours (George Washington's Presidency) ch. 64; Of Courage Undaunted p. 20-31; timeline figures
Science: Christian Liberty Nature Reader 5 (Teeth) ch. 2; Isaac Newton ch. 2; Physics Lab in a Housewares Store p.21 (Centrifugal Force)
Literature: Age of Fable 1/2 ch. 1 (Prometheus and Pandora); King Arthur ch. 2; Comedy of Errors "Scene 1"; Carry On Mr. Bowditch 1 ch.
Reading Mariel of Redwall; Built a cable car (above); Karate (brown belt)
Kerry
Comments
Aug. 24, 2006 - Hi there...
Posted by Anonymous
Sounds like you're off to a great start....we are starting the day after Labor Day. This will be our first year, and I'm very nervous. I don't have everything ready yet. Your school load sounds great. I settled on Rod & Staff for most of our curriculum, Math U See for both kids, Beautiful Feet for history, and we're making up our own Bible curriculum form some great books I have called "Unlocking The Bible Story". My load looks like a lot of paper too, but people have told me that the lessons don't take much time to do. I'm hoping to have our school just in the morning. We'll see what happens though. It was great to see you posting again...it's been a while! Take care....
Love, Kathy (kampsplete) I can't log in right now because my blog is being worked on :)
Aug. 24, 2006 - Hi there...
Posted by Anonymous
Sounds like you're off to a great start....we are starting the day after Labor Day. This will be our first year, and I'm very nervous. I don't have everything ready yet. Your school load sounds great. I settled on Rod & Staff for most of our curriculum, Math U See for both kids, Beautiful Feet for history, and we're making up our own Bible curriculum from some great books I have called "Unlocking The Bible Story". My load looks like a lot on paper too, but people have told me that the lessons don't take much time to do. I'm hoping to have our school just in the morning. We'll see what happens though. It was great to see you posting again...it's been a while! Take care....
Love, Kathy (kampsplete) I can't log in right now because my blog is being worked on :)
Aug. 24, 2006 - Oops!
Posted by kampsplete
Sorry about the duplicate comment...I didn't mean to do that!
Kathy
Aug. 24, 2006 - Sidebar
Posted by teabaglady
Hi! I enjoyed reading about your first week. We're in the process of gradually starting up as well, but won't be full swing until after Labour Day.
The only way I could find to do the sidebar stuff was to go to "Edit Template" and add it using HTML code. For the heading I just copied the "Friends" heading and changed the word "Friends" to "Curricula We Use." Then I put the subjects in below that. If you don't know the HTML codes, I found a useful list at http://www.web-source.net/html_codes_chart.htm There is some explanation there, and if you scroll down you'll see a whole list of tags for various things. The only thing that didn't work for me was playing with the font. I could make it bigger, but I can't seem to make it smaller.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions. I'm not very experienced with, but this my husband is very computer savy so I can always ask him. :-)
Heather - a fellow FlyLady drop out.
