Our Curricula for School Year 2011

I thought that because I am calling a "DO-OVER" that I would do a post about the curricula we will be using once we start over.  All of the stuff will also be listed on the sidebar and most of them will have links.

Everett

Annika

Lucas

We're all really excited about the changes, and about the fresh start.  See you in the New Year!

A crazy season brings some changes to our homeschool

With the craziness that is the holiday season I always begin to worry about our school schedule, how much we've done, and how much we have left to do.  This year like most of the others started out great, then took a sudden nose dive into extended periods of time off.  We then got things righted again and as soon as we start to coast the winter holidays are upon us.  We're done for this part of the year.

We do have a few things that I'd like to have behind us before we are back to a full time schedule, but it will be done at a relaxed pace between now and December 29th.  Matt should be on leave from the 29th of December until the 9th of January, so we'll have fun family time then, and then come back to school refreshed, myself ready to teach and the kids ready to learn.


For now we with you all a wonderful Holiday Season and hope you'll come back and see the weekly reports I'll be posting starting in mid January.

Review -- Dec. 13-17

This week was a hodge-podge week.  We had a few appointments to deal with and the boys both seem to have caught some sort of cold.  We did what we could when we got around to it, because of that, I have not included any slideshows.  There wasn't much to see.   

Everett...

completed lesson 1.7 in Growing with Grammar 6,  which I thought he'd done last week.  He's also played lots of math games with Lucas.  He is very congested and has a pretty ugly cough and runny nose, so I haven't asked much of him school wise.  We did receive our Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary level 3 book and hope to start that next week.

Annika...

read chapters 3 and 4 in Magic Tree House Book #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark and is doing pretty well with it.  She was very excited to see her CLE Math 2 items arrive and has done pretests 1 and 2 from workbook 201.  She is so excited about this change in curriculum and even enjoyed the flashcard work. 

Science and History for Everett and Annika

was simply watching episodes of Mythbusters this week, through our Wii with their netflix instant streaming channel.  All the episodes the kids picked had a little history as well as science. 

Lucas...

played lots of educational games with his older siblings and drew lots of pictures for me. 

All in all, it was a pretty unproductive week, but at least we got a little bit done.  Hopefully next week will be more productive.

Review -- Dec 6-10

Week 12 has been a good, but short week.  We're working on some school but we've also been feeling really run down and a little burnt out.  I think it has something to do with the big swing in temperature here.  We were used to nice, not too hot-not to cold days and then we plunged down to pretty cold days with some nights below freezing.  I know it's not as bad as other places, but for us wimps that are used to more gentle winters, it's been pretty rough. 

Everett...

Completed lessons 1-3 in Saxon math 7/6 and did pretty well with it.  We switched back to Growing with Grammar 6, because he needs more work on each section than Junior Analytical Grammar is giving him.  He completed lessons 1.6 and 1.7 which worked with sentence types.  His new Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary level 3 came in so we'll start that next week.  I moved him back a level to go back and cover a few gaps he has.  I'm working on a new penmanship plan for him now that he's finished what I originally bought for him. 

Annika...

completed lessons 76-77 in McRuffy Phonics and Reading 1.  She asked me if she could start reading regular books and picked out The Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs At Dawn.   She read chapters 1 and 2 and thoroughly impressed me with the fluency with which she read it.  There were parts she struggled with, but over all it was an incredible accomplishment, which had me reevaluating her phonics and reading programs. At this point I have decided to let her use the Explode the code workbooks 3-8 at a pace that is challenging, but comfortable for her and we'll just keep reading beginning chapter books she picks out.  She completed a couple lessons in McRuffy Math 2, but has been complaining it's too easy, and asked to try something else.  I found the Christian Light Education placement test online and gave her that.  She enjoyed the types or problems and found it to be a nice challenge, so we'll be using that once the books arrive. 

Science and History for Everett and Annika

We have done no history this week, but had a fun Science/Art day on Friday.  We worked on introducing Atomic Mass, and understanding why they call it The Periodic Table of Elements.  We tried making some playdough from cream cheese, honey and powdered milk.  It didn't turn out so I brought out the regular Play-doh and the kids had a great afternoon with that. 

Lucas...

Has been doing well and completed a couple lessons in McRuffy Math K and a couple of lessons in McRuffy Phonics K.  He's having some issues with blending, so we'll take a break from McRuffy and use some of the Explode the Code primers to go over letter sounds again.

Not a packed week, but not bad either.  Next week will be similar due to some appointments, but we'll keep plugging along the best we can. 

Review -- Nov 29 - Dec 3

I thought Week 11 would be rough after a two week break from book work, but it turned out to be a good week with a fair amount of work accomplished.   
On Day 1 we...
started out with a field trip to Matt's ship.  It was no ordinary field trip, we were there to see Matt get promoted to the rank of Commander.  We are all very proud of him and were all extremely excited to be able to be a part of the ceremony. (sorry the pictures are so small, I'm not sure why that is)

Everett...

completed quiz 14 and lessons 86-88 in Teaching Textbooks 6 and after looking into the rest of the book I've decided he's done with it and we'll move on to our next math program.  He chose to use Saxon 7/6 which I'm actually pretty excited about, as I'll actually be the one teaching him again.  He finished the 5th unit of Junior Analytical Grammar covering  Subjects and Verbs, and did great on the unit test.   All About Spelling level 2, has been shelved and we'll begin working on Soaring with Spelling level 3.  Although I love the idea of AAS and have waffled with it, in the end it's just not challenging enough for him. I'm also glad to say that he's gotten back into the habit of reading every night.   

Annika...

completed lessons 73-75 in McRuffy Phonics and Reading 1 and she finished reading Blaze and the Flock. I was really impressed with the progress she made in her reading fluency.  She's still a little choppy but her speed has sure picked up and things seem to be sticking in her mind a little more. She asked to go back to McRuffy math 2 and completed lessons 3-6. We'll be doubling up lessons for a little while until we hit a more challenging spot.  

Science and History for Everett and Annika

In history we listened to Chapter 5 of Story of the World Volume 3 about the Warlords of Japan, they each colored a picture and did some map work.  I'm always amazed at how colorful they make the pictures.   For science we've returned to Chemistry with R.E.A.L. Science Chemistry level 1.  We started making periodic tables, and made a flipbook of the the first 18 elements.

Lucas...

Asked me if he could start doing his "ruff dog" papers again, which means his McRuffy work.  I had put it away because it seemed to be moving to fast, but pulled it back out to give it a try.  He did great.  The math was fun and pretty easy for him and he completed lessons 15-18 in McRuffy math k.  He also complete lessons 15-17 in McRuffy phonics K, and did pretty well on blending the letter sounds into some simple words.  He also completed lessons 10 and 11 in McRuffy Science K which completed unit 3 on weather. 

We'll be working most days for the rest of the month with the 24-25th and the 30-31 off besides weekends because Matt won't have much time off other than that.  We will take our winter break the first week of the New Year instead.  

Review -- Nov. 15-19

We had so many fun educational outings or days while my mom was in town it was like doing school without even knowing it.  

We started the week by going bowling where we practiced math facts (adding the pins) and got some physical education.  The next day we went to visit the Jamestown settlement which was wonderful and only 45 minutes away.  The kids loved it and were amazed at the replicas of The Susan Constant, The Godspeed and The Discovery.  The Native American Village was Lucas's favorite because he was allowed to touch everything and even play with the items.

The next day mom and the kids had a Home Ec day and made cupcakes for Annika's birthday and then we all worked together to make a wonderful turkey dinner so we could celebrate Thanksgiving a bit early while mom was still in town.  

Friday was Annika's 9th birthday and the kids went to The Little Gym for a Parent Survival night which must have been great fun because they slept like rocks that night.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I'm sorry this was a week late in posting but it's been crazy here.  

Review -- Nov. 18-12

This week was the wrap up week for our first quarter.  That's right, we finally have 1/4th of the school year behind us.  Not much work to be done this week so I won't be including any slideshows.  I'll make sure to put them in again when we're back to school after our 2 week break. 

Everett...

completed lessons 82-85 in Teaching Textbooks 6.  He began the 5th unit of Junior Analytical Grammar working on Subjects and Verbs. He's doing alright, but those pesky Pronouns are still a thorn in his side. He completed steps 11-12 in All About Spelling level 2, and worked on some penmanship practice pages I made for him using startwrite software. 

