March | 2015 | His Treasure Seekers

Monthly Archives: March 2015

Wrapping Up Week 31 (2014-15)

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Deanna

The closer we get to summer, the less structured school time we’re doing, so I’m not sure if I’ll really write about all 36 weeks of our school year. I debated whether to write about last week at all since I took Friday afternoon through Sunday morning off for our homeschool group’s retreat, but since I’d already written most of this post I figured I’d go ahead and finish it even if it’s a little late.

Bible/Circle Time

We’re reading about three chapters in Little Pilgrim’s Progress most days. This week we also got out the Pilgrim’s Progress game for a few rounds. It was the first time we’ve played since finishing Part 1 of the book (Christian’s journey), so Ian liked that he knew all the people and places mentioned in the game this time around.

(This picture is from the first week when we got out the game, but I wanted show all the little pieces included to set up around the board. I like to use them with Ian because they’re a good review of different elements of the story, but they’re not really necessary. This week I played with Elijah without getting it all set up, and it was still just as fun.)

Math

Ian’s math routine has gotten so easy, and I love that he can do it all independently. I set up the computer by opening a window with three tabs, and once he’s completed the activities in all three, he’s done with math. Here’s what he sees each morning:

xtramath.org – Each day’s assignment is already clear. He signs on, goes through three short flashcard sessions, and then he sees a message like “You’re done for the day!” He checks to see how well he did (he’s given a green, yellow, or red mark both for the entire day and for each individual section), which tells him if he’s earned any time to play computer games.
Mathletics – Now that we’re using this for his main math curriculum, I require Ian to earn at least 200 points each day so he’ll reach the weekly goal of 1000. Depending on how accurate his answers are, he’s usually done with that in 10-15 minutes. If he finishes earning his points quickly, he has extra time to play the Mathletics games.
[Edited to remove link as this online curriculum is no longer available] LaLaLogic – this is actually a preschool curriculum we’re reviewing, but I love the critical thinking involved, so I’m letting Ian go through at an accelerated pace so he can get to some of the more challenging activities. The curriculum is set up with a particular set of activities for each week, but I have Ian complete two weeks worth of “Brain Challenges” each day. So far it seems to be easy for him without being boring. I think he likes checking off each “week” and seeing his progress. (Arianna is working through at the suggested pace, while Elijah is doing one level each day.)

Literature

We’re still trying to chip away at the scheduled readings for Ambleside Online, Year 1. This week we read “Daily Bread” from Leslie Laurio’s paraphrase of Parables from Nature by Margaret Gatty. While I like the lessons in these stories, this has been our least favorite book this year, mostly because of the length of each story I think. I saw the book is also on the schedule for AO Year 2, but since I’m already sort of picking and choosing what we’re going to use from that booklist (more on that another time), I’ve decided to drop Parable from Nature.

Science

This week in The World of Plants we moved onto learning about flowers and fruit (lessons 21- 25). Ian was already somewhat familiar with the concept of pollination, so I tried to build upon what he already knew, since there were a lot of new vocabulary words that he found confusing.

I was hoping to find a Magic School Bus episode to go along with the lesson, but since we already watched one on seeds, we decided to watch The Magic School Bus Gets Planted about photosynthesis, which we covered last week. (Unfortunately Amazon doesn’t have all the individual episodes available for instant streaming, but we got the complete series on sale a while back, which has been a great resource for our family.)

Spanish

Ian finished the Spanish 1 course from Middlebury Interactive Languages this week. Unless we get to review a new product, this will be it for it foreign language for this year.

Upcoming Reviews

We’re currently getting familiar with several products. Watch for reviews soon!

[Edited to remove link as this online curriculum is no longer available] LaLaLogic preschool curriculum
The Berenstain Bears: God Bless Our Country by Mike Berenstain

Posted in Ambleside Online

Mama’s Retreat: Refill, Refuel, Recharge

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Deanna

This weekend I’m getting away with a group of fellow homeschool mamas for a little retreat, and boy, am I ready. This mama is running on fumes, limping through the days, struggling in so many ways. My patience has grown thin. My temper has grown short. I’m constantly irritated by normal childishness and daily life, and it’s coming out in my words to those around me. My children are getting the worst of it since they’re with me all the time, and that makes me really sad.

