Kris over at weird, unsocialized homeschoolers put up a post back in April of this year addressing a lot of the more common misconceptions surrounding homeschooling. Being somewhat new to the whole homeschooling thing, it took me a while to stumble across this post (thanks Michelle!).
I am glad that I did because she *nailed* it.
And the last one that she addressed - #11: The fact that I happen to have a teaching license that doesn't make me a better homeschooling parent - is the one I want to focus on for the moment.
I am a certified K-12 educator. My degree is in Exercise Science and my endorsements are in Physical Education and Health though I also have enough credits to add in Science and Math if I wanted to. I have taught in Colorado, California, Alaska, and Hawaii - mostly at the high school and middle school levels.
What I have found over the course of the past 6 weeks of homeschooling is that I am having to unlearn a lot of my teacher education in order to properly educate my children. First, let me say this...my college education did not properly prepare me to teach. Not even close. EVERYTHING that I have learned about how to teach has been learned either in the classroom or at my dining table (or in other settings in which I work with children such as church). Today's "teacher education programs" do not teach people HOW to teach. They teach you how to manage a classroom, how to write out a lesson plan, how to develop scope and sequence within a curriculum, how to protect yourself from liability. But they do not teach you HOW to teach. And I don't think they have for decades.
I love math. LOVE it. I have math workbooks on my nightstand instead of trashy novels. I love to do math problems. But, as much as I love to *do* math problems, I am not particularly skilled at teaching others how to do them. I am learning and plan to use my love of math and science (combined with improved teaching skills) as a tutor once we find out where we're going next but those teaching skills are something I'm having to teach myself because it was never really taught to me in college.
So the fact that I am a certified teacher really does not equip me any more than simply being able to read and understand the directions in the teacher's manual that came with the curriculum I chose for my children. Like Kris said in her post, you're going to have to come up with a better excuse than that if you want to tell me why you can't homeschool your own children!
It's a great post and Kris does an excellent job of articulating a lot of the thoughts that run through my mind when I hear my friends discussing our decision to homeschool our children.
Our Week-In-Review is going to be late this time around - we have QUITE the full weekend going on! I managed to get next week's lesson plans laid out early but I had to sacrifice the WIR in order to do so. And our week wasn't all that interesting anyway!
Pau.
- hfs
9.18.2010
Trekking down the Nile - Our Week in Review
This week was all about the Nile. If you have not had a chance to read about our LEGO interpretation of "Mystery of the Nile", I'd encourage you to do so - it will give you a pretty good idea of what we were up to this week.
We studied the Nile: where it comes from, the countries it passes through, who has tried to navigate it from beginning to end (and failed), where it ends up...you name it and we've studied it. We watched the movie, we checked the book from the library, we've Googled it, we've looked at it on satellite imagery. We are continuing to "flood" our Nile models as well.
Lots of Nile Love going on here, in addition to the "Three Rs", that is!
I sat down and looked at where we stand with regard to math and it looks like both The Boy and The Girl are on track to wrap up their current math curricula right around Christmas break. PERFECT! So I'll be ordering the next level for each of them in the next few weeks. They are both excited to be moving so quickly. I am amazed.
One of my goals with regard to homeschooling is to foster as much independence within my children as possible when it comes to their educations. One way I am doing this is with their "Daily Folder" - a notebook with their chores, copywork, memory work, Daily Geography, and other small assignments that they are quite capable of accomplishing on their own, with little parental oversight. They are both enjoying the folder and have even taken to working ahead in them - doing all of their copywork and Daily Geography in one sitting or during their free time. It's great to see them take responsibility for their work rather than waiting for me to dish it out.
Chemistry this week wrapped up the first chapter and now we move into molecules and bonds. The Co-op that we are a part of will be taking a break this coming week so the kids and I are going to put together a few of our own experiments from a book we picked up at the library titled Fizz, Bubble, & Flash. They are excited and, if the experiments go as well as I think they will, I'll be running them again at Co-op in a few weeks!
