These pictures were taken last Fall not long after we started Heart of Dakota. This is one of the first poems that my children memorize. I believe it is the shortest poem that we have covered this year. Most of them are much longer. J. first learned it when he was five years old! I can't believe he's now a big 11 year old and writing his own poetry!
History: We have reached Chapter Twenty-Five in The Story of the World Vol. 2: The Middle Ages - From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance. That chapter brings us up to The End of the World: The Plague in our history readings. We have already touched on the plague that first struck the Black Sea area in the 14th Century in some of our other readings. We are learning how it spread through Europe and the northern-most parts of Africa. We have previously covered the plague in A Child's History of the World (we have read up to Chapter 61) and our literature readings. I am thoroughly enjoying combining A Child's History of the World and The Story of the World as our spines. I prefer to read Hillyer's title first, the information is briefer and serves as a good introduction to the topic at hand. The children love having the additional information that The Story of the World provides and I continue to enjoy the mapping and narration exercises that accompany SOTW.
Language Arts/Greek: The children are coming along nicely in their respective skills and interests in the area of Language Arts.
DJ is now reading very well!! Yeah!! He is working in Explode the Code, Book 4, which I expect him to work through quickly. He's now practicing reading compound words and reviewing blends and diphthongs. He prefers to do his own free-reading over my shoulder. At this age, J. was beginning to consume books. He liked to grab his own books and go outdoors, to read alone. But D.J. prefers to cuddle and share books together. He is reading The Complete of Nature and especially loves the section on fish. I am excited about seeing the world of reading open up to DJ. We read My Father's Dragon together last week.
He has worked through the lessons in Week 5 of Writing With Ease 1. He now enjoys it very much. In fact, he gets so goofy and becomes such a class clown with his narrations that I've had to send him to his room to settle down!! But, at least he is enjoying it. His copywork looks great. He is now copying one sentence everyday plus practicing his letters a few days a week. He is also learning a lot of grammar from listening to J.'s grammar lessons plus enjoying Grammar Rock and the gentle grammar in Writing With Ease.
He is showing a stronger interest in learning Spanish. We've continued to try to use Rosetta Stone but it is the most aggravating thing EVER! It's frustrating because I know he would learn quickly if he had a good audio program. I plan to look for something to further him along in Spanish when I go to convention soon. He has learned the Greek alphabet song, can recognize the alphabet, can write the letters, and knows the sounds of the Greek letters.
J. will finish First Language Lessons 3 by the end of this school year. I have been very happy with FLL. He enjoys it very much. I am sure it is his favorite school task. He enjoys diagramming sentences and I like the ease of use. He will have had an excellent preparation for next year's English lessons as he heads into the Logic Stage/Middle School of his education. Since my last progress report, he has begun Writing Tales 1. He is currently working on his re-telling of Androcles. He is relaxing now and beginning to enjoy writing more than he ever has. He is writing a book that he has entitled, "Nonsense Tales." This week, he completed Handwriting Without Tears 4. He hates writing in cursive. I am considering having him start an italic cursive. The printing that he has developed (he has used HWOT since K) is very lovely. It actually looks like an italic print. However, the cursive seems awkward to him still. I'm holding off on additional typing instruction until he had developed a bit more proficiency with cursive.
I have slowed down on his Spelling Power lessons as he has begun Drawn Into the Heart of Reading and that is requiring some writing from him. That in addition to having begun Writing Tales and using HWOT has been enough handwriting for him lately. For his DITHOR lessons, he is reading biographies. He completed a short bio. on Albert Einstein and is now reading a lengthier one about Davy Crockett. J. has done a lot of oral narrating and some written narrating, but he has never worked in an actual literature/reading curriculum. I truly consider them to be wholly unnecessary until about high school, but DITHOR isn't like any other reading curriculum that I have reviewed. I decided to make an exception to my "reading programs are stupid twaddle so we won't be doing them" rule and added DITHOR to our day. I am very glad I did and plan to stick with it. It is very flexible and we are easing into adding more advanced literature study to his coursework. Right now, through DITHOR, he is learning about the story element of Character and the Godly Character Trait of Responsibility. Yes! DITHOR isn't just about literary analysis. It requires the child to learn about Christian virtue, the Bible, and how to develop virtue in your own life. I am seeing that he is having to really, really think his way through the lessons and he is beginning to understand that books aren't just for seeking facts (his favorite use of a book) or being entertained (my favorite use of a book) but that we can actually be impacted by great literature in a way that grows our own character. I like that all of the questions are open-ended ones. That is why DITHOR will work with any literature that you select and that is another aspect of it that I really like.
