|
Argh! No pictures again! (Sorry, Mom!) Here is our report of the last few weeks: Bible: Continued reading in the New Testament, up to the stoning of Stephen. Also read from Missionary Stories with the Millers weekly. Arithmetic: The girls have finished with their Singapore 3B books, and we will be taking a break from these and starting 4A in the summer. Sam continues to work through 2A, but I have slowed him down to using this only a couple of times per week. All three kiddos have continued their respective Horizons lessons up to Lesson 90. Literature: We have begun reading from Viking Tales and are continuing with Little Pilgrim's Progress. The children's free reading choices have included more Little House books, Gentle Ben, and Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie. We are also reading through the poems of Eugene Field and memorizing "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod." Science: Apologia Astronomy is completed up to chapter four (Venus) and has been a huge hit. We only read a short portion of the text daily and then complete the minibooks from our lapbook as a means of narration. I'm shocked at the amount that I'M learning, never mind the kids! We have also read several chapters of Pagoo by Holling and have moved into the mouse, rat, and insectivore families from Burgess' Animal Book. History and Geography: We are taking a bit of a hiatus from American history after having read D'Aulaire's Benjamin Franklin. I plan to pick up again in the summer, but we really want to devote the next few months to our study of the middle ages, which has included studies about the beginnings and spread of Islam, the Maori people of New Zealand, and the Frankish Empire. Our continent of focus this month has been South America.. Hands of a Child has a great lapbook on this subject that we've really enjoyed. French: Vocabulary and simple conversations have been our focus for the past few weeks. We have also enjoyed some easy French readers from the library. Art and Music: Our featured composer for the month was Mozart, and it was sweet to hear the children speaking about his music as one might speak of an old friend! We've also spent some time learning some new tempera painting techniques and have studied some of the works of Botticelli. All in all, I've been happy with what we've accomplished, in spite of "missing Daddy" and spring fever! We're looking forward to visiting Oklahoma sometime later this month and getting to know our "new home" a little better. Have a great week, everyone!
Would you like to save 60-90% on groceries, cleaning supplies, and health and beauty purchases? Email me to ask how! |
|
I feel sorta silly using the above graphic, since I haven't been a "weekly" reporter for nearly a month (!) but now that school is back on track, hopefully my posting will follow. Hubby is settled into his new bachelor pad out in Oklahoma (eating little but rice and ground beef, from what I gather...). We all miss him terribly and are praying that the Lord would send a buyer for our house very soon, but in the meantime the kids and I have found a new routine that is working well, and we are trying to be content with life as it is handed to us. We have reached the end of our first term -- 12 weeks just flew by! -- and exam week is here. Following are some highlights from the last month of the term: Bible We have continued reading through the New Testament, and have reached the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. We have had some great discussions as we have read this term! Our missionary stories on Fridays have also been a big hit; the kids have been so awed at what others have done for their faith. For examinations, the children will retell one Bible story from this term and recite either Luke 2:8-14 (birth of Jesus) or Matthew 13:3-9 (parable of the sower). Arithmetic The girls were very pleased to finish up Singapore 3B this week. We have decided to take a break from it for a few weeks in order to focus on certain concepts in Horizons 4. It has worked well to introduce new topics in Horizons, which provides plenty of practice, before tackling it in Singapore. I am very pleased with their progress so far this year! Sam, too, has reached multiplication in both of his programs, which thus far has been very simple. He learned skip counting along with the girls a year or two ago, and so I believe it will be a much easier process for him. He is also learning the concept of division as the inverse of multiplication in his Singapore books. There will be no specific arithmetic exam, as the biweekly tests are graded throughout the term. Language Arts We have continued using Daily Grams, and lots of copywork and dictation for language arts. I am thrilled to see the improvements in spelling and grammar that are taking place. Laura is reading (or re-reading) the Little House books, Eva