2013-2014 Week 3

This week was another pretty basic week, I didn't take any pictures so this will be short and to the point.

Everett worked continued working on pronouns, which have proven to be a real pain in his backside.  We found a few things in math that he needed some review on, so we put the higher level math aside and went back to work on parallel and perpendicular lines as well as finding the area of a triangle.  He began his Student Writing Intensive C, and completed a keyword outline and rough draft on a paragraph about music, Thomas Jefferson, and the Declaration of Independence.  He did pretty well, but we did have to go over the steps in the writing/editing process to refresh his memory.

Annika continued on lesson 8 of her Barton Reading and Spelling level 3.  This lesson has her working with the unit endings -ank, -ink, -onk, -unk, -ang, -ing, -ong, and -ung.  She also reviewed her previous spelling rules.  Math for her included finishing chapters 14 and 15 in Math U See Gamma, and her second unit test of the year.  She's doing really well with math and loves the new program.   Lastly for the week we went back to Student Writing Intensive A, and she wrote a small paragraph on Starfish.  She really enjoyed the topic and did quite well.  

Lucas worked on writing cursive As, and did many work pages from chapter 8 in Math U See Alpha.  He is learning to add 8 to a number.  He still wasn't feeling 100% so it was a pretty light week for him with lots of read aloud and snuggle time on the couch with mom.

We had a little discussion on history which just isn't cutting the mustard for them and they asked to go back to the beginning of the 4 year history cycle.  After a few days of research and thought I decided on Sonlight's Core G which looks like it includes many books the kids will enjoy and uses some old favorites as well.  I'm rather excited to be going into a different time period, the 19th century was really starting to bum us out.  

 

2013-2014 week 2

This week was pretty basic, I had recovered from the strange inner ear virus that made me feel like I was living on a tilt a whirl, we did get some lessons done, but Lucas and Annika seem have colds so we kept it light.

Everett worked on pronouns in grammar and struggled a little bit, he did excellent in math though when it came to multiplying negative numbers.  He started science this week and did the intro lab about learning the parts of our new microscope.

Annika worked through a bit of her reading, and on getting multiplicating by 6 down.  She also worked on grammar, but was learning about articles and adjectives.  She started her Nancy Larson science, and seemed to like it.  She learned a few science vocabulary words and is excited to start her unit on cells.

Lucas worked on writing cursive Cs, read The Grump in his All About Reading Reader, started Nancy Larson Science 2 in which we worked on living vs. non-living things, and worked on Adding 8 to a number.

Everett and Annika also finished their covered wagon project for their history lapbooks.  
The weekend got a little crazier as Fall little league started up.  I'm coaching again this season and am also the league Safety Officer.  We had our first game yesterday, and I was very proud of my team.  They made some really good plays and followed directions really well.

 

2013-2014 week 1

It was a pretty good first week of school for us here at Fawkes Academy.   We are taking it slow and will add in more subjects as we progress on.  This week we focused on Grammar, Reading/Phonics, Spelling, Math, and History.

Everett and Annika worked on their Grammar from Analytical Grammar and Junior Analytical Grammar respectively.  They did well, Everett remembered more than I thought he would, and Annika had no trouble reading the pages.  If you've followed me through this crazy journey with her and reading you'll know how much of an accomplishment this is.

I give a lot of the credit for Annika's great advancement in reading to the Barton Reading and Spelling program.  It is a program designed to help dyslexic, but can be used by anyone struggling with reading and spelling.  She loves the program, and it's easy for me to teach because it's all laid out and ready to go.   It saves us quite a bit of time as it teaches reading and spelling at the same time in a way she understands.

Lucas is also making great strides in reading through the use of All About Reading.  This program is such great fun.  He looks forward to it each and every day.  We have started level 2, after holding him off quite a bit this summer, and I believe we will progress rather quickly through it.  Level 3 is on order so we'll move right into that when we finish Level 2.   He also started a spelling program this year.  We are using All About Spelling, which dovetails nicely with All About Reading.  He completed steps 1-4 this week.  Everett is also using All About Spelling, but is on step 19 of Level 4.  I believe this level will be completed rather quickly, and we'll move right along into Level 5.

