We're gearing up for a unit study on the Olympics to kick off our year.  Here's what I have so far:

A full itinerary of the Olympic Torch relay complete with pictures
Google interactive torch relay map
Homeschool share unit study & lapbook
Official mascots of 2008 olympic - I printed each of these off on separate pages to add to our notebook

Learning Adventures 2008 Summer Olympics Unit Study - lots of great links/resources

Posted in School

Valentine Food For Thought

Cabbage always has a heart; Green beans string along.
You're such a cute tomato, Will you peas to me belong?
You've been the apple of my eye, You know how much I care;
So lettuce get together, We'd make a perfect pear.

Now, something's sure to turnip to prove you can't be beet;
So, if you carrot all for me let's let our tulips meet.
Don't squash my hopes and dreams now, Bee my honey, dear;
Or tears will fill potato's eyes, While sweet corn lends an ear.

I'll cauliflower shop and say, Your dreams are parsley mine.
I'll work and share my celery, So be my valentine.

by Jeanne Losey 

I was looking for information on the origin of Valentine's Day today and stumbled across this poem.  I read it aloud twice to my kids before I got all the puns.  We all enjoyed it so much. 

The site where I found the poem also had quite a lot of other great information about Valentine's Day.  Enjoy!

Filling up my Family’s Ipods for Free

Each member of my family now has an MP3 player of some kind (4 Microsoft Zunes, 1 Ipod Shuffle, and 2 Sansa Shakers).  Here are some podcasts I want to have on them.

Audio

·         Cindy Rushton – She is my favorite homeschool expert.  I consider her a friend and mentor though I’ve never met her.  Each week she offers a free homeschool podcast, and she offers eworkshop memberships full of additional mp3s as well.  I purchased memberships to her Charlotte Mason seminar and the Ultimate Homeschool Expo and have yet to listen to even half of those audios, though I’m enjoying each one.

·         The FLY Show – FlyLady and her friend Leanne Ely encourage women like me on their weekly call-in radio show.  These shows supplement FLylady’s website and reminder emails that help me take better care of my house and myself.  I could listen live and call in to the show if I didn’t have 5 kids to keep track of and teach.

·         Missus SmartyPants to the Fashion Rescue – This is Leanne Ely’s sister Leslie, who is an expert on what’s in and out of style and helps women dress for their body types.   She just had her first show a couple weeks ago.

·         Living Books for the Ears Homeschool Radio Shows – Here’s a great homeschool resource for me and my kids.  Each week Jim Erskine releases another free old-time radio show.  He also sells collections of these shows and other audio resources from time to time.

·         My new discovery of the day is God’s Ipod.  I discovered it while looking for a worship podcast; theirs is called Radiant Worship.  But there’s an extra bonus – we can now listen to the New Testament in a Year.  I’m tempted to put this on all of our ipods this year.

Video

·         Stump the Chef – A chef is given 3 random ingredients and has to prepare a dish that incorporates all of them and tastes good.  This is fun to watch and very educational – I learn something new every time.

·         National Geographic’s Wild Chronicles – Our whole family loves watching these podcasts, but we have to be on the lookout for evolutionary bias on this show.

·         London Landscapes – This a great supplement to books set in London.  It added another dimension to our reading of A Little Princess last year, and we’ve all become hooked.

·         Beautiful Places – Imagine exploring a Redwood Forest, seashore, or glacier on your ipod.  Tony Farley guides us to a new place every 2 weeks.

·         Sesame Street – Here’s something to keep the youngest family members occupied while we’re waiting somewhere.  Short, portable video episodes of a favorite show.

My kids want to learn about Dinosaurs, and so far I've pulled together a few resources for a Dinosaur Lapbook to begin in January.

Enchanted Learning has a lot of coloring pictures and information pages about dinosaurs that I would love to use - perhaps my husband can help me print several different ones on a page to create dinosaur information cards to include.

I also plan to use at least pieces of the dinosaur unit study at Homeschool Share.

