a rare moment
that I’m not quite sure where to begin! I can’t believe it has been a month since I last posted. I started several posts along the way but just couldn’t seem to get them wrapped up before they became stale.
Soo…. I guess I’ll start with where we are now… behind on our homeschooling hours. Between burnout (mine), illness (Jessie’s) and spring fever (everyone’s) we haven’t logged many hours in the last month. So I’ve created an “emergency week” in Tracker that will get Sam to where he needs to be as well as keeping Jessie in the loop too. Not an easy task! But my fingers are crossed it will be fun.
For Ancient History, we’re studying China this week. Both kids have specifically said they like the new format that combines ancient history with current information. So here’s how this week is shaping up:
- Sam: Read aloud from Usborne Book of World History
- Both: Find on globe/atlas; Sam: draw on GeoScribe worksheet; Jessie: this coloring sheet or these images or her own drawings
- Both: Make styrofoam tray stamps using Chinese characters
- Sam: add Marco Polo to the timeline
- Sam’s independent reading: Great Civilizations of the East, The Travels of Marco Polo and The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient China
- Both: Food: Yuanxiao Dumplings and Red Bean soup
Ack! I just realized I have nothing to read to Jessie specifically related to history. A quick Google search turned up this page. I think I’ll have her choose one for me to read to her.
To kind of make up for my lack of planning last month, I’m going to go ahead and start teaching back what I’ve been learning in the Latin class I’ve been taking at Edufire. Sam’s dying to dig into it and yes, I really feel guilty. I’m even going to use Latin phrases from Latin for All Occasions
Science is going to be Lesson 4 in Discovering Earth’s Landforms & Surface Features. I’m not sure which of the additional activities we will do. I may let Sam pick one and I pick one. With the other lessons, I’ve had my lapbook done to show what we’re going to do. Sam does his own and I help Jess with hers. This lesson has a clay activity so that should be fun for both of them.
For Art & Music appreciation, we’ll be starting the second month of Barb’s Medieval & Renaissance Art and Music Appreciation: Fra Angelico and Bach. I’ve blocked out 2 sessions per week for it this quarter (3 hours total). We typically do the listening portions over a lunch break or two so we’ll spend a little more time than that. It is so nice to have this all planned out already. Even after our extended break, I can just pick up and go for it!
What else is there… Math is continuing with Math Mammoth’s Fractions 1. He’s been doing fabulous on the timed practices… up to 100 problems ( mult or div) in 5 minutes. At the beginning of this year he couldn’t do half that. Vocabulary Vine is behind but finishable this year. I’ve been considering creating a deck in Anki rather than the file cards. Just can’t seem to get the games going regularly and Anki sure makes review easier. Japanese is going to be a bit on the back burner but we’ll still keep working on the decks at Smart.fm. Remembering the Kanji will have to wait until next school year!
And now that Monday is here, I think I’ll head off to bed. More soon… no really!
You may have fun with the kids looking at character drawing at http://www.skritter.com/ –> I would recommend try the “practical chinese reader” as your list, week one, adding new characters manually or intermittently/rarely. That’s the text I used in college, and I think the words in the list are easy fun ones. The site is down right this moment, but I’ve used it for a few days and really enjoyed it. You’ll also get to look at the stroke order (and direction) plus be able to compare the big calligraphy to the small “computer print” versions (kind of like comparing calligraphy and Arial font).