Less Traveled By ~ Homeschool Edition

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!

American History

Our history plans for next year focus on the Middle Ages; however, we will also read picture books as an overview of early American history.  I have arranged some books from our home library in a loose chronological order and we have started with our first one in this series: Jamestown, New World Adventure by James Knight. 

Side Note:  I found a really neat Jamestown related online game at National Geographic Kids called:  On the Trail of Captain John Smith.  I think JB will enjoy the site.  (I haven't previewed it entirely, but did spend some time looking around and going through the beginning of the adventure myself, so preview before using it with your own family.)

The remainder of the line up will be:

• Pocahontas
• If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
• The Pilgrims of Plimoth
• Squanto's Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving
• On the Mayflower
• Sarah Morton's Day
• Samuel Eaton's Day
• Tapenum's Day
• The New Americans:  Colonial Times
• If You Lived in Colonial Times
• Mary Geddy's Day
• If You Lived in Williamsburg in Colonial Times
• A Picture Book of George Washington
• A Picture Book of Thomas Jefferson
• A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin
• A Picture Book of Paul Revere
• George Washington
• Benjamin Franklin
• The Fourth of July Story
• Liberty!  How the Revolutionary War Began
• The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
• George Washington:  A Picture Book Biography
• Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
• Revolutionary John Adams
• A More Perfect Union:  The Story of Our Constitution
• If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution

Planning is Fully Underway!

I have been busy making lists and checking them twice, and the plans for third grade are definitely starting to take shape!  I have most of the books that we will most likely be using next year, and now the pre-reading has begun!  I am going to do my best to read through JB's school books before our new year starts in July, so I can move on to books for the later years.  As I'm reading, I am making notes and planning copywork and dreaming of the perfect routine. (LOL!)

So far I'm a few chapters in to When Knights Were Bold and The Story of the Middle Ages; and I just finished reading A Door in the Wall. (great book!)

We are mostly following Ambleside Online's (AO) Year 2 lists for many subjects.  I was all set to jump into AO Year 3, when I realized I was overloading our schedule trying to fit in things we had not covered in Year 2.  Since we have never followed AO's history schedule, I am previewing the above mentioned books to use as a substitute.  I think we will join in AO Year 4 as is when we get there, but in the meantime, I'm tweaking a bit here and there.

You can find the tentative line up here if you are interested.