It’s been a while since I posted any pictures of the kids’ work and where we stand with their curriculums at this point in the school year. These pictures were taken over the course of the last three weeks. As of tomorrow we will have completed 90 days of school for the academic year and we are right on track or ahead in each of their curriculums. Such a blessing.
Hanna has a pretty challenging load this year. Overall she is doing so well with it. She is learning, getting her work done and enjoying it—most days, gasp, I know!! :-)
She is really good about doing her experiments from Apologia General Science. She learns so much from Apologia. It has amazed me the last few years to hear the stuff she spouts off sometimes and then tells me that she learned it from Apologia. I love this science!
Hanna is really good about doing art lessons each week. Sometimes I give her a ‘real’ lesson and other times I just let her do what she wants to. Often she likes to work on things she is sewing or constructing. This particular week I gave her an assignment using charcoals. It was modeled after M. C. Escher’s Eye Drawing. She did a great job! I love that she drew Baby O in her eye.
I need to take more pictures of Hanna’s actual work samples and will for the next few weeks! I am great at filing them all away each week, but need to be more diligent in taking pictures of them.
Joe has been moving along smoothly in all of his subjects. Here is something he wrote for a Daily Trait Writing prompt week before last. He wrote all of this on his own—he did super!
In math he’s been working on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and simple fractions. 
He’s moving along in Explode the Code book 5. He still enjoys these books and I’m glad we’ve stuck with them. He’s learned a whole lot from the last two books especially.
In Daily Trait Writing and Language Lessons so far this year he’s covered:
- capitalization at the beginning of sentences, names, special places, etc.
- months of the year and days of the week
- nouns, verbs and adjectives
- beginning, middle and end (briefly)
- subject and predicate
- copywork for several poems and narrations, answering questions about these poems
- punctuation marks at the end of a sentence and which ones to use for what kind of sentence
- commas to show possession and in a list
- singular and plural words
Bless his heart, he’s grasped all of this very well. I try to go over it with him from time to time and am in the process of putting together a writing center and review unit using materials from Teachers Pay Teachers. I hope to have this ready week after next while I row a book from Before Five in a Row with the little boys.
My Jack is still not interested in writing or much in the way of academics. I did stress about this for the last few months. I’ve decided and come to peace with letting it go. I cannot compare what my kids have done or do at certain ages. I have to treat them individually and wait until each one is ready for their next phase of academic development. For now, Jack is still into play, listening to me read (my favorite!) and arts/crafts. He does enjoy computer games of any sort though, so he was in heaven when I added some apps to the iPod just for him. I’m ok with this too and have enjoyed watching him play and listening to him tell me what he’s learned from the games the last couple weeks.
I can’t believe how fast the school year is passing! Homeschool remains a high point in each of my days. Yes, very challenging, but worth every minute and then some!
These are great pictures! Joe is doing so well with not only his handwriting, but also his ability to write! Abby can't get through a whole sentence without whining that it's too much writing. LOL!
ReplyDeleteSome of our curriculum ends in March and I'm thinking of picking back up with ETC. We might as well finish it!