Homeschool has hit high gear with the arrival of 2013. Last year was a crazy year, and our first "semester" was affected by Jasper's arrival, of course. So we have some ground to make up between now and June! Overall it is going great. We've made some curriculum adjustments along the way, learned to be flexible with our schedule, and set new goals for this more focused semester we're now in. We're currently covering seven subjects: Bible, Reading, Math, History, Geography, Fine Motor/Handwriting, and Art/Crafts. We were also adding Sign Language last semester, but have decided to give that a little less attention in favor of moving further along in some other subjects for the time being.
January is a full month. In addition to our regular subjects, we're also studying snow-friendly animals each week (Snowy Owls, Penguins, Snowshoe Hares, and Polar Bears) as well as making four winter crafts this month. In addition, the kids have a few field trips this month and one or two co-op gatherings (we participate in a small, three-family co-op).
Academically, Gillian is doing great. Reading is probably where she is excelling most these days. I can't keep up with her. I have yet to present her with a reading lesson that she seems actually challenged by. Yet she doesn't seem bored with the curriculum either. So it's going great. Math is challenging. I knew we selected a fast-moving curriculum, but I am now starting to see just how fast it moves. She is definitely challenged in almost every lesson when it comes to Math, but she also loves it. She usually wants to start each day with Math if she is given the choice.
We're still learning a lot about how this whole thing works. She learns differently than I do, so I'm learning how to teach to her style. It's a fine balance of deciding how much to teach to how she learns best and how much to teach in a way that challenges her to learn in a variety of ways. As the title of this blog says, we are learning as we go! I am thankful for the support of the other moms in our co-op, as they continually provide me with wisdom from their own experiences as they learn too!
Here's a glance at a day in the life of our homeschool--today's homeschool recap:
Bible: We continue to study Jesus' birth (okay, we're a little behind and we're still wrapping up the Christmas unit!). Today we got to tell the story using our Little People Nativity with a little Veggie Tales mixed in. It was quite festive. We're also working on Luke 2:21 as our Bible Memory Verse for this unit: "He was named Jesus. This name was given by the angel."
Reading: Today we tackled compound words. Gillian did great. She spent the rest of the evening trying to think up her own, and I considered creating a "compound words wall" where we could post tons of these for at-a-glance learning. Then I remembered I am nursing a 4 month old and homeschooling a 5 year old while also caring for a 3 year old and I came to my senses and realized I'd have no time for bringing this great idea to life. Small dose of reality. We also spent lots of time reading from our mountain of library books (we usually have around 40 or more out at one time), including some new ones from some of our favorite authors (the kids are learning about authors and illustrators and are now starting to identify their favorites so we can look for more books by these authors). In my next post I will try to include a list of what's currently on our favorites list!
Math: We're working on money, specifically the value of pennies and dimes and adding these in a variety of combinations. Overall it is going great! We also continue to work on addition, number lines, telling time, and much more! Our math program is a spiral method program, so we continually come back to previous concepts.
Handwriting: We are working on a letter each week and a number (writing the numeral and the word for that numeral). Gillian is writing numbers into the 40s in her Math program, but we're reinforcing this in Handwriting and taking more time with each.
We didn't get to History or Geography today (we always have things we just don't get to each day it seems) and our poor snowman craft is still awaiting completion (we started it last week but our methodology proved flawed, so we are starting again). We also add to a vocabulary list each week (these are usually unfamiliar words we encounter as we read from various library books). Once our list gets pretty long or I realize the kids have mastered all of the words on a list, we file that list and start a new one. Here are the words on our current list (we just started this list a week ago):
Vocabulary List:
1. Keystone (from learning about Pennsylvania which is called "The Keystone State")
2. Descendants (from our Bible lessons)
3. Mule (from Geography in learning about the Grand Canyon and the mules that people ride on in the canyon)
4. Narrow (can't quite remember the context for this one)
5. Mist (I think this one was from a library book last week)
6. Indigo (from a library book which included this in a rainbow of colors)
Okay, this post has gotten WAY too long. I will hope to update this several times a week for those of you interested in keeping up with what's new with us! :) We would love to hear from you, so leave comments or feedback! Blessings, all!
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