Our year is off and running. I’d like to have some sort of recording of what we’re doing so if you aren’t interested in the details of our schooling feel free to pop over to a more interesting place for the remainder of this post!
Still here? Okay let’s go!
Handwriting: We are working on retuning how Jr. forms some of his letters and of course on improving the quality of his writing. From the very beginning he has formed letters from the bottom up. He’s attempting to remember that letters start at the top and when they do he sees an immediate improvement in the quality of handwriting. We are also encouraging him to remember to use lowercase letters when writing. In some cases his persistent desire to make ALL THINGS IN UPPERCASE has been amusing given my propensity to view it in the internet way of yelling. Example how about this: I SEED MI DRAGIN. HE ATED PEEPLS. (That was one of his sentences from last year’s independent journaling. This year his journal is leaning more towards comic book illustrations with words. Thus far we have two picture stories with a sentence description in his journal.
Math: 1000’s place along with practicing addition and subtraction into the 100’s. His grasp of the concept behind “carrying and borrowing” is beginning to solidify. I have consciously used more place value terms than just “carry it up” or “borrow it over”. I think our focus on place value has actually advanced him in his thinking more than what I’m able to draw out at this time. He’s been able to do several of the problems with more complexity….with ease. Once again I am a bit amazed at his embracing of the language of numbers. (Also note we are still talking about 2nd grade math here! I’m discussing a natural aptitude not declaring him a member of mensa.)
We are also adding a “homework” component with math to introduce the idea of self-regulated work, assignments, deadlines and general responsibilty. I’m assigning a word problem packet for him to complete by a specific date. He’s responsible for completing it though he’s welcome to ask for assistance if he get’s stuck. So far so good on this one.
Science: We finished our Butterfly unit with the release of our third Monarch that we raised this year. We also had an impromptu field trip/speaker when we attended the Butterfly talk at the State Fair. We learned a lot about the butterflies of Iowa and both boys were able to see several examples of the 5 families of butterflies flying around here. It was fun to see Jr. recognize several of the species as one’s he’d found here at home. The DNR representative did a good job of keeping Jr. engaged while still maintaining the adult-level of conversation. I found two different art projects to tie in with this unit as well. Between the art projects, our reading and the two labs we’ve just about wrung all we can get out of Butterflies!
History: It has been a slow start to history. However I think that will be a theme this year slow and steady. We’ve introduced the end of the Romans and the beginning of the Middle Ages. We’ll be circling around again to touch on those things this coming week as well. We’ve read several storybooks, spent some time with the encyclopedia and what I think was the most fun for Jr. visited a website about Trebuchets. He’s keen on this time period especially the weaponary. Due to timing of our supplies arriving I’ve actually pushed History back a week or two so we are spending a couple weeks just introducing the Middle Ages before settling into the Units themselves.
Grammar: Finished up the Nouns Units with Proper, Common and Pronouns.
Reading: We’re adjusting ETC Online to better suit where he actually is in knowledge. Jr. also read Mouse Soup by Arnold Lobel this week as a specific read aloud. I am debating on tracking our reading books for the year. But I best hurry up and decide as we’ve already read over 10 “assigned” books (Don’t you LOVE kids books they add up so quick!)
Geography: Review of Oceans and Continents as well as two states of the Unites States (Texas, South Dakota). Map work for our walls.
There you have it! Our first two weeks in a large nutshell. I’ll be back in two more with another update!
Tags: homeschooling
