Week Three is in the books for our mostly-second-grade adventure, and things are still going beautifully. The literature based approach just fits our family dynamic and passions so well, and the books that make up the My Father's World and Sonlight curriculum are not only beautifully written and engaging, but have the girls excited to do school. And I'm sorry, that is just worth the price of admission right there :-)
So, here is this week's Bloggy Breakdown (anyone watch Tosh.o and see his video breakdowns? No? Never mind . . .)
Breakfast Time Table Talk:
- Bible time centered on three main topics this week---Jesus Saves, Living Like Jesus and Jesus as a Child. We talked about WWJD (what would Jesus do) in everyday moments and now bring it up throughout the day when problems arise, and our discussions on Jesus as a child blended beautifully with our Character Training this week on obeying our parents (Luke 2:51-52)
- Our Character Training with the book EVERYDAY GRACES could not be going any better. They love the literature selections chosen to correspond with the topic and have great discussions afterward. They are getting exposure to classic literature I would normally never read at this age, yet they are grasping the material, and the poetry selections this past week by Jack Prelutsky have even inspired Jordan to write her own poem!
Why is everything so expensive?
Everything looks so nice.
The lolly pop aisle in the corner,
Is only half the price.
And in the other corner,
There's only frozen pizza pies.
Why is everything so expensive?
I simply don't know why!
By Jordan Harris age 6
Ha! She keeps asking about getting published and throwing in all the book biz lingo she's been hearing around the house for the last few months, and it is so cute! Next on my to-do list is to buy a big book of Jack Prelutsky's work!
- Our Manners Devotional is still going well and our focus this week was looking people in the eye when they talk and shaking hands properly.
School Room Topics:
History:
- The girls are still totally loving both the Pledge of Allegiance and and God Bless America. They make their toys dance along to the CD of the song :-) (in fact, as I am typing this, Cali is singing the song to herself while cleaning up her toys!)
- Jamestown and Squanto were the themes of the week! The girls loved learning about Pocahontas and reading the stories of the children of Jamestown in AMERICAN PIONEERS AND PATRIOTS. The plan is to pick up some movies on Pocahontas from the library this afternoon and watch them this weekend
Handwriting:
- I decided to skip the copywork selections Sonlight provided this week and work more on the fundamentals of the letters this week. We worked on K-R and I am very happy with their continued effort and improvement. Next week we may just finish out the alphabet before going back to the Sonlight passage and working in letter practice the rest of the week.
Creative Writing:
- Cali's assignment this week was on dialogue. Now considering that I wrote my first novel last year and am working on my second--and dialogue is a very important aspect of that--I really enjoyed this lesson. I of course had to tailor it to her level and not point out that they are completely WRONG to keep changing the attribution (using mumbled, muttered, etc instead of just said, which is always preferred unless you avoid the attribution all together and you an action tag instead). Cali wrote about a conversation between her and Jasmine, where Jasmine invites her to a tea party!
"Oh. Hello, Cali," said Jasmine.
"I'm so happy to see you for my very first time," said Cali.
"I'm going to let you come to a tea party in my house," said Jasmine.
"Thank you!"
By Cali Harris, age 5
- Jordan's paragraph work took a step this week with introducing "home plate" which is the topic sentence. This has been actually challenging to completely explain and have her do. She keeps wanting to either talk about one aspect in particular or just re-list her three favorites/points for the paragraph. But she is doing a very good job and loves this time . .. and I learned that She Loves Homeschooling because she gets to use all kinds of pens, can be at home and her teacher is in her family and she gets to learn about Columbus, Her Mom Is Great because she is silly, laughs so much and and is beautiful (I promise this was an actual topic Sonlight had, not self created lol), and that Riding The Pony Express, The Magical Ballet Shoes and The Bible are all her favorite books, but that while the first two are ordinary books, The Bible is extraordinary. :-)
Spelling:
- Um, yeah, epic fail on this one. Jordan was ahead of schedule, though, and Gregg and I are meeting this weekend to talk about what we want to do with Cali's spelling, so um, yeah, that's okay! (ha!)
Reading:
- Jordan is still a week ahead of schedule. She read Keep the Lights Burning Abbie and is half way through Riding the Pony Express, which she is loving.
