Homeschool Report

I have not reported lately about homeschooling. I pondered that this morning and realized that things have just been going so good I have forgot to mention it much. Christmas was really our turning point and it has been smooth sailing ever since. So here is the run down on what we have been learning:

Alabama History: The State Symbols and we spent time making collages of places around the state.

Math: Andrew has officially moved through all multiplication tables and now we will be moving into double digit multiplication next week. He is also a word problem master and measurement genius! Alora is currently learning subtracting two from a number. She has mastered addition and is getting really good with time and graphing. She is working on even and odd numbers and is really enjoying math.

Reading: Andrew just finished Cricket in Times Square, and How to Eat Fried Worms and now he will be reading Because of Winn Dixie and The Mouse and the Motorcycle. We will be learning about theme in literature. Alora is reading the Abeka handbook, Geronimo Stilton's Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye, Dr Seuss books and some short readers still emphasizing special sounds.

Spanish: It is already starting to click! Rosetta Stone took Alora a little bit to get the hang of it but she is pronouncing the words really well now. Andrew is flying through the lessons really grasping the words and their context. He has even identified some objects around the house and told me the Spanish word for them. Joey and I are also moving slowly through the Spanish because we want to learn too.

Science: Space Rocks. Asteroids, Meteors, Meteoroids, Meteorites. Do you know the difference between these? We will be learning about Jupiter next week.

History/Bible: This week: The Second Intermediate Period in Egyptian History (we really get to start talking about mummies, which is perfect since we are going to Atlanta in March to visit Jay and Fran and go to the King Tut exhibit), Next week: The Code of Hammurabi.

Language: Andrew persuasive paragraphs and every part of speech labeled in sentences, as well as punctuation rules and capitalization rules. I love Shurley English! Alora is plugging away at special sounds and learning sentence structure and capitalization and proper punctuation.

Spelling: Andrew is in the last lesson of his latin roots book and I am then going to use another book that I used with fifth graders last year. Andrew has learned 20 different Latin roots and over 100 words demonstrating the use of those roots and an array of suffixes as well. Last week it was techn and loc. This week we are reviewing all roots. Alora is up to 15 word lists and she is currently working on words that have special sounds ung, ang, ong, and ank, ink, onk.

I think I have covered most of it, at least you have an idea of what we have been up to in the classroom. We are so ready for Spring! When it gets here, I am planning many outdoor adventures but for now we are trucking along in our classroom having a blast!