Well it's now 2009 and we're back to school here at Fawkes Academy. For a first week back after a few weeks off it went really well. I think the kids and I were more than ready to get back to it, and we were all excited about some new curriculum and changes we made. We ended up changing math and science for both older kids and decided against changing grammar for Everett. He'll also change his spelling back next week.
Here's the run down of what we did accomplish. I've decided to only include pictures of the fun things this week although not all of them are completely finished so I'll update pictures as they are done this weekend.
Everett
Grammar: After some thought and reflection the last week of break I decided to keep Everett in Growing with Grammar instead of switching to Shurley English. After taking almost a month off of Grammar he covered the Chapter 1 Review about sentence vs. fragment, indirect and direct quotes and diagramming both simple and compound subjects and predicates. I was amazed at how much he had retained. He got 100% on the review. Next week we move on to nouns with Chapter 2
Penmanship: HWT contiues to work well for him and his cursive is coming along although we're still printing on all other assignments.
Spelling: Completed step 16 and we'll return to Spelling Power next week. He enjoys All about Spelling, but like Spelling Power more.
Math: This was our big change for Everett. We decided to cast Saxon math to the wayside becasue it was becoming more frustrating for him each day. We returned to Teaching Textbooks grade 5 and he's blazing through it. He even worked on it over holiday break because he enjoys it so much. He completed Lessons 1-14 as well as Quiz 1 over the past 2 weeks.
Geography: We returned to Daily Geography and he worked on reading a map of California focusing on all the differnt kinds of water features the state has.
Annika
Penmanship: As usual Annika excelled in penmanship. She has absolutely beautiful printing and takes great pride in it.
Phonics: Hooked on phonics is going well and we're about 1/3 of the way through the Yellow level. She does enjoy the program and we're going to start reading 10 minutes a night from past Hooked on Phonics readers to get more comfortable with reading.
Math: Well another major change for math as Rightstart turned out to be a bit too confusing for us traditionally math minded folks. After a bit more research we decided to try Christian Light Education's Sunrise math. She completed Lessons 1-10 in her first Lightunit (for those not familiar with CLE, the program is broken up into 10 workbooks called Lightunits to help the kids get a sense of accomplishment as the progress through each workbook) So far so good. I love the layout of the teacher's manual as well as how math facts are presented to her. She is even enjoying the flashcards as they don't give her 10 at a time to learn, they break it down into smaller chunks of 1-2 new facts a day. She enjoys the variety of problems and is having fun coloring the duck with the stop sign at the end of each lesson too. I also bought the calendar book from CLE and that is a huge hit. It's much more fun than Saxon's meeting book and at the end will help with graphing skills as well as calendar skills.
BOTH:
Writing: Copywork and narration covered The Saturdays
History:We have continued our Native American study and covered the Seminole tribe of the southeast this week. Next week we'll move to the extreme opposite side of the country to cover the Inuit of the Great White North.
Science: Our last big change has come in the area of science. After a rave filled start NOEO has fizzled and become boring. They wanted more hands on so I went to check out a curriculum I've had my eye on for a while. R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey (from pandia press) has always appealed to me but because they only had 2 areas (Life and Earth/space) I had always been a little worried about where we'd go next. Pandia press has announced that Chemistry level 1 will be out in March of this year and Physics level 1 will be out later in 2009 along with Biology level 2 and more in the works for years to come. I decided to get Life level 1 and it looks like a tons of fun. This week we did the first Unit which covered comparing living things to non-living things and observing the differences. I think the kids will really enjoy that each unit has 1-2 hands on experiments or activites. This week was a big hit and I'm sure next week will be loads of fun, it starts covering cells in which we'll get to make some cells out of fruit and jello.
Art: We are enjoying Artistic Pursuits but wanted to keep it simple this week so we're working on paper bag puppets with some kits I found at Walmart. Here's some pictures of the puppets as well as a picture of the finished Seminole headdresses.
Here's the run down of what we did accomplish. I've decided to only include pictures of the fun things this week although not all of them are completely finished so I'll update pictures as they are done this weekend.