is finishing The Incredible Journey ("This is SO much better than the movie, mama!") and Samuel is tackling Mr. Popper's Penguins. For examinations, the kiddos will copy a section of a poem in their best handwriting, read a selection of poetry aloud, and recite "Some One" by Walter de la Mare. Literature Several books and stories from this term will be counted on our list of favorites. We read "The Pygmies" from Tanglewood Tales, which the kiddos loved acting out again and again. We also finished Understood Betsy and "The Taming of the Shrew" out of Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare -- a laugh-out-loud reading that we all enjoyed immensely. Exams will include retellings of favorite sections of various stories. Science Our "Under the Sea" lapbooks were a big hit this term, as was our reading of The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible. We began Apologia's astronomy book last week, accompanied by the awesome lapbook/notebook from Live and Learn. We only read a short section each day and do one minibook for each section as a review or narration exercise. I can't believe how much I have already learned! They really enjoyed creating their mnemonic phrase for the order of the planets: Mom's Very Exciting Monkey Just Slurped Up Nana's Pizzas! For exam week, the children will explain how an animal is classified as a rodent, will draw and describe members of either the rabbit or squirrel family, and answer questions about the various zones of the ocean and the creatures who live there. History and Geography In American history, we have covered up until the founding of Pennsylvania. I'm very pleased with how much the kids look forward to reading This Country of Ours, which some have called an archaic, difficult read. For exams, the children will name and label as many of the original colonies as they can, and describe events from at least two of them. For geography, as we have been studying North America, the kiddos will find and label different regions, landmarks, rivers, and major cities, as well as describe climate, landforms, vegetation, and animals throughout. In world history, we have reached the time of the Byzantine Empire. We continue working through Story of the World: Middle Ages and A Child's History of the World together, as they really complement each other well. This week we are finishing up a brief tour of the countries in the east during this period: India, China, and Japan. In their examinations, the kiddos will tell me everything they remember about Julius Caesar, show me the location of the Roman and Byzantine Empires on their maps, describe some of the barbarian tribes that invaded and point out where they came from. French We are finishing Lesson Six in Le Français Facile, a review of comparative adjectives. Much of this is still review from last year. Exams will include some easy translation exercises and holding a simple conversation with leur maman. Art and Music Our last featured artist of the term was Leonardo da Vinci. The children made notebook pages about him and included stickers of their favorite art prints. We also read through Katie and the Mona Lisa and have enjoyed making several projects based on pictures in the book, including quite a bit of work with oil pastels. I have some fantasic drawings decorating the walls of our schoolroom! Our last featured composer was Handel, whose music we listened to mainly in the van. For exam week, the children will describe their favorite art piece from this term, and tell everything they know about their chosen artist. They will also try to identify the composer of three different pieces of music. All in all, we've a wonderful term, albeit a little interrupted at times! One of my favorite things about a CM education is the fact that each new term brings both new books and new expectations. It's almost like starting fresh with a new curriculum -- there's little time to "get bored." I wish everyone a wonderful week!
I saved over 75% at Kroger, Publix, Food Lion, CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid this week. Email me to ask how! |
|
Well, I actually have a relatively good excuse for not posting for the last few weeks Our family is going to be moving to Oklahoma as soon as our house is sold. Hubby has accepted an singing and radio position out there, and we're excited about the new opportunities God is providing for us. This move came as somewhat of a surprise, so we're still reeling a little, but are looking forward to settling in the Ada, OK area as soon as possible. I will post our latest weekly report (the one week which was spread out over about three -- don'tcha love hs'ing?) this weekend. Until then, if you happen to think of us, please pray that Mike would have safety travelling out there next weekend to stay, and that our home would sell quickly so that we can all be together.