Annika...

completed lessons 70-72 in McRuffy Phonics and Reading 1 and she started reading Blaze and the Flock. She completed lessons 11-12 in Saxon 3 and is loving it.  She also did a few pages in Handwriting without Tears Cursive. 

Science and History for Everett and Annika

Nothing to finish up for this week. 

Lucas...

did a few penmanship pages from HWOT Letters and Numbers for Me and  completed lessons 27 in Saxon Math K this week as well as played some math games with me.

We'll be on break for the next two weeks.  We take a bit longer than most this time of year because Annika will celebrate her 9th birthday next Friday, and my mom always comes to visit for the kids birthday weeks.  During our break Everett will focus on reading more since he's slacked off on that, and Annika will be going back to re-read some of her favorite McRuffy stories to help build fluency.  We'll be back after Thanksgiving, and will be changing plans for science.  NOEO has great books, but the kids want Experiments, Experiments, Experiments, so we'll be starting up Real Science Odyssey again.  
We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Review -- Nov. 1-5

This week is finished.  It seemed pretty crazy, but at the same time feels like we didn't accomplish much.  I think we're starting to get restless about our upcoming time off for a visit from my mom and Thanksgiving.   Here's a run down of what we did.

Everett...

completed lessons 79-81 and Quiz 13 in Teaching Textbooks 6. There isn't too much left to TT 6 and then we'll be moving on to Saxon 7/6, to make sure it all sticks. He also completed the preposition unit in Junior Analytical Grammar and did well, but still thinks "Pronouns are tough."  I'm sure it's the whole "they can be adjectives too" that makes them hard, but he's working through it.  He completed steps 9-10 in All About Spelling level 2. I've slacked off a bit with spelling, so I'll have to get back on the wagon next week. We've shelved Institute for Excellence in Writings Student Writing Intensive A  until we've completed JAG then we'll bring it out and focus on writing for the rest of the year. He also did a page in Can Do Cursive, and I'll now start making up penmanship practice pages for him using startwrite software. 

Annika...

Finished up lessons 57-65 in McRuffy LA 1, and she read The Singing King. I'm happy to say that even though she stumbles on some words, her reading is moving along again.  She completed lessons 4-10 in Saxon 3 and is loving it. All About Spelling Level 1 will be pulled out again just to reinforce her McRuffy lessons.  AAS will be review for her, but she enjoys it so we'll do it and then once we're done with McRuffy I won't have to worry about where to go for spelling. She also did a few pages in Handwriting without Tears Cursive. She also read me a story about Gump the Turtle, from her new AAS reader The Runt Pig and other stories.

Science and History for Everett and Annika

History has been put on hold for now because we're ahead of where I had hoped to be at this time.  For science we read about the five kingdoms of living things and animal classification and the kids did a notebooking page. 

Lucas...

did a few penmanship pages from HWOT Letters and Numbers for Me and we jumped ahead in Saxon math after review some concepts.  He completed lessons 25 and 26 this week as well as played some math games with me.

No art again this week except for their random crafting projects.  

Review -- Oct. 25-29

This week was supposed to be a normal school week, but then I woke up Monday and had no energy.  So our set up for the blog entry this week will be a little different.  I got my inspiration for listing this week by day from another homeschooling friend who blogs. 

Monday

All the kids did a math lesson and a penmanship paper.  Everett did grammar lesson, Annika did a phonics lesson, and the older kids did a science lesson.  

Tuesday

I figured out that the bowling alley on the Naval base had a great daily special so I declared it PE day and we went bowling.  The kids had so much fun, they couldn't wait to go again (see Friday).

Wednesday

We were going to do some lessons, but woke up late and needed to get to the base by early afternoon to pick up Matt for the couple of days he'd be home this month.  So I pulled out the game 10 days in the USA and we had a fun morning of US geography.

Thursday

The kids each did a math lesson and a penmanship paper.  I was trying to keep it light, because Matt was hoping to get home early that day.  Then the Navy changed our plans and the kids did whatever while I dealt with Matt having no idea when he was coming home and the schedule changing every couple of minutes, at least it ended with Matt being home and extra day and having that day off.  Ah, military life, you gotta love it. 

