School update
School is still going really well. Here's what we've been up to.
In Bible, we are learning a story a week, along with memorizing large chunks of verses. So far we've learned the usuals - creation, Noah's ark, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, who the Israelites are, Joshua, etc. The last few weeks we've done Gideon and Samson. I love how our days go when we start the day with time in the Word. :-)
In Phonics we just learned the final "special sound." That's what the Abeka curriculum calls diphthongs. There are 132!! We both have them memorized. I thought we'd take the whole year learning them, but we're not even halfway through the year, so I guess not. :-) It has really helped Kara's spelling though, I must say. I think ALL the time we've spent on it is pretty.....I don't want to say pointless, but I don't really agree with the emphasis Abeka puts on them. ANYWAY, we're also doing sentence vs phrase, what to capitalize, synonyms, syllables, rhyming, when to pronounce g like "j." When to pronounce c like "s" and when c sounds like "k." Other little rules about when to write "ck" vs "ke." So many of those. I actually like those. It makes the crazy English language seem like there is a rhyme or reason. ;-)
In Reading, Kara reads aloud the books provided by the curriculum. I really like these. They started out really boring and insultingly easy - Pat has a fat rat. That sort of thing. Then it was short stories (5 pages or so) with great moral lessons. Those were awesome. Now we're reading our first chapter book. It's so good. I love it when the moral of the book is something I agree with and appreciate, something I would have been fighting with in public school. (Not all are bad, but let's just say if we go back to public school, I'll be reading everything before she does. Desensitization doesn't impress me.) Since day one, Kara is phenomenal at reading out loud. She's also really good at reading silently. I assigned her one chapter in this book, and I told her to stop halfway through the 3rd chapter because she'd gone too far! lol!
In Spelling, we have pretty standard spelling words. I think they're on the easy side for second grade, but that's why we're doing them now (and not the first grade ones). If I had my way, we'd have spelling words AND vocabulary words. She is constantly asking me, what does xyz mean? I just taught her how to use a dictionary and she was bubbling with enthusiasm. I have to find her a children's dictionary! We tried target today and they didn't have one. I'm sure Amazon will!
In Poetry, I read aloud to her. Our favorite so far is Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. We read that every day for two months (October and November), and now the one for December and January is by the same author (The Sugarplum Tree). Kara loves being read to and I love exposing her to books, poetry, anything.
Next we take a little break and do a chore. Our schedule is: Monday - clean tub, Tuesday - clean bathroom sinks, Wednesday - empty all upstairs trash cans, Thursday - clean toilet, Friday - vacuum my bedroom. Of course I help her with all of these things, but I really feel like a child who is home (and has lots of time), should be helping out a lot and should be learning these things. The other day she learned how to change sheets on a bed. We did hers and mine.
In Math, Kara is WAY ahead. *sigh* She loves math so much that usually she is jumping up and down and kissing me and giggling because she wants more. The way her brain has the ability to do the next 5 steps without any explanation blow my mind. BUT, we're sticking with the second grade curriculum for now. I'll get back to you on that.... ;-)
Science, Social studies, Health, Geography, Music, and Art are done on kind of a once a week deal. She's always begging for more science (just like her mother), and she loves geography (just like me again), but health and social studies are bo-ring. Blech. Don't like them - neither one of us. We combine music with social studies these days - we're learning who wrote patriotic songs and why (America the Beautiful, Star Spangled Banner, My Country Tis of Thee, Yankee Doodle, etc.) But music was fun hymns, Christmas songs, and even songs on the radio! Art is really just any cool craft I find on pinterest. She LOVES art. Health is sooooo boring. We dropped back to the first grade book since the second grade one was so, so boring and a little hard for her.
P.E. was plentiful when it was warm out - hours in the pool, 45 minutes on her scooter, Michael would take her hiking for hours, 2 miles on her scooter, walks around the neighborhood, etc. All logged and we did more than enough. Then the renovation hit, school was bumped down a priority, and gym class was the last thing on my mind. We are joining a gym with my friend (my friend's idea, not mine - I don't like gyms - but I like my friend and would love any time with her) and they have a kids workout class once a week. If Kara likes that, we'll use that as her gym class, if not, we'll start up swim lessons again.