I'm having J. read out loud to me for a portion of each days' DITHOR readings and am finding this to be a very valuable exercise. He is becoming more comfortable and has been mindful of the Qualities of Good Reading suggestions in DITHOR. I think that being able to read out loud with confidence is a very important skill to develop. If he is called on to read from the Bible during Sunday School or if I ask him to read something to DJ for me, I want him to be able to do so with much skill and competence. I especially want him to know that handling the Word of God with assurance is important and that having strong communication skills will be an asset to his witness for the Lord. Who would think that a literature program would help a child to do that?! Well, DITHOR does and that's why I know I have found a "keeper" with this curriculum.
As for Greek, J. is making good progress but feels hindered by all the handwriting that is required in The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker. I slowed those lessons down and just this week, we began to speed up again. I have no problem omitting assignments, but he wants to do everything exactly like it is supposed to be done, in order, with no skipping. So, I'm requiring him to work for ten minutes a day and we'll just plug along. He has one unit in The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker that remains to be completed. He enjoys listening to Harvey Bluedorn's audio to The Greek Alphabetarion. As with DJ and his Spanish, I'd like to find additional audio materials for J. to use alongside his Greek studies. I'll add that to my convention Need to See list.
He did have a minor meltdown with Greek this week. That is very rare for him. It's usually DJ who is playing the dramatic. I think he needed to hear the advantages of studying the language again (because it's getting harder, just as Laurie Bluedorn told me it would) so I proceeded to lecture him real good for about fifteen minutes and he seemed to get it again. Later that day, as we were working to organize our library, we came across a three volume set of Creeds and Catechisms that I had purchased for my children before they were even born! J. began to leaf through it and was delighted to see that the volume he had picked up contained the early Greek and Latin Confessions. He was very interested and said, "Oh, that is so cool! I'm going to be able to read all that one day." Yeah!!
Math: J. continues to love Math-U-See. He will continue Gamma through most of the summer and then go right into Delta. I'm not sure how he's going to take to the changes that have been made in the Math-U-See program. He has been using his FlashMaster to drill his facts. D.J. is over half way through Singapore 1B. He continues to enjoy Singapore and is really thriving with it. It amazes me what his brain can do with those lessons! He is now learning the concept of division and making equal groups. We have also been playing a few RightStart Math Cards Games and have learned to use the abacus.
Science: J. is still totally consumed with Astronomy. I haven't needed to purchase a "curriculum" for this. We are using living books. He just subscribed to Astronomy Magazine. He has made it his goal to learn a new constellation each week. He is currently reading The Stars by H. A. Rey (yes, the author of Curious George!) and is literally sleeping with it. We have gone on several constellation chases together. He is now in Week 12 of Noeo Chemistry 2. I like Noeo but the course stalled out for us when we started reading The Mystery of the Periodic Table. We like the book very much but it's meaty. For several weeks, there is only that one book scheduled and we want more hands-on experiences with the curriculum. We will continue Noeo into next Fall. Fortunately, the lessons include more experiments as you go through it.
We are using Winter Promise's The World Around Me once a week. We are now in week 3 of that program. We are learning about plants, particularly berries, nuts, and seeds. Our nature walk this week was a berry hunt and we found many of them behind our house and down our drive-way. Actually, we have taken several nature walks lately. We really love Spring. It's our favorite season for nature walks. On J.'s birthday, all he wanted to do was to get to the river to catch tadpoles! So, that's what we did.
Here are some pictures from that day:
Our family read-aloud (that means John T. sits in on these readings!) is The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. We are reading the unabridged version and just love it! We started it as soon as we completed The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle. I recently asked The Boys what their favorite read-aloud for this whole school year has been and both heartily agreed that they loved Robin Hood the best!
Our Spring Break: Next week, we will take our Spring Break. We will actually take almost two weeks. We are planning a trip to Stone Mountain, Georgia, then on to a couple of caves and panning for gold in north GA and AL, to the space center in Huntsville and to a statepark where we will stay in a cabin, fish, take nature walks, and relax. We are taking The Swiss Family Robinson with us and J. will take a load of star books and the gear he'll need for stargazing. We will be attending a homeschool convention where I'll be shopping for a few items for next year. I have made all of my curriculum decisions for next year and will post that info. soon.
This is a must see! Nicole sings in both Spanish and English.
Be sure to turn my play list off before viewing. You can turn it off at the bottom of this page, but you have to wait for the whole page to load first.
The early lilacs became part of this child,
And grass and white and red morning glories, and white and red clover,
and the song of the phoebe-bird,
And the Third-month lambs and the sow's pink-faint litter,
And the mare's foal and the cow's calf...
- Walt Whitman
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