It has been two weeks since we began school for 2010-2011. Jasper (8) is in 3rd grade, Josie (5) in Kindergarten, Murdoc (3 1/2) wreaks havoc on the house (with Josie).
Jasper is working from a 2nd grade spelling book and learning basic spelling rules. In general I think his spelling skills are still at a 2nd grade level but he is doing well at retaining the basic spelling rules provided and will progress splendidly.
He is working from a 3rd grade level grammar book and is definitely at 3rd grade level there. He has these basic rules and definitions of grammar down pat: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. He knows the definition and lists (if applicable) of the following: pronouns, conjunctions, articles, preposition, and a few others, but he has yet to truly understand how they are used in writing, which is normal for that age. We are currently going over plural nouns, and reciting the rules of spelling and proper usage of them. We have also reviewed the difference between common nouns and proper nouns.
In handwriting I am having him copy the individual lowercase letters of the alphabet daily and I see improvement daily. Working on memorization through repetition.
Daily since school has begun (8/9) Josie has done her HOP (hooked on phonics) flashcards on audiotape with me. We go through the entire alphabet 3x saying the name of the letter the sound and a picture word (“A /a/ apple, B /b/ bear. . . ) She has pretty much memorized the list, at least with the rhythm. Next week the letter flashcards will be out of order sans pictures so we’ll see how it goes. She is motivated which is great.
In phonics we are reviewing (daily because necessary) the breakdown and rules of syllables. We are using Webster’s Syllabary from 1828 so I basically know the meaning of about 10% of the words and there is about 10% that I can barely pronounce myself. . . .I attempt to use a dictionary to help me pronounce correctly and (what do you know) the word is not in there because my oldest dictionary is from the 60s. I need an older dictionary.
Jasper is reading aloud “The Secret in the Maple Tree” (apx. 100 page book) which is an Abeka book for grade level 3.5 out of 3.6 so basically an almost 4th grade level reader. He reads very well. Stops for periods most of the time and pauses for commas okay. I would say thus far he missed the pronunciation of about 7% of the words, most of them the names of people or cities. He and I really enjoy the story. Well written.
Josie’s phonics lesson is going well. Saxon Phonics K goes more in depth with phonics rules, how many letters, vowels, sentence definition, recognize amt of words, rhymes, etc. . . constant repetition of these rules which Josie (I think) pretends not to remember which vexes me to no end because I have to front a happy “no big deal” attitude. She has down for sure the letters L and O in regards to name recognition sound recognition and writing (another vexation). I an adamant she hold her pencil correctly for this lesson only – although I encourage her throughout the day to do so.
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In Geography thus far Jasper has memorized the names and locations of the 7 continents. We are focusing on Africa. He has located on the map certain landscape aspects: River Nile, Mt. Killamanjaro, Sahara Desert, etc. Currently he is copying definitions of words that describe geography and culture of Africa (ie. plateau, Beouins). He is also gaining the ability to use resources around the house to aquire the information he needs (ie. dictionary, glossaries in the backs of library books, atlas, internet) daily.
In Math Jasper has covered two Units since beginning of school: skip counting by 3 and multiplying by 3. It took him a while but as of today, Friday he has mastered his X3s. In addition, he has been reviewing his (much neglected) addition, subtraction, and multiplication (by 1, 2, 5, 9, 10). He has become much more comfortable with addition and multiplication since reviewing daily for the past 2 weeks. Subtraction with borrowing is still a bit slow from where we were at the end of 2nd grade.
Josie has begun MUS primer. As of Friday we will have done 2 out of 3 lessons for Unit 4. We have played war almost daily. She can recognize all of her numbers through 10 although when we play war she sometimes mistakes 9 for 6 because of the upsidedownedness. She can put 0-9 in order. She is learning how to write them (very slow-going). Sinnce 8-16 we have been doing the Meeting book from Saxon Math K which helps her to learn months, year, dates, day of the week, and nimbers above 10.
In Science, we have begun the year studying Astronomy. We began going over the basics of gravity and how the earth rotates and orbits, atmosphere, etc. We read several library books on the solar system and he did a few worksheets in regard to the order of the planets from the sun. We are going into the specifics of everything in the solar system. We began with the Sun. He read 2 books about the sun and gleened several facts which we copied into a notebook for frequent review. We have also covered Mercury and Venus using library books. He listed at least 5 facts for each and I copied them into his notebook. He drew pictures of the planets. We will continue through next week and on Friday will construct a “solar system mobile.” -- recently Josie has been sitting in on these lessons and participating in discussion :o)
In History we have covered 8 chapters as of Friday. In addition to reading each chapter Jasper AND Josie have narrated back the story or answered specific questions. They completed the test of 20 questions, missing 3 at most between them both. They do map-work after each reading to get a physical sense of their study. They color during the reading which keeps them very focused on my words (hip-hip!). We have ready many (see reading lists in Google Docs for all subjects) corresponding library books to help reinforce the subject of the Chapter and time. We have kept up our timeline (which I still need to put on the wall) to have a flow of the ongoing events we cover. We end the lesson (and day) with a corresponding history projects which I will show in pictures below.
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A few of those pics were taken 2-8 days after the fact and the projects have suffered greatly in their time-life. The Nile looks rough. The “river” is filled with dead grass and mosquito eggs. The grass has not come in because of the “too great flood” from the gutters. The Cuneiform tablets (sludge picture) also suffered from the gutter floods before they were properly sun-baked and before I got a picture of the kids clay carvings. The last pic is of our Cochran “seal” which was an actual stamp until the dog chewed up and destroyed the stamp and all of our stamped wooden bookmarks. Oh well.
