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May. 18, 2008

Weeks 27-36, not in review (NEW AND IMPROVED FORMAT!)

Posted in General
So I have decided a few things.  First, I don't really know how to blog.  Obviously, I seem to think it is documenting every last detail of what we're doing in our homeschool.  I blame this on my professional background as a family physician.  I am acting like I have to document our homeschool the same way I would document everything I did with my patients.  Clearly this is sick thinking. 

Plus--I am sure no one was really interested in the minute details of what we're doing.  Just in case there is someone out there who is, just send me a message to let me know and I will tell you!

But from now on, I am just going to summarize what we're actually doing, and I am going to try to document more what we're discussing, or maybe the main points that we're learning.  Or something.  Anything different than what I was doing before.

So--from weeks 27-36, we just followed pretty closely Sonlights IG for Core 3.  We really enjoyed this Core.  My favorite books were Naya Nuki, Secret of the Andes, and Walk the World's Rim.  I also really enjoyed Incans, Aztecs, and Mayans.  I concentrated in Latin American Studies in college and this was a great review--through a Christian worldview--of those great civilizations. 

K.'s favorite books were Carry On, Mr. Bowditch and Johnny Tremain.  I believe she liked more but those stuck out in her mind.  A. enjoyed The Secret Soldier, The Trail of Tears, and Escape North!  The Story of Harriet Tubman.  Interestingly, none of these were SL books but books I bought from Winter Promise.



Why did I buy books from WP?  Well--since all of the "read alouds" in Core 3 were too advanced for A., I had this grand scheme of buying WP books (from their American Story I program) to use as "read alouds".  This plan did not work out too well.  Only The Birchbark House and The Secret Soldier were really suitable for this purpose.  Then, I realized that I could just read the Core 3 "readers" to A. as her "read alouds".  This way, K. could read the book as a "reader" and A. could have the same book read aloud to her and they'd be experiencing the same book together.  So...after I realized that I could do that, I no longer paid any attention to the WP books that I bought.  However, A. still read some of them on her own, and must have really liked them.  So at least the WP disaster wasn't all a waste. 

K. finished the LA 3 program with flying colors, and I really think her writing has improved significantly this year.  I will publish all of her writing assignments on this blog at some point.  A. finished up LA Intermediate 2, also with flying colors.  I believe her reading comprehension has really improved for the year.  L. is working her way through LA 1, and actually reading Level 2 (or Step 2) readers, even though they are more advanced than her LA 1 readers.  She has really taken off as a reader!  We are not doing any of the grammar in LA 1, as she is way too young, but we do the phonics, reading, and spelling.  She is actually a pretty good speller too.

Speaking of spelling, we learned this year that Sequential Spelling, the spelling program that SL seems to prefer, did not work well for K.  She did not like it and I don't think her spelling improved much with it.  We will try Spelling Power next year.  A., however, did really well with Sequential Spelling.  She is a visual learner, so I think she "sees" the word in her mind much more easily than K.  K. is a strong auditory learner and this shows in her spelling, as she still tends to try to spell a lot of words phonetically.  She'd do much better in spelling if our native language was Spanish, where so many of the words are spelled phonetically.  Oh well--at least our native tongue isn't French. 



On the topic of Spanish, our art/Spanish combo class did not work out well at all.  We loved the art teacher and she taught art very well.  I had assumed that because she is a native Argentinian and fluent Spanish speaker, that she would not mind teaching the art class in Spanish.  Well....her primary focus was teaching art...and there were a few other children in our art class.  So--she ended up speaking a lot of English, many times almost all English.  So--we started Rosetta Stone again mid year.  Only K. and A. are doing RS, but they are doing well with it.  I am still working on finding a Spanish class for next year.  I like RS for basics, but languages are living and you have to practice it--listening and speaking--to really learn it. 



