Weeks Two and Three

I won't bore you with pictures of their math work this time, but I do want to remember at least a little of what we worked on in the past couple of weeks.

The kids started their enrichment classes the week of the 13th. So we now have a much busier schedule and things are a lot crazier than the week before. On various days and at various times the boys have a sports class, an art class, Greek and Latin Roots class, and chess club. We started the week off south of our house on a fun field trip that the kids loved. I even took Annika out of school for it, thank goodness she liked it or I would never have heard the end of it.

Anyway, that about covers the fun stuff that we do, let's get down to business.

Literature/Reading:

Harry is reading Little Princess and doing some work on it. I think I've said before that Harry hates all books I recommend until he actually begins reading it. I'm trying not to let the work he's doing on the book ruin the experience of reading it so I'm having him do about half the work required.

I also let him choose his other reading. I wasn't at all sure what he'd pick, but I was willing to consider whatever it was. Actually, I wasn't. But he didn't know that. And in the end he picked The Fellowship of the Rings. Go Harry. I pretended to think it over and told him, "okay, I guess."

Sam finished Children of Noisy Village and I had to scramble to find something else for him. One downside to using the library for a lot of our literature is that it sometimes doesn't come when I expect it to. Anyway, I got an adaptation of Beowulf for him. He really loved it. I like having him read books that tie into his history lessons. I think it's so cool that he likes stories and can recount them almost verbatim. He also read Jumanji and spent some time drawing pictures of animals in his house. I asked Sam to narrate Jumanji and he spent about seven minutes on the first three pages of it. I tried to write as he narrated, but it was really hard to keep up.

Math:

Harry finished his Singapore Math book. It was 2B, so I knew he'd fly through it once we got started. The best part is that he really likes doing his work again. Math-U-See was one of the first curriculum decisions I made and it really didn't occur to me that it might be a problem. I'm so glad that eventually I was willing to reevaluate it and find something better. Harry finished the book on Wednesday, but since I didn't want to start 3A on Thursday, I printed some division worksheets off and gave them to him to work on. We'll start the new book on Monday.

Math-U-See is still working for Sam, though. I do kind of wonder if I'm going to have to switch him too and if I should do it now or wait until there is a problem. I'm leaning toward later. Last week he worked on estimation and this week skip counting by two's. He breezes through pretty much everything he does and it seems to stick, so that's good.

Grammar & Spelling:

I'll talk about Sam first. He's doing fine. He's using First Language Lessons. I went through and selected certain lessons in year one and then we'll move onto the second year. Sam has memorized a couple of poems and we've gone over our address a few times. Spelling Workout isn't exciting and it's probably a bit too easy for him, but we'll finish it and move on.

Now, for Harry. I finally got Harry's grammar books. They are part of the Michael Clay Thompson language arts program. Harry is on Grammar Island and we've read the first few pages. So far, so good. Harry likes goofiness in his lessons and likes lessons that we talk though, so it seems like a good fit. But, we're only on page 17, so I hesitate to give it a "this-is-the-best-program-ever" review. Give it time. Harry's spelling program is called Working Words in Spelling. For some reason he hated Spelling Workout and really likes this. So, we're doing this instead.

History:

Let's see. Harry has read about Japan opening to trade, the Crimean War, Italy becoming a country and The Taiping Revolution. Seriously, SOTW 4 is all over the place. But Harry likes it. He's making connections all over the place and I like that. I almost forget sometimes what he's already read about and he'll ask me questions and it'll throw me a bit. Clearly there are worst things to worry about.

Sam read Beowulf, he's learning about Justinian and Theodora, St. Augustine and the Celts. SOTW 2 at least stays somewhat the same. I still really like both programs. The biggest problem Sam has is that his teacher keeps forgetting to do the fun projects in his book. But I'm working on it. He also read Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady. I made the big mistake of asking him to write about the book. Remember when I told you that he gives these amazing narrations? He only does that if I write it. Writing is not his favorite thing. But that's okay, he's only seven.

Science

Both boys did some science last week, but somehow we skipped this week. That's okay, Singapore Science is challenging and I'm okay with taking it slow. I would however like to make more of an effort to make those all important connections between what they are reading in their books and real life.

