Tolle Lege Christian Academy

Homeschooling Highlights-September 12-16

Another great week has come to an end!  DG took so much enjoyment in getting up and started on her work independently this week, and in deciding how she would use her free time later in the day.  We had a bit more free time than usual, and it was very nice to be at a slower pace than our normal for a few days.

DG has become "hooked" on latch hook!  We spent part of one afternoon listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and crafting-----she on her latch hook project, and me on my first soon to be finished crocheted baby blanket.

DG also started a Sew Teach Me sewing project-----a pet blanket.  She measured out her seam allowance with a sewing gauge, marked off her seams, and sewed two fabrics together for the first round.  She will sew another round and add fringe soon, so we'll post the finished project next week.  In the meantime, here she is sewing away!

 

We completed a delightful nature study of our milkweed plants and all the creatures that are enjoying them, and enjoyed being able to work outside one day as well.  (We are both looking forward to more days like that!)  Here are a couple of other pictures DG took while we were outside:

And a picture taken from the inside as she watched birds at our feeders-----until this furry little guy came along:

 

DG and her Daddy have enjoyed playing No Stress Chess over the years-----and she is so excited that they have begun playing regular chess together too!

And to wrap up for the week, I'll close with some snapshots of some of her written work.

History timeline, copywork and narration:

 

From Jashub's Journal:

 

Some multiplication:

Logic:

Grammar:

 

From the animal tracks book she adds to periodically in science:

Science questions:

 

 

 

 

Milkweed Nature Study

Inspired by the Outdoor Hour Challenge September newsletter and the beautiful milkweed growing in our yard, we conducted our first nature study of the new school year a few days ago.    Our milkweed is getting a lot of action right now!

DG using her new camera to record information

Some type of insect we have yet to identify.  I'm wondering if it is some sort of bee.  We are going to try to study the differences between bees and other insects that mimic bees.

Taking flight

What looks to be a carpenter bee----I'm hoping the nest is far from the house!  (Photo by DG)

And although this little guy (some type of green bee) was enjoying coreopsis instead of milkweed, he was nearby so we wanted to share this picture too:

You can see the pollen he's loading up!

Milkweed bug  (Photo by DG)

We broke off a small section of the milkweed so we could see the "milk", but it was so small that none of our pictures turned out well.

Pictures taken the day before:

The first monarch spotted this year

DG's notebook page  (Thank you, Barb!)

 

 

 

Homeschooling Highlights - August 29th to September 9th

DG has worked diligently through two units in Creation to Christ!  She continues to enjoy her history readings from The Story of the Ancient World-----so much in fact, that we may continue with this series next year.

Last week I received a wonderful surprise from DG after her independent work time.  She was so excited to surprise me, that I was asked to stay out of the work area until she was finished.  Then she presented me with an excellent written narration about rodents!  Yes----she is enjoying her readings in Land Animals of the Sixth Day as well!  I continue to be amazed at her natural writing ability.

This week she read about Ungulates.  One of the most interesting things was learning how a horse's age can be estimated from its teeth!

In math DG continues to work on multiplication along with review of past concepts.  In geography, we are now reading about Israel, and in poetry she is working on memorizing "The Pasture".  One stanza down, one to go!

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

For the Jr. Homemakers Club, part of her homework was to make muffins.  YUM!  

We started this year's Community Bible Study (CBS) class this week.  Her class is following the same study as the adult class, and this year we will be studying the book of Luke.  DG was very excited to go to class and see her old teacher, meet a new teacher and be with friends.  This is our third year in CBS, and DG has learned a lot each year, and thoroughly enjoyed each study so far.  The weather finally cooled off a bit here, and after CBS, we headed to a park to picnic and visit with friends.  Good times!

Weekly Review- August14-26

I never quite finished my post from last week, so I'm posting what we've been up to for the past two weeks today.  DG completed Unit 6 in Creation to Christ over the two weeks as we had several outside activities in which she also participated. 

