Saturday, January 1, 2011

Getting Ready For The New Year - Schooling

All in all school has gone well so far this year. Grace is definitely working more independently with most of her subjects on a daily basis. Is there room for improvement? Always. Do we need to change things up? Just a few things. We have been on Christmas break for the past two weeks. Definitely time to get back on schedule. I am hearing alot of the I'm bored phrase. Subjects that are working and won't be changed are as follows:

Math - I created my own curriculum this year and it really seems to be working. I have implemented alot of review. If we don't review often, Grace just forgets how to solve certain kinds of problems. Taking it slow, but I really feel like she is getting math this year.

Science - We are halfway through Exploring Creation with Human anatomy and Physiology by Jeannie Fulbright. Learning alot. Also using the journal that goes with it. Not every single activity or page, but making it our own. For anyone reading this I would not recommending using this book until 5th or 6th grade or maybe even for middle schoolers. Lots of medical terms sometimes confusing and above the child's head.

Greek - Going in to our second work book of Hey Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek. Surprisingly, Grace really likes this. The first book was very easy learning the alphabet which she has down pat. Second book will be a little more intense with learning words and some phrases.

Easy Grammar - Still working through this book and will continue to through another year or so. Can't say enough about this programs. Has really taught us alot. For a couple of months we were working on the sections that dealt with Capitalization and Punctuation now going back and reviewing what we learned at the beginning of the year to move on to new items.

Literature - Still working through our literature choices for the year. Finishing up the Little House Series then moving on to The Hobbit.

Some New Additions and Changes:

Bible - Added The Action Bible for her daily Bible readings and just ordered two packets from Alpha Omega to started studying about Jesus' life.

Spelling - Still using our spelling book from Queenhomeschool - Learning to Spell through Copywork, but adding spellingcity.com. We have worked through the first 8 lessons of the book, now going back and reviewing those word lists by using www.spellingcity.com. Spelling is one of Grace's biggest weaknesses and needs lots of work.

History - Two more chapters to finish The Story of the World Ancient Times then moving on to volume two Middle Ages. Adding the companion testing book to be used as follow up questions for each chapter. Also will continue with one written narration each week.

Art - Continuing private lessons with her art teacher. Have ordered two packets from Alpha Omega - Comics and Perspective to work on at home and with her art teacher each week.

Some things to look forward to is drama practices and performances of Alice in Wonderland.

No comments: