Family Learning:
In BiblioPlan this week, we learned about The Exodus. We learned about many Pharaoh's the past week or two, and the kids enjoyed seeing how the Exodus fit into ancient history. Sometimes, we forget that Biblical history happened right along with ancient history. We talked about the 10 plagues, and the kids made a notebook page illustrating the plagues. I included a picture of all 3 kid's pages to show how different they can be! Mercie is 8, Eli is 10 and Mikaela is 12.
They enjoy adding to their timeline each week. I make them draw the pictures rather than cutting and pasting the photos on. I think it cements in their minds more when they have to take the time to draw it.
We have been reading about George Frederick Handel in our composer studies. We have also been reading a biography of Billy Graham, which is very interesting! We read through the book of Judges, and finished today. I'm not sure which book we'll read next! I let the kids pick which book, and then we read through it a chapter or two a day, until we are finished.
Individual Studies:
Mikaela, my 7th grader, has been working through Principals of Mathematics. She is working on converting fractions to decimals and reviewing some other concepts. She is also using Writer's In Residence {a review item} and loves it! She started Learning Language Arts Through Literature this week, and it is such a great program! The grammar is gentle, yet thorough. At her request, she is reading King Arthur and using the accompanying literature guide from Memoria Press. She has also started using Rod and Staff Bible 8.
Eli, my 5th grader, started using Rod and Staff math 6. He likes it quite a bit, and I only make him do the odds or evens in each lesson {because the lessons are long!}. He has been reviewing rounding numbers, mental subtraction and addition, and learning Roman Numerals. He also started Learning Language Arts Through Literature this week, and he is reading Carry On, Mr. Bowditch as his first book study. He also has Rod and Staff Bible 6 that he completes each day. I am debating on getting him Writer's In Residence, too.
Mercie, my 2nd grader, is nearly finished with Singapore Math 2B. She is learning fractions, and while they are a bit challenging to her, she enjoys them! She also has started Learning Language Arts Through Literature. I'm telling you, I love this program! It is everything I've ever wanted in a grammar program. She has a Bible study that she works daily, I Can Study Jonah and Ruth. She has been using ARTistic Pursuits with Silas each week, and it's a ton of fun!
Silas, my Kindergarten, is still working in Math-U-See Primer. This math program works wonderfully for him, and I'm so glad we are using it! He is working on writing numbers 1-20, adding +1, and reviewing counting. We hit a wall in the Logic of English Foundations A. We were on Lesson 23, and he just froze. He still has trouble with recognizing his lowercase alphabet and doesn't know many sounds. He was flying through Foundations at first, so this kind of shocked me. The blending and sounding out words is just too difficult for him right now. I'm not sure what we're going to yet...
I am starting God's Little Explorers {a preschool curriculum} with Titus on Monday, and I'm planning to include Silas, too. It teaches lowercase letters, which is just what Silas needs! I'm hoping the extra review will help him.
How was your week?
Hey, Megan! I'm visiting from Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. It looks like you all had a wonderful learning week! I know what you mean about posting the weekly lessons, as I am 2 weeks behind on posting mine! Hope you have a wonderful weekend :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the gentle reminder of family learning again. I've so missed teaching my girls together and I've been praying over next year and remembered that I have something on my shelf that may just be our little perfect fit with very little tweaking to make it a little more CM friendly :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up with Christian Fellowship Weekend!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you guys had a great week! Our approach is similar, and though I've heard a lot about Biblioplan I've never seen or used it. I'd love to have the chance some day! We use MUS and R&S and CKE and a few of the other things you've mentioned as well. :)
As for phonics... take a break from the curriculum and just have some fun with learning. Do some Explode the Code books, watch LeapFrog videos, etc. Kindy might be a little early for some kids to grasp the blending sounds thing. LeapFrog Letter Factory is GREAT for learning letter sounds (all 4 of my younger kids learned theirs mostly that way), and then the Word Factory is great at explaining the putting together of sounds to make words. No worries - just more practice. MUS is like this too, if you get to a concept that's difficult, park it, take a break, come back to it later, try some other methods - until you master the concept so you can move on. :) Kindy is still very young! Hang in there - you're doing great!!
Thanks for the advice! I definitely do not want to push him. He is young, and so we are going to take a break and work on lowercase letters! Thank goodness for homeschooling- you can go at your childs pace! Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteWonderful! I love all of their pictures! It's so neat to see a whole week come together. I totally agree :) I love looking back and seeing how much my kids have changed and grown over the years too. It's really such a neat yearbook of sorts.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful week. I remember the struggle with letters/ sounds/ blends... who am I kidding we sometimes STILL have those struggles but I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I am so thankful we could taking learning at Evan's pace and thought it took years longer he's able to grasp reading while still enjoying stories and books. My oldest had the desire to read drummed right out him and 4 years later I still hardly ever see him chose to read. You are doing wonderful!
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