I saved 91% on my grocery purchases this week!! Email me to ask how! |
.|
I'm going to give you the Cliff's Notes version this week, as I'm getting ready to fly off to Oklahoma on Monday and have WAY too much to do still.. We continued along the same course in Bible, French, language arts, and math. The girls were working on geometry concepts in Singapore tMath his week.. looks like they've found their favorite math topic! Just like Mom.. geometry was the only thing I looked forward to in our huge, dry math textbooks. We read more chapters in Understood Betsy, Little Pilgrim's Progress, and delighted in the first section of "The Pygmies" from Tanglewood Tales. In science, we read about dinosaurs after the creation, learned about other members of the marmot family, and did experiments to explore tides, floating/sinking, and how sand is created for our oceans study. Geography time was focused on learning about Canada (YAY!) and working in our North America lapbooks. We also (tried to) learn the differences in different bodies of water such as strait, channel, sound, bay, and gulf. Samuel pointed out that "It's just like Mexican food.. there's lots of names for the same things." Hee hee..! History brought us finally to the invasions of the Huns and Visigoths, and the Fall of Rome. The kids loved finding words or inventions that were handed down to us from the Romans. US History took us through the flip-flopping adventure of how New Amsterdam became New York in This Country of Ours. This was our last week of having Bach as our feature composer, and we've enjoying listening to Mr. Bach Comes to Call from Classical Kids. We also looked at Portrait of Margaret van Eyck by Jan van Eyck ("Why did they want all the women to look like devils, Mom?") and did some enjoyable drawings with oil pastels. There you have it! Have a wonderful week, everyone!
I've saved 79% on my grocery, health, and beauty purchases in January. Email me to ask how! |
|
We had somewhat of a hit-or-miss school week, as my parents are here visiting from Canada, but none the less, we began the second half of our first term, with some fun new things. Here is our report: Bible: We continued reading in the New Testament. The parable of the sower passage (Matt. 13:3-9) is nearly memorized. Math: We completed four lessons from Horizons 4 and 2. Sam had three days of review from Singapore 2A; the girls worked on three lessons about angles from 3B. Language Arts: Eva had her first-ever 100% perfect dictation on Friday -- that was quite the cause for celebration! Her passage began with "Breathes there a man with soul so dead..." by Sir Walter Scott. Everyone finished four lessons in Daily Grams, and the girls wrote their narrations of the story of Julius Caesar from Writing Tales. We read aloud another chapter of Understood Betsy and several in Little Pilgrim's Progress. During independent reading, Sam is continuing to work through Pippi Longstocking, Eva is reading The Good Master, and Laura is continuing with Ginger Pye. Music and Art: We continued listening to the works on Bach on CD; our art print for picture study was Madonna of the Chair by Van Eyck. We read a little about the Limbourgh brothers and made our own Celluclay sculptures. The kiddos also colored several pages from their Life in a Medieval Castle coloring books. History and Geography: In American history, we read about the founding of Maryland, which led to an interesting dicussion about how much conflict is caused by religion (not a relationship with Christ, mind you, just "religion" -- it's fascinating that my 9yos and 7yos recognize the difference). We are finishing up ancient times this week and next by covering the fall of Rome. I heard this.. "Oh yeah, I know Attila the Hun. He's that big, silly, dirty guy on Night at the Museum, right?" Sigh. In geography, we spent some time learning about our native Canada as part of our North America continent study. Science: We began reading through The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible (sure to be a favorite around here), learned the habits and features groundhogs, and began working through this fantastic ocean lapbook from Live and Learn Press. It is based on the information found in Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor and has become the first thing the kiddos want to do each day. There are probably other things I've forgotten as I'm writing in somewhat of a hurry today. Have a great week everyone!
