4th Grade - Weeks 2 & 3

With all of our other summer fun going on, we've gotten off to a slow start.  We only got 4 days of school done in the last 2 weeks, but that's the whole point of schooling year round, so we can be flexible with our schedule.  We finished up Unit 1 & began Unit 2.

In our Bible time, we finished discussing persistence and Proverbs 2:3-5.  We began memorizing Proverbs 11:2 and have had many discussions on what humility is and why we need to be humble instead of prideful.

In history, we've continued learning about Christopher Columbus.  For one of our projects, we used a balloon to be the earth, and Samuel labeled index cards with the continents and oceans and then put them on the balloon in their proper places.  We then checked his work on our globe.  He did a great job of getting them in the right locations!

On another day in history, Samuel copied a map of Columbus' travels from one of his books. He took his time trying to get it exactly right.  He did a great job!

In storytime, we've continued reading about George Rogers Clark.  Samuel is really enjoying this book.  He has also been enjoying the daily poetry readings.  I'm glad he likes it, and it is something I would have never thought to add in on my own.  He takes his time each day on his copywork so he can get the poem written exactly right.

In science we are continuing to learn about the seashore.  We did an experiment one day to show how waves are caused by the wind.  He liked turning the hair dryer all the way up so he could make "monstrous waves".  

For his science notebook, he made a notebook page with Genesis 1:10 and then copied pictures of animals from his book.  He was supposed to copy animals that live on the shore and between the tides.  I misread the directions and had him copy from the wrong page for his between the tides animals, but he spent so much time on it, I didn't want to make him redo it.

Finally, for DITHOR, he finished reading Catwings and began working on his book project.  For his project, he had to draw pictures from the beginning, middle, and end of the story and then use props to retell his story.  He did a great job!

So far, Samuel is still loving his "new school" as he calls it.  He told me the other day, "Mom, school is so much fun.  I look forward to it every day."  I'm sure that attitude will come and go, but it made me happy that he's at least having fun right now!

4th Grade - Week 1

We started back to school on July 14th.  We only did 3 days of school this week, because we had some fun things scheduled on the other days.  Samuel told me over and over how much he enjoyed school.  In our Bible time, we've been memorizing Proverbs 2:3-5 and discussing how we must be persistent in seeking after God.  In history, we have been reading about Christopher Columbus and his trip to the New World.  We did a landscape painting of the sea, following detailed instructions of what colors to mix and how to paint in the foreground, middle ground, and background of the painting.  Samuel loved this activity!

 Samuel painting the foreground with the lightest shade of blue.  

Painting the middle ground with a darker shade of blue 

Painting the sky 

The finished product!

In science, we are going to be studying the seashore, and this week we specifically began learning about the tides.  We watched a great documentary on Netflix (The Blue Planet: Episode 7) that brought to life what we were studying and showed how many animals and plants are dependent on the tides.

 Copying diagrams of high and low tide from the book

 His finished notebook page

We also did a science experiment to see why some things float and others don't.  Samuel loves any type of experiment so he had a lot of fun that day.  

 Filling the sink with water...

 dropping a coin and watching it sink

 Being silly...he was supposed to be trying to push the balloon under the water

 Being more serious..feeling the water push back against the balloon

 Working on his notebook page describing what happened. 

His experiment page

We also started reading George Rogers Clark for storytime.  So far, Samuel has really enjoyed this book.  Especially since the last chapter we read involved a secret tunnel and catching a thief!  

For Drawn into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR) we are finishing up Fantasy since that's where we ended last year.  He is reading Catwings and is almost done with it.  Next week, he will begin working on his end of book project.  

So far, our year has been off to a great start!

I'm Back & Changes to Our Homeschool

After a long break from blogging I am back.  There have been a lot of changes in the last year and a half.  Samuel is now halfway through 3rd grade and we have moved to a new house.  Over Christmas break we made the decision to switch from Sonlight back to Heart of Dakota.  While we enjoyed the books in Sonlight, we felt that all we were doing was reading and Samuel needed more hands-on activities.  I was supplementing with various things but it was making our day super long and no fun for either one of us, so the best choice was just to switch to something that had all the extras I wanted already built in.

If we had stuck with Heart of Dakota, Samuel would be in Bigger Hearts for His Glory this year, but we are saving that for next year.  We decided to use Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory even though he is on the older side for it so that he could get used to some of the extra writing and things that Heart of Dakota requires.  We are going through it at double speed so we will be finished by the end of this school year and then will pick up with Bigger Hearts in the fall.  We started on January 7th and so far it's going great.  Now that we have art projects, science experiments, and more I will have plenty of fun things to post on my blog again.

So our curriculum we are using the rest of the year is:

• Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory
• Drawn into the Heart of Reading with Level 3 Books
• Saxon Math Intermediate 3 - just continuing on with this
• All About Spelling 2 - We are 3/4 of the way done with this book so want to finish it, but then we will begin following the spelling in the Heart of Dakota guides
• Apologia Astronomy - Samuel likes science so we are continuing with this in addition to Heart of Dakota's science.  When we finish Astronomy in 6 weeks we will be moving on to Apologia Zoology 1

I also have not been able to get to my scrapbooking as much as I would like so decided restarting my blog would be a good way to keep track of family fun as well.  Samuel is playing basketball for the first time this season so that should be interesting.

2012-2013 School Year

After much discussion and going back and forth on our decision, we have decided to continue using Sonlight.  We had thought about switching back to Heart of Dakota, but Samuel loves the Sonlight books and the science experiments so we are going to stick with it.  For 2nd grade, we will be covering World History.  We’ve already gotten our books and they all look like so much fun!  Samuel is excited!