Math-wise, K. finished up Math U See's Gamma book and started Delta.  A. finished up Beta and started Gamma.  L. is doing well with Primer.  Nothing to report really.  MUS works great for us. 



K. discovered this year that she liked writing in her journal and writing letters to her friends.  She writes to 3 friends.  One of these girls has been her friend since they were toddlers.  She lives in our neighborhood and goes to a Christian school, so they don't see each other much.  Another girl used to be on K's gymnastics team.  And the last girl, K. met on our cruise.  For writing practice, she has to write either in her journal or write a letter to a pen-pal. 

A. finished up her Music for Mozarts program in piano and began taking private piano lessons this past February.  She is doing really well.  K. is still working on the hs piano program I got from SL's catalog.  She'll finish up the level 1 book this summer and in the fall, she'll start taking private lessons.  I am really not a piano teacher, I just played when I was a kid.  I think she's developing bad habits like keeping her wrists down too low and not using dynamics.  So--it's time to get a real teacher. 



I was very on and off wrt their art appreciation.  Some weeks we'd do it, other weeks not.  I am looking to improve on this next school year. 

In science, I fizzled out wrt the science experiments.  We did finish all the readings, but got behind on the experiments.  I am so grateful SL now has those DVDs for purchase.  Basically, those Discover and Do DVDs show someone else doing all the scheduled science experiments so whenever I didn't feel up to doing an experiment, (usually do to time constraints and/or my feelings of intimidation), we'd just watch the DVD and see the experiment.  Anyway--we are now finished reading all the science books for Science 2 and watched the whole DVD so we "did" all of SL's Science 2 program. 

K. got promoted to the senior team in gym this past Jan, so she has been working out at the gym for 10.5 hours per week.  She still dances in the competitive "company" classes so she's at the dance studio 5 hours per week.  And she still takes 3 hours total per week of tennis--1 hr of private lessons, 2 hrs of class.  A. still takes one hour each of gym and yoga, and 1.5 hours of dance per week.  And L. takes one hour each of dance and gym.  This year they are all taking swim lessons.  K. will do a week day camp at a big time gym (by this I mean a gym that cranks out Olympians).  She will also do a ballet dance camp and she and her friend (the one she's known since they were toddlers) will do a horse camp. 



A. and L. will do a gym camp.  I may put A. in a karate/martial arts camp.  I want her to start that next fall so I thought summer camp would be a good intro. 



I think this is all.  This ended up still being long, but at least it's not as boring.  I hope. 

Oh...how can I forget.  Mr. FQ weaned at 2.5 years.  Very very bittersweet for me.  I have breastfed on and off (mostly on) for nearly 9 years in a row and have enjoyed 99% of that time.  I am so glad I nursed all 4 of my children and will remain a breastfeeding advocate for the rest of my life. 


He is talking so much and in long complete sentences.  He has a very advanced vocabulary too!  He is also quite an athlete!


Okay--that is enough of an update.

We are currently taking it easy, between Cores.  The girls are continuing in math, L. is still doing her LA 1, and K. is doing some workbooks to prepare for standardized testing.  We have decided to have her take the standardized test that our state uses to evaluate public school kids.  She'll take it at home, since I can dl it off the official website. 

We plan to start Core 4 sometime in August. 

God bless,
A.H.
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Comments

May. 18, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Anonymous
Nice update! I LOVE the pictures...but you didn't tell me that the little guy weaned! Oh, I'm sad with you...
Laura
http://adayinthelifeofamomofsix.blogspot.com/
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HELLO!!! This blog is a place for us to publish some of our children's work and just to journal our amazing educational journey.

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• Week 33, May 11-15, 2009
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• Week 22, Feb 9-13, 2009 • Writer's Circle, first week Jan 9, 2009 • Writer's Circle, 2nd week Jan 16, 2009 • Writer's Circle, Jan 23, 2009 • Writer's Circle, Jan 30, 2009 • Writers' Circle, 2/8/09
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