In history, she is reading about Ancient Egypt in The Story of the Ancient World.  We had a few readers on Egypt that she enjoyed reading.  Even though they are easier readers, she (we) learned a lot from looking at the beautiful photographs and diagrams.  The Nile River has excellent photographs of the region.  She also read Egyptians and Tut's Mummy Lost and Found.

DG continues to enjoy Boy of the Pyramids and she is also continuing to read Little Miriam of Galilee.

In geography, DG worked on adding to the map of Turkey she began earlier in the year.  We want to try the Turkish Delight recipe in A Child's Geography (Vol. 2), but need to get a few supplies and ingredients first.

In Land Animals of the Sixth Day, she has been reading about primates.  The science experiment for the week was to see if/why depth perception is important, and DG had a good time seeing how close she could come to estimating distance of various objects.

Last week DG went to her sewing class where she finished up her first project----a bandana shirt.  She has her homework project (a second one) pinned and ready to sew.  She mastered the chain stitch using finger crochet, and is working on mastering the chain stitch on the crochet hook.  She has it down, and will continue to practice so her tension is more uniform.   She is excited at the thought of being able to make gifts for others!

Last week DG also went to another painting class with friends, and they all seemed to have a wonderful time.  She certainly did!  For now her cute owl is watching us from his piano perch, but we'll probably find a home for him in her room or our sewing/art room soon.

I think her painting to accompany Unit 6's poem, "Firelfies in the Garden" is lovely too.  It is going to be so neat to see all of her poetry paintings bound into a book at the end of the year!

Weekly Review-August 8-12

We've had a good and busy week.  DG finished up Unit 5 of Creation to Christ this week. 

Highlights from Literature studies:

DG was SO glad that we finished reading The Golden Bull.  Overall, she did not enjoy this book because she thought it was too sad.  It started off sad and even though the ending was "happy", it wasn't enough so to leave a favorable thought about it for her.  However, we learned a lot about Ancient Mesopotamia through reading it, and I think it was an excellent selection for that time period.

I'm happy to report that after one chapter of Boy of the Pyramids she was asking for another!  Perhaps she will enjoy this book much more.  (It's very good-----I've already read it.)

Since we did not complete all of Preparing Hearts for His Glory last year, I have decided to have DG read some of those books for her independent reading time this year, and she is currently reading Little Miriam of Galilee.

DG really enjoys the poetry painting work!  Below is a picture of Unit 5's rocks painting followed by her completed field painting from Unit 4.  I am also showing a close up of each because she really enjoyed adding the details to each of these.   We added "sand" to the first picture by using a toothbrush to flick on paint.

She has been enjoying painting in her free time too, and she has completed several pieces.  Those below have been done with watercolor pencils or crayons and water.

Last week DG was able to attend the first meeting of the Jr. Homemaker's Club that another homeschool mom is leading.  The girls were taught how to thread a sewing machine, make a bobbin, and sew basic stitches.  DG was eager to practice more at home and made two doll pillows and a blanket that she gave to her cousin for her dolls.  (Kit helped model before they were given away.)

The girls also learned how to do a finger chain stitch to prepare for beginning crochet.  DG has made lots of chains this week!  I have tried to teach myself how to crochet several times, but have never stuck with it.  So I am determined to learn again now to be able to help her; and I have (I think) successfully mastered the basic chain stitch and single crochet. DG wanted to start practicing a chain stitch with a hook, so I introduced it to her yesterday.   She did a great job completing a few stitches before time snuck up on us and we had to rush out the door for her dance company rehearsal!

Today we went on a field trip to a sea turtle center/hospital.  It was so much fun!  I'll close with a few pictures from the trip.

 

Fourth Grade-Week in Review 4 - Part 2

We had a nice week!  Last week with dance camp was a bit busier than anticipated, so it wasn't until this week that DG finished up Unit 4 in Creation to Christ.  She had a terrific time at camp and is looking forward to helping again the last week of July.

She is really enjoying the history reading and notebook work----though she wishes for more space for her written narrations.  The Story of the Ancient World is her favorite book right now.