So here is a list of what we will be using:

Sonlight Core B – Intro to World History, part 1

Sonlight Language Arts 3 – included with this will be MCP Phonics, A Reason for Handwriting, and Wordly Wise vocabulary

Sonlight Readers 3

Sonlight Science B – Samuel loves Sonlight science.  He really enjoyed all the hands on activities and projects last year and is excited to see what he will get to do this year.

Saxon Math 2

Teach Them Spanish 2 – I had planned on ordering La Clase Divertida for Spanish last year, but it never worked out.  I found this series at our local school supply store and we have really enjoyed it.  It’s not a complete language program, but it is at least introducing him to vocabulary.  In a couple of years, we will add in Rosetta Stone Spanish.

Samuel will also be taking 3 classes at our co-op – American History, Science, and World Geography.

I’ve been getting everything ready, and we should be kicking off 2nd grade on July 16th.  We are starting early so we will have plenty of time to take off as needed. 

School’s Out for Summer!

Samuel and I are finished with our school year.  He is officially done with 1st grade and will be starting 2nd grade in a few weeks.  We are only taking a break till July 16th so we can have more time off during the year.

I neglected my blog badly this past year and don’t have any pictures, but we loved our year with Sonlight.  Samuel really enjoyed the books and loved the science experiments and the DVD that came with the science program.  We had a great time learning about different time periods and cultures all around the world.  I’ll do another post soon showing what we will be doing for next year.

Fieldtrip to Ripley’s Aquarium

We went on a fieldtrip with our homeschool group to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies.  We hadn’t been there since they had added the penguin exhibit.

Touching horseshoe crabs

Trying to touch a stingray

First Grade–Week 5

We had another great week with Core A!  Samuel memorized his Bible verse for the letter E – Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right – Proverbs 20:11.  He is doing a great job saying all his verses from A to E.  I even tried to confuse him the other day and made him say them out of order and he still remembered them all.  He gets very excited each time he adds a new verse!

In history we’ve been learning about Vikings.  We had briefly talked about Vikings last year when we talked about Leif Erickson, and Samuel was excited to spend more time on them this year.  His favorite project was making a Viking ship!

We finished reading My Father’s Dragon and Samuel and I were both a little sad that it was over.  Samuel was so excited that Elmer and the Dragon finally got off the island!  I need to get to the library and get the sequels soon.

In math, Samuel’s been learning order (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) and also learning how to draw pictures depicting addition and subtraction problems.  We had fun making a train and practicing with his stuffed animals.  I made up stories for him like “The train stopped and 3 passengers got on.  They sat in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th seats.” Then at the next stop different passengers would get off.  He had to draw pictures to show what happened and let me know how many passengers were left.

We also worked on counting with pennies and our hundred chart. 

In science we learned about rivers and how they flow to the ocean, mountains, and deserts.  Samuel especially liked looking up the highest mountain peak on each continent and marking them on the markable map.

First Grade–Week 4

I got a little behind on blogging so I’ve been playing catch up with our weeks-in-review.  Hopefully, now that I’m caught up, I can stay on top of things.

We added another Bible verse, and can now say verses for A-D.  Our D verse is Matthew 7:12 – Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.  I’m so proud of Samuel for remembering them all!

In history, we’ve been learning about Ancient Rome all week.  We made a chariot for our craft on one of the days.

We started a new read-aloud, My Father’s Dragon, and Samuel and I are both loving it!  Evidently there are 2 sequels to this book and we will definitely be checking them out from the library when we finish this one!  Samuel begs me to read more than one chapter per day, but I’m too much of a box-checker to deviate from the schedule.

We’re trucking along in math and Samuel actually had his first test this week.  Since everything on it was review from last year, he made a 100!  He was very excited about it!

In science, we learned about fossils, earthquakes, and volcanoes.  Samuel especially enjoyed making a volcano and watching it erupt!

Science at the Zoo

I had planned on signing Samuel up for classes at our homeschool co-op, but then we found out that they have science classes at the zoo on Tuesdays also.  I gave Samuel the choice between co-op and the zoo and he chose classes at the zoo.  He had his first class this week and absolutely loved it!  They talk about a different topic for 3-4 weeks and for these first weeks the topic is chemistry.  They learned about monomers, polymers, and cross-linkers and then got to make slime and bouncy balls.  Samuel had so much fun!  He can’t wait to go back next week!

Showing off his slime

Mixing up his ingredients to make a bouncy ball

Doesn’t look like much yet…

Pretty cool!

First Grade–Week 3

Another fun week with Sonlight Core A!  I completely forgot to take pictures this week though. 

We memorized Colossians 3:20 – Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.  Samuel is doing a great job with his verses and can say all 3 of them together without any prompting!

In history, we finished reading about the Ancient Egypt, touched briefly on Ancient Greece, and then moved on to Ancient Rome.  Samuel is loving learning about all the different cultures!

We finished reading The Boxcar Children.  Samuel enjoyed it and I know our library has the rest of the series, so I may see if he wants to read anymore of them together.   We also read a few stories from the James Herriot Treasury.  I remember reading James Herriot’s books and loving them, so I enjoyed getting to revisit the stories with Samuel.  I’m glad that he seemed to like them too.

We also started Saxon Math this week.  The first few lessons are mainly just review so it’s been easy for Samuel so far, but I’m sure he’ll be challenged once it gets to new material.

We continued learning about weather in science and I wish I had remembered to take pictures because we did several experiments.  We made a tornado in a bottle and a weather vane which were both really cool.

First Grade–Week 2

This week we started learning a new Bible verse, Acts 16:31 – Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.

In history, we finished reading about the first people, and began learning about the Egyptians.  We made an Egyptian collar one day, which Samuel loved!

We continued reading The Boxcar Children and are now over halfway done…

In science, we started learning about weather.  We did a couple of fun experiments including making our own rainbow, but I forgot to take pictures.