- Cali is still loving reading the Bible and one of the stories she read about was Joseph and his robe. Well this weekend, we are taking the girls to a play --Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat!
Read Alouds:
- We have added Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims into this time, so Ella took a bit of a back seat this week--but we are totally picking it back up next week. Bedtime book is still Fairies and the Quest for Neverland.
Math:
- Another easy, almost review week where the girls learned the colors of the Math U See blocks, which makes adding easier in the coming weeks, and review of Place Value. Girls loved it and flew through it.
Science:
- Ha! I totally thought I was going to have to say I failed again--last Friday's cleaning session for the family coming in town took a lot longer than anticipated, BUT we did all three weeks worth on Wednesday! WOO HOO! We have a few experiments we will do this weekend, but they are all super easy and on air. The girls of course loved doing science this week. I still think I might stick with doing massive Science days on every other Friday, just not when family is coming to town.
So that is how our school week went. How about yours?
Have a Great Weekend!
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Another week down at Keep the Way Christian Academy, and the girls are still loving it. I am loving our curriculum choices for the year and having fun teaching. After our long break (April -December), I was worried it would take a little while to get into a groove and find the enjoyment, but My Father's World and Sonlight have totally come through!
Here is this week's Bloggy Breakdown (anyone watch Tosh.o and see his video breakdowns? No? Never mind . . .)
Breakfast Time Table Talk:
- Bible time has had us searching for clues in the Old Testament that point to Jesus. The girls are quickly picking this up and having fun playing detective.
- Our Character Training is still a wonderful time and I am constantly being amazed at how the story snippets the author uses to portray Manners at Home (the theme of our current section) tie in beautifully with what we are learning in history! Yeah, I totally planned it that way . . .
- Manners Devotional is still going well and this week we practiced having gentleman pull out our chairs and seating us, and smiling when we greet someone.
School Room Topics:
History:
- We begin with the girl's enthusiastic Pledge of Allegiance (like REALLY enthusiastic! They spent a lot of time last Friday teaching their friends the Pledge. They think it's totally cool for some reason) and singing along with My Father's World's supplied CD to God Bless America.
- This week we learned about Columbus. Since I love ditties, I taught them the one we all know about "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." They sang that over and over again. Then a few days later, for some inexplicable reason, I started saying Columbus's three ship names over and over, sing-song style. "The Nina. The Pinta. The Sant-a Maria." You just have to trust me, it's very catchy. So now, the girls skip around the room singing this over and over again. It was cute . . .the first hundred times. But it all worked because when notebooking time came around, their narrations were wonderful.
- Daddy helped the girls make shiny aluminum boats to symbolize the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, which they then played with at bath time.
- We read a story about pioneers from Spain who traveled across the Atlantic to establish the first colony in Florida. I must admit that when I first saw one of the books My Father's World uses as a spine, American Pioneers and Patriots, I was nervous. It looked very text booky to me, and I did not want that. But I should've known better. It reads like a story book and the girls fell in love with the children, Catalina and Pedro, and loved hearing about their adventures. Mom even learned some things (like how they cooked on the boat via a box of sand and an open flame).
Handwriting:
- The girls both did their copy work on Monday via Sonlight and then worked on mastering a set of letters each day after. This week was C-J. Both girls are doing very well tracing the samples. Jordan should be ready to write on her own in a few weeks but I really want them to trace right now as we work on mechanics. Cali does really really well--sometimes cleaner than Jordan even, despite being younger--but she has a perfectionist attitude and one small mess up can break her heart on the wrong day. We just take a breath, talk about how God doesn't expect us to be perfect but to try our best, and try again.
Creative Writing:
- Cali continued working on description but focused on similes this week. We took the descriptive paragraph she wrote last week and turned each description into a simile. I was very impressed with how well she grasped this concept, and how quick she was able to come up with examples.
- Jordan is still focusing on grouping 3 main topics for a paragraph, and this week we focused on how the first topic is always the most important, followed by the second and third most important. This week, I found out her favorite subjects are (in order): Science, History, and Creative Writing.
