Homeschool Report

We made it through the first eight weeks. Some days... just barely. : )

Just to give you an idea of how we are filling our days, here's a report.

Each school day starts at 8:15ish with Family Huddle. My husband plays the guitar and we sing a few hymns the kids have been learning, as well as more familiar worship songs. All three kids are memorizing scripture using My ABC Bible Verses. We talk, pray, and "break" like a huddle... the kids take turns coming up with what we say. "Yay Homeschool!" is a favorite. We are such nerds!

I started off the first few weeks having the kids do chores right after Family Huddle, but that was proving to be too disruptive. Now we do chores before FH or, honestly, not at all.

Hannah

Saxon Math : 4x a week
Hannah is doing well. Thankfully, math comes easily to her, but both Hannah and I feel it takes too long to do each day. It's fine for now, but I am looking at Singapore again and think I may switch, but not anytime soon.

First Language Lessons : 3x a week
This has been going very well. We both enjoy it. It's a nice short lesson after the hour+ of math. I've added more poetry memorization that FLL includes, which Hannah loves.

Story of the World : 2x a week
Love it. We are covering a chapter a week. The first day, I read the chapter to Hannah, she does a narration page, and maybe a coloring page. The second day, we listen to the CD on the way to gymnastics, maybe do a related activity, have a "book look" - look through the related pages in our illustrated history encyclopedias and the books we have picked up at the library.

Life Science : 1x a week
I am letting the kids lead a bit on this one. I asked Hannah to make a list of animals she would like to study. We've been working through that and loosely using our Life Science Lessons. She fills out a "fact sheet" on each animal and reads books from the library. The last two weeks we have focused on apples and tadpoles. Photos to come, but we are raising frogs (got the tadpoles last week). Hannah will journal their development, etc.

Independent Work : 4x a week
Hannah has an independent work binder with a tab for each school day (4 days a week). At the beginning of each week, I fill the binder. This is working very well for us. Subjects included are Spelling Workout A (1 chapter a week), Handwriting, Copywork, and Explode the Code 3 (2 lessons a week).

Art : 1 or 2x a week
We have studied Van Gogh and are now on Seurat, with a field trip to the National Gallery coming up. We spend a lot of time painting and drawing. I am hoping to start using Mona Brookes, Drawing with Children soon.

Music : 1 or 2x a week
We are really enjoying our composer studies. This month, we are learning about Bach. I picked up Classical Kids, Mr. Bach Comes to Call DVD at our library - the kids enjoyed that. We spend a lot of time listening to Bach (and last month's composer - Vivaldi). When Hannah and Will wanted to put on a Bach CD a few days ago, Peter asserted himself by saying, "No, I like Mr. Vivaldi's music better." I bought the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers series. (and the Greatest Artists, too). They are fun books and compliment our lessons well. This week we will begin learning about the woodwind instruments.

Geography : 1x a week
We're focusing on US states this fall. Hannah's US map placemat has been a great teaching tool. I wanted her to know all the states so we could have some fun with coloring red states and blue states on election day. We are also talking a little about state populations and election results. This site is great for geography games.

Will

Math : 4x a week
Will loves math. I have been making things up for him using math manipulatives and various workbooks, but we are both ready for something more. I have ordered Singapore Math Earlybird Mathematics. I'll let you know how it goes...

Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading : 4x a week
We are cruising through this. He's thrilled when he spots a word that he knows. I'm holding off on the Get Ready, Get Set and Go for the Code books until he has more confidence with handwriting.

Handwriting Without Tears : 4x a week
This is a great program for Will. He's made huge progress in print!

Peter

He is just very busy being two!