Everett
Grammar: After some thought and reflection the last week of break I decided to keep Everett in Growing with Grammar instead of switching to Shurley English. After taking almost a month off of Grammar he covered the Chapter 1 Review about sentence vs. fragment, indirect and direct quotes and diagramming both simple and compound subjects and predicates. I was amazed at how much he had retained. He got 100% on the review. Next week we move on to nouns with Chapter 2
Penmanship: HWT contiues to work well for him and his cursive is coming along although we're still printing on all other assignments.
Spelling: Completed step 16 and we'll return to Spelling Power next week. He enjoys All about Spelling, but like Spelling Power more.
Math: This was our big change for Everett. We decided to cast Saxon math to the wayside becasue it was becoming more frustrating for him each day. We returned to Teaching Textbooks grade 5 and he's blazing through it. He even worked on it over holiday break because he enjoys it so much. He completed Lessons 1-14 as well as Quiz 1 over the past 2 weeks.
Geography: We returned to Daily Geography and he worked on reading a map of California focusing on all the differnt kinds of water features the state has.
Annika
Penmanship: As usual Annika excelled in penmanship. She has absolutely beautiful printing and takes great pride in it.
Phonics: Hooked on phonics is going well and we're about 1/3 of the way through the Yellow level. She does enjoy the program and we're going to start reading 10 minutes a night from past Hooked on Phonics readers to get more comfortable with reading.
Math: Well another major change for math as Rightstart turned out to be a bit too confusing for us traditionally math minded folks. After a bit more research we decided to try Christian Light Education's Sunrise math. She completed Lessons 1-10 in her first Lightunit (for those not familiar with CLE, the program is broken up into 10 workbooks called Lightunits to help the kids get a sense of accomplishment as the progress through each workbook) So far so good. I love the layout of the teacher's manual as well as how math facts are presented to her. She is even enjoying the flashcards as they don't give her 10 at a time to learn, they break it down into smaller chunks of 1-2 new facts a day. She enjoys the variety of problems and is having fun coloring the duck with the stop sign at the end of each lesson too. I also bought the calendar book from CLE and that is a huge hit. It's much more fun than Saxon's meeting book and at the end will help with graphing skills as well as calendar skills.
BOTH:
Writing: Copywork and narration covered The Saturdays
History:We have continued our Native American study and covered the Seminole tribe of the southeast this week. Next week we'll move to the extreme opposite side of the country to cover the Inuit of the Great White North.
Science: Our last big change has come in the area of science. After a rave filled start NOEO has fizzled and become boring. They wanted more hands on so I went to check out a curriculum I've had my eye on for a while. R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey (from pandia press) has always appealed to me but because they only had 2 areas (Life and Earth/space) I had always been a little worried about where we'd go next. Pandia press has announced that Chemistry level 1 will be out in March of this year and Physics level 1 will be out later in 2009 along with Biology level 2 and more in the works for years to come. I decided to get Life level 1 and it looks like a tons of fun. This week we did the first Unit which covered comparing living things to non-living things and observing the differences. I think the kids will really enjoy that each unit has 1-2 hands on experiments or activites. This week was a big hit and I'm sure next week will be loads of fun, it starts covering cells in which we'll get to make some cells out of fruit and jello.
Art: We are enjoying Artistic Pursuits but wanted to keep it simple this week so we're working on paper bag puppets with some kits I found at Walmart. Here's some pictures of the puppets as well as a picture of the finished Seminole headdresses.
Latin: Wow, I can't believe I almost forgot about this. The kids have been on me for over a year to start teaching them Latin. I've had Song School Latin on my shelf for about 8 months and we finally got it out this week. We complete chapter 1 and now everywhere we go the kids greet people with "Salve" and when we leave give a hearty "Vale" which is what the program introduces for hello and goodbye. They also learned the words for teacher and student. All in all it was a short lesson but lots of fun.
Well I think I've rambled on long enough, so tune in next week for the Week 14 review.
Well I think I've rambled on long enough, so tune in next week for the Week 14 review.
3 comments:
Great week! Looks like a great jump start on the new year.
I love the puppets and headdresses. They look great! I also like your slideshows. I'm going to have to do one of my own soon!
I'm so glad CLE Math is working out for you. We are loving it as well! Both kids using it now.
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