School Today
I don't write about our school days often enough, which is a bummer because one day I'll look back at these years wishing I could remember what they were like. Soon enough Kara will be in high school doing most of her work on her own (assuming we are still homeschooling).
We have spent the last several months getting pretty far ahead in grammar (almost done with the book), math, reading, spelling, vocabulary, and writing. Since our homeschool review is coming up (June 10th), I want to make sure we have a good amount of the other subjects done too so our evaluation goes well. While we did bits and pieces of the other subjects, I wanted to have a little more done. Last week we focused mostly on Science and are now well into our book. Oh, and we did a good amount of music too.
So, today we started with Bible, of course. She reads her devotional book, then we started talking about the armor of God. Today we talked about the belt of truth - what it means and how it helps us. Keeping the belt of truth wrapped around us at all times, the lies of the devil can't confuse us and tempt us when we know the truth.
Next we did geography. She hates maps, which I don't understand because I LOVE them. I always have. We played stack the states on our tablet, and she loved it! That was so great! I'm back in the geography workbook reading maps and talking about the compass and all of that. She hates it. Well, we have to do some things we hate sometimes. She is understanding it and getting really good at it. As long as she's learning it, that's what matters.
After that, we finished the first chapter of 5th grade health - it was all about the circulatory system. Heart, veins, arteries, etc. We talked about resting heart rate, target heart rate, etc. We also talked about why exercise and rest are important. And why we should stay away from alcohol, tobacco, and the overeating of animal fats to protect our heart. I hope to finish a whole other chapter before our review. The next chapter is about food and vitamins, which I find so boring. Maybe we'll find some new way to make it interesting this year. And soon enough we will need to talk about other things in health. *ahem* That's not in our curriculum so I will have to figure out how I go about teaching it.
Then we did math. Even though we are far enough ahead, I wanted her to keep those multiplication tables fresh in her mind. Today's lesson was mixed fractions. Specifically, how to use long division to solve a problem, then turn the answer into a mixed number.
Finally, we started our new history curriculum. It went well, considering it was the first day. We are doing american history, remember. Today we introduced the idea that God had a sort of veil over the (re)discovery of the Americas for a long time. People like Leif Ericson and other explorers are said to have made it to the new world long before good old Christopher Columbus. We talked about how Leif got there and why, which was made interesting through a story told about him. It was illustrated and I hope it kept the idea in her head. It's definitely better than history books, so I hope she likes this. It will require me to be on the ball with ordering books ahead of time from the library, and buying whatever ones we need from amazon too, allowing several weeks in between in case I buy used and it takes forever to get here. But, it will be worth it if she's learning.
And 2-3 hours later, I decided that was enough for today. After that, she has a hard time focusing and I may as well be teaching to a brick wall. Public school moms: remember 2-3 hours of steady learning with no breaks, no recess, no lunch, is equal to a much longer day at public school. And one-on-one learning means we don't waste time on a topic she already understands, as well as spending extra time on something she is struggling with. I think our days/workload are pretty similar to those in public school.
Now it's time for lunch, laundry, sweeping and mopping, and waiting for the BGE guy to come replace the gas meter in the basement. Also, I should probably cook something for dinner....
We have spent the last several months getting pretty far ahead in grammar (almost done with the book), math, reading, spelling, vocabulary, and writing. Since our homeschool review is coming up (June 10th), I want to make sure we have a good amount of the other subjects done too so our evaluation goes well. While we did bits and pieces of the other subjects, I wanted to have a little more done. Last week we focused mostly on Science and are now well into our book. Oh, and we did a good amount of music too.
So, today we started with Bible, of course. She reads her devotional book, then we started talking about the armor of God. Today we talked about the belt of truth - what it means and how it helps us. Keeping the belt of truth wrapped around us at all times, the lies of the devil can't confuse us and tempt us when we know the truth.
Next we did geography. She hates maps, which I don't understand because I LOVE them. I always have. We played stack the states on our tablet, and she loved it! That was so great! I'm back in the geography workbook reading maps and talking about the compass and all of that. She hates it. Well, we have to do some things we hate sometimes. She is understanding it and getting really good at it. As long as she's learning it, that's what matters.
After that, we finished the first chapter of 5th grade health - it was all about the circulatory system. Heart, veins, arteries, etc. We talked about resting heart rate, target heart rate, etc. We also talked about why exercise and rest are important. And why we should stay away from alcohol, tobacco, and the overeating of animal fats to protect our heart. I hope to finish a whole other chapter before our review. The next chapter is about food and vitamins, which I find so boring. Maybe we'll find some new way to make it interesting this year. And soon enough we will need to talk about other things in health. *ahem* That's not in our curriculum so I will have to figure out how I go about teaching it.
Then we did math. Even though we are far enough ahead, I wanted her to keep those multiplication tables fresh in her mind. Today's lesson was mixed fractions. Specifically, how to use long division to solve a problem, then turn the answer into a mixed number.
Finally, we started our new history curriculum. It went well, considering it was the first day. We are doing american history, remember. Today we introduced the idea that God had a sort of veil over the (re)discovery of the Americas for a long time. People like Leif Ericson and other explorers are said to have made it to the new world long before good old Christopher Columbus. We talked about how Leif got there and why, which was made interesting through a story told about him. It was illustrated and I hope it kept the idea in her head. It's definitely better than history books, so I hope she likes this. It will require me to be on the ball with ordering books ahead of time from the library, and buying whatever ones we need from amazon too, allowing several weeks in between in case I buy used and it takes forever to get here. But, it will be worth it if she's learning.
And 2-3 hours later, I decided that was enough for today. After that, she has a hard time focusing and I may as well be teaching to a brick wall. Public school moms: remember 2-3 hours of steady learning with no breaks, no recess, no lunch, is equal to a much longer day at public school. And one-on-one learning means we don't waste time on a topic she already understands, as well as spending extra time on something she is struggling with. I think our days/workload are pretty similar to those in public school.
Now it's time for lunch, laundry, sweeping and mopping, and waiting for the BGE guy to come replace the gas meter in the basement. Also, I should probably cook something for dinner....
Comments