Anyway, that's the basics. My goal for the next few weeks is to add all of the fun things in, including making pizza, illuminated letters and mosaics. Those I will take pictures of.

Today's Coolest Thing

About Homeschooling:

Talking to Harry about The Little Princess and why Captain Crewe went to India. He wanted to know why Crewe would leave his daughter behind and go into the army. Then, on his own, he made the connection between what he read in The Little Princess and his history book that talked about the Sepoy Revolt.

I did have to attempt to explain the entire social structure of 19th century Great Britain to him, but the discussion we were able to have that encompassed both his history and literature studies was pretty cool.

Why should the "real" teachers have all the fun?

Back to Second Grade

So, Sam does not have the same amount of work that Harry does, for one very good reason. He's in Second Grade, not Fourth. Although, if you are Harry you'd probably assume that it has something to do with Mom being really mean.

Overall Sam is following in Harry's footsteps, or at least he would be if Harry had stayed home for Second Grade. I pulled out the plans I had in place and changed the name. Actually, that's not entirely true. I changed a few things because even though people have a tendency to treat them as interchangeable, the really aren't. This is a brief overview of Sam's first week of Second Grade:

Math: Math-U-See Beta. I'm letting Sam zip through the first few chapters as a review. He did the first two pages of lessons one through three and took the tests in order to prove to me that he knew what he was talking about. He did and we're moving on to lesson four. I have no idea right now what it's about, but it's safe to say it'll have something to do with multiple digit addition or subtraction, just like the rest of the 30 lessons in the book.

Here's some proof that Sam knows his math:



History: I'm separating the boys for history this year. They've always done the same time period, but I want Sam to have the joy of discovering the Middle Ages when he's actually interested in them. This time period was just made for a seven-year-old to discover. This week he read about the fall of the Roman Empire. I'm definitely going to have to get our Romans out of the attic. It'll be hilarious to listen to the stories Sam comes up with.


Science: I chose to buy an actual science curriculum this year. After trying and absolutely hating NOEO Science last year, it seemed like a good idea. Sam is working on Singapore Science 3/4. The first book in the series is called Diversity. The actual textbook and activity books are pretty basic. The homework and test books require more thought and will be challenging.

This is a page from the activity book:

I'm excited about science for the first time in a couple of years. Harry is using the same program, just a different level.

Reading and Language Arts:

Sam didn't start spelling this week, he will next week. He read Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say for his literature book. It's one of my favorite picture books ever and I was excited for him to read it. Unfortunately I don't think a 7yo can really get everything this book has to offer. There are themes of family, war, fitting in and others all in this little picture book. Allen Say has just done such a good job with it. Anyway. I talked to him about these themes and he grasped that the grandfather moved and missed things from both places and that's what I was going for. Here's his response page:


He's also reading Children of Noisy Village which makes him laugh hysterically. It's so fun. Like I said, I love introducing the kids to books I love and this is no exception. Sam just sits there giggling and then spends more words than Astrid Lindgren herself describing just what was so funny.

Sam started Writing with Ease, Level Two with a narration of an Aesop's Fable. I of course didn't take a picture of it (be glad). He does well checking off lists and having a predictable routine, so I think for this year WWE will work for him.

So, there we have the basics for Sam. There are a few things he hasn't started yet. I mentioned spelling, but we'll start grammar in the next few weeks too. Sam like stories, so I'd like to read him 50 Famous Stories and a few other collections I have. He's combining with Harry for art and the other "Specials." He'll start piano and sports again. I'd like to be able to keep as much time as I can free for him to play. I'm past making the early grades time-consuming. That doesn't mean that we skimp on his education at all, but I try to have him work "efficiently." Each year gets a little harder, just ask Harry. But second grade is still a lot of drawing, coloring, and playing. At least for Sam.

See you next week.

Back to School (Harry)

So, we all started school this week. On Monday Annika got all dressed up, put on her new kindergarten shoes and backpack and headed off to regular school.