Learning Page's free membership includes an entire unit on dinosaurs, including math, language arts, and science worksheets.  I may pick and choose a few appropriate worksheets from that site to accompany our study.  Perhaps a few of their preschool worksheets can keep my 3-year-old busy while I work with the older kids.

Please post a comment if you know of any other great (especially free) resources I shouldn't miss as I plan our dinosaur expedition for January!

 

I really enjoyed skimming through the article, A Super Easy Way to Begin Lapbooking: The Simplest Lapbook Ever.  It explains how to make your own lapbook from scratch using whatever topic of study you choose.  I'm going to have to read over it in greater detail when I have more time.

The question, "What's for dinner?" used to take a lot of thought to answer, but for the past 3 weeks, my dinners have been planned for me, and they've been delicious!  I'm not sure exactly how I came across Menus 4 Moms,  but the site provides all the instructions I need to prepare a variety of healthy dinners for my family, including a detailed shopping list which even estimates the cost for each item.  These menus include all the sides and even desserts.

Some of the meals we've really enjoyed have been White Chicken Chili with Cornbread, Waffles with Bacon, eggs, and fruit cocktail, Turkey Green Bean Casserole.  Many of the leftovers have turned into lunches for me, but last week we served up all our leftovers Sunday after church for my sister-in-law and her boyfriend - they really enjoyed the food!

The only problem I have with these menus is that my twin 2-year-olds are very picky and won't touch much of it - some things even my 3-year-old doesn't prefer.  I anticipate that over time this will cease being an issue.  My family is now eating a much greater variety of foods, and I feel healthier.

These menus are available for free, but I can sign up to receive a better, ad-free version for a small fee.  There are a ton of other great resources at the website, and if I have any question about the menus, I can always post my concern on their yahoo group and receive a quick answer. 

Posted in School

One thing my kids need to learn more about is the national parks.  Today I discovered the National Park Service has a Webrangers site where kids can sign up, complete activities and become a Webranger.  I think this will be right up my kids' alley to begin in January.  I know some of the activities carry an evolutionary tone, so I will need to use them as an opportunity to teach what we know from the Bible, as opposed to what scientists are guessing based on what they believe.

In addition, several national parks have online Junior Ranger programs.  To do these, you just need to print online articles and worksheets, then send in the completed worksheets to receive a Junior Ranger badge. 

Today I happened upon Homeschool Share, a site with many free unit studies and free lapbooks, something I have recently begun to use with my children.  I am very excited, especially since I searched for and found a free dinosaur lapbook which comes at the topic from a creationist perspective.  I plan to use that one after Christmas. 

Thanks to Ami Brainerd for adding 8 free Christmas lapbooks to her blog and helping me to find this wonderful new resource.

Today was the first day I made a serious attempt to do school with my oldest 2 kids without the aid of a nanny to watch the younger 3.  I think it went well.  This morning after breakfast I let the kids play while I got things cleaned up.  When the babies (13 months old) started fussing for their bottles, I allowed them to feed themselves while reclined in their swings.  My toddler (almost 3) borrowed her older brother's headphones and entertained herself with her LeapPad while I worked with the older 2.  My son took his Language quiz while his older sister played with the Leapster, and then she joined us for our math lesson.  When math was over it was my oldest daughter's turn for the Language quiz.  Everyone had a break to play outside for awhile, then we all came in for lunch, which was only halfway chaotic for a change.

While the babies were drinking their milk after lunch, I pulled out the magnadoodles for our spelling lesson.  We finished our lesson as the babies were ready to get out of their high chairs.  It was playtime until time to put the babies down for naps, then time to read to my toddler until her naptime.  Then I headed to the basement intending to finish reading a library book with my son, but he opted to work on his Top Secret geography kit instead.  He's solving puzzles and learning about Thailand along the way.  My oldest daughter has kept herself buried in books for the most part, though I think she's now playing with her Lego Knights of the Kingdom instead.  I was able to quickly put together next week's lesson plan, update my blog, and assist my son on the more difficult pages of his puzzle book.

Soon it will be time for them to have their snacks and work on their Awana verses and Bible Study lessons.