Yesterday a friend posted this “Mother’s Prayer” on Facebook, and it reminded me of why I am going on this retreat.

Oh give me patience when wee hands
Tug at me with their small demands.
And give me gentle and smiling eyes.
Keep my lips from hasty replies.

And let not weariness, confusion or noise
Obscure my vision of life’s fleeting joys.
So when, in years to come my house is still
No bitter memories its rooms may fill.

— author unknown

I am in desperate need of some time to refill, refuel, and recharge for the sake of the precious little ones entrusted to my care. I’m looking forward to a weekend of not just fellowship with a group of amazing women, but prayer, worship, and most all, quiet rest.

Posted in Uncategorized

Come Celebrate Easter Sticker & Activity Book (Book Review)

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Deanna

We recently were given a chance to review The Beginner’s Bible Come Celebrate Easter Sticker & Activity Book from Zonderkidz. This is not exactly a story book that you can read through with your child, but you might be able to use it that way if you skip the activity instructions and just read the narratives about Jesus on each page. Beginning with a description of Jesus, the book covers the major events of the Passion: from the triumphal entry, through Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, to the Resurrection and finally Jesus’ ascent to heaven.

Each page contains some sort of activity, including things to color, sticker puzzles, letter/number tracing, a maze, a word search, and a dot-to-dot. Some of the activities were too advanced for my 3-year old, but she still had a lot of fun with the parts she could do. My 7-year old could do everything in the book and had fun with it, but some of it was too easy for him. I think my 5-year old was the best fit, and he would have enjoyed having the whole book to himself, but I let them all take turns choosing a page to complete.

As soon as I opened the book I was surprised by the quality of the pages. The colors on each page are a vibrant as those on the cover, with a glossy quality that makes it easy to reposition the stickers. Over 50 stickers are included, some with specific places to put them, others just for decoration. One page had several puzzle piece stickers, and after my 7-year old had done the puzzle, my 5-year old removed all the stickers so he could do it himself. I was impressed that both the stickers and the page held up through all of that!

Our only complaint is that at 16 pages, the book seemed rather short. However, it would be the perfect thing to tuck in an Easter basket or take along to church to help a child sit quietly through service while focusing on the Easter story.

BookLook disclaimer

Posted in Book reviews

Wrapping Up Week 30 (2014-15)

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Deanna

I feel like I’m approaching the finish line of a long race, and it’s just about time to make a final sprint before the end. We definitely picked up the pace in working through the last few things I want to accomplish before the end of the school year, and Ian felt the satisfaction of completion several times this week as finished several books and put them away.

Bible/Circle Time

We’re still starting our days by reading a few chapters from Part 2 of Little Pilgrim’s Progress. Ian continues to enjoy the story, especially since he now gets to play quietly while I read rather than working on the notebook pages I had him doing in Part 1. He often asks me to read more than the two chapters I have planned, and I try to oblige as long as we’re not trying to get through our school work quickly before we have to go somewhere.

Math

After finishing up my review of GPALOVEMATH I decided to give the boys a little more flexibility when it comes to their math lessons. Since we still have a subscription to Mathletics I told them they could choose between a lesson from GPALOVEMATH or earning 200 points from doing activities on Mathletics. I don’t know if it’s because they really like the lessons better or just because they wanted some variety, but both boys chose Mathletics every day.

Ian is also still doing facts practice on xtramath.org each day, and this week I had him begin working on subtraction. The first two days were a little rough, but he made definite improvement over the course of the week, which kept him from getting too discouraged by scores that were lower than he had been getting with addition practice. I’ve also been trying to encourage Elijah to run through a session each day, though he’s not quite as consistent as Ian since I haven’t really required any school work from him up until this point. Xtramath has been so helpful for Ian, however, and since Elijah is ready in many ways to advance quickly in math, I want to be sure he masters his facts before moving ahead.

Literature

We finished Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling this week, and then watched the movie version on YouTube. Ian was disappointed by all the things that were left out of the movie (welcome to my world!) He hadn’t expressed a lot of enthusiasm for this book over the course of the year, but when we reached the end he saw the pictures of other Holling C. Holling books and asked if we could start them. I’m glad he has that sense of wanting more, and I told him we’d see about going through one in our next school year.

I’m hoping to finish up the literature readings for Ambleside Online, Year 1 before Week 36, so we started reading selections from most of the books, even those not scheduled for this week. Ian loves Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling and James Herriot’s Treasury for Children, so he had no problem with a few extra stories. We didn’t quite finish “King Lear” in Tales from Shakespeare, but we only have a couple pages left.

History

Officially we’re done with history for the year, but with St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday I wanted to take some time to talk about the man behind the holiday. I had stumbled across The Story of Saint Patrick by James A. Janda while back, and it was the perfect book to have Ian read through this week. The chapters are all quite short, so we went through several a day. I love how the book focuses on Patrick’s mission to share Christ with the Irish and goes beyond just the basic biographical facts we’ve read in other books.

Science

We got all the way through Unit 4 on leaves (lessons 16-20) in The World of Plants. We didn’t do the final project on leaves, but we did take some time to observe the leaves on various trees, and that was enough for both Ian and me to feel like we were done.

Spanish

We finally got back into our Spanish lessons from Middlebury Interactive Languages. (We’ve been using it sporadically since we reviewed it last fall, but I realized this week that it would be really easy to add it to Ian’s list of “computer school” tasks so he could finish the Spanish 1 course. This week he finished up Unit 5 on school-related words and began the final unit, which reviews everything he has learned in the course. I have been really thankful for this program and how it has helped Ian continue learning without requiring anything from me. Actually, it’s been great for all the kids, since I have the younger kids watch Ian work through the lessons on the TV hooked up to the computer. Elijah has gone through several of the activities himself as well.

I’m not sure what we’re going to do for Spanish next year. I had planned to go back to using the Salsa videos we were using before, but I think the lessons plans are essential for getting the most out of them, and I’m just not sure how much I’m going to be up to once the baby arrives at the end of summer. I might try to get through at least one unit before that point (since we start our school year in July), but I’m hoping to find something that will help at least my two older kids continue building on what they’ve already learned.

Preschoolers

As I’ve been praying and planning about next year, I’ve decided I want to start working with Elijah and Arianna more intentionally, though they’ve certainly picked up a lot just from the learning environment in our home. I’ll write a bit more about what that might look like once we’ve wrapped up this school year, but for now, I’m exploring different ways to include them.

I struggle with knowing what to do for Elijah. On the one hand, he’s a 5-year old boy and needs lots of free time for playing, exploring, and just learning on his own. On the other hand, I want to be sure I give him a chance to excel as much as he wants. He’s not due to start Kindergarten until this summer, and yet his reading and math skills are at about a 2nd grade level. I want to provide challenges for him and slowly start working toward more structured learning over the next year.

For now, I’m trying to work on establishing some structure and expectations with some fun activities. We’re checking out a curriculum for preschoolers that focuses on critical thinking and problem solving skills, which is giving both Arianna and Elijah some time to do “lessons” like Ian without being too dry and academic.

Upcoming Reviews

Here’s what we’re taking a look at these days. Watch for reviews soon!

The Beginner’s Bible: Come Celebrate Easter Sticker & Activity Book from Zonderkidz

Posted in Ambleside Online

GPALOVEMATH (Crew Review)

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Deanna

As more of our children approach school age, I’m realizing the importance of fostering as much independence as possible when it comes to homeschooling so that I’m available to help whomever needs it at the moment. Math has been one subject where that seems feasible, so we were excited to get a chance to review GPALOVEMATH, an online math program from GPA LEARN.