It's hard to believe we are already 6 weeks into our homeschool year. I am enjoying it so far and I think the kids are as well. This week, we stopped by their former public school to say hi to some friends and their old teachers and, while they both enjoyed seeing everyone, neither of them expressed much in the way of sadness or longing to be back there. And now that soccer is over, they will be able to spend more time during the weekday afternoons and evenings playing with their friends in the neighborhood, which will be good for them!
This weekend is nuts - two final soccer games, two end-of-the-year soccer parties, a birthday sleepover with NINE (9!) nine-year-olds, church, BMX state finals, and Ohana group all mixed in. I might need the next week to recover from my weekend!
Pau.
- hfs
We studied the Nile: where it comes from, the countries it passes through, who has tried to navigate it from beginning to end (and failed), where it ends up...you name it and we've studied it. We watched the movie, we checked the book from the library, we've Googled it, we've looked at it on satellite imagery. We are continuing to "flood" our Nile models as well.
Lots of Nile Love going on here, in addition to the "Three Rs", that is!
I sat down and looked at where we stand with regard to math and it looks like both The Boy and The Girl are on track to wrap up their current math curricula right around Christmas break. PERFECT! So I'll be ordering the next level for each of them in the next few weeks. They are both excited to be moving so quickly. I am amazed.
One of my goals with regard to homeschooling is to foster as much independence within my children as possible when it comes to their educations. One way I am doing this is with their "Daily Folder" - a notebook with their chores, copywork, memory work, Daily Geography, and other small assignments that they are quite capable of accomplishing on their own, with little parental oversight. They are both enjoying the folder and have even taken to working ahead in them - doing all of their copywork and Daily Geography in one sitting or during their free time. It's great to see them take responsibility for their work rather than waiting for me to dish it out.
Chemistry this week wrapped up the first chapter and now we move into molecules and bonds. The Co-op that we are a part of will be taking a break this coming week so the kids and I are going to put together a few of our own experiments from a book we picked up at the library titled Fizz, Bubble, & Flash. They are excited and, if the experiments go as well as I think they will, I'll be running them again at Co-op in a few weeks!
It's hard to believe we are already 6 weeks into our homeschool year. I am enjoying it so far and I think the kids are as well. This week, we stopped by their former public school to say hi to some friends and their old teachers and, while they both enjoyed seeing everyone, neither of them expressed much in the way of sadness or longing to be back there. And now that soccer is over, they will be able to spend more time during the weekday afternoons and evenings playing with their friends in the neighborhood, which will be good for them!
This weekend is nuts - two final soccer games, two end-of-the-year soccer parties, a birthday sleepover with NINE (9!) nine-year-olds, church, BMX state finals, and Ohana group all mixed in. I might need the next week to recover from my weekend!
Pau.
- hfs
9.15.2010
Mystery of the Nile - LEGO interpretation
Earlier this week, as part of our study of the ancient Egyptians, we watched the movie "Mystery of the Nile". What an incredible adventure of a movie! The Boy and The Girl were as enthralled as I was! And when we found out that there is a book to go along with the movie, we hit the library's website to request it immediately. It came in shortly after we requested it and it's sitting in our library basket, waiting to be read.
After we were done watching the movie, The Boy had some free time while I worked with The Girl on her math and he set to work with his Legos. Here's how I know he enjoyed the movie:
One of the rafts that the film makers used to travel the 4,000 miles of the Nile River.
Another angle of the raft.
Gordon Brown's kayak.
The expedition crew.
The expedition crew going under one of the bridges along the Nile in Ethiopia.
Another view.
The Boy then proceeded to retell me the story of the expedition, almost point by point, using his Lego creations to illustrate. I told him he should go get the Duplo alligator out to add to the scene, which he did, but my camera battery died before I had a chance to take a picture.
The Girl now wants to take kayaking lessons so she can learn to kayak like Mr. Brown did in the movie. Thankfully we're in the right place for her to learn. Time to talk to some people and see what I can set up for her!
If you've not had a chance to watch the movie, I would definitely recommend it. It's an amazing production and, while watching it, you feel as though you are THERE on the Nile with them.
Pau.
- hfs
After we were done watching the movie, The Boy had some free time while I worked with The Girl on her math and he set to work with his Legos. Here's how I know he enjoyed the movie:
One of the rafts that the film makers used to travel the 4,000 miles of the Nile River.