Switched-on-Schoolhouse (SOS) again, that is.  I keep changing things up here, but change can be good, especially at this time of year when it's easy to be discouraged, and especially when I've gone from having a wonderful assistant with my 5 children to going solo with them once more.  We are, however, not using SOS exactly how it was designed to be used.  The first time around with it (about 17 months ago) when my oldest daughter has just turned 7, I allowed her to begin using it for Language Arts, then for math, then for just about everything, and she did it independently...for awhile.  Then it was like pulling teeth to get her to do it. 

This time I'm starting my son (who just turned 7), but I'm not asking him to do it independently.  We are doing it together and including my daughter.  We are using it for Language Arts and Math, while continuing to use Story of the World and Considering God's Creation for history and science.  We're also dropping out the spelling part of SOS in favor of Sequential Spelling, in which we're on day 7.  So far so good.  We're also using Ambleside Online curriculum for some additional read-alouds.

Switched-on-schoolhouse was designed to be used independently.  As I said, we're not doing that.  We are completing the lessons together (logging in as "class"), reading through the lesson screens and then the kids alternate answering the questions or problems.  It is working out really well since the number of problems was overwhelming for my daughter when she tried it the first time.  In addition, the kids can check answers out with each other before submitting it for a grade.  When quiz time comes, my children use separate logins to take the quizzes independently.  We've already had a couple language arts quizzes, and that has worked well...I'm not sure if I'll use the same strategy for the math quizzes and tests or not, though I better decide soon since the first one is coming up next week!

I wasn't sure about teaching math and language arts to my oldest 2 kids together, as they are a bit over a year apart, but it seems to be working out well.  My daughter is breezing through the Language Arts so far but is demonstrating a need to practice math more.  My son, on the other hand, is finding the math to be quite easy, but is challenged by the Language Arts.  I'm pleased to be able to teach them all subjects together for the time being.  It makes my life so much simpler.

The big kids learned a lot about Japan this morning in our history class.  As suggested in the Story of the World Activity guide, my 8-year-old daughter and I decided to try our hands at writing haiku.  First we wrote together about winter:

Freshly fallen snow
Cold, spooky, soft, icy…Splat!
Snowballs fly at me

Then she wrote about fall:

Colorful leaves fly
Blown everywhere by the wind
One is on my head

And I made some changes she liked:

Colorful leaves drift
Through the air in the wind
Landing on my head

My 7-year-old son could not focus to do the activity.  He was too full of silliness.  Maybe he'll be more interested next year. 

Posted in School

I really wasn't sure it would work, but I had to try something new this year since my time for teaching school is shrinking.  Last week I did it.  It worked.  It went well.  Wanna know what I did?

Last week we did a week's worth of history on Tuesday.  Then a week's worth of science on Wednesday.  A week's worth of math activities on Thursday.  Watched a video on Friday afternoon, then read a week's worth of literature (related to the previous week's history) on Monday.  This week we kept on going, but substituted our Community Bible Study for Wednesday, pushing science back to today.  Still not sure whether we'll get to math this week or save it for Monday.  Still working the bugs out, but it seems to be working well! 

I like the fact that I don't have to try to divide up each subject to see how it will fit into the week...I don't have to guess how much we can get through in our half hour slot for each subject.  And I end up with more time for hands on projects, experiments, games, etc.  

I needed to make this change for my sanity's.  The reason my teaching time for the bigger kids is dwindling is that my sister-in-law, who has been our nanny for the last 10 months, will be starting a new job in a couple weeks.  Morning school time will be harder to manage, what with a 2 1/2 year old and 2 1-year-olds ...so Mom's afternoon break will give way to afternoon school time with the 7- and 8-year old.  Keep us in your prayers as we adjust our schedule and our style a bit.

Posted in School

Where to begin...we have blitzed through the last 2 1/2 months!  We've done some traveling and field trips - visited my parents in Maryland for a week, took a hike at a nearby state park, visited Fernbank Museum, Weinmann Mineral Museum, and the Etowah Indian Mounds, and made our annual visit to Burt's Pumpkin Farm.  I am loving the weather and have finally decided that fall is my favorite season - I love the smells, the temperature outside, the colors, the activities...definitely the best season!