Friday

After the Thursday schedule fiasco, which at least ended up with Matt having Friday off, the kids woke up and asked him if they could "do bowling for school".  Being the principal he decided that was a great idea, so off the to Navy base bowling alley we went.  We all bowled 3 games and had lunch.  We made a quick stop at the base exchange (it's the base's equivalent to Walmart or Target for my non-military friends and family) and then headed home for a break.  After being home a while we did "art" by picking designs and carving pumpkins.  Lucas refused to scoop out the guts, he said "This is just gross."  Annika and Everett did some of their own pumpkin gut scooping.  I carved Lucas's pumpkin for him and Ev and Anna did as much of theirs as they could.  They turned out great and we can't wait for trick or treat night. 

I hope you'll all enjoy the slideshows of the bowling outing with Matt and Pumpkin carving from Friday.  Matt has returned to sea again for the next few weeks, so we'll be back at our normal lessons full force next week.  

Bowling Day Slideshow

Pumpkin Carving

Review -- Oct.18-22

This week has been fun.  We managed to accomplish a lot, had some curriculum changes that we started.  I'm thinking of changing our schedule starting next week but we'll see how I feel after thinking about it over the weekend.


Everett...
completed lessons 73-76 in Teaching Textbooks 6, and would like to go on record as saying that "Decimals are much easier than fractions."  He also completed the pronoun unit in Junior Analytical Grammar and did well, but said "Pronouns are tough."  He completed steps 5-7 in All About Spelling level 2.  We also started Institute for Excellence in Writings Student Writing Intensive A again and completed a keyword outline, rough draft and final draft on Andrew Jackson.  He also did a few handwriting pages in Can Do Cursive.  

Annika...

Finished up lessons 53-56 in McRuffy LA 1, Super Pork Makes Friends is her favorite of the readers so far. We started into Saxon Math 3 and although it's easy, I won't have her "test out" of any lessons.  She did lessons 1-3 and is enjoying it.   All About Spelling Level 1 has been shelved because there is spelling built into her McRuffy lessons. She also did a few pages in Handwriting without Tears Cursive. She has recently asked if she can write in cursive on some of her pages other than the HWOT book.  This is definitely a move in the right direction.

Science and History for Everett and Annika
They listened to chapter 4 of Story of the World vol. 3 about Champlain and Hudson and the quest for the Northwest Passage.  They did some mapwork and colored a picture of Champlain's journey.   Science was fantastic again this week.  We used our microscope a lot this week looking at sugar crystals and various types of paper.  NOEO Biology 2 is working out really well so far, and the kids look forward to it daily. I posted pictures of the history and science pages in their slide shows above.


Lucas...
did the first 6 pages in his Rod and Staff ABC series Book D, he's really enjoying the variety in the pages.  I also started Saxon Math K with him and he is loving it.  He also did 4 pages in Handwriting without Tears Letters and Numbers for Me.  There are not as many pictures for him because I didn't scan in his R&S workbook, maybe I'll do that next week.

No art was done this week, but we plan on carving pumpkins tomorrow.

Review -- Oct. 11-15

Another week done, but also another week of crazy schedules.   We didn't accomplish as much as I would have liked, but we did get to break into our new science curriculum which was a lot of fun.  I'll apologize in advance for the lack of pictures this week.  I didn't get a chance to scan anything in or take any pictures.


Everett...
is almost finished with the first decimal unit in Teaching Textbooks 6 and only has 45 lessons or quizzes left before he's done with this level.  He finished up the Articles and Adjectives unit in Junior Analytical Grammar and is continuing to do well. He completed step 4 in All About Spelling level 2, and did a few handwriting pages in Can Do Cursive.  


Annika...

is continuing to read Super Pork Makes Friends to work on her fluency.  We should wrap up the lessons on this book next week. She did lesson 2 in McRuffy math and although she likes it enough says the pages are a bit short.  We'll probably add to this using Saxon math.   She completed  step 7 in All About Spelling level 1 and a few Handwriting without Tears Cursive pages. Her cursive is coming along nicely and she is enjoying learning to form the letters.


