So, we have finished seven weeks of homeschooling, and I'm ready to call this as one of the best decisions I have ever made. Seriously. I have had so many moments where I want to freeze time and savor whatever is happening. Some examples: the light bulb going on over Bug's head during a math lesson and the excitement in her eyes, and how she wants to do "just one more!" problem to practice her new skill; when I get to witness my girls laying the foundation for a lifelong friendship; Bug teaching Lulu after she finishes her work; and just those times when I think "Wow, this is amazing that we can do this!" Those times are quite frequent. The flexibility we have, the latitude to study what we find interesting -- I have not yet come across a downside on this journey.
Last week we wrapped up a few things, and we are about to start some new material.
- We have finished Alice in Wonderland. The lapbook and book report are completed, and we are ready to start Black Beauty this week. As you can imagine, Buggy is much more excited about this book. :)
- We completed our unit on Picasso and are ready to start Van Gogh. It's so cool that Bug now knows famous Picasso paintings and can talk about the style of painting he used and what influenced his different painting periods. (Add that to the list of "happy moments" above!)
- We are about to start Chapter 3 in our Math in Focus book. We are *loving* this book. It's very user-friendly for both mom and child. So far, we have reviewed adding and carrying numbers to add up to 1,000, and then we did subtracting with borrowing (although Bug pointed out that it should be called "stealing" because the tens or ones columns do not give the 1 back...) and subtracting "across zeroes".
- We are done learning about the Southwestern and Western regions of the US. Right now, we are reviewing both regions, making sure all the capitals, landmarks, and land forms are memorized before we move on to the Midwest.
- We are *almost* done with Bach --- we did the different orchestral music periods and types of instruments, and now are listening to various Bach pieces and discussing what we hear. Handel is next.
- Science -- I've talked a bit about this in previous posts, but we learned about atoms & matter, and we just finished up a unit on the Animal Kingdoms. This week we will start a month-long unit on rocks & minerals.
- Spelling - we are going to switch gears on this one after Thanksgiving. I am not pleased with just memorizing 16 words each week. I don't feel like Bug is "getting" the rules of spelling or retaining the spelling words beyond the weekly tests. So I am researching spelling curriculum to find something that would give more information and help Bug in this area. In the meantime, I'm not going to waste our time with the "old way", and are tabling spelling lessons until December or maybe January.
- Grammar - chugging along, we do a lesson each morning -- I started her on Level 1 because I thought there may be some gaps, and we are approaching those gaps in the coming weeks. (Singular and Plural Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, etc.)
- Reading/Writing - we are talking about the parts of a story, and Bug is working on writing a book. We are plotting out the conflicts and resolutions, and she is making notes a few times a week about characters and ideas she has. This should be completed by the end of October.
That about covers what we have been doing! :) Every Tuesday Bug does a PE class with our homeschool group, and then we hang at the park with everyone for an hour or so. Each week there is a different activity - Lego club, Show & Tell, Cycling Group, etc. We are all making new friends and feeling pretty at home with this group.
Alright, time to get back to planning and organizing!! I will work on posting more often so it's not such a novella each time.
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