Both big kids were in swimming lessons (separate classes) in September and my daughter, quite a good swimmer, could not seem to let go of the wall and swim for most of the session.  My son was progressing so well that he was ready to move to the next level for October.  We found a new class that could accomodate both kids at their current levels, and they are both swimming wonderfully now.  My son, who was at a beginner level, can now swim several strokes without assistance, and my daughter has finally let go of the wall for good and is making great progress toward being the Olympic swimmer she dreams of becoming.  I can't wait to see them swim again - the September class worked out so that I could watch them, but in October it's later, and I'm putting the little ones to bed while they swim.

In schooltime my oldest daughter (8 now) is nearing the end of her Shillermath Kit I, and my son (6.75) is 2/3 of the way through it - we've also decided to use our Miquon math for variety a couple times a week.  My daughter is tackling Rod & Staff grammar, while my son is going through the R&S 2nd grade phonics book.  We're using Ambleside Online as a resource for read-alouds and poetry, and we've wrapped up Story of the World, Volume 1, and started in on Volume 2, with some Ambleside history reading alongside it.  For science, we're finishing up our unit on Rocks in considering God's creation and will study weather starting next week.  One of the best finds this year is Rod & Staff's Health & Manners workbook for 2nd grade - I've been covering a lesson a week from it with my toddler along with the older kids, and they all seem to enjoy it and learn a lot from it. 

As we move along, I'm considering whether to add in some music theory using Keyboard Capers, whether to insist on handwriting practice, and where to head for math for my oldest daughter when she finishes the Shillermath kit in 8 more lessons - I am thinking about buying the next kit. 

My younger daughter (2.5) is enjoying doing "school" with me for a short time each day.  Mostly we use the Sonlight PreK read-alouds and work with some math manipulatives (her favorite thing).  I love the way she is absorbing information now - I know what influences her and what she thinks about now because she tells me!  She loves to sing - real or made-up songs - and the songs she sings  are often about Jesus or God or Heaven.  Last week I prayed with her as she asked Jesus into her heart.  At first I wasn't sure she fully understood what she was doing, but hearing her talk and sing for the last week, there's no doubt that God is working in her, and that she understands far more than I imagined.  I'm just not sure whether she's been talking and singing like this before and I missed it, or if she just started last week. 

The babies are now 10 months old.  They are both saying "I love you" ...ok, it really sounds more like "I uh ooo" - but I am sure that's what they mean!  One has been saying Mama since a couple days ago, and I'm sure the other will follow suit soon.  Feeding time is interesting - they don't like to sit still for bottles but can't quite figure out the sippy cups either...high chair time is a messy time with a mix of baby food and table food. 

Our schoolyear church activities have begun again as well.  The kids join me Community Bible Study on Wednesday mornings, and the whole family goes to Awana on Wednesday, where Joe and I continue to help sign in the Cubbies (3-4 year olds) as they arrive.  I'm actually finding the time to get out of the house a couple evenings a month to sing in the church choir - something that's been a real blessing for me and the others involved.  I really didn't know how it would work out and didn't want to leave my husband alone with all 5 kids....but it worked out fine the first time.  For the second rehearsal things were a bit more complicated because it was scheduled at the same time as the older kids' swim lesson, but a friend stepped in to babysit the younger 3 - and despite a car that didn't work a couple days before, God worked it out for her to come and have a good time with my little ones. 

Our lives are busy this fall, but God is doing amazing things and revealing his love, truth, and faithfulness to our family.

On the way to church this morning, my 6-year-old son said, "Science and the Bible really do go together."  I'm so pleased that he knows this.  After all, God created all that we study about when we learn science!

Posted in School

The kitchen is my main "classroom."  We cover history, science, and language arts around the kitchen table.  It is very convenient to be able to grab a glass of water or a snack without leaving the room, and we don't need to get another table or desks for them to do their work on in another room.  (Where would we put a schoolroom anyway?  Even our twin babies don't have their own room to share yet, one sleeps in our bedroom, the other in our son's.)  We keep a shoebox of school supplies (scissors, tape, hole punch, stapler, pencils) on our kitchen counter, and the kids grab their own crayons from the bookshelf in the living room when we need them.  Our school books are kept in a box by the computer, and I simply pull out the day's books and notebooks in the morning, then put them away before lunch.