Math is quite a change from the last few years.  Lucas was doing ok with Saxon, but the lessons were really boring and not fun in the least.  Everett and Annika were using Teaching Textbooks for the past 2 years,and although it's a great program I found that the retention just wasn't there.  They could do the work by going through the motions, but they weren't really grasping the topics.   I did a lot of researching in the late spring and came to the decision to try Math U See.  I bought levels Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta. The biggest difference is that Math U See is a mastery based program unlike the other programs we used in the past which were incremental or spiral.   We started it a few weeks ago.  Annika is working on Gamma which focuses on multiplication to help nail down those facts and operation.  Lucas is working on Alpha to fill in any gaps in his single digit addition and subtraction.  They are both progressing rapidly, and I see us finishing these levels up within the next couple months and moving on to Delta for Annika, which focuses on Division and to Beta for Lucas, which focuses on multidigit addition and subtraction.   Everett did a quick review of some topics in Epsilon to brush up and master some fraction topics that he felt he didn't really understand.  He then expressed his interest in using this for his upper level math courses.  He opened up and talked to me about how he felt he did with Teaching Textbooks.  He said it was a fun program, but he didn't feel that he really had time to grasp a topic fully before having to move on.  He asked if we could use Math U See this year instead and I agreed.  He chose to start with Pre-Algebra again because there were things in the scope and sequence he said he didn't work on in Teaching Textbooks or that he simply couldn't remember how to do.  He'll work through both Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1 this year.  He worked with Adding and Subtracting negative numbers, and although it proved a tricky topic, he did enjoy the lessons and seems to be understanding it now.  The Math U See manipulative blocks are a big hit with all the kids and really help them cement things in his mind.

The last subject we worked on this week was History.  We have a few lessons left in our study of the United States during the early 19th century.  We read about and discussed the Oregon and Santa Fe trails.  Everett and Annika worked on a project to add to their lapbooks about traveling in covered wagons.  Lucas is still in tag a long mode when it comes to history.  

Here's a slideshow of pictures from our week I hope you'll enjoy.

The building projects are done, the room is ready, the students and teacher are excited... It's time for the school year to start!

That's right the 2013-2014 school year begins tomorrow, September 3rd.  I had a few carpentry projects to finish so the room would be ready and I finished the last one today.  I then spent part of the afternoon getting the binders set up for the kids.  I have one left to do, but that will require a trip to an office supply store to get a binding cut off and have it drilled for a 3 ring binder.

Here are some pictures of our classroom with the new improvements.

I can't believe this is our 8th year of homeschooling.  It seems like just yesterday I was starting 2nd grade with Everett and Pre-K with Annika, while chasing baby Lucas around the house.  The kids say they are excited to get started, and I have to admit, I am too.  I think the programs I picked out will be excellent and will make for a great year.

The curriculum choices are as follows.

Everett- 9th Grade

• Grammar- Analytical Grammar
• Spelling- Finish the levels 4-7 of All About Spelling (he's already half way through level 4 so this is doable)
• Literature- Teaching the Classics method using the following books (if we have time we'll add others)
• Fishing in the Air, Creech
• Owl Moon, Yolen
• All the Places to Love, MacLachlan
• St. George and the Dragon, Hyman & Hodges
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, retold by Tolkein
• Tom Sawyer, Twain
• Frankenstein, Shelley

• Composition- IEW Student Writing Intensive level C
• Math- Math U See finish Pre-Algebra and then Algebra I
• History- Time Travelers finish early 19th century move on to the Civil War, Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression, and on to World War II
• Science- REAL Science Odyssey Biology level 2 along with added reading selections
• Art- Meet the Masters
• Latin- Latin Alive I

Annika- 6th Grade

• Reading and Spelling- Barton (currently in level 3, hoping to get through 4 and maybe 5 this year)
• Grammar- Junior Analytical Grammar
• Composition- IEW Student Writing Intensive level A
• Math- Math U See Finish Gamma, move on to Delta, and possibly Epsilon
• History- Time Travelers finish early 19th century  move on to the Civil War, Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression, and on to World War II
• Science- Nancy Larson Science level 4
• Art- Meet the Masters
• Latin- Latin for Children level A

Lucas- 2nd Grade

• Phonics- All About Reading level 2 and 3
• Spelling- All About Spelling level 1 and 2
• Penmanship- Handwriting Without Tears Cursive
• Math- Math U See finish Alpha, move on to Beta
• History- Tagging along as interested with older siblings
• Science- Nancy Larson level 2
• Art- Meet the Masters

Wow!  That's quite a list now that I type it all out.

To all my other homeschooling friends, I hope you have the type of year you envision in your minds, may it be engaging, productive, and above all fun.  To all my friends with children starting back to public school or who have already started may your year be filled with joy and may your children excel in all they do.  

Happy Schooling!