Another angle of the raft.
Gordon Brown's kayak.
The expedition crew.
The expedition crew going under one of the bridges along the Nile in Ethiopia.
Another view.
The Boy then proceeded to retell me the story of the expedition, almost point by point, using his Lego creations to illustrate. I told him he should go get the Duplo alligator out to add to the scene, which he did, but my camera battery died before I had a chance to take a picture.
The Girl now wants to take kayaking lessons so she can learn to kayak like Mr. Brown did in the movie. Thankfully we're in the right place for her to learn. Time to talk to some people and see what I can set up for her!
If you've not had a chance to watch the movie, I would definitely recommend it. It's an amazing production and, while watching it, you feel as though you are THERE on the Nile with them.
Pau.
- hfs
9.10.2010
Well, that was quick! Our Week-in-Review
I swear, I blinked and the week is over! How did that happen? Oh that's right...mix in a holiday, visiting grandparents, and a tummy bug and things tend to blur together.
This week was a "survival week". Just survive the week and it will all be good. Because we took Monday off, I decided to smush Monday's work into the rest of the week - not too difficult, given the fact that our days tend to end early. I cut out a few things - handwriting, primarily - but overall we hit everything we needed to hit. And the reward was sugar cubes and pyramids! More on that in a minute.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Both The Boy and The Girl flew through their language arts work this week. Spelling continues to be pretty easy for both of them. So much so that I'm basically just giving them the pretests at the beginning of the week and that's about it. Though The Girl is in a higher level of spelling curriculum, she's still doing quite well. They both have review lessons coming up and we're going to do a bit of a Spelling Bee - with M&Ms for each word spelled correctly. They should love that!
Now that we have The Girl's language/grammar curriculum in hand, she's really taking off on it as well. She rips through 3-4 lessons per week and seems to be enjoying it which is good to see. And I see her making strides in her narration/summarizing abilities...something in which she lacks confidence. Dictation is coming along as well. I explained to her the point of dictation - to train her mind to be able to hold a picture of the sentence inside and then be able to transfer that picture (with correct grammar, spelling, etc.) on to paper. Once I explained that to her, she began to understand the point behind the dictation exercises. Having never done this before, she's only able to handle one sentence at a time (the exercises usually have 2 fairly long sentences in them) which is fine. I'll take accuracy over speed/completion with inaccuracy any day! The speed and ability to handle two long sentences will come with practice.
MATH:
The Girl panicked a bit this week as it dawned on her that multiplication is a third grade skill. She asked if she was "behind" and I answered her honestly - she is at this point. I chose to reteach her multiplication from beginning because she never really grasped it last year. With 30+ kids in a class and a district/state so focused on the end product ("Did we teach the third graders how to multiply?" "Yes. Check the box.") as opposed to mastery, many children do not properly grasp the subject. The Girl was one of them. And, because there is so much crammed into a day/week/month/semester/school year, there really isn't time for practice. And it's great to think that parents can have their children practice at home but the reality is that The Girl was bringing home, on average, 1-2 hours of homework per day. To add to that for an 8 year old is ridiculous.
So we backtracked. I took a look at the placement tests that Math-U-See has online in order for parents to assess their child's ability before ordering curriculum and it was very clear to me that The Girl would struggle with division unless her multiplication skills were solidified. I'm a math nerd and I know that math builds upon itself and if she does not have a firm foundation, the rest of her math experiences will be a struggle. I don't want that for her. Challenging is fine. Struggling is not. My goal is to be through this level (Gamma) and on to the 4th grade curriculum (Delta) after the holidays.
And it's working. The first day of our school year, she was in tears because, as she told me, "I'm not good at math." Yet, by the end of the day - after just one lesson and 3 relatively simple worksheets - she told her grandmother that she "loves math" and is "good at multiplication!". Perfect!
HISTORY:
This week, it was all about Egypt. We read about the Old Kingdom of Egypt. We read about mummies. We wrapped dolls and stuffed animals in linen cloths to make our own mummies. We read about Cheops, the Great Pyramid, The Sphinx, and the weighing of the heart by Osiris. Is your heart light or heavy? If it is heavy, the monster will eat it!
