Good morning everyone! First off, I want to apologize for not getting a post up on our week 21 update. Life happened and I just simply didn’t have the time. With that being said, this post is going to cover what we did in those two weeks. Let’s get started……
Week 22 Homeschool Update
As always, here is the video that also covers what’s going to be in this post.
So, what’s been going on in our world. Remember how I said that since our Christmas break everything had been going really smooth. I wasn’t haven’t tears and everyone was more than ready to start their school days…I would say to my surprise (but who would I be kidding?) this last week we have had a few bumps in the road. I’ve had kids that are procrastinating in their school and can think of a million reasons why they should be doing something else.
In this post, I’ll first start with Davis, who is in the fourth grade. We’ve had one curriculum change with him. As most of you know, I’m part of the awesome Homeschool Review Crew, and recently we were chosen to do a review of Homeschool in the Woods Ancient Greece. Now let me start off by saying that I love Homeschool in the Woods studies. Sure, it does take a lot of time to get ready, which was one reason I didn’t have the extra time last week to get an update, but the hands on part make it all worth it. The question is still out if Davis enjoys doing it as much as I enjoy teaching it. He isn’t big on coloring, cutting, and writing which are all things that are involved in Homeschool in the Woods, but so far it’s going well. I’ll be sure to keep everyone update on this since our review period is around six-weeks in length. The video gives you a more detailed look at the Ancient Greece study and what is involved.
With his Teaching Textbooks math, he’s as of right now on lesson 99 I believe. So we are currently looking at math curriculums for his 5th grade math. I prefer to stay with TT, but ultimately I always get his opinion as well. While he loves it, he struggles a tad with doing work on the computer. I’ve found that he does better when I set down with him one-on-one since he tends to get side tracked, so for me it defeats the purpose of paying the higher price of TT when ultimately I’m sitting down beside him the entire time while he does it.
Our LA is still going great, but I’m still a little sad that it stops at 4th grade. For next year I’m tossing up Memoria Press or Abeka. We have used Memoria Press Language Arts in the past and were very pleased with it.
So what’s Davis been reading? At the library this past week, he picked up Little House In The Big Woods. We started sitting down as a family two weeks ago about four evenings a week and enjoying an episode of Little House in the Prairie. This had made him want to read the books. So we’ve been doing that as a read aloud and he loves it! On his own, he just wrapped up Diary of A Wimpy Kid #10 and started reading Dragon Breath. He reminds me every day to order the last Wimpy Kid. One might say I’ve been slacking there for sure.
Next up is Luke. What’s going on with this little dude?
As you all know, he is in 1st grade and is currently trucking along with his Abeka 2nd grade math. We have been doing this math for going on five-weeks and every day he informs me that it’s too easy. Every day I tell him that he is recapping and I promise him that it will eventually challenge him. Other than that one complaint he is really loving the Abeka math and I’m so glad I decided to give a try. Without a doubt, I’m going to stick wit this math when it comes to Luke.
As far as history goes, it’s still going great as well. He’s loving history now that we have switched to the Abeka and dropped Story of the World. He’s learning about early American history and looks forward to his lessons daily. We add to his lessons with books and activities and it’s been great.
So what has Luke been reading this week? This kid reads non-stop, so today I’m just going to share with you what we’ve been reading to go along with our school. Stay tuned though, because I will be doing another post of all the fun books we’ve been reading as well.
Bears on Hemlock Mountain: This book was one of his absolute favorites. Since he’s just in the first grade, we did this as a read aloud and finished it in two days. He simply didn’t want to put the book down. I’m definitely on the lookout for more books like this.
The Courage of Sarah Noble: Once again, he adored this book. This one he did take about a week to complete. He wasn’t insisting that we read the entire book in a day since it didn’t have the suspense of Bears on Hemlock Mountain. This one we did a read aloud as well.
Phoebe The Spy: This one was added to go along with our currently history studies and he loved it. We finished it in two days and he really enjoyed this read. Once again the suspense of this book had him asking to read it all.He had fun trying to guess who was going to try to kill George Washington.
And Then What Happened to Paul Revere: This book series isn’t his favorite, but he still enjoyed reading this. He learned a lot and looked forward to the read.
For picture books and easier reads we included:
A Picture Book of George Washington, A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere’s Ride & George Washington’s Cows.