After the other subjects have been covered, one of the kids joins me on the floor of our living room for math.  We use lots of manipulatives, so the extra space is nice to have.  I think the kids also like being able to get away from the table for some of their work. 

Having school in the kitchen forces me to put things away in a timely manner--otherwise I'd be tempted to leave it all lay out in disarray.  The kitchen table works well for us, and we are free to move to the sofa for a read-aloud whenever we want to. 

We do have a secondary teaching area in our house.  My sister-in-law teaches my 2-year-old Chinese and art in the morning, and my 2 older children in the afternoon - for that she uses our basement playroom.  There is a small table there that the kids use to do artwork.  She also teaches them Chinese, though I think they sit on the floor for most of that.

I'm so happy we don't have a "classroom" but can really be free to do school anywhere.  

The kids love the hands-on activities we do - they observed a spinning top mimicking the motion of the planets, and then they got to pretend to be planets, with me being the sun.  As they walked in circles around me, they also spun around.  My daughter (almost 8) draped a blanket over herself, pretending to be Pluto, while my son (6 years) crashed into me and told me he had burned up in the sun. 

They also enjoy making new pages for their science notebooks, and looking through them.  A couple weeks ago, they made a small book about the universe, and last week they made a small model of the solar system.  This week while I read to them about each planet, they filled out "Solar System Detective" sheets with interesting facts about each planet: relatives size, distance from the sun, how long a day and a year are, how much they would weigh, and distinctive features.  I was shocked at how much they enjoyed this. 

I really enjoy the notebook pages because all I have to do is make copies and give instruction for them.  So far the activities haven't required lots of additional materials either, but the kids are actually learning and retaining the material.

They are learning new vocabulary words as well as the roots of the words.  Each week, I write any new words on index cards for them, pass them out to the kids, and have them take turns reading the definitions of the words.  This week they even quizzed each other on all the words we've learned so far.  When a word comes up in our reading, we can refer back to the card for the definition.

Each lesson also includes a section of Bible Reading, that tells what the Bible says about what we're studying.  This is probably the least interesting part for the kids.  Looking up the passages is time-consuming at their level, and they don't like to wait while I look up the passages either.  Next week I'll try printing off the verses from the computer for them and see how that goes.

One of the fascinating parts of each lesson is the "Evolution Stumpers" section, which highlights scientific discoveries that call evolution into question. 

Because we finished a topic (astronomy) this week, we had the opportunity to evaluate what we learned by doing a crossword review.  My daughter was able to recall independently all the key words and facts we had learned in the last few weeks.  My son was able to complete about half of the review independently, including naming the planets in order.  On the next day I allowed him to refer to his notebook and to our vocabulary cards to complete the rest of his crossword.  It looks like these will serve well as tests for my daughter (though I will not call them that to her), and reviews for my son.  While my son completed his crossword puzzle, my daughter did some extra research on the scientist Galileo using the computer and filling in a "Scientist Detective" page included in the curriculum. 

Today at lunch time I got to share with my brother-in-law some surprising astronomy facts I learned along with the kids this week in our science curriculum.  I think he was surprised by the fact that the sun is shrinking (something that flies in the face of evolution), and that Jupiter gives off more heat than it receives from the sun.  These were just 2 examples of facts I got to learn as I teach my kids.  It made me realize how much I love using the Considering God's Creation curriculum.

Tomorrow we begin to study the atmosphere and rainbows.  I can hardly wait.  The activities look like so much fun!

My babies are growing.  7 months old, 16 lbs or so, scooting around and trying to crawl, eating solids and trying to feed themselves.... 