Well, that's everything the county requires we do, minus Bible of course. (As far as cursive goes, I've decided to just expose her to it this year. She should be able to read it after this year, not necessarily write it. Although I should make her do some kind of handwriting for print....hmmm....) My first interview with "the county guy" is at the end of the month. Yep, I wrote my name, address, and signature on one little paper, mailed it in, and we've been on our own ever since. This is the first of two sessions where I'll be held accountable at all. Kind of scary, isn't it? Anyway, this post was great to get my thoughts in order and reminds me I need to perfect my portfolio. I'd say it's 95% there (I keep it up as I go), but I'd really like it to be impressive. :-)
In Bible, we are learning a story a week, along with memorizing large chunks of verses. So far we've learned the usuals - creation, Noah's ark, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, who the Israelites are, Joshua, etc. The last few weeks we've done Gideon and Samson. I love how our days go when we start the day with time in the Word. :-)
In Phonics we just learned the final "special sound." That's what the Abeka curriculum calls diphthongs. There are 132!! We both have them memorized. I thought we'd take the whole year learning them, but we're not even halfway through the year, so I guess not. :-) It has really helped Kara's spelling though, I must say. I think ALL the time we've spent on it is pretty.....I don't want to say pointless, but I don't really agree with the emphasis Abeka puts on them. ANYWAY, we're also doing sentence vs phrase, what to capitalize, synonyms, syllables, rhyming, when to pronounce g like "j." When to pronounce c like "s" and when c sounds like "k." Other little rules about when to write "ck" vs "ke." So many of those. I actually like those. It makes the crazy English language seem like there is a rhyme or reason. ;-)
In Reading, Kara reads aloud the books provided by the curriculum. I really like these. They started out really boring and insultingly easy - Pat has a fat rat. That sort of thing. Then it was short stories (5 pages or so) with great moral lessons. Those were awesome. Now we're reading our first chapter book. It's so good. I love it when the moral of the book is something I agree with and appreciate, something I would have been fighting with in public school. (Not all are bad, but let's just say if we go back to public school, I'll be reading everything before she does. Desensitization doesn't impress me.) Since day one, Kara is phenomenal at reading out loud. She's also really good at reading silently. I assigned her one chapter in this book, and I told her to stop halfway through the 3rd chapter because she'd gone too far! lol!
In Spelling, we have pretty standard spelling words. I think they're on the easy side for second grade, but that's why we're doing them now (and not the first grade ones). If I had my way, we'd have spelling words AND vocabulary words. She is constantly asking me, what does xyz mean? I just taught her how to use a dictionary and she was bubbling with enthusiasm. I have to find her a children's dictionary! We tried target today and they didn't have one. I'm sure Amazon will!
In Poetry, I read aloud to her. Our favorite so far is Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. We read that every day for two months (October and November), and now the one for December and January is by the same author (The Sugarplum Tree). Kara loves being read to and I love exposing her to books, poetry, anything.
Next we take a little break and do a chore. Our schedule is: Monday - clean tub, Tuesday - clean bathroom sinks, Wednesday - empty all upstairs trash cans, Thursday - clean toilet, Friday - vacuum my bedroom. Of course I help her with all of these things, but I really feel like a child who is home (and has lots of time), should be helping out a lot and should be learning these things. The other day she learned how to change sheets on a bed. We did hers and mine.
In Math, Kara is WAY ahead. *sigh* She loves math so much that usually she is jumping up and down and kissing me and giggling because she wants more. The way her brain has the ability to do the next 5 steps without any explanation blow my mind. BUT, we're sticking with the second grade curriculum for now. I'll get back to you on that.... ;-)
Science, Social studies, Health, Geography, Music, and Art are done on kind of a once a week deal. She's always begging for more science (just like her mother), and she loves geography (just like me again), but health and social studies are bo-ring. Blech. Don't like them - neither one of us. We combine music with social studies these days - we're learning who wrote patriotic songs and why (America the Beautiful, Star Spangled Banner, My Country Tis of Thee, Yankee Doodle, etc.) But music was fun hymns, Christmas songs, and even songs on the radio! Art is really just any cool craft I find on pinterest. She LOVES art. Health is sooooo boring. We dropped back to the first grade book since the second grade one was so, so boring and a little hard for her.
P.E. was plentiful when it was warm out - hours in the pool, 45 minutes on her scooter, Michael would take her hiking for hours, 2 miles on her scooter, walks around the neighborhood, etc. All logged and we did more than enough. Then the renovation hit, school was bumped down a priority, and gym class was the last thing on my mind. We are joining a gym with my friend (my friend's idea, not mine - I don't like gyms - but I like my friend and would love any time with her) and they have a kids workout class once a week. If Kara likes that, we'll use that as her gym class, if not, we'll start up swim lessons again.
Well, that's everything the county requires we do, minus Bible of course. (As far as cursive goes, I've decided to just expose her to it this year. She should be able to read it after this year, not necessarily write it. Although I should make her do some kind of handwriting for print....hmmm....) My first interview with "the county guy" is at the end of the month. Yep, I wrote my name, address, and signature on one little paper, mailed it in, and we've been on our own ever since. This is the first of two sessions where I'll be held accountable at all. Kind of scary, isn't it? Anyway, this post was great to get my thoughts in order and reminds me I need to perfect my portfolio. I'd say it's 95% there (I keep it up as I go), but I'd really like it to be impressive. :-)
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