Morning Time: Went pretty much as planned! Paper Sloyd is the favorite by far; I'm impressed, too, at how much more familiar my oldest is in using a ruler thanks to this weekly short activity. This term we will do the sign language alphabet more than once a week, as there was little retention. Fridays we will do different knot typing.
Reading: We will be doing fewer s flash cards this term. On our week off between 6 week terms, I came to the realization that what is "busy work" to one child, may not be to another. I think many aspects of The Good and the Beautiful language arts curriculum are valuable, but to my 6 year old who retains so well anything auditory, and retells with so much detail orally, some of the word copying activities were unnecessary. I will continue to use the framework and objectives, but also be more open to modifying the "practice assignments." He reads a Henry and Mudge book to me every day and began picking up some familiar Magic Tree House books to read through on his own, as well as the Tin Tin comic books (which are more for the pictures than anything). It is so lovely to see an independent interest in reading emerging!
Writing: He had an aversion to writing this term. It was a struggle. I plan to use some ideas from Brave Writer and see what happens... a freewrite (5 minutes), copywork from literature, French dictation, and narration while I type.
Math: We are nearing the end of 1A and as I looked at the placement tests and the Common Core requirements for first grade, I realized if I teach a few concepts and provide as much authentic practice as possible, we should be able to skip to 2A. Our boy as been obsessed with the Sportsmans Warehouse flyer since its arrival last week; I decided to embrace this interest and bring in fake money... counting by tens, hundreds, adding two digit numbers, and subtracting to make change have all been inspired by this. I hope to be more open to this kind of learning and rely even less on the text.
Science: I ended up purchasing Exploring Nature with Children and have been so, so pleased with the season-appropriate themes and activities that are based in nature. We have visited a pond, watched the harvest moon rise, collected and identified seeds, and read many books based on these natural things. This term I have Science twice a week, plus the nature walk that sets the theme for the following week.
Social Studies: Our six year old is now familiar with the continents and oceans, the Equator and the Prime Meridian. We read books on France, China, England, Australia, and Africa (I couldn't find several books about any one country in Africa). This term we will get back to a broad survey of Ancient History with augmenting the basic timeline with as many books as I can find in our library.
Poetry: The past two Saturday mornings, I've made a breakfast cake and read poetry to the boys. It seems to be the time of day when I have the most energy to do this sort of thing. I hope to continue this!
Reading: We will be doing fewer s flash cards this term. On our week off between 6 week terms, I came to the realization that what is "busy work" to one child, may not be to another. I think many aspects of The Good and the Beautiful language arts curriculum are valuable, but to my 6 year old who retains so well anything auditory, and retells with so much detail orally, some of the word copying activities were unnecessary. I will continue to use the framework and objectives, but also be more open to modifying the "practice assignments." He reads a Henry and Mudge book to me every day and began picking up some familiar Magic Tree House books to read through on his own, as well as the Tin Tin comic books (which are more for the pictures than anything). It is so lovely to see an independent interest in reading emerging!
Writing: He had an aversion to writing this term. It was a struggle. I plan to use some ideas from Brave Writer and see what happens... a freewrite (5 minutes), copywork from literature, French dictation, and narration while I type.
Math: We are nearing the end of 1A and as I looked at the placement tests and the Common Core requirements for first grade, I realized if I teach a few concepts and provide as much authentic practice as possible, we should be able to skip to 2A. Our boy as been obsessed with the Sportsmans Warehouse flyer since its arrival last week; I decided to embrace this interest and bring in fake money... counting by tens, hundreds, adding two digit numbers, and subtracting to make change have all been inspired by this. I hope to be more open to this kind of learning and rely even less on the text.
Science: I ended up purchasing Exploring Nature with Children and have been so, so pleased with the season-appropriate themes and activities that are based in nature. We have visited a pond, watched the harvest moon rise, collected and identified seeds, and read many books based on these natural things. This term I have Science twice a week, plus the nature walk that sets the theme for the following week.
Social Studies: Our six year old is now familiar with the continents and oceans, the Equator and the Prime Meridian. We read books on France, China, England, Australia, and Africa (I couldn't find several books about any one country in Africa). This term we will get back to a broad survey of Ancient History with augmenting the basic timeline with as many books as I can find in our library.
Poetry: The past two Saturday mornings, I've made a breakfast cake and read poetry to the boys. It seems to be the time of day when I have the most energy to do this sort of thing. I hope to continue this!
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