Again, I know it goes without saying but just in case someone gets the wrong idea... educating is so much more than the curriculum we use! We use it us to aid us in our teaching but math isn't taught by doing x number of pages. I write these reports mainly for us- it fun & helpful to look back & see what we've covered in the year. But I also write them to share with you all- I know I've always benefited for seeing how others home educate.
Let's play some catch up, though it will not be as detailed as weekly reports.
Covenant Classes: co-op continues to be a highlight of the children's week. Jonathan & Elizabeth's geography class has continued their studies. Patricia has been busy with her literature class. She completed studying Canterbury Tales and Macbeth and is continuing to study parts of Paradise Lost. She's done A LOT of writing, including a research paper that blew Eric and I away. Her gift for writing has bloomed with this class! Patricia has also memorized & recited several pieces. Benjamin & Matthias have completed chapter 22-26 in their Primer B Latin books, as well as taking unit 6 test. They spent a fews reviewing & it has really helped their understanding. :) For Bible, Patricia's class has been studying Always Ready & a course syllabus put together by our Pastor called "The Defense of the Christian Religion." The other children have studied about God's promise of forgiveness and peace, as well as His promise of fruitfulness through Jesus Christ. They've memorized Isaiah 53, Romans 5:1-2, Ephesians 1:7 & 1 John 1:8-2:2. They are currently memorizing John 15:1-11. Jonathan & Elizabeth are a bit behind in their memory work but they'll catch up, even if we have to finish when classes end in May!
Memory Work: Bible memory has been the focus (it's been a lot!) but we did jump back with both feet with our regular meeting time this week. Of course, I forgot to blog about it. :/ I'll try to do that next week!
Abigail: she's still got a few letter sounds to learn but we've been working on a bit of Phonics Pathways- adding the m & s sounds to all the short vowel letters. She loves to write & often copies Elizabeth & Jonathan's copywork all on her own. Too funny! She practices spelling her name with me. We continue to plug along Essential Math Book A, with lots of hands on activities to enforce the concepts. She counts to 50 easily but doesn't recognize all those numbers yet. I've begun to read aloud to the little girls (Elizabeth, Abigail & Emily) just before bed at nights (not every night but almost). We finished Milly-Molly-Mandy (again- it's a favorite) and began The Secret Garden. It's a favorite time of the day for them & me! :)
Art & Music: I'm expecting to teach an art class next year at co-op & I'm THRILLED because any kind of formal lessons are not happening. A friend has offered to get together once a month so hopefully I can get that organized. For now, art happens in real life:
We missed piano lessons with our teacher the entire month of March due to flu but we kept up practicing (mostly). The children had a recital at the beginning of April:
History: we eased up on the fast pace we were moving through our Gileskirk American Culture studies, which is MORE than history but it just works to put it in this category. :) We've listened to lectures on the following men: Clay, Calhoun & Webster. We also listened to lectures on the indian wars & the trial of tears, manifest destiny / regionalism, chattel slavery & fire breathers, which covered those who were on both sides of the extreme of the War Between the States. Lots of reading & journal writing. They finished reading American Short Anthology and began Confidence Man. So far, they've memorized three of the Bill of Rights.
For the younger set (Matthias, Jonathan & Elizabeth + all the other littles), we studied about Lafayette and the battles at Bennington, Brandywine & Saratoga. We read some of George Washington's World, though not enough. They all finished reading several book independently but I do not have the list in front of me to share the titles. I do remember that The Swamp Fox of the Revolution was a favorite of several of them. :)
Language Arts: okay this is probably the section I dread catching up a report on the most. We cover so much in this category! So... I'm not going to play catch up. :) We've done it throughly- it's one of those things that can happen mostly independently so it's easy to keep going when sickness (THREE STRAIGHT WEEKS OF FLU, people!) hit us. Writing took on the form of copyworb & narrations so I'm hoping to dive into more writing starting next week. (Patricia of course has done plenty of writing!) We did begin something new with the older three children: Fix-It! Grammar: the Nose Tree. (I had an older version from IEW but switched it out with the updated one.) They love learning grammar this way & it's effective to have them search for mistakes & identify parts of speech. LOVE! (This level is far too easy for Patricia so I'm having her move through it super fast.)
Latin: Patricia completed Latin Alive Book 1!!! So proud of her diligence in this area. I wish she could study with the co-op but she doesn't fit into any of the schedules. She has also finished two chapters in Latin Alive Book 2. I already shared what the boys have covered. They began chapter 27 about the third declension this Thursday.
Logic: This week, Eric had Patricia and Benjamin begin Argument Builder again because he hadn't consistently kept up with it. So this week they (re)covered chapters 1-2.
Math: another area I dread catching up a report on. It got done. Not as consistently due to illness but when I couldn't teach, drill practice happened on their own. :)
Science: Patricia & Benjamin finished their General Science book. Yahoo! They begin Physical Science next week. The other children finished their Human Body book and began Planet Earth.
Phew. That was a lot. The only other thing to add is that this week, Matthias completed standardized testing. It's not the kind of assessment we care about (think Andrew Kern here) but it's required every three years in the state of Georgia so we check the box.
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