And then it was on to the pyramids! All week long, the goal was to complete our studies so that we could build our pyramids out of sugar cubes. And, of course, there had to be the ceremonial eating of a sugar cube in order to verify that it was, in fact, sugar (it was!).
We picked up some "stone" colored spray paint and got them to look like "real" pyramids. Though The Boy was disappointed that we didn't get to construct any of the rooms inside or bury treasure in them. I told him to construct one out of Legos instead. He's working on it.
ART & MUSIC:
Aside from listening to Beethoven's music during lunch and reading time, we didn't really get to much in the way of art or music due to the short week. Next week, we are going to dive into DaVinci's most famous work, the Mona Lisa. I have a few CDs on request from the local library that I need to pick up as well - specifically Beethoven Lives Upstairs (upon Carrie's recommendation over at Live, Learn, and Love Together). We are all looking forward to listening.
The local art class that we go to each week was off this week as well so it was a rather artless week. Hopefully next week will be more colorful!
I did get a shipment from Amazon (I LOVE Amazon!!!) this week that included a new typing program/game for The Girl - Typing Instructor for Kids - which she's having fun with. Any time she gets to get on the computer during the week (no video games during the week and no TV until the school day is done) so this is fun for her, which works for me. She gets to type her assignments for the writing workshop she's doing in Co-Op so this should help her typing abilities as well.
Speaking of Co-Op, Friday was a Co-Op day: PE, science, writing workshop for The Girl. It all went pretty smoothly and they are looking forward to next week. In science (Chemistry), they explored "Matterville" and learned about protons, neutrons, and electrons and their assignment for the week is to create what amounts to a Pokemon card for an element of their choosing. They are quite excited about this and have already set to work deciding which is the more interesting element and sketching out their rough drafts of their cards.
Lastly, I am looking into starting up a Junior First Lego League team with The Boy and several of his friends. It's a robotics program using Legos and the Junior FLL is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 9. This is definitely something that The Boy could sink his teeth into and I'm wondering if it might be a good thing for some of the other boys in the neighborhood...some of which are a little rough around the edges. We will see. Right now, it's just The Boy and one of his friends...I'm not sure who else will join us. Looks interesting though!
And, now that it is MONDAY of the next week (where DID the weekend go?!?) I should get this up. Better late than never, right?
Pau.
- hfs
This week was a "survival week". Just survive the week and it will all be good. Because we took Monday off, I decided to smush Monday's work into the rest of the week - not too difficult, given the fact that our days tend to end early. I cut out a few things - handwriting, primarily - but overall we hit everything we needed to hit. And the reward was sugar cubes and pyramids! More on that in a minute.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Both The Boy and The Girl flew through their language arts work this week. Spelling continues to be pretty easy for both of them. So much so that I'm basically just giving them the pretests at the beginning of the week and that's about it. Though The Girl is in a higher level of spelling curriculum, she's still doing quite well. They both have review lessons coming up and we're going to do a bit of a Spelling Bee - with M&Ms for each word spelled correctly. They should love that!
Now that we have The Girl's language/grammar curriculum in hand, she's really taking off on it as well. She rips through 3-4 lessons per week and seems to be enjoying it which is good to see. And I see her making strides in her narration/summarizing abilities...something in which she lacks confidence. Dictation is coming along as well. I explained to her the point of dictation - to train her mind to be able to hold a picture of the sentence inside and then be able to transfer that picture (with correct grammar, spelling, etc.) on to paper. Once I explained that to her, she began to understand the point behind the dictation exercises. Having never done this before, she's only able to handle one sentence at a time (the exercises usually have 2 fairly long sentences in them) which is fine. I'll take accuracy over speed/completion with inaccuracy any day! The speed and ability to handle two long sentences will come with practice.
MATH:
The Girl panicked a bit this week as it dawned on her that multiplication is a third grade skill. She asked if she was "behind" and I answered her honestly - she is at this point. I chose to reteach her multiplication from beginning because she never really grasped it last year. With 30+ kids in a class and a district/state so focused on the end product ("Did we teach the third graders how to multiply?" "Yes. Check the box.") as opposed to mastery, many children do not properly grasp the subject. The Girl was one of them. And, because there is so much crammed into a day/week/month/semester/school year, there really isn't time for practice. And it's great to think that parents can have their children practice at home but the reality is that The Girl was bringing home, on average, 1-2 hours of homework per day. To add to that for an 8 year old is ridiculous.
