Friday, October 3, 2008 - Homeschool Not So Weekly Report
Posted in: Homeschool
I sure have not settled in to the routine of writing about our school week still..have you? The only way to do that I suppose is to write about it so here goes.
We have pretty much worked out the kinks in scheduling subjects and adjusting to Bug's work schedule. Now it certainly doesn't run as smoothly as in years past and we are concentrating on things being completed on a weekly basis far more than a daily one. The only thing I really INSIST on being done a daily basis is Bible because I think that should be a daily thing for all Christians and its a habit we have worked hard to instill in all our children. She is reading through Genesis currently and progressing well. For Apologetics she is still reading "How to Ruin Your Life by Forty" for a couple more weeks and we are both thoroughly enjoying it!
MUS is usually 3-5 new lessons/week but she does at least one session every day. She is required to get 100% on a lesson before she moves on to new material. If she doesn't she will do as many practices as needed before she tackles a new lesson.
Language Arts - She is averaging two groups per week for Spelling Power which is HUGE for Bug as it is an area she continues to struggle with. I do see improvement in her spelling within the context of her writing though and not just on "spelling tests"...again a huge step forward for her! (Well done Bug Girl!)
IEW has become a more frequent part of lessons for right now. Since she has the basics down we are simply using various topics from history as the basis for her writing. I am finding shorter, more frequent writing assignments is working well for her. We are planning to compile all her writings together into one binder as they all cover a variety of issues or topics from the 1900s. It should end being a nice little compilation at year's end.
Wordly Wise entails 2-3 lessons per week and she is doing well with those. I hear her using some of the vocabulary she has learned and that is always exciting...and at times amusing. She doesn't always ask me to pronounce the word list for her so occasionally she comes up with....um...shall we say...creative? pronounciations! This always reminds me of her GodMama's story of pronouncing "lapels" as "Lay-pells". It runs in the family! *S*
She is not having any trouble keeping up with History assignments but I am finding it to be moving a bit TOO quickly through WWI. So far we have tackled all major events of world history from 1900 to 1918 along with some lesser known (though not less important) events like the Armenian Genocide of 1915. We've worked out a good system for marking her geography maps and timeline but they might not get done until the end of the week versus daily. She does NOT enjoy the questions that coincide with Visual History of the Modern World so I have been trying to be creative and incorporate them as items to include on her timeline. It's working so far. Oh...Sonlight covers a decade in approximately a 2 - 2.5 week period in case you were wondering. They also have the student write a "Decade Summary Report" after each decade but we opted NOT to do that since we are using IEW. (refer to my comment above about shorter, more frequent writing assignments.)
Literature has been pretty intriguing so far...and challenging. We have developed a policy whereby she is allowed to "opt out" of one book per year. I require her to get to at least page 100 before she is allowed to do this though and there is a reaqson to my madness. After going that far she usually doesn't mind reading that particular book or is reluctant to use her opt out card this early in the game knowing she might come up against a book she truly is not interested in. We are in week 6 and the selections have been The Great Brain, The Road From Home (mama is reading currently), Heart of Darkness, excerpts from Labor's Untold Story, Murder on the Orient Express and The Metamorphosis (see my earlier entry of Kafka on My Mind). This year's poetry is Poetry: Robert Frost whom she adores! We need to reinstate our weekly teatime with poetry reading but haven't done it yet.
I still need to nail down a schedule for Apologia Marine Biology and hopefully will be able to form a co-op with some homeschoolers nearby that are also using it. In the interim, she is working her way through the Marine Biology Coloring Book covering 2 pages per week. Watch for many more hands-on activities in the upcoming weeks in this area...I can't wait!
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