I saved 95% on my Rite Aid purchases this week. Email me to ask how! |
|
Wow -- actually on time for once! We've had a fantastic school week. Here are the highlights: Bible: We continued reading through the early ministry and miracles of Jesus. Recitation is going well; the children have Matthew 13:3-9 (parable of the sower) nearly memorized. On Fridays the kiddos look forward to reading from Missionary Stories with the Millers. Math: We completed four Horizons lessons and lots of the textbook reviews in Singapore. We've been using Calculadders for drill, and all three kiddos were proud to pass one of their more difficult sections! Language Arts: Daily Grams, copywork, and spelling dictation were all successes this week. Eva was happy to begin on Level B of Simply Spelling (the first verse of "America"); Laura's passage came from Aesop's "The Eagle and the Hunter"; and Samuel wrote "The eggs and candy floss made a mess on Tess" (working on doubling consonants after short vowels). I read aloud from "The Merchant of Venice", Understood Betsy, and Little Pilgrim's Progress. During independent reading time, Eva finished Dr. Doolittle's Circus, Samuel continued with Pippi Longstocking, and Laura finished Along Came a Dog. The girls have agreed to let me post their re-tellings of "Androcles and the Lion" by Aesop, their Writing Tales assignment for the week. They were allowed to change/add small details, as long as the basic story remained intact. I will resist the urge to correct spelling or grammar One day a slave named Andrew escaped from his master. Then he fled to the forest. All of a sudden he saw a Grizzly Bear! At first he turned to run, then he saw that it was not running after him. After a while Andrew ventured closer. Then he saw that a little pebble was in the beast's paw. Getting closer, Andrew was able to pull the pebble out. Surprisingly the Grizzly Bear got up and licked his hand like a dog. Then he brought Andrew to his cave and there he brought Andrew food. But soon afterwards Andrew and the Grizzly Bear were captured. The King suggested that Andrew could be thrown to the Grizzly Bear! Next thing he knew, there were thousands of people watching Andrew. Suddenly the Grizzly Bear came rushing toward him. But then he noticed it was his friend. Once noticing, he licked Andrew's hand. The King was confused, so Andrew told him the story. Afterwards he and the Grizzly Bear were pardoned and set free. And Eva's: A servant once escaped from his master. His name was Androcles. He ran to the forest and found a Cougar who was groaning. He turned to run, but the Cougar didn't chase him, and he found that a huge thorn had gotten into his paw and was causing all this pain. Then he carefully pulled it out. The Cougar was so grateful that he took Androcles to his cave and fed him. But some of the Emperor's guards found them and took Androcles and the Cougar. Then the Emperor and some others came to watch Androcles be thrown to the Cougar. So when they let the Cougar out, he rushed towards Androcles, but then he recognized his friend and happily ran around him. The Emperor was confused and soon let Androcles go and let the Cougar go back to the forest. Since a few months ago, it was like pulling teeth to get the girls to write a paragraph, their creative writing is coming along nicely, and best of all, they actually look forward to it! History and Geography: We spent time getting to know Nero and Constantine this week in Story of the World; we also read and discussed the Salem Witch Trials. I was impressed with the children's thoughts and opinions on such a terrible time in this country's history. We continued learning about the various countries and languages of North America, doing some mapwork along the way. Science: We learned more about the appearance and habits of various types of rock and ground squirrels in the Burgess Animal Book. The children also finished and assembled their lapbooks on the five senses. Art and Music: Our featured painting this week was "The Betrothal of the Arnolfini" by van Eyck. Samuel noted: "They don't look to happy to be getting married." Well put! This morning we experiment with painting on plaster and making our own frescoes in the style of Giotto. We also spent time listening to our Bach CD's each morning. We also finished our third lesson from Le Francais Facile and read Walter de la Mare's poetry daily. So there you have it! We are thrilled that my parents are coming from Canada for a visit. We're still planning on doing at least some schoolwork during the weeks they are here, but if my reports aren't up, you'll know why. Have a great weekend, eveyone!
