November 18, 2008
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Our Homeschool Update
Reading: Sebastian has read six stories from The Beginner’s Bible and four from Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 1. He shows good reading skills and comprehension. I’ve noticed that he seems a little more excited about the nature reader and I think it is because he’s realizing that he can learn from reading on his own, not just from having mom read to him.
Language Arts: Sebastian has been practicing writing capital letters. In grammar, we’ve been discussing sorting objects into groups and subgroups. We’ve spent several days focusing on the poem, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Sebastian has narrated the basic story the poem tells, drawn an illustration, identified the number of stanzas, and circled the capital letter at the beginning of each line.
Math: Sebastian has complained that his math book is too easy, so I’ve added Singapore Math’s Intensive Practice 1A to our daily lessons in addition to allowing him to work ahead by doing more pages per day if he wants.
Science: We’re currently studying water. We read and discussed The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks. Topics covered included: the water cycle, the three states of water, the process of how water goes from the reservoir to the faucet. Sebastian read the book Water. We’ve also read from Starting Point Science about water vapor and condensation. Sebastian enjoyed watching a Popular Mechanics for Kids DVD on rockets that we rented from Netflix.
Social Studies: Our studies this year center around ancient history. So far we’ve covered topics such as: why we study history, historians, archaeologists, creation, evolution, and prehistoric man. We also spent time going over the creation account in Genesis and the fall in the Garden of Eden. In geography, we’ve talked about cultures from different parts of the world, including their language, clothing, money, etc. We’ve also used maps to identify locations in the stories we’ve read.
Art: In addition to illustrating the poem mentioned earlier, Sebastian has also had opportunities to color pictures in math. We’ve introduced picture study in which we look at a work of art together and Sebastian talks about what he sees.
I’m looking forward to getting our move over with so that we can focus a little better. I think being in the new house will be better for our homeschool, because we’ll be able to store things a little more securely, giving me more control over supplies and books than I have now with everything in the living room. I also think it will be easier to fit physical education in when we have a nice big yard and snow to play in.
Xander is continuing to work on his ever expanding vocabulary and has learned quite a bit from watching PBS kids while I work with Sebastian. He’s doing very well and has mastered most preschool concepts.
