Progress review Nov - Jan

Alex

Language Arts: Alex wrote is first real research paper! It took him over a week to complete it, but I think it turned out really well and was impressed that he could stick with it with minimal prodding to get back to work.

Math: We have been steadily moving through Math U See Pre-Algebra and are now though exponents and multiplying fractions.

Science: We have been working a lot with trees and tree identification. We have also done many experiments with snow as we have gotten over a foot of it at times!

Social Studies: We are moving at a snail’s pace when it comes to Social Studies. We keep taking side tracks from our curriculum to answer questions about elections, presidents, and other countries. It is frustrating not to get anywhere in our curriculum, but they are learning Social Studies just the same.

PE/Health: He has started a new homeschool PE course at our local (new) YMCA. He has an hour of swimming and an hour of PE twice a week and he also started Tae Kwon Do twice a week as well. He is really enjoying it.

Technology: He has been really jumping up in the technology dept this last two months! He has decided that he wants to make his own movies with my camera, so he has been taking about 100 pictures, stringing them together and making short films. Most of them are VERY funny. He has had to work out kinks in story lines; storyboard make ups for his movies, as well as the technical stuff like making sure his characters are in focus and putting the whole thing into a slideshow on the computer. Also, his research paper was typed, so he got many hours of typing skills for that as well.

Cyan

Language Arts: We are almost through the third Explode the Code now. She has been reading up a storm, asking me what things mean at the store etc, which means her pace is becoming faster and more confident. She also read 20 books between Oct and now and got a banana split and her very own library card as a reward. She was so excited she was beside herself.

Math: Math U See is picking up again. She is really moving through the work. She is enjoying doing things like tossing dice and adding or subtracting the numbers that come up. It has been great practice for speed.

Science: We have been working a lot with trees and tree identification. She gets excited when she can identify a tree without me. We also did some experiments on snow and how it melts two weeks ago (when we had a foot of snow) and this was interesting because like most pre-concrete operations kiddos she thought that the level of the water would be the same as the level of the snow. It was a fun lesson!

Social Studies: We are moving at a snail’s pace when it comes to Social Studies. We keep taking side tracks from our curriculum to answer questions about elections, presidents, and other countries. It is frustrating not to get anywhere in our curriculum, but they are learning Social Studies just the same.

Fine Arts: She started her dance class last weekend and is really enjoying it! She spends lots of time dancing around the greatroom with her ballet outfit on and showing me her pointy toes. She still loves to draw and craft with me, but dancing is her newest passion.

PE/Health: She started a new PE class with her friends at the YMCA. She has been LOVING it! She has waited a really long time to be in a class with her homeschool group and she continually asks me if we get to go to the Y today because she is enjoying it so much. She didn't get into the swimming class, but I think that this session was a good break from learning to swim.