|
|
"NOW WHAT?" |
|
Our first week back after a break for Christmas was smooth sailing! Here's our summary: Bible: The early ministry of Jesus was the topic for our readings this week. The children continued to recite Luke 2:8-14 and also began to memorize the parable of the sower from Matthew 13. Math: We worked on Horizons daily during our break (STILL review for all 3 kiddos); the girls worked on time conversions in Singapore 3B, while Samuel covered metric length in 2A. Language Arts: Eva and Laura did very well on their written narrations of "Androcles." I'm feeling more confident about adding weekly narrations based on their history, starting 3rd term this year. Their spelling has continued to improve thanks to copywork and Simply Spelling. Samuel is also experiencing success with his first attempts at dictation! Each child also did four lessons from Daily Grams. Their independent reading choices were Dr. Doolittle's Circus (Eva), Along Came a Dog (Laura) and Pippi Longstocking (Sam). Literature: We finished the adventures of Theseus in "The Minotaur" from Tanglewood Tales (with all three kiddos cringing, waiting for me to read the sad details of King Aegeus plunging into the sea!). We continued Understood Betsy (a guaranteed favorite for this year) and several chapters in Little Pilgrim's Progress. We also read daily from the poems of Walter de la Mare. Music: We began listening to selections from Bach for this month; they also enjoyed the first half of Mr. Bach Comes to Call by Classical Kids. Science: Our "Five Senses" lapbook is nearly complete. The children enjoyed doing a simple experiment to test whether any foods could be tasted while our noses were plugged. On the list were sugar, chocolate, popcorn, ketchup, salt.. you name it! History: The kiddos listened wide-eyed to the story of "How the Charter of Connecticut Was Saved" from This Country of Ours; they drew wonderful picture narrations to go along. ]We also reviewed Jewish history and learned about Titus' destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. Geography: We began a 10-week focus on North America by doing some simple mapping and atlas practice, as well as learning about the geographic and climatic regions for our lapbooks. French: We learned about "the giraffe that walked to Paris" in Lesson 3 of Le Francais Facile. Art: Our picture to study was "A Man in a Red Turban" by Jan van Eyck. I believe "creepy" was the best adjective the girls came up with.. not overly imaginative, but somewhat true! They also colored several pages from Dover's Life in a Medieval Castle and Village, and on Friday experimented using gold leaf (flattened Rolo wrappers, that is) on their watercolor paintings in the style of Cimabue. On another note -- happy birthday, Samuel! Until next time... |
I can't believe my little boy is seven already!|
Another Christmas morning in Tennessee! We were blessed to be able to spend the day together, although we terribly missed our family back home in Canada. We spent a quiet morning at home, the kids playing with their presents and Mike and I grinning at each other over our coffee cups. We are so thankful to the Lord for all he has provided for us this year... so thankful that we are warm, fed, healthy, and happy. The weather was sunny and mild, perfect for walking and bike riding down by the river. That's quite a far cry from the snowdrifts and icicles that we associate with Christmas back home. Merry Christmas to all my family, friends, and homeschooling pals. May we never forget to thank God for the unspeakable gift of His Son! |
|
Better late than never! Here is our report for Weeks 3 and 4: Bible Our topics included the baptism and temptation of Christ, and the choosing of the twelve disciples. The kids enjoyed making notecards with each disciple's name on one side, and an interesting fact or two of their choosing on the other. The girls were more interested in the personalities of each man, whereas Samuel was very concerned with finding out the town each one came from. Math We completed Horizons 4 and 2, Lessons 10-15, which was still review from the previous book. In Singapore 3B, the girls did more work with clocks and time conversions, while in 2A, Samuel continued to practice subtracting with renaming. We also read about the life, ideas, and inventions of the mathematician Hypatia. Language Arts The kiddos completed Daily Grams, lessons 9-16; they also progressed to their next studied dictation lesson. We have been doing a lot of writing for the various lapbooks we're working on, so I have not planned much copywork outside of that these past two weeks. The girls also will be finishing their re-writes of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse in Writing Tales today. Our reading has included chapters