So we backtracked. I took a look at the placement tests that Math-U-See has online in order for parents to assess their child's ability before ordering curriculum and it was very clear to me that The Girl would struggle with division unless her multiplication skills were solidified. I'm a math nerd and I know that math builds upon itself and if she does not have a firm foundation, the rest of her math experiences will be a struggle. I don't want that for her. Challenging is fine. Struggling is not. My goal is to be through this level (Gamma) and on to the 4th grade curriculum (Delta) after the holidays.
And it's working. The first day of our school year, she was in tears because, as she told me, "I'm not good at math." Yet, by the end of the day - after just one lesson and 3 relatively simple worksheets - she told her grandmother that she "loves math" and is "good at multiplication!". Perfect!
HISTORY:
This week, it was all about Egypt. We read about the Old Kingdom of Egypt. We read about mummies. We wrapped dolls and stuffed animals in linen cloths to make our own mummies. We read about Cheops, the Great Pyramid, The Sphinx, and the weighing of the heart by Osiris. Is your heart light or heavy? If it is heavy, the monster will eat it!
And then it was on to the pyramids! All week long, the goal was to complete our studies so that we could build our pyramids out of sugar cubes. And, of course, there had to be the ceremonial eating of a sugar cube in order to verify that it was, in fact, sugar (it was!).
We picked up some "stone" colored spray paint and got them to look like "real" pyramids. Though The Boy was disappointed that we didn't get to construct any of the rooms inside or bury treasure in them. I told him to construct one out of Legos instead. He's working on it.
ART & MUSIC:
Aside from listening to Beethoven's music during lunch and reading time, we didn't really get to much in the way of art or music due to the short week. Next week, we are going to dive into DaVinci's most famous work, the Mona Lisa. I have a few CDs on request from the local library that I need to pick up as well - specifically Beethoven Lives Upstairs (upon Carrie's recommendation over at Live, Learn, and Love Together). We are all looking forward to listening.
The local art class that we go to each week was off this week as well so it was a rather artless week. Hopefully next week will be more colorful!
I did get a shipment from Amazon (I LOVE Amazon!!!) this week that included a new typing program/game for The Girl - Typing Instructor for Kids - which she's having fun with. Any time she gets to get on the computer during the week (no video games during the week and no TV until the school day is done) so this is fun for her, which works for me. She gets to type her assignments for the writing workshop she's doing in Co-Op so this should help her typing abilities as well.
Speaking of Co-Op, Friday was a Co-Op day: PE, science, writing workshop for The Girl. It all went pretty smoothly and they are looking forward to next week. In science (Chemistry), they explored "Matterville" and learned about protons, neutrons, and electrons and their assignment for the week is to create what amounts to a Pokemon card for an element of their choosing. They are quite excited about this and have already set to work deciding which is the more interesting element and sketching out their rough drafts of their cards.
Lastly, I am looking into starting up a Junior First Lego League team with The Boy and several of his friends. It's a robotics program using Legos and the Junior FLL is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 9. This is definitely something that The Boy could sink his teeth into and I'm wondering if it might be a good thing for some of the other boys in the neighborhood...some of which are a little rough around the edges. We will see. Right now, it's just The Boy and one of his friends...I'm not sure who else will join us. Looks interesting though!
And, now that it is MONDAY of the next week (where DID the weekend go?!?) I should get this up. Better late than never, right?
Pau.
- hfs
9.05.2010
A low-key week
One of the message boards I visit has a thread for people to post their "Week in Review" posts so this is my first attempt, even though it was the end of week 3 for us. Baby steps!
We had a relatively low-key week. MacGyver's parents came to the island in the middle of the week which threw things out of kilter a bit and Friday was our first day of Co-Op so that added to the wonkiness (yes, that is a word!) of the week.