The science experiment for this week from Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day was interesting.   DG was to find out the relationship between cougars and deer in a certain area of space.  The experiment was set up to allow for reproduction of the cougar if it survived by eating enough deer, and for the reproduction of deer who were not eaten. 

She quickly ran out of deer to place in the space as they multiplied by leaps and bounds, and we had to improvise with little post it notes.  In fact, the deer population outpaced the number of post-its we had too, and we just gave up on adding the correct amount of new deer (and cut the experiment short in the end).  But the point was well made...... very few deer=original cougar not able to survive/new cougar moves in to the territory; more deer=cougar may survive to have offspring and cougar population begins to grow.....many deer=more cougars able to survive.....many cougars=deer population starts dwindling, and so on.

We were able to go on a few outings this week.....one an impromptu trip to an IMAX nature movie with friends and another to our local art museum. 

DG wanted to be sure to see the few Egyptian pieces the museum has, and we were also able to see some early Greek pieces and a pair of gold Etruscan earrings.  It brought to mind our reading in The Golden Bull, where the main character is learning how to work with gold. 

DG also came across a book of art history, and LOVED scanning the pages of ancient art history----many of the locations and topics we have recently studied were mentioned and she was making connections to everything.  (It was exciting to sit with her and listen as she discussed what she was noticing and remembering!)  I told her I would take out our art history books at home, and she is looking forward to going through those----as well as to a return trip to the museum sometime soon when we can spend more time reading and exploring. 

We took a short walk in the gardens outside the museum and enjoyed some time in the section of the museum especially for children.  I'll close with some of my favorite pictures of our visit:

 

Part 1 of our Unit 4 work doesn't really mention the CTC assignments, but it does have a few fun pictures.  :-)

 

Fourth Grade- Week in Review-4-Part 1

Since I have been titling each week in review post by the unit number completed in Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ, and we are only half way through that unit so far, this post will be in two parts.

We've had a great week, though we are not quite finished with our unit work.   That aside, we have been able to spend a couple of afternoons swimming since this was a break week from DG's dance schedule.  And we were able to spend one morning at a painting class with friends, followed by lunch and a trip to the bookstore.  (All the girls LOVE to read!)

DG's finished painting:

Last week much of our "off" week was spent at dance.  DG's studio had their recital----and it was beautiful!  She had so much fun!  The production was "Noah's Ark" and DG was in The Vineyard dance, The Flood dance, The Rainbow dance, and the finale dance.

And as a special treat for DG, her father participated in the recital this year too.  He was part of a group of men that fought just before the flood scene.

Next week, DG spends four days at her studio's dance camp as a teacher's helper for the younger girls.  She is so excited about that as well!  We'll finish up our CTC unit between now and the end of next week, and I'll be back with pictures of her unit work.

Until then.....take care!

 

Fourth Grade-Week in Review-3

We had another great week studying the Ancient Israelites, the land of Turkey, animals, the poetry of Robert Frost----and more!  I am really enjoying our literature read aloud right now, which is The Golden Bull.  DG seems to like it, but it is not one of her favorites----at least not yet.  We'll see if that changes as we continue to read.

One activity we did in relation to the reading this week was to look for verses related to what we were reading from The Golden Bull to the book of Proverbs.  DG was able to find several and tell how they related in a very thoughtful and analytical way.  Very cool!  I think it is also so neat how DG has read about cylinder seals in both her history book, The Story of the Anicent World, and now in The Golden Bull-----and she made one last week! 

A few snapshots from DG's work this week:

Notebooking pages:

She really enjoys written narration, and is especially enjoying her history reading assignments!

Science project:  The project was to see how white vs. black absorbed sunlight and how that affected the rate at which ice would melt.....to see how the black skin of a polar bear affects the bear....we modified the directions just a bit.  DG placing the experiment out in the sun:

 

A few lines from her personal narrative writing assignment (from BJU English 4):

As I slipped into my bathing suit I thought about how I was going to enter the pool.  Stairs?  No way!  Pencil dive?  No!  Cannonball?  Yes!  So I ran outside and jumped into the pool yelling, "Cannonball!"  When I came up mom said, "Wow, that was a huge splash!"  I smiled and swam over to get my swimming goggles.  I put them on and walked to the slope in the pool.  I held my breath and plunged into the deep-end......