Spelling:
- This week Cali continued on the list from week 1 as we are experimenting with finding the best way for her to learn the words. It needs to be fun and very non-pressure-y (yes, I know that is not a word and seems an odd choice in a sentence on spelling but oh well). Next week we may experiment with two nights a week working with Daddy and having it be special one-on-one Daddy time.
- Jordan finished two spelling lists this week. The first list she learned and took the test on the same day and only missed one word (she wrote cymball instead of cymbal.) The middle of the week was a little hectic so she got her new list yesterday and took the test the same day again. She scored 100%. At this rate, she will be finished with her curriculum by mid year if not sooner!
Reading:
- Jordan read 3 books this week. She was scheduled to read one entire book and one chapter of another. She read The Long Way Westward, Prairie School and Christopher Columbus. The third book was a step-into-reading I had bought one day at a used book store and threw in yesterday so she wouldn't get too far ahead of her curriculum and because it was on topic. She read the whole thing quickly. Then she picked up Cali's beginner's Bible and started reading. And reading. She sat there last night for about 45 minutes reading the Bible (Adam and Eve to Saul). The only reason she stopped was because it was bath time!
- Cali has been enjoying reading the Bible and reading ahead as well. I am noticing how fluent she is and how easily she reads the words, especially for her age (she turns 5 on Monday). Watching her sister read the past few years has definitely motivated her!
Read Alouds:
- We are reading two books by the talented Gail Carson Levine. At lunch time we are reading ELLA ENCHANTED, which the girls are loving (although the chapters this week had me speaking in gnomic and I had no clue how to say any of it.... the girls loved my gobbly gook language, though) and FAIRIES AND THE QUEST FOR NEVERLAND at night. I am still very pleased with our selections of more contemporary, girly, fun works for this time.
Math:
- This week was rather easy--counting and writing to 20--and while I could have skipped it all together (both girls can count to 1000), I went with it to focus on mechanics of writing the numbers. I am not worried about perfection here, due to their age, but it was a great excuse to tie this in. For their tests yesterday, they also had to review place value and they both scored 100%.
Science:
- Today, after I take a shower and try to massively clean the house for the influx of relatives coming up from New Orleans for Cali's birthday party, we will have MEGA SCIENCE DAY. We will put together the last two weeks of Science and do them all. Since Fancy Friday is only every other week, I think this will work well going forward. Today's experiments are all about air!
So that is how our school week went. How about yours? Any fun ideas you can share for my five year old's spelling?
Have a Great Weekend!
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School has started again here at Keep The Way Christian Academy. And the usual question begins: What grade are your girls in?
I watched a series of videos from the wonderful Gregg Harris (homeschool dad and author, not my husband! Yes, very weird coincidence.) where he discussed this question. His answer was: "In what subject?" See, you would have to be pretty average to be in the same grade for all of your subjects, right? I'd never thought of it like that before, but it definitely made answering the question easier :-)
So here are the stats (
FWI:Jordan turned 6 at the end of November and Cali is turning 5 in exactly ten days):
Bible, Character, Devotional:
- For our Bible time in the mornings, we are following along with My Father's World Second Grade's Adventures in My Father's World. This week has been focused on the importance of names, and what our names represent. Gregg and I wrote letters for them, telling them why we named them "Jordan Faith" and "Carolina Grace." What is awesome is that Jordan does have this AMAZING Faith that inspires us, and the name Carolina comes from the name Charles, which means Warrior. Since Cali is known for her spontaneous, EXTREMELY heart-felt prayers, we talked about what it means to be a Prayer Warrior. Later in Handwriting, we had them trace their names and how the attributes associated with their meanings can be used for the glory of God!
After we read from the Bible and discuss, we move onto Character Training, and we are reading through
Everyday Graces: Child's Book of Good Manners. Oh my word, I heart this book!! It takes classic children's literature and poetry and uses samples and snippets to correspond with the topic of the chapter. Yesterday we read a piece from
The Princess and The Goblin and I think next week we will be reading something from
Pinocchio. So cute!
History and Science:
My Father's World,
Adventures In My Father's World, Second Grade. We are looking forward to a wonderful year learning about American History and Geography! We will be learning about all fifty states along with key characters in our nation's history and important things like the Pledge of Allegiance. This week, we've covered map skills, talked about North America in depth and discussed the other continents, and learned about the Vikings. They have done excellent notebooking pages on all of these topics and go around saying the Pledge all day lol!
