• Aug. 25, 2006 - Another School Year Has Arrived!
Another school year is upon us! We had our first day August 15. We have ten students:
1 in first grade
1 in second grade
1 in third grade
2 in fifth grade (my sons)
1 in seventh grade (and another to enroll soon!)
And 4 in tenth grade (one of them my son)!
It is such fun to be their teacher! They are such eager learners and while learning is work -- it can be fun sometimes, too!
We
have been very busy with nature studies, ancient history, speech
classes, Latin and Greek studies, ancient literature and more!
People are often curious about our day and how we manage a "one-room cottage school." It's not as difficult as you might think!
We
start the day with pledges, singing patriotc songs and learning sign
language to them. Then, we sing a hymn. After that we pray for our
missionaries and martyred Christians as well as our own prayer
concerns. Following our Bible lesson (we are currently studying
Creation from the book, Considering God's Creation
by Mortimer and Smith), we pray the Lord's prayer. While the older
boys set up the tables for lunch and Math class, I check students'
homework.
By 9:00 the younger students are all doing Math-U-See with two different teachers and the 10th grade boys stay with me for English and Life Skills. We are using the Foundations LifePac from Alpha Omega and Man in Demand by Wayne and Emily Hunter for Life Skills. We are using Daily Grams and Institute of Excellence in Writing for English. We also rotate Latin & Greek from http://Greeknstuff.com as well as logic lessons from Fallacy Detective. Another life skill we are learning is during their speech class. We are using The Art of Eloquence
by JoJo Tabares. I love it, and my son, who has always had more of a
problem with social skills than the average person, has already learned
a lot about himself he never thought about before!
At 10:00 AM we break for a snack and recess. Everyone has recess because everyone needs fresh air!
We
come back inside for a read-aloud time. Right now I'm reading the
Burgess Animal book. Even the older students seem to enjoy this time.
The younger students are even more enthralled and we are all learning
so many new things about animals! I love Thorton Burgess' books!
After
I read for about thirty minutes, the students break up into reading
partners and the younger students read aloud to the older students. I
work with the beginning readers and then I check all the grade school
homework notebooks and write down their reading assignemnts for the
day. (I try to give very little homework -- and never give it to
younger children on the weekends or on church nights.)
After reading we break up into three groups again. The older boys have Math-U-See
with one teacher and the younger students go with their teacher while I
work with the seventh and tenth grade girls for English skills and Life
Skills. We are using Daily Grams and IEW just as the older boys are.
We are using What Every Girl Should Know by Myklin Cox. We also rotate Greek and Latin just like the boys.
Then
it's time for lunch and recess. Following recess I read aloud again.
Right now since we are studying ancient history this year we are
reading the Old Testament. We are up to Genesis chapter 20. The
reason we are only that far in 9 days is because I stop and explain
things the students don't understand.
After the read aloud
time, we break up into two groups. The Elementary go with their
teacher (my friend, Mary Ann Sharp) and I stay with the Jr. High and
High School kids for history, science and any other supplemental work
we might have to do.
We work on timelines, on maps, on lap books
and more. We are using Alpha Omega for Science and for History the
younger girls are writing their own texts and the older boys are using
a text book for the very first time in the history of our history
program! :-) The younger students are using Mystery of History.
The older students have already been through that, and since one of the
boys is going to test for his GED this year, I thought it was important
to expose these gentlemen to a text book. Naturally I supplement it
plenty!
On Fridays we have Show and Tell or field trips. On
Thursday afternoons we have gym class at the college where they provide
students to teach home schoolers a gym course and the college students
get credit for it!
We will be going on a camping trip in
September and we have many other trips and projects planned. Come back
later so we can fill you in on all our projects!
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