Science and History for Everett and Annika
They listened to chapter 3 of Story of the World vol. 3 about James III of Scotland and James I of England, colored a picture of The Susan Constant and did some mapwork about James and the ships he sent to America which lead to the settlement of Jamestown.  They also asked if we could take a trip up there in the spring to see it.  Sounds like a great field trip to me.  Science was fantastic this week.  We started our new NOEO Biology 2 lessons and made waterscopes with a piece of cardboard, a thin piece of plastic (small piece I cut from a page protector), some tape and a drop of water.  They have done 3 narration pages with this program so far and love it.  I am very happy about this because we tried NOEO in the past and the narration pages were a bust,  now that Everett is willing to write more and Annika isn't as afraid to ask for help on them they are doing a wonderful job. 


Lucas
He completed lesson 14 in both McRuffy Phonics and Reading K and McRuffy Math K.  He also did lessons 5-6 in McRuffy Science K which continued our unit on the five senses.  He finished a few pages in his Handwriting without Tears Letters and Numbers For Me book. He's starting to hit a wall with McRuffy due to the quick pace of it, so we'll put it on the shelf for a while and work through The Do It Carefully book from Rod and Staff's ABC series of workbooks.   


Art for All
We did no formal art this week, no fun project packs or anything.  The kids just had fun doing drawings and other various art type things throughout the week. 


Due to the crazy schedule we also had a Home Ec day where we spent time going over general household chores and cooking things.  We also had a Math Game day where we spent the whole school day playing different games to work on math skills. 


Enjoy your weekend and come check us out again next week.

Review -- Oct. 4-8

This week was a bit hectic, we had lots of appointments on Tuesday and Thursday, but still  managed to have a great school week and lots of fun.


Everett  
Continued working through his decimals unit in Teaching Textbooks and is doing really well with  them.  He says they are much easier than fractions.  He finished up the Noun unit in Junior Analytical Grammar and started in on Unit two: Articles and Adjectives. He completed steps 2 and 3 in All About Spelling level 2, and did a few handwriting pages in Can Do Cursive.  


Annika

Asked to return to the full McRuffy Language arts program instead of just doing the dynamic phonics and we worked on lesson 51 and she read half of Super Pork Makes Friends. She completed a few lessons in Teaching Textbooks 3 and said it's kind of boring and could she use McRuffy math again.  She admitted she likes it when I teach her math better, which gave me a huge ego boost. We did lesson 1 in McRuffy math 2 and will be back at it full force next week.  She completed  steps 5 and 6 in All About Spelling level 1 and a few Handwriting without Tears Cursive pages. 


Science and History for Everett and Annika
We did not do any science this week and will start our NOEO Biology level 2 curriculum next week now that it's arrived.  For history we listened to Story of the World Volume 3 chapter 2 about the Protestant Revolts and colored pages of William the Silent and Mary Queen of Scots as well as a map page.  I asked them to give the Story of the World audio book another chance and said they thought it was nice.  I guess Jim Weiss doesn't have such a creepy voice now that they are a little older.  


Lucas
He completed lessons  11-13 in both McRuffy Phonics and Reading K and McRuffy Math K.  He also did lesson 4 in McRuffy Science K which started our unit on the five senses.  He finished a few pages in his Handwriting without Tears Letters and Numbers For Me book. He's doing really well and is starting to get the hang of blending some letters together to make words.  


Art for All
This week we got out another craft box I picked up at AC Moore and made paper plate bugs.  The kids have been having so much fun with these, but unless I find more we'll have to go back and finish left over projects from the ones we've done or try something else.
Here's a few pictures of the art day fun.

The last thing we did this week has nothing to do with school, but we'd like to share.  Annika and I were out picking up a few pet supplies and the local Petsmart was having Adoption Days.  We found a very loving, cuddly, 6 year old, big lump of a cat that really needed a home.  It was his last chance for adoption and would have been put down if nobody chose to take him today.  We just couldn't see leaving such a sweet, gorgeous cat  like him behind.  He's truly a joy and is settling in very well in our home.
Here's our new Big Boy...   SAMMY!

We hope you enjoyed this weeks review and will come back next week.