from Understood Betsy (what a fabulous book!), "The Minotaur" from Tanglewood Tales, and chapters from Little Pilgrim's Progress. I have been amazed at the kids' depth of understanding of the symbolism in LPP... what a treasure. We continued reading and reciting from the poems of Walter de la Mare. The children's free reading selections have included: Eva: Doctor Doolittle's Circus Laura: The Good Master Samuel: finishing ("Finally!" in his words) Chatterer the Red Squirrel History and Geography Samuel learned about Rome first prince, Augustus Caesar, last week; this week was spent discussing Jesus and the changes his birth and death brought about in the Roman world. After our Christmas break, the kids will finally be working all together in world history, now that Sam has "caught up" chronologically. In This Country of Ours, we learned about the hunt for the regicides taking place in the new colonies, as well as King Philip's War. We completed the "World" section in our geography notebooks discussing the composition of the earth, and we began an illustrated dictionary of geography terms. We are looking forward to beginning a new section focusing on North America after the break. Science and Nature Study Classifying rodents was the subject of the week as we learned a little about taxonomy. We colored and read about various types of hares and squirrels. We also learned more about our sense of hearing and the different parts of the ear. I found the kids running around after each other in the yard yesterday in what I thought was a simple game of tag. To my delight, the kiddos explained that two of them were were the cochlea and eardrum, which were running away from the high-decibel noise (Laura -- kind of appropriate). Art, Music, and French In French, we completed Lesson 2, which consisted of French words that are very similar to the English. The kiddos loved reading Come Look With Me: World of Play, which we finished. They spent time drawing their own renditions of various works from the book. They also finished their Celtic Stained Glass Coloring Books. We read about the life of Giotto from Mike Venezia's book of the same name. This was our last week with Vivaldi as our featured composer. We sang Christmas carols and "Go, Tell It On the Mountain" as our hymns and folk song. I believe that covers all of our highlights.. no lowlights to speak of! We are looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home next week. The only "school-related" activities will be finishing and assembling our Symbols of Christmas lapbooks and, of course, our daily math. Have a blessed Christmas, everyone! |
|
Meet "Boo", our latest (temporary) acquisition. At three feet tall and 105 lbs, this is one big puppy. Friends of ours had to make a last-moment decision to take him either to a shelter, or to our place, and with hubby being the pushover he is, Boo arrived on our doorstep nearly two weeks ago. We are happy that he will be joining his new owners soon... having three kids, a cat, and three dogs (two of which would like to eat said cat) has made the pre-Christmas rush a little more chaotic than usual. God sure does have a sense of humor, doesn't He? |
|
“Week Two was fun to do!” was the quote from the kids, so I suppose that means success! Here are the basics of our week by subject: Literature We were excited to begin some of our new reading titles this week. We read the first quarter of "The Minotaur" from Tanglewood Tales (and I was treated to a wonderful re-enacted version by the kiddos!), the first chapter of Understood Betsy, and "Pericles" from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (complete with Littlest Pet Shop animals acting out the various parts). We just received our copy of Little Pilgrim's Progress and look forward to beginning it this weekend. After some consideration, our new plan is to read through this easier version this year, and tackle the original next year. Oh yes, and just for fun, we also read several chapters from The Best (Worst) Christmas Pageant Ever. Sheesh, and I thought MY children misbehaved sometimes... Art, Music, and Recitation During art appreciation time this week, we studied Giotto’s St. Francis Giving His Mantle to a Poor Man, and also several pages in Come Look With Me: World of Play. We finished more Celtic Stained Glass coloring pages and finished Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery. We spent our Bible time studying the birth and early days of Christ’s life, using the Hands of a Child Who Is Jesus? lapbook. We are also taking a brief look at the various symbols of Christmas and their origins in Christianity, this time with a lapbook from Knowledge Box Central. In American history, we read about the founding of Our animal study topics included the cottontail