Work work Work FUN! or Fun fun fun WORK!
We have been busy this semester with great opportunities for learning. Laura is now 7 years old and is still enrolled in Sky Mountain Charter school, currently doing second grade. We meet with her teacher once a month and let him know our progress. She took her state mandated language arts and math assessment pre-tests and demonstrated to be a grade above average. We are very proud of her.
This summer we started reading the Harry Potter series and she took off with it! She is now in the seventh book and has become a complete fanatic of it.
This Year's Curriculum
PE: She started western riding classes (partially funded by the school), has taken a basketball class and participated in the local AYSO league this fall. MUSIC & Arts: She has continued with her piano lessons and is becoming more proficient at reading musical notation. She loves to compose her own music and enjoys her weekly choir practice. She just performed during the thanksgiving service and has another performance scheduled for December, as well as her first piano recital.
This semester she's had the opportunity to attend a ballet based on her Wizard of Oz reading and a musical of Mary Poppins. What fun way to bring literature to life!
Her art classes were taught by myself while attending a local homeschooling co-op school. I used the Art adventures at home curriculum. I have volunteered there for the last year and have had a great time teaching art and Spanish.
SCIENCE:Besides from regular hikes and readings we have done our science curriculum at home thus far this year. We get messy, experiment and record all our findings. We are using the Real Science curriculum and has proved to work very well for us. Flexible and fun. She has also taken advantage of Burbank's science classes for homeschoolers which use the Stough Canyon Nature center and hikes around it as a classroom.
SOCIAL STUDIES: In social studies we have concentrated in early and classical Greek culture, begun reading the Odessy, have learned about Alexander the great and are now moving into Ancient China. We are following Level I of History Odessy. I like this program a lot because it still uses Story of the world and also utilizes other resources and point of view that I find very valuable.
LANGUAGE ARTS: Besides from allowing her to read voraciously, we do the following:
Spelling: Sequential spelling. I find this to be a nice strong program. We do it 4 times p/week and occasionally do "Spelling workout"
Grammar: "First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind", year 2. After considering changing for a while, I decided to continue with it. I like the poetry memorization and its gentle and fun approach to grammar. Yes, the lessons are repetitive but I find that to be an advantage and makes sense to me. Laura does very well with it too.
Writing: "Writing with ease". We incorporate our writing work with our social studies and science.
She also attends our Homeschool group's reading club monthly and participates in the book readings, discussions and activities.
Literature: Besides from her "personal" reading selection (basically whichever Harry Potter she's working on) we try to cover one classic p/ month (excluding "The Odessy" of course). We sometimes download classics from Librivox.org and listen to them as we craft or do a more tranquil activity. This is personally, one of my favorite times.
Math: Still love "Right Start Math"! she's doing level C. We love the games, approach and everything about this program.
We supplement her "standards" education with occasional workbook sheets, computer based instruction,games and her girl scout activities.
Over all this has been a very busy and engaging semester. I am currently looking for employment and desperately trying to hold on to our homeschooling ideas.
And since a picture (or two or more) are worth a thousand words, feel free to look at our "Homeschooling in Action" albums on the side bar to see what we've been up to this semester.
Thanks for visiting today!