The boys and Emma, on the other hand, got dressed in their regular clothes, probably forgot to comb their hair, and sat down at the desk in the loft. I'm pretty sure Annika was much happier than the boys were about starting school. Emma was pretty devastated to have Annika gone for three hours. Fortunately Grandma was here to help Emma get through it.

You may ask: "What is a homeschool day like?" And I'll answer, "it depends." Then you'll ask, "on what." And then I'll answer, "it depends on so many things you'll get bored of seeing quotation marks way before I finish."

Then I'll just give you a brief rundown of our week, complete with pictures. But I want to warn you, pictures of the boys' work is not that exciting. Don't tell me you weren't warned.

Harry: Harry is in 4th grade this year. He is studying the modern age starting with Queen Victoria, in History, right now he's reading Little House on the Prairie, and he's just started a new math program. He's also starting a new literature program and for that he's read an adaptation of a couple of Sherlock Holmes stories, he does spelling, and some other stuff I can't think of right now and that we haven't started yet.

Would you like to see? Ok...

Math: I switched Harry from Math U See to Singapore Math. The programs are completely different and SM starts fractions much earlier than MUS does, so when I gave Harry the placement test, he tested into book 2B. So most of it's easy review, but he really likes the fraction parts. I have to say, I loooove SM. MUS is great and both boys have learned their math facts well using it, but SM is better. Harry and I were talking about math this morning. We were looking at the books and joking about the different shapes and fractions. How often does that happen? I love SM. Here are pictures of some of his work.



Literature: This is the first time I've ever used a real literature program with Harry. It was written by another homeschool Mom who used it with her children. So far we like it. My only problem is that it uses adaptations rather than the actual books. Harry reads well enough that he could read the real Little Princess, but I'm not sure if it would match up with the work we have for the book so I'm hesitant to substitute it. Harry's favorite part of the program are the Story Charts. He uses the chart to decide which part of the story is the setting, the exposition, the climax, everything. I like that he's getting used to these terms. Again, it's been really fun to talk to Harry about his work and have real discussions over whether this part is the rising action or the climax and why. Here's a picture of his completed Story Chart for the Blue Carbuncle:


History: Like I said, he's starting the Modern Age. This week he read about Queen Victoria and the Sepoy Mutiny. This is the first year he's had to read his history book to himself, in years past, I've read it out loud. He's learning how to outline the chapters and his mapwork is more difficult than in years past.



Science: Well, we didn't get Harry's science books until today, so we're going with the nature is good theory of science. Get the kid outside and have him observe for a while. Ask him what he saw and expound on that a little. There, nature studies.

And a whole bunch of miscellaneous notes:

Harry's required reading this week is Little House on the Prairie. He has an interesting way with books. If I choose it, he automatically assumes that he'll hate it. If I force him to read, by the second chapter he almost always get into the book and begin to like it. I've shown him the pattern and we laugh and he agrees that it's kind of silly and then it starts over again each and every time.

So now I just tell him to suck it up, deal, and read. So he's enjoying LHOP and it's really fun for me to hear his observations. One of the best parts of homeschooling is picking the books you liked as a child and introducing them to your kids. I know that you don't have to homeschool in order to do that, but hey I do, it's my blog and I'm saying it's cool to be a homeschool mom. Once or twice a week I have Harry write about what he read.



We do spelling, but it's not real interesting, so I'm not going to post any pictures. Although, you probably could debate whether any of the pictures were interesting, so here is a picture of Harry's spelling work:


We haven't started everything yet. Latin will come next week and once Harry's other Language Arts books get here, we'll add those in. Fourth grade is a big deal around here. There's a lot more work and more responsibility but I'm trying to balance that out with some freedom. Harry and I will talk about which books he'd like to read through the year. He'll get to pick from a list of books I've approved. (Of course, his non-school reading is his choice.) And I'm planning to do more projects with him. I also have one fun thing each day planned. At least I think it's fun. It's kind of like Specials. We'll do Shakespeare on Monday, Art on Tuesday, etc. Ending up with Beach Day Friday.

This is really long. I can promise you that future weekly posts won't be this long.

Now, off to Sam.