rabbit, the marsh hare, and the European hare. We’re using the fabulous Peterson’s Mammals Field Guide Coloring Book, in which the kiddos try to accurately color each critter as I read aloud about them. We also learned the names and functions of each part of the eye, and continued recording our findings in our Five Senses lapbook. Our first French memory verse for this year is Genesis 1:1, which we began this week by reciting and copying. The kiddos also had fun playing some games about recognizing the gender of various words on our vocabulary list. Samuel is continuing to review his phonics rules using Learn to Spell Through Copywork A, while the girls did one lesson each from Simply Spelling. All three had perfect or near-perfect dictations on Friday (another huge sigh of relief here!) This week, each kiddo also did four Daily Grams. The girls finished their creative re-writes of “The Crow and the Pitcher.” This week, they were allowed to put in their own minor changes to make the story more their own. I guess I didn’t stress the word “minor” enough, however… I won’t copy the entire stories here, but to give you an idea, Eva’s is now titled “The Fox and the Jar” and Laura’s is called “The Lion and the Hunter” – you might be hard-pressed to guess that these are related to the original story at all, but they sure had fun writing them! Eva: Heidi by Spyri Laura: The Good Master by Kate Seredy Samuel: Chatterer the Red Squirrel by Math This was a cumulative review week in both So that's about it.. unfortunately no pictures to post this week. Have a refreshing weekend, everyone! |
|
Overall, our first weekly report will be very low-key. Just getting back into the "full-time" school routine took much of our time and energy, so we had little time for extra activities. Here is our run-down by subject: Art and Music For art this week, we began looking at prints by this month’s artist, Giotto, and also several pages in Come Look With Me: World of Play. We colored some pages in our Celtic Stained Glass coloring books while listening to the first half of Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery on CD (Vivaldi being this month’s composer). We began reading through the New Testament up to the birth of Christ. This weekend we are planning on completing part of our Who Is Jesus? lapbook that goes along with this section. We read about the founding of Science We began reading the Burgess Animal Book; one of the girls remarked that it was like meeting up with old friends again! They’ve all grown fond of the characters that live in the Old Orchard and French Lesson one in Le Français Facile was mostly review from last year’s program. The kiddos enjoyed starting a French-English dictionary in their notebooks. Music and Memorization Our AWANA verses are taking up much of our Bible memorization time, but this term one of our selections to memorize together is Luke 2:8-14, the announcement of the birth of Jesus. We also are learning two Christmas carols and the poem “Some One” by Walter de la Mare. Language Arts Writing Tales has been a highlight for the girls. They appreciate the brevity of the lessons, and I love the fun yet thorough approach. They wrote their first written re-telling of Aesop’s “The Crow and the Pitcher” this morning. All three kiddos did well on their dictation pieces today for spelling. Their free reading choices for this week were: Eva: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes Laura: The Good Master by Kate Seredy Samuel: Chatterer the Red Squirrel by Math Newer topics this week included more work with equivalent fractions for the girls and subtraction with renaming for Sam. We’re experimenting with a new math format this year: three days of |
|
Our new school year began yesterday, casually and without much fanfare -- just the way we like it around here. Aside from the usual schedule conflicts and first-day glitches, everything went very well. The highlights of the day included the girls' delight with their new writing curriculum, Writing Tales, (since they love anything that includes Aesop's fables) and Sam's pride at grasping the concept of subtraction with borrowing in about 20 seconds. Here are our plans for the year by subject: BIBLE Read through the New Testament, using the Child's Story Bible. We will be reading through various missionary biographies and character-building books as well. LANGUAGE ARTS Girls: Reading LOTS of good literature, Daily Grams, copywork. They will also continue studied dictation using Simply Spelling, and using Writing Tales for review of grammar plus writing instruction. Samuel: Continue to read chapter books, Daily Grams, copywork. He will be reviewing phonics rules and spelling using Learning to Spell Through Copywork A. MATH Girls: Finish Singapore 3B and