(Above: Visiting the Greenville County War Memorial, April 11)
I have benefited greatly this year from the ideas of others who are experienced homeschool teachers. In that spirit, I am going to try to do a better job of posting some of our ongoing projects and studies here, especially as we begin fifth grade in the fall. Consider this a test run. Feel free to skip these posts or hum with your fingers in your ears if homeschooling makes you squeamish. (That's what I used to do, too.)
So... Last week, in addition to co-op, which included Spanish, geography, music and science and an extra special field day, we had one other outing to the beekeeping class (see below). At home, we continued with decimals, finishing addition and subtraction and moving into multiplication. Nolan also does Math4Today, which is a short daily activity that reinforces concepts covered throughout the year. That is done everyday, so I will probably forget to include it in my list sometimes.
We have finished the study of the American Revolution, though we are still wrapping up Johnny Tremain (read together -- also includes a JT notebook activity) and Winter of Red Snow (read by Nolan). Nolan is also doing a lap book on the U.S. Constitution, which he is enjoying immensely. He also thinks he finished his compare and contrast essay on the Battles of Savannah and Kings Mountain, but we are going to revisit that for a bit more editing. We did a short study of political cartoons and will finish that up this week with analysis of two related cartoons. Don't tread on me, baby.
In science, Nolan finished the unit on light and the structure of the human eye and moved into energy, electricity and magnetism, which will take us a little while to complete. (Next up: bridges -- a unit to round out the year).
We do five stems (Greek or Latin roots) each week, with vocabulary. Nolan has a quiz each Friday. Quizzes are cumulative, meaning I can and do include stems from the entire school year.
I really felt Nolan needed a review of the parts of speech, so we have done nouns (common, proper, collective, possessive, plural possessive, etc.) and will start verbs this week. Soon, I will unpack my adjectives. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, get your adverbs here. (You know you remember it.)
Also on this week's agenda -- a class on research skills taught by one of our beloved local librarians and an educational performance at our equally beloved local theatre (more to come on that).
I almost forgot that Nolan completed a poster about (of all things) the desert biome of Indiana Jones. He and his co-op classmates are covering all of Indy's biomes at the upcoming Spring Gala celebrating the end of the school year.
I really felt that last week wasn't terribly productive due to the extra events, but seeing it all in print makes me both tired and satisfied that we accomplished quite a bit.
Edited to add: Shoot! I forgot that we did school last Sunday after church (at Nolan's request). So that's how we got so much done...
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1 comment:
I love homeschooling. I love school, too. We homeschooled for just a couple of years when my daughter needed more one on one and was ill with an intestinal problem. My son was in a classical education private school, which he loved, but came home for those two years to join us. We used the Sonlight series and just adored it. Well, I did. I'd love to go through the whole thing just for myself. They wanted to go back to school, which was great, and they have done so well. They did go back well read, though, and well spoken due to reading classical lit, GOOD BOOKS, and current events. It is good to have choices for education. I have several friends who have done marvelous jobs homeschooling with their kids in college honors programs and have scholarships. I think the key is the devotion of BOTH parents to the program with Dad the "principal" (or whomever at the end of the day) and the kids knowing they have both parents to answer to and know that serious participation is required. There is just so much opportunity in homeschooling if you are able to take advantage of it all.
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