The "three Rs" moved along smoothly. The Girl's language curriculum finally arrived and (verbal thing that she is) she's ripping through the lessons. After previewing the curriculum, I find myself probably more excited than she is about what she'll be learning. I *finally* get to learn how to diagram sentences! She enjoys the curriculum because it's all about words - something she is quite good at. My only qualm with this curriculum is that there is nothing beyond the 4th grade so I'll have to figure out where to go from here.
Spelling is going well for both The Boy and The Girl. I give them a pre-test at the beginning of the week and, if they spell them all correctly, we are done with spelling for the week (or they can choose to move on to the next lesson). They are both ahead in this though The Girl is actually working on a 5th grade curriculum because the 4th grade level was too easy.
Their handwriting is coming along as well and I'm already seeing significant improvement in The Boy's handwriting - something his kindergarten teacher struggled with all year long. A lot of it is getting him to slow down and form his letters properly - he's quite adept at whipping out a sentence with sloppy, rushed writing so that he can move on to more interesting subjects and activities.
They are both enjoying math which is a blessing. The Boy is several lessons ahead in his math simply because some of the concepts covered in this curriculum were ones that he covered in Kindergarten. So we've been able to skip ahead. This week was the +9 lesson and, after completing 1/2 of the first worksheet, you could see the concept click (the 9 "steals" 1 from the units to make 10 and then you add the remaining units to the 10 to come up with the answer) and he just took off. No blocks or fingers necessary for him to come up with the answers. After completing that worksheet, he asked to take the lesson test and he aced it!
I had bumped The Girl back to the 3rd grade curriculum (multiplication) because her multiplication skills were weak, at best. Thankfully, with the program we're using (Math-U-See), she's really able to understand it and we're moving through it pretty quickly. Ideally I'd like to be done with this level by Christmas and ready to move up into the 4th grade curriculum (division) after the Christmas break. But, if she's not ready for that, we'll spend more time on multiplication until she gets it.
This week in history was all about the first forms of writing: hieroglyphics and cuneiform. They both had a great time writing their names and other phrases in both hieroglyphics and cuneiform! Because the grandparents were in town, we did not do any major projects this week other than hit the library and come home with a stack of books about the ancient Egyptians! Which reminds me, I need to add those to the sidebar.
We have added in a quarterly study on artists and composers. I compiled a list of 10 top artists and composers and let The Boy and The Girl each choose 2 from each list. This quarter, we are studying Ludwig van Beethoven and Leonardo da Vinci. My goal with this subject is simply that my children (and myself) would be able to identify Beethoven's music and da Vinci's art, that they would be able to discuss each of their histories, and point out a few interesting points of fact about their work. I am still compiling resources for this subject and cannot wait until we are somewhere with museums that have pieces for us to look at. For now, we're relying upon books (yay for public libraries!) and the Internet. Though I am somewhat disappointed in The Lourve's website when it comes to information for children.
And then finally, Co-Op began on Friday. This is a group I've been involved with for several years - teaching different classes for them and hanging out with them all so this wasn't anything too new. Our Co-Op covers PE (we're currently doing soccer), art/crafts, science (Chemistry), and a class through the Institute for Excellence in Writing for The Girl. The kids were each able to choose 3 different art/craft classes so they'll be participating in cupcake decorating, cooking, and glass painting. Surprisingly, they each chose the same classes even though I spoke with them at different times. The art/crafts will alternate with PE throughout the year with PE.
PE will cover soccer, track and field (one of the dads is a t&f coach for one of the local private schools here on island), training for the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, broom hockey, jump rope, self-defense (a Sensei that teaches a free karate class at our church will be teaching this unit), and we will also add days in to play Steal the Bacon, Dodgeball, and lawn games. It's nice to be able to do PE with a group (there are about 50 kids in the PE class for Co-Op). Otherwise, it would just be the three of us which would force us to do primarily fitness-related activities as opposed to learning any team sports.
Even though I've written a lot, we really didn't DO a lot this week. Next week promises to be busier, not only because Monday is a holiday! Have a great week!
Pau.
- hfs
We had a relatively low-key week. MacGyver's parents came to the island in the middle of the week which threw things out of kilter a bit and Friday was our first day of Co-Op so that added to the wonkiness (yes, that is a word!) of the week.