begin 4A/4B; also Horizons 4. Daily drill using Calculadders or Quarter Mile Math. Samuel: Singapore 2A/2B with Horizons 2. Daily drill using Calculadders or Quarter Mile Math. HISTORY American: Colonial Times until the Revolutionary War, using This Country of Ours as the main text along with various historical fiction. World History: Julius Caesar until the Renaissance, using a combination of Child's History of the World and Story of the World Volume 2; also lots of great literature to go along with this time period. GEOGRAPHY Trail Guide to World Geography -- We will be working sloooowly through this over the next two years, and we are planning to do a lapbook for each continent we study. Also geography will be pulled in during the study of history and literature. LITERATURE AND POETRY Continue reading through Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare. New this year will be Pilgrim's Progress and Tanglewood Tales. We will also read a long list of titles that tie in with medieval history. Our featured poets are Walter de la Mare, Eugene Field, James Whitcombe Riley, and Christina Rossetti. SCIENCE AND NATURE STUDY In keeping with CM tradition, we will cover a wide variety of topics that include:
The books we will use include the Burgess Animal Book, Pagoo, Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible, and many more. The kiddos have also chosen lapbooks to go along with many of the topics. FRENCH Having finished L'Art de Dire (a completely oral program) last year, we will being Le Francais Facile I and introduce the printed language. ART AND MUSIC We will be using Harmony Fine Arts' level two this year, studying the following artists:
We have scheduled Artistic Pursuits and various Dover coloring books based on medieval times for art skills. Our composer list includes:
The kiddos will also continue working through their recorder and/or piano books. Whew -- did I get it all? |
|
A little homeschool math for today, Thanksgiving: 1 turkey + 8 sides + 2 pies = 5 stuffed folks Have a great holiday, everyone! |
 |
|
This will be our last "break week" before beginning our new school year next Monday. We've spent the last two weeks doing a unit study on Pilgrims, centered around Hands of a Child's "Pilgrims" lapbook. This was our first plunge into lapbooking, and the kiddos have enjoyed it immensely. In their enthusiasm, they don't seem to notice how much they're writing and retaining -- perfect! The girls have been acting out the Pilgrims' story with their toys most of the week, and Sam spent most of one afternoon setting up two "cities" for the ants outside -- he informed me that one was Scrooby, and one was Leiden. Ah, music to my ears. I myself am in the middle of that flurry of photocopying, planning, and organizing that comes right before the start of a new year. I've tweaked our schedule to accommodate everyone, and I think we've got it all covered. One of my favorite aspects of a Charlotte Mason education is the great variety of subjects covered in a day, yet still being able to finish everything easily in a few hours. As far as Thanksgiving goes, it will be another quiet year with just the five of us. The kiddos are really looking forward to our now-traditional monkey bread, hot chocolate, and Macy's parade on Thursday morning. This is also the first year that I actually remembered to start thawing the turkey early enough to do it in the refrigerator -- no panicky cold-water-changing this year! To our family in Canada -- we miss you and wish so much that you could be here to share the holiday with us. |
|
Standing on the brink of a brand-new school year, I decided it was time to start fresh with a new blog, one that will hopefully be updated much more regularly than its pathetic predecessor! By way of (re)introduction, our family lives about an hour east of Nashville in the beautiful hills of middle Tennessee, having moved here from Canada nearly four years ago. Hubby is a southern gospel singer, and spends a good deal of time out on the road, which adds an extra dimension of adventure to our homeschooling experience. We are blessed with three beautiful children: Eva and Laura (identical twins in every way!) and Samuel, our comedian extraordinaire. This will be our fourth year of homeschooling -- each year it just gets better and better. We share our home with Molly, the pampered jackuaua (yes, that's half-Chihuahua, half-Jack Russell terrier... a very bizarre combination, by the way) and Pumbaa, the condescending kitty. Our front porch is also known far and wide as the hang-out for the stray animals of the area. As for me, I'm just "mom" -- the dish-washing, bread-baking, fire-building, mouth-feeding, web-surfing matriarch of our little clan. Happy to be out of the ratrace, and loving our life! |