The larger but younger one is on the verge of crawling - we're talking superbaby here, who can cross the living room with a single scoot... well, I might be exaggerating a bit, but I do put her down on one side of the room only to find her across the room exploring the bookshelves a minute later... then off to the kitchen or dining room before I know it.  She's the one who loves cords and shoes, especially the laces.  Her knees are often red from rubbing against the rug...that's ok, they match the red spot on her head, where she got overexcited with a rattle.  She's my speedy eater...started out messy, but has ended up being neater than her sister most of the time. 

The smaller but older twin (by 2 minutes) turns out to have two birthmarks - a storkbite on the back of her head, and an indentation on the back of her left ear.  She's quickly learning from her sister how to scoot around with the pros, though her repertoire of places she's explored is much smaller.  She seldom crosses a room or finds herself in another room altogether unless someone carries her there.  She's the contemplative, slow eater, though she  likes to take control and grab the spoon when it's time for real food, making for a very messy experience.  I now use two spoons to feed the babies - one for Miss I-want-to-feed-myself to hold, and the other to actually deliver the food to both girls' mouths. 

The rest of the kids are enjoying the baby.  The one to watch out for, of course, is my 2-year-old dd, who enjoys stepping over a baby just because she's there, who will try to pick up a baby or take away a toy or book the baby has, without even considering offering another in exchange, but who also has to hug both babies at bedtime, enjoys getting toys out for them to play, and cheers them up when they are fussy - she even likes to sample strained peas and green beans...maybe I should feed her more baby food!  My 7-year-old daughter enjoys playing with the babies, holding them, and cheering them up or making them laugh.  Of course they both laugh fastest and longest for my 6-year-old son.  I don't think any of us could imagine life without the babies.

We do still have some challenges:

• We only have 1 crib set up so far, in our room.  Hopefully the second one will be set up in ds's room this weekend, as dh's office is not ready to be a baby room any time soon.  Do we get a second mobile and bumper pad at this point or not? 
• The babies have both been a bit constipated, especially since we started solids, including prunes.  Any suggestions?  Do I try transitioning from the soy formula (Isomil) to a milk-based formula?  Early on, Rose in particular had trouble digesting the milk-based, even the lactose-free. 
• Neither baby does great in the church nursery - Rose especially gets upset, but the ladies are becoming creative and even took her to visit my 2-yo dd last Sunday when she wouldn't settle down (dd said Rose needed  Mommy).  I have a feeling they are slower to call me out of the service for my babies than if I only had one in there. 
• It's hard to figure out the logistics of traveling, and especially staying in a hotel with our 5 kids, something we're planning to do in early September.

Another challenge not related to the babies is my husband's recently discovered gluten sensitivity.  Joe had a memorable Father's Day this year...with a 9:30 am emergency appendectomy.  The surgeon took one look at his skin (he has psoriasis) and suggested he try avoiding wheat and gluten.  (The urgent care doctor he saw the night before had said the same thing.) Apparently it's a trigger for psoriasis, lactose-intolerance, an equilibrium problem he was experiencing, and many other things.  I've gone wheat-free as well partly to support him, but also to see if my lactose intolerance and canker sores go away (both are bothering me less than before).   

There is never a dull moment around here, even without mentioning visits from grandparents, with one set returning a week later so I wouldn't be alone while Joe and his sister (our nanny) flew across the country for his grandpa's funeral.

Hey, thanks for reading my "book"...looks like the second baby is just about finished with her bottle, so I better end it here.

I think I did it right this year.  I drew up my goals for each child, and then sat down with each of my two older kids to collaborate with them and determine if my goals matched theirs, and more importantly, if the methods and resources I had in mind to achieve them were acceptable to them. 

For reading, both my rising 1st-grade-age boy and 3rd-grade-age girl are excellent readers, so we decided they would both continue to read plenty of books of their choice from the library, as well as some that correlate with our history and other studies.  Each week the older girl will take 2 BookAdventure quizzes on books she has read, and my son will take 1. 

For writing, my daughter elected not to continue with Handwriting Without Tears but instead to use A Reason for Handwriting, so she can practice writing Scripture verses and color the border pictures when she finishes.  My son chose to continue with the 2nd printing book in Handwriting Without Tears. 