 

Her poetry painting for the week:

And the poetry reading this week (click through to the site and scroll down to hear it):

 

 

We are trying out a "three weeks on, one week off" schedule this year (roughly....some weeks will be different intervals)---and we have finished our first three weeks!  Next week we'll be "off", so there may be no weekly report (but you never know)! 

Fourth Grade-Week in Review-2

Another great week of learning was had by DG (and me)!  DG's dance recital is two weeks away, and she is having so much fun preparing for the performance.  We completed the Unit 2 lessons in Creation to Christ, and had a fun afternoon of art at a local pottery studio as well! 

DG's painted dolphin from the pottery studio:

 

The history project for this week was to make a cylinder seal and a clay tablet with cuneiform writing on it.  While DG enjoyed mixing the salt-dough air dry "clay", it did not work as well as anticipated in the project.  The dough was too "doughy" to easily hold the form of the etchings (or for the seal to stay in a cylinder shape); and without putting it in the oven on a low temperature, I'm not sure it would have dried in a timely manner.  Also, when DG tried to add her seal to the tablet, the dough stuck completely to the seal and it was a mess.   So, DG did the best she could with it; and we've decided that we will seek out a commerical product for any future projects calling for clay.  Here is a picture of DG's finished seal and tablet.

 

 

DG's poetry painting for the week (A pasture spring....she decided she liked the background of the water without adding anything else to it.):

 

And the reading recorded on YouTube:  (If you are reading this through a feed reader or email, click on this link to go directly to the post and scroll down to see the video.  I am still learning how to adjust the settings for recordings, and hopefully they'll get better as we keep making them----if anyone has recorded directly to YouTube and has tips, please let me know.)

 

 

Completed notebook work:

And one of her favorite things from the week....making an "Animal Tracks" book and completing the first page---a dog track.

 

We finished reading Dinosaurs of Eden and began The Golden Bull.  We are reading about Turkey and the surrounding lands and bodies of water in Geography and are continuing on in Teaching Textbooks for math.  DG began her first assigned writing project of the year:  a personal narrative. 

Last week I figured out how to get Netflix through our Wii. and we have come across so many educational shows and movies!  We started watching the Liberty's Kids series, and so far, so good! (If you are studying American history this year, you should especially check it out----there is a free month trial for Netflix, and you can stream it directly from your computer as well.  Liberty's Kids also has a companion website found here.  Some episodes can be viewed freely online too, so you can preview a few that way if you're interested if you search them out.)  And in the just for fun category, DG is hooked on Flipper (the 1960s version).  Dolphins have been one of her favorite animals for awhile, and she really enjoys the show.  She also watched the IMAX Dolphins movie last week.  Such a nice treat!

Until next time.....have a great week!

Fourth Grade-Week in Review-1

Our first week* of fourth grade was excellent!  DG and I both enjoyed all the readings and activities from Creation to Christ (CTC)! 

She wrote after the first day of school

Today was the first day of school and I absolutely loved it! We are doing a new program, and I started a history project today, and believe it or not, a poetry project. I copied some of a poem by Robert Frost, and did a background of a painting to go with it!

We have a frame that is made for art work storage (easy open/close-in/out) and it is going to store DG's paintings that go along with the poetry assignments through the year.  At the end of the year, I hope to take all the poetry/paintings to an office store to have them bound into a book.  Here is the first one of the year sitting in a pass through space in the kitchen.

She really enjoyed the painting, and even painted some more in her free time over the weekend. 

