If you have been keeping up with my blog then you will notice that the blog has been a bit void of home schooling articles. Our life has been a whirlwind on top of the fact that the "g"drive broke. By the way, Joey took it to work today to see if a coworker can fix it. There is hope! I promise that though the homeschooling blogs have been few, we have been schooling. So I interrupt my December Christmas chronicles to bring you an update on our schooling.
Last year, it was off to a rocky and slow start when we began this whole thing. Things did not smooth out until January and then all of a sudden: We were in a groove, I had settled down, and the kids had settled in. It was a successful year, so successful that we decided to do it again! If I had a "one word" theme for last year it was TRANSITION. Transition from the public/private school experience into a new home school environment. Transition from having 40-60 kids a day to teaching 2, my own! I could go on and on and it would be really long so I won't, just know, there was lots of transition.
This year's theme word would definitely be FLEXIBILITY. It started out just like last year--rocky and seems to be taking the same turn this January, thank goodness. We have had our perks this past fall but mostly it has been fast, furious, flexible with many life interruptions playing into the mix. It is still a TRANSITIONAL year in that we added some things to our homeschooling dynamic--DRUMS, PIANO, ROBOTICS, Cub Scouts and COOP classes. These have proven to be quite time consuming and a bit of an adjustment but things ended at the end of November and so we had some much needed time off to party hardy this December.
As things get cranked up again today with the beginning of piano and drum practice (coop starts back next week and Robotics in February) we will be again, transitioning back into a full schedule but hopefully a nice routine. We have had to be flexible, due to all sorts of changes occurring around here, but that is the beauty of home schooling, and I think we are learning lots. So what have we been doing? I will tell you briefly and then give another report soon.
Andrew is learning division. (It is giving him fits but he is getting it)
He is reading like a mad man tackling Holes, By the Great Horn Spoon, Detectives in Togas, Because of Winn Dixie, George Mueller: Heroes of the Faith, Star Wars books #3, #4 and starting #5, Magic Tree House books #3,#6-34, Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, and Homer Price.
He is memorizing the U.S states and capitals, working on a lapbook for Zoology 1 Chapters 1-7, and learning about the Roman republic and the first form of government established there. He is zipping through his spelling curriculum and is about to finish the Shurley English 4 Book that has taken us all of last year and this year til now to complete. He flourished in Robotics and looks forward to picking that back up in February. His cursive handwriting gets better and better even though he hates cursive and writes paragraphs and stories like a pro! Coming from his writing teacher mother I would say that is a big compliment. He is doing some SAT prep work on inference and definitions and is brushing up on his dictionary skills, as of late. In his free time he is constructing legos, dreaming of more legos and playing on his new electronic drum set that he got for Christmas.
On the horizon- Shurley English 6, The US states and caps completely memorized and some in depth geography, double digit division, and some Spanish.
Alora has been growing by leaps and bounds also. This year she is really improving her subtraction and addition skills and is working with money and adding money this week (something she is very interested in right now). She is also working on a zoology 1 lapbook for Chapters 1-7 and is also studying about Greece and Rome, government right now. She is zipping through her phonics book and I project that she will finish early. She is reading on her own and has tackled many books: Curious George, Curdoroy, The Little Engine That Could, Harry the Dirty Dog, Billy and Blaze, Doctor DeSoto, Frog and Toad (our personal favorites), Junie B Jones, Geronimo Stinton series, as well as her history/reading readers Ella Sings Jazz about Ella Fitzgerald, King Alfred of England, My Clara, a fantasy selection, The Grand Cat situated during the time of the Dutch Reformation, The Black Flag a story about Cotton Mather, Up in the Sky about the Wright Brothers, and The Brave Monk (anyone wanna take a guess who that might be?) She is a fabulous reader but has yet to really find a book that is just sucking her in and transporting her to far away lands. Any suggestions? Alora is also learning some geography mainly mapping terms, and is also doing well on spelling and handwriting. IShe began Shurley English 1 this year and is diagramming sentences including adjectives and adverbs as well as nouns and verbs. She loves this most because it makes her feel like a big kid. In her free time she knits with her knitting machine that Momo gave her. She has made everything from scarves to arm and leg warmers!
On the horizon more Shurley English, Insects, measurement and place value and piano.
He is memorizing the U.S states and capitals, working on a lapbook for Zoology 1 Chapters 1-7, and learning about the Roman republic and the first form of government established there. He is zipping through his spelling curriculum and is about to finish the Shurley English 4 Book that has taken us all of last year and this year til now to complete. He flourished in Robotics and looks forward to picking that back up in February. His cursive handwriting gets better and better even though he hates cursive and writes paragraphs and stories like a pro! Coming from his writing teacher mother I would say that is a big compliment. He is doing some SAT prep work on inference and definitions and is brushing up on his dictionary skills, as of late. In his free time he is constructing legos, dreaming of more legos and playing on his new electronic drum set that he got for Christmas.
On the horizon- Shurley English 6, The US states and caps completely memorized and some in depth geography, double digit division, and some Spanish.
Alora has been growing by leaps and bounds also. This year she is really improving her subtraction and addition skills and is working with money and adding money this week (something she is very interested in right now). She is also working on a zoology 1 lapbook for Chapters 1-7 and is also studying about Greece and Rome, government right now. She is zipping through her phonics book and I project that she will finish early. She is reading on her own and has tackled many books: Curious George, Curdoroy, The Little Engine That Could, Harry the Dirty Dog, Billy and Blaze, Doctor DeSoto, Frog and Toad (our personal favorites), Junie B Jones, Geronimo Stinton series, as well as her history/reading readers Ella Sings Jazz about Ella Fitzgerald, King Alfred of England, My Clara, a fantasy selection, The Grand Cat situated during the time of the Dutch Reformation, The Black Flag a story about Cotton Mather, Up in the Sky about the Wright Brothers, and The Brave Monk (anyone wanna take a guess who that might be?) She is a fabulous reader but has yet to really find a book that is just sucking her in and transporting her to far away lands. Any suggestions? Alora is also learning some geography mainly mapping terms, and is also doing well on spelling and handwriting. IShe began Shurley English 1 this year and is diagramming sentences including adjectives and adverbs as well as nouns and verbs. She loves this most because it makes her feel like a big kid. In her free time she knits with her knitting machine that Momo gave her. She has made everything from scarves to arm and leg warmers!
On the horizon more Shurley English, Insects, measurement and place value and piano.
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