My daughter decided she wants to use the Write on Track textbook for grammar and composition.  Writing has been an area I have let slide for her up until now, and I'm not sure how much I am going to ask her to compose.  My son and daughter both decided they did not want to use First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained mind, which I was hoping to use. 

Both are happy to continue using ShillerMath, Story of the World history (finish vol.1, start vol. 2), and Considering God's Creation science (just started last month). 

For Bible I had wanted to do a Kay Arthur kids' study with them, but they lost interest quickly.  Maybe we can come back to that in a few years.  In the meantime we will pick up where we left off reading Hero Tales for the summer, and then continue with Community Bible Study and Awana in the fall.

The kids are enjoying doing art with their aunt, our nanny.  My daughter wants to do more collages, and my son wants to do art outdoors.   We will continue to correlate some art projects with our history and science studies.

Both kids (and even my 2-year-old) love Chinese class with our nanny, who was born in Taiwan and attended Chinese school as a child.  My son believes doing homework will help him learn better on the days he doesn't have Chinese class.

As for phys ed, both older kids want to continue swimming - my daughter can swim fairly well, and my son is still a beginner.  He also wants to go ice skating and bowling and ride his bike more often.

I want to introduce music to the kids, teaching primarily at my 2-year-old's level, using Keyboard Capers, with the assistance of the older 2.

It should prove to be a fun and interesting year.  I suppose my biggest concern is getting things together with my daughter's grammar and composition.  I just ordered the teacher's guide for 97 cents, so hopefully I'll find some good ideas in there.

During  our picnic lunch today, a fly landed on my 2-year-old's towel and didn't seem to be moving for awhile.  A debate ensued on the topic of whether the fly was dead or not.  Finally our nanny told them to scare the fly.  Immediately, my 7-year-old daughter leaned close to the fly and yelled, "ROOAAAAAAR!" 

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Progress Report for 6-year-old son

August 2005-May 2006

 

Language Arts

Reading – He has made tremendous progress in reading this year and is now able to read independently around the 3^rd grade level.  He enjoys reading Magic Tree House, Ricky Ricotta, Franny K. Stein, and Berenstain Bears books.  He read through all the 1^st grade advanced readers from Sonlight’s curriculum, and he has even read several books from The Chronicles of Narnia independently.  

Writing – He has learned to print all of his letters properly using Handwriting without Tears My Printing Book.

Grammar – He has been learning the definition of a noun using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind.

Spelling – He spells at the mid-2^nd grade level.  We did not do a formal study of spelling this year.

 

Math

This year we used ShillerMath books 1 & 2, completing up to Activity 59 of book 2.  He has made tremendous progress in learning basic addition and subtraction facts, and has even memorized several multiplication facts.  He can add numbers to the thousands using manipulatives, even when exchange is required.  He enjoys counting has counted up to 12,000 …so far.  He has learned about multiples, expressing inequalities, even and odd numbers, groupings from solo to quintet, parallel lines and parallelograms, basic probability and estimation, Roman numerals to 10, triangular numbers, and counting money (pennies, dimes, nickels).  He needs to continue to work on basic directionality, as he still sometimes confuses right and left.  He has gone far beyond the math most children encounter in Kindergarten. 

 

History

We studied history beginning with Ancient Greece using Story of the World, Volume 1.  He demonstrates comprehension and retention of the subject matter and read some library books related to our history topics.   He especially enjoyed our study of Roman gladiators. 

 

Science

While we did not do a formal study of science this year, He is certainly very interested in science, and enjoys reading books about science, including the Magic School Bus series. 

 

Bible

This year in Community Bible Study, he completed a survey course of the Bible.  As part of our church’s Awana program, he also memorized verses and completed crafts to finish the Skipper Handbook.  In the evenings, he enjoyed listening to missionary stories as part of our family devotions.

 

Foreign Language

In March he started learning Chinese and has mastered the Chinese alphabet (written and spoken), numbers, and tones.  He is quickly developing an oral vocabulary and has learned 3 songs in Chinese.  His reading ability is equivalent to that of a young first grader in Chinese school.