Science actually didn't happen this week. But it is probably for the best. They LOVE Science, in particular the experiments, and this week's lessons was just short readings in the Encyclopedia that I am sure they've already confiscated and read through anyway. Next week we'll sit down and read for probably an hour all the pages at once and then be able to do an experiment.
Handwriting, Readers, Language Arts/Writing, Spelling:
Handwriting is something we are working on everyday. We purchased Sonlight Language Arts, different levels, for both girls. They only list Copywork on Mondays. So the rest of the week I added other copywork, used the meaning of their names from Bible and then used some suggestions from My Father's World yesterday. How we do this, since they are still so young, is that I write the sample in pencil in a lined handwriting notebook we bought from Walmart, and then they trace over the letters while I watch, correcting for "proper formation." This is going very well and I am very pleased!
For reading, it is almost going too easily. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop as last year, before our huge break from April till now, this time took a good deal longer, even though they both could read and wanted to learn. Now, the time is over in ten minutes . . . if that!! We purchased Sonlight Language Arts 2 for Cali and Level 2 Intermediate for Jordan (she could've gone up even higher but then next year or the year after we'd be dealing with advanced topics for her age that while she could read, would be too heavy for her. Better have her read something she flies through then deal with that). Jordan asked if she could read her samples on her own and we discuss later, using the short list of questions Sonlight provides in the Teacher's Manual to check for comprehension. This week she read Clara and the Book Wagon and The Long Way to a New Land. Yesterday, she read 3 days worth of reading, basically reading an entire reader in one day, so next week she will get to choose a book from her shelf for this time. Cali is reading The Beginner's Bible, one story a day. Well, she is supposed to do that. Apparently she's been grabbing it and reading ahead, so I've been asking her the next day to tell me about the stories she's read secretly and we move on, lol.
Spelling has been a learning curve. I discovered
Spelling City over a year ago and the girls loved it then, so while I went over their words once with them, I then had them use that program for learning the words by playing the games everyday and yesterday we took the test. Jordan got everything right . . . well actually the game said she got them all wrong because she took the time to put her keyboard skills to use and started each spelling word with a capital letter and the computer didn't recognize them as the same word since I put them in with lower case --I told her that was HOGWASH
(a word she giggled at) and wrote 100% on top of the paper with tons of stamps :-) Cali struggled just a bit more, knowing that many of the words had a silent "e" but putting them next to the other vowel instead of at the end of the word. So next week we are goign to keep with the same list and do much more one-on-one spelling with manipulatives and use the computer just for fun reinforcement.
Math:
After much debate and going through our variety of math curriculums--we have MUS Alpha (which Jordan had started over a year ago and we had to stop as it focuses on mastery and she wasn't quite there . . . after all, she had just turned 5 lol.), Horizons K (which the girls had started when Alpha stopped and they loved for awhile and they quickly HATED), and Critical Thinking Press workbooks--we decided to try MUS Alpha again. This time is going very well and both girls got 100% on their Unit 1 tests yesterday. They are actually getting a little cocky with it but right now I am so proud of them, and so glad they are enjoying it, that I am finding it amusing!
Read Alouds:
There are great lists provided in My Father's World and Sonlight has some good ones, but I am doing my own thing this year. They are young and I want to just enjoy this time. Plus, Jordan has developed an obsession for the old series Animorphs and I want to make sure we read lots of books that have appealing topics for them that she will want to pick up instead. So right now we are reading Ella Enchanted. They got so excited the other day when they were watching one of their videos and saw a commercial for the movie! So I guess we'll be renting that this weekend :-)
And finally, today is Fancy Friday:
We get together with our friends Skylar and Emy two Fridays a month for art and music appreciation. While we were winging it and doing our own thing before, today I am going to start teaching out of
Artistic Pursuits. We are excited!
So, whew! What is your school year looking like? How was your week? Any new curriculum you're starting? Anyone else out there use the beginning of the calendar year as the beginning of their school year?
Happy Friday!!
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