Here is a special treat for you (Hosted on YouTube:  DG's reads the first poem of the year-If you can not see the video in an email subscription, please click through to the post if you'd like to hear it.):

 

 

 

Here are a few other pictures of work completed during the week:

Teaching Textbooks Lessons 

 

CTC Notebook Page--A flap book of the generations from Adam to Noah:

And a Science notebooking page (also posted under the first day of school post):

We had our first Tea Time of the year.  The first picture study/artist of the year is Degas, and the first composer study of the year is Chopin.  We'll listen to Chopin each week during Tea Time, and read a little from the Opal Wheeler book.  Thanks to an Ambleside Online member and her picture study yahoo group-----we will use the prints there for our Degas study.

One last note to share:
I was so glad to have read a tip about using a cookbook stand to hold open the CTC manual (and I'm sorry I can't remember where to give credit and individual thanks).  We got the stand after the first two days of work, and it made a huge difference in DG being able to use the guide while shifting things around on the table and having plenty of work space.  We are using little post-it notes to cover each box as it is completed so she can see at a glance what is left to be done.  I am letting her decide the order of her work each day, and this is working well so far.

Until next time....

Have a great day!

 

*Fri. 5/27- to Thurs. 6/2
We are running "weeks" Friday-Thursay.

New Year: New Header

As we kick off our "new" year, I decided to make a new header for the blog since the other one was a couple of years old.  I've also given it a slight title change so it would fit in with my general blog.   So be sure to stop by the site to see the changes if you're reading through email or a feed reader.

This blog will focus on our weekly homeschooling updates and reporting what Dancer Girl ("DG") has been up to specifically from here on (unless I change my mind, of course).  {chuckles}

(As you can see, she's been up to changing her screen name!  No more Jumping Bean or "JB".  I'm still getting used to that!)

First Day of Fourth Grade

JB has been so excited to begin fourth grade, that we didn't quite make it to our original plan of starting in June.   It's so nice that she is eager to learn and work and start a fresh year.

To kick off our day, we had our traditional pancake breakfast----with the requested chocolate chips again this year.  I did my best to shape the pancakes as 4s for 4th grade! 

JB filled out an "All About Me" page---another first day tradition (or some variation thereof).

And of course, no first day of school around here would be complete without a math activity that includes graphing and some sweet treat...up this year:  Skittles. 

In addition to our traditional beginnings, we launched into work in our main program for the year:  Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ.  JB's first science notebook page of the year:

She was so excited this morning that she was up before I was and we got a much earlier start than usual.  We completed everything, and even had time for an afternoon swim with a friend!

I'll update next week on all that we accomplished in our first "week".  

(We are running our weeks from Friday to Thursday since we will be going to Community Bible Study on Thursday morning in the fall and then will be due at the dance studio a few hours later.  Hence, Thursday will be our "Friday"/lighter school work/finish-up-the-week-day, so I'm trying it out now. That and we thought it would be fun to start the First day of Fourth grade on a Friday!)

3....2....1.....Ready for Fourth Grade

 

The countdown is on.  About 12 hours or so! 

 

Everything is ready and waiting---First day supplies, and a few treats and surprises

We have one EXCITED girl in our house!

 

So Long Third (Almost), Here Comes Fourth!

I have hardly posted to this blog this school year-----but I hope to step up my posting again (quite a bit) next "year".  We are winding down JB's third grade year, but as we school year round-------our new year will begin in June.  JB is very excited to be starting fourth grade!  (How did that get here so quickly?)

I am excited too!  As I review the materials we have chosen to use next year, I think we are in for a great year!  We are going to be schooling light through mid-May and then we'll break from mid-May to mid-June.  Here's what we'll be starting in June (if we can hold off/make it to then!  LOL) :

• Heart of Dakota's (HOD) Creation to Christ - I am enjoying previewing these plans so much!  We will be using the Bible study, History, Science, Poetry and Geography plans as written in the guide.  We will also use some of the Language Arts plans (reading and dictation).
  
  I love the book choices and the rhythm to the schedule.  I also am so glad that I see more connections in HOD to Charlotte Mason philosophy than I previously realized.  I know that I am always free to alter someone else's plans, but it sure is nice to feel like I won't have to do too much of that!  :-)
• Teaching Textbooks 4 (continuing from third grade year)
• Bob Jones English 4 (continuing from third grade year)-We'll continue using this for grammar and writing.