The "three Rs" moved along smoothly. The Girl's language curriculum finally arrived and (verbal thing that she is) she's ripping through the lessons. After previewing the curriculum, I find myself probably more excited than she is about what she'll be learning. I *finally* get to learn how to diagram sentences! She enjoys the curriculum because it's all about words - something she is quite good at. My only qualm with this curriculum is that there is nothing beyond the 4th grade so I'll have to figure out where to go from here.
Spelling is going well for both The Boy and The Girl. I give them a pre-test at the beginning of the week and, if they spell them all correctly, we are done with spelling for the week (or they can choose to move on to the next lesson). They are both ahead in this though The Girl is actually working on a 5th grade curriculum because the 4th grade level was too easy.
Their handwriting is coming along as well and I'm already seeing significant improvement in The Boy's handwriting - something his kindergarten teacher struggled with all year long. A lot of it is getting him to slow down and form his letters properly - he's quite adept at whipping out a sentence with sloppy, rushed writing so that he can move on to more interesting subjects and activities.
They are both enjoying math which is a blessing. The Boy is several lessons ahead in his math simply because some of the concepts covered in this curriculum were ones that he covered in Kindergarten. So we've been able to skip ahead. This week was the +9 lesson and, after completing 1/2 of the first worksheet, you could see the concept click (the 9 "steals" 1 from the units to make 10 and then you add the remaining units to the 10 to come up with the answer) and he just took off. No blocks or fingers necessary for him to come up with the answers. After completing that worksheet, he asked to take the lesson test and he aced it!
I had bumped The Girl back to the 3rd grade curriculum (multiplication) because her multiplication skills were weak, at best. Thankfully, with the program we're using (Math-U-See), she's really able to understand it and we're moving through it pretty quickly. Ideally I'd like to be done with this level by Christmas and ready to move up into the 4th grade curriculum (division) after the Christmas break. But, if she's not ready for that, we'll spend more time on multiplication until she gets it.
This week in history was all about the first forms of writing: hieroglyphics and cuneiform. They both had a great time writing their names and other phrases in both hieroglyphics and cuneiform! Because the grandparents were in town, we did not do any major projects this week other than hit the library and come home with a stack of books about the ancient Egyptians! Which reminds me, I need to add those to the sidebar.
We have added in a quarterly study on artists and composers. I compiled a list of 10 top artists and composers and let The Boy and The Girl each choose 2 from each list. This quarter, we are studying Ludwig van Beethoven and Leonardo da Vinci. My goal with this subject is simply that my children (and myself) would be able to identify Beethoven's music and da Vinci's art, that they would be able to discuss each of their histories, and point out a few interesting points of fact about their work. I am still compiling resources for this subject and cannot wait until we are somewhere with museums that have pieces for us to look at. For now, we're relying upon books (yay for public libraries!) and the Internet. Though I am somewhat disappointed in The Lourve's website when it comes to information for children.
And then finally, Co-Op began on Friday. This is a group I've been involved with for several years - teaching different classes for them and hanging out with them all so this wasn't anything too new. Our Co-Op covers PE (we're currently doing soccer), art/crafts, science (Chemistry), and a class through the Institute for Excellence in Writing for The Girl. The kids were each able to choose 3 different art/craft classes so they'll be participating in cupcake decorating, cooking, and glass painting. Surprisingly, they each chose the same classes even though I spoke with them at different times. The art/crafts will alternate with PE throughout the year with PE.
PE will cover soccer, track and field (one of the dads is a t&f coach for one of the local private schools here on island), training for the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, broom hockey, jump rope, self-defense (a Sensei that teaches a free karate class at our church will be teaching this unit), and we will also add days in to play Steal the Bacon, Dodgeball, and lawn games. It's nice to be able to do PE with a group (there are about 50 kids in the PE class for Co-Op). Otherwise, it would just be the three of us which would force us to do primarily fitness-related activities as opposed to learning any team sports.
Even though I've written a lot, we really didn't DO a lot this week. Next week promises to be busier, not only because Monday is a holiday! Have a great week!
Pau.
- hfs
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