Well, it been more than a year since my last post, but all for good reason. My three has turned to four.... YES, four time demanding little angels (on most days). We have moved from our sunny side home in Florida back to my home state of Georgia. I never thought that would happen. I can say that I am glad it did. You know when something just feels right you know it's meant to be. Everything is moving along seamlessly. I am homeschooling my two older children and trying to keep sane for the younger two. This post will focus on our December homeschool plans.
As we end the first week of December lessons we are feeling more unified with a schedule. We have a full dedicated room for homeschool, which many of you know is so very important. In Language Arts we are breaking down the 8 parts of speech. I am hoping that this structure will show improvement in their writing prompts. We will see what happens in 8 weeks when we really put all this new knowledge to the test. We finished reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens today. I loved all their questions of word meanings, such as sidled, solitary, yonder, and so on.... words we just don't use in our everyday speak. My eldest remarked how it reminded him of "A Mickey Christmas Carol" ;) Our writing prompt this week is on candy canes. They watched a "How It's Made" video and then answered the five senses questions to begin their brainstorming. Again, along with the parts of speech, I am hoping that imbedding the writing process into them will improve their writing skills. Did I mention they are in 3rd and 1st grade? Yes, I am raising up smarty parties (as my daughters kindergarten teacher refers to her).
For math, we use Khan Academy. I love this free, non-profit, online program. I am able to see where they need help and let them work at their own pace. They love accumulating points and seeing which new avatar they have unlocked. We have also completed a music lesson on this site.
Science I am using a workbook called Daily Warm-Ups by Teacher Created Resources. Right now it is review from our curriculum earlier this year. Although it is review it is still challenging. I have them in the workbooks for their grade level. I do work out of order, so that they are covering the same topic at the same time.
Our History curriculum is my favorite... THE BIBLE. Yes, its our history, so why not start there. We just completed part of Exodus, so tomorrow they will watch "The Prince of Egypt". We use "The Bible Experience", as our read along. The actors voices and the background effects really bring to life the stories.
Finally, we are working on learning Dutch. Currently we are using DuoLingo. I like that I can monitor their progress and they can work independently. We can also work as a class. I create flashcards for all our new words. I think I will have them work each group of lessons for 2 weeks. For example, Basic 1 has five lessons, so we will do Basic 1 for two weeks.
Thanks for spending a little time with us today. If you have any questions about how we homeschool or anything else make a comment below. ><>
