Homeschool Update

Here's what we've been working on since Christmas.

Bear (5.5)

Her work takes about 3 hours per day.  Although a lot of kindergarteners do fewer hours in a homeschool setting, Bear is working at a higher level, so some of the work takes a bit longer.  She still has most of the day to play, which is more than she would have if she went to the private school we visited in December.  I am working on using more Charlotte Mason time frames for her work and recently we have whittled the 3 hours down to 2.  I will share about that in a future post.

Math - Mathematical Reasoning level C (2nd grade).  Singapore Math got done, but she wasn't enjoying it.  I bought Math Mammoth with the hopes she would like that better, but she didn't.  She loves Mathematical Reasoning.  We will continue with level D through the summer and move into Singapore 3 (since I already own it, we will give it another try).

Language Arts - I can not keep up with her reading.  I will start a read-aloud and she will take it from me after a chapter and finish it off in a day.  Whatever books are left in her path, she devours.  She has just started AAS level 5 and is almost finished Writing With Ease Level 1.  She is 1/3 of the way through First Language Lessons 3.

 FLL 3  We'd just finished the AAS lesson on "ght" words, but it obviously didn't fully translate into her writing that same day:)  

History - We finished Story of the World Volume 1 and are into chapter 7 of Story of the World 2.  She did not want to wait until the fall to start the second volume.  We did no activities (per her request) with the first volume, which is why we flew through it.  We're still not adding any activities, but I am requesting narrations of each chapter now.

Science - lackluster.  I could not muster any energy to do much in this department after Christmas.  Our friend just lent us Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry and we have started doing that.  Much easier to do than REAL Science Odyssey, which is what we started with in the fall.  Perhaps I will write a review of both for you in the next few weeks.

J-jo (3.5)

Since Christmas, J-jo is expected to do one math and one reading activity and after that he may go play (which is what he would rather do, unlike Bear at his age).  He spends up to 30 minutes a day on "school."

Math - he alternates between Mathematical Reasoning kindergarten level, Montessori materials (he choose the hundred board, the short bead chains, tracing the sandpaper numbers, and the Montessori math apps on the iPad), Miquon Orange (we just started this one last week, so he's still only in the counting pages) and Rightstart B (in which he is working on the level A lessons included in the B level).  He does not like repetition and gets bored of the same thing every day for math so I just have a lot of choices available and he chooses.

Reading - J-jo reads a Bob book or two daily for his reading practice.  He likes using the Ready2Read sliders from Moffatt Girls. He is gaining confidence rapidly.  There was an offer for a 4 week Reading Eggs trial so he has been doing those lessons nearly daily.  Like his sister, he enjoys it a lot, but I do not think I will purchase the subscription for this time around.  It did get him over a confidence hump, as it did his sister three years ago.

 He listens to audio books a lot and here below he is "following" along.  The book is Thornton Burgess Bedtime Stories and comes with two audio CDs.  He listens to it frequently,  It was a good purchase.

We also do All About Reading level 1 occasionally.  I do have The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading, but am now mostly using AAR.

Writing - J-jo doesn't like writing much, but on days he is showing interest, we use PAL writing, tracing words Mommy writes for him, and Ready2Read worksheets

I'll share our (tentative) plans for next year in the next post.