• Latin for Children Primer A (continuing from third grade year)

• Fine Arts Friday Plans:  I am going to schedule picture study, composer study, Shakespeare readings, poetry readings, and an art project once a week-----probably on Fridays.  I am hoping to get a routine Tea Time going for the picture study, composer study and reading; and follow it with an art project.  (Now I just need to find time for a regular nature study and I'll be set!)

• Other miscellaneous resources will probably include continuing Evan-Moor's Daily Geography 4 (JB really enjoys this), Logic, Problem Solving (AIMS resources), and anything else that strikes our fancy-----though I don't think we'll have room for much more.  The HOD guide that we will be following only schedules four days a week, which is very nice, since we do have other regularly scheduled activities during the week in addition to these few add-ons!  We are planning to continue in Community Bible Study next year and JB will most likely be in at least four or five dance classes again-----so we will have full weeks ahead of us.

I am so thankful that we have been able to homeschool and pray that we will be able to continue throughout her school years.

Weekly Report-Happy New Year!

We started our lessons back up this week, and JB was just about as excited to start back as she is when we begin a new (grade level) year!

This week's roundup:

Math-MUS Beta-Unit 3 Test, MUS Gamma- Lesson 1, BJU math multiplication and money lessons

Language Arts-First Language Lessons 4, Lessons 3 and 4, cursive work

Latin-JB started work on chapter 7 in Latin for Children, Book A

Science-JB wanted to do an experiment on our first day back (of course---science is one of her most favorite things!)  She got an experiment book for Christmas, but the first one we tried didn't go too well.  So then we did a short air experiment and then she had fun mixing colors just for fun.

We are continuing our reading in The Burgess Animal Book for Children.  I have been enjoying listening to JB read this aloud!

Nature Study-We completed the first Winter Wednesday Challenge and also enjoyed a time of sketching one of our crape myrtle trees.  We've decided to watch our crape myrtles and a Japanese magnolia closely as the seasons change this year for a year long tree study.  JB's sketch turned out great!

Literature-We are reading The Enchanted Castle by Edith Nesbit together and we are both enjoying it!

History-

For our American history study, JB is independently reading If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 and she is narrating each section as she completes reading it.  I also asked her to do a written narration/report on all that she had read to so far and she did a nice job.

For our World history study, we are reading several books:  If You LIved in the Days of Knights, Days of Knights and Damsels, The Little Duke (which we just began) and God's Troubadour: The Story of St. Francis of Assisi (which we have almost finished).

Artist Study- We are continuing to read Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin.  We'll add picture study back in next week.

It was a nice week "back". 

Winter Wednesday Challenge 1: World of Color

I don't know if we'll do every Winter Wednesday challenge, but we did complete the first one:  World of Color.  We had a nice time walking around our yard and finding many different colors:

And the Beat Goes On

A little of what we've been up to....(science, science and more science!)

Moon,

star

and

Jupiter gazing.  :-)

Solar Science-Finding North without a compass

 

Continuing to learn and dream about space
 

along with a trip to see the Hubble IMAX movie with Grand D!

Life Science Labs

(Egg/Cell Investigation)

(Plant cell model)

Nature Study
 

We are humming along in other subjects too.  Good days!

La de da de de, la de da de da

Learning Log-Week of 9/6/2010

A glance at some of the things JB has been working on:

Language Arts-

• Dictation, Intermediate Language Lessons, Reading, and Writing-
  JB wrote a couple of articles for our family newsletter which was "published" this week.  She completed the first lesson in Intermediate Language Lessons and she has been enjoying reading a collection of Enid Blyton's books about the Adventurous Four.  We completed another dictation lesson in Spelling Wisdom and we are enjoying reading Understood Betsy together.

Math and Logic-

• JB really enjoyed the first logic puzzle in Solving Logic Mysteries and she did very well on the next chapter in Math U See.

Latin-

• JB has almost completed the first lesson in Latin for Children Primer A.  So far, she thinks it is okay----she doesn't like how fast the chants go on the DVD, but she thinks it is neat that children are leading/repeating them.  She really liked learning about derivatives and recognized a lot of words from the vocabulary this week.

Science-

• JB started a lot of independent research on space last week.  Between World Book Online and several library books, she has the beginning of a couple of reports on Saturn and Neptune.

Nature Study-

• We have caterpillars!  I know we must have had them before, but now we can see them!  :-)
  
  Now to decide if/when to bring a few inside to watch more closely.
  

History-

• We are working on reading through A Child's History of the World a few chapters a week until we reach the Middle Ages and then we'll slow down and study the Middle Ages for the remainder of the year.  We've completed through chapter 23.

Other Interests-

• JB is thoroughly enjoying all of her (5!) dance classes :-) and we also started our Community Bible Study (CBS) class this week.  After CBS we attended our homeschool group's first park day, which was HOT but fun!

What We've Been Up To

I don't know how the days and weeks pass so quickly, but they do!

We have been enjoying much of our new year and will be entering phase two soon!  We'll be adding in a few more subjects on a regular basis and also ending our summer co-op.

So what have we been up to?

We've met during the summer with some other families, and it has been a nice!  We have completed nature study, drawing lessons, picture study. poetry reading and narration practice together.  We studied works of Henri Matisse and used Drawing with Children for art lessons.

Here is one of JB's drawings and watercolor inspired by the drawing lesson too:

Some other things to note:

JB has completed her first nine chapters of math.  She is doing GREAT!  We are using Math U See Beta right now and anticipate starting Delta this year.  We'll see  She is also working some from Math Mammoth (time, money, fractions, geometry) and completing Daily Math too.  (Last year we used Evan Moor's Daily Math, this year, so far, I've been making problems for review.)

She also completed her first current events report page.  I thought we'd use God's World News this year to practice writing short current events reports based on the articles.  I got the idea when thinking about how Ambleside Online incorporates current events reading for the older students.  She enjoyed writing her first two reports.

We've been reading from various books including Meet Christopher Columbus, Christopher Columbus, Understood Betsy, One Small Square:  Arctic Tundra, A Child's History of the World and Grandpa's Box.  JB is currently reading Treasure Island on her own and she is REALLY enjoying it!  (It's so exciting to listen to her talk about enjoying books.)

That's just a small sampling of what we've been up to!  Stay tuned for more....  :-)

Third Grade-Our FIrst Week in Review

We kicked off the start of our new year this week with our traditional pancake breakfast----only this year I decided to kick it up a notch and go for the chocolate chips.  They were a hit!

 

We had an extra treat in starting the year as Daddy was home for the first part of the day.  He enjoyed the pancakes too!  :-)

Also in keeping with tradition, JB enjoyed a fun math activity:  M&M Math!  We always do a graphing activity as part of our back to school routine.

 

 

We started using Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory guide, and JB enjoyed making a shield to go along with the history study, as well as completing a science notebook page.

 

 

We are also going to use Elemental Science Chemistry this year, and the first experiment was another highlight of the week----ice cream in a bag!

 

 

We started dictation, enjoyed reviewing cursive and went through the first two chapters in math and worked on a review of reading clocks.

We finished up Chapter 2 in Who is God? and enjoyed reading the first chapters of Grandpa's Box.

JB was very excited when she saw our new Learning Notes blog with her first research assignment of the year (to find out about a coat of arms).  She enjoyed printing off research for her notebook, and also enjoyed designing her own coat of arms online. 

We subscribed to World Book this year and in her free time she has eagerly begun a book of American symbols, with a Revolutionary War book waiting in the wings------which will be closely followed by a book of American presidents.  

 

We wrapped up the week with a nature study!!! (and a few more !!!! for good measure!)  It was quick, but fun; and I am so glad we just got outside and did it!  (We are starting from the beginning again with Barb's Outdoor Hour Challenges.)

JB also wrote a post about one of our discoveries.

Third grade is going to be great!