About GPALOVEMATH

GPALOVEMATH offers a complete web-based math curriculum for grades K-5. Because the entire program is online, it can be accessed from both computers and tablets (though recent Kindle Fire updates have created incompatibility issues that are currently being addressed).

Lessons

There are over 150 lessons for each grade, so at a pace of 4-5 lessons per week, a student can complete a grade in about 10 months. Each grade level has a particular “Learning Coach” who helps guide students through their lessons. Both my boys have been going through the 1st grade course, so their Learning Coach is Pi the Penguin.

Each lesson consists of three parts: Instruction, Practice, and Quiz. In the Instruction section, the Learning Coach guides the student through the content of the lesson. The student clicks through slides while listening to their Coach read aloud the words at the bottom of each one.

The Practice section gives the student a chance to work through problems without being scored. They have three “life lines” available if they need help, and once they give an answer they are told whether or not it is correct.

The final section is the Quiz, which consists of 10 questions. Students enter their answers but don’t know whether or not they were correct until after the entire quiz has been completed. They are awarded badges and earn points based on how many correct answers they gave. It’s not necessary to complete the Instruction and Practice sections first, so if the student feels like they can answer the questions without going through those, they are free to jump straight to the quiz.

Other Features

In addition to the lessons, GPALOVEMATH offers an “Engage” section, a private social network that allows the child to interact with parents and preapproved friends online. I don’t feel our children are ready to use the computer in this way, so we didn’t utilize this feature at all.

My boys’ favorite feature was the “Motivate” section. When we first created their accounts, I was able to set up a list of rewards which would be awarded after a set number of lessons. (The more rewards I selected, the more often they were given.) The rewards included things like extra screen time, baking cookies with Mom, getting to choose what’s for dinner, having a parent complete one of their chores… you get the picture. In addition to these automatic rewards, students can use the points they earn after completing lessons to “purchase” rewards (which then wait for approval from the parent). In addition to things around the house, there are even opportunities to use their points toward gift cards (available in limited quantities, but with new ones available every so often). Talk about motivation!

Our Experience with GPALOVEMATH

When I first created our accounts, I was worried that the program was going to be overwhelming. It took a while to set up the rewards list (there were SO many things to choose from, and I was nervous about choosing the preselected option without knowing exactly what was included), and then I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the Engage part of the website and whether or not it was necessary and/or desirable for our family.

Once we finally settled into the lessons, however, things flowed smoothly and the boys were both able to work pretty independently. The only time my involvement was required was when they had selected a reward and needed it approved. Other than that, they pretty much just worked through their lessons on their own while I watched on the TV hooked up to our laptop to make sure they were understanding.

Ian realized right away that the first grade lessons were pretty easy for him, and he skipped right to the quiz on almost every lesson. At the time I couldn’t find an easy way to change his grade level, so I just left him in first and figured he’d solidify his foundational skills. (When we initially began the program, each grade level was purchased separately. However it has now been updated so that each user has access to ALL the grade levels, which has made it much simpler to adjust. This was a GREAT change that makes the program so much more user-friendly.)

Even without going through the Instruction and Practice sections, both boys usually found the questions fairly self-explanatory. Occasionally we ran into problems where even I couldn’t figure out what the questions was really asking for. (Elijah called me over when he was confused by a question that read, “Select the set that matches.” “Matches WHAT?” he asked. I couldn’t figure out either, and my guess ended up being the only wrong answer he got on that quiz. We also ran across one problem that marked a correct answer as incorrect. I emailed customer service with screenshots, and they emailed me the next day to let me know they had fixed the problem.

Aside from those minor glitches, the only real frustration we had was the appearance of the Learn screen. Each grade level has 3 “paths,” which allows the student some flexibility in choosing what lesson they want to work on. Once they complete a lesson, a new one unlocks. Ian had been working for a couple weeks and his screen never seemed to change from what it had looked like after the first few lessons. I couldn’t figure out why it always looked like this, even when I knew he had completed several lessons:

Eventually I realized that there were arrows on the left side of each “path,” and once we clicked on those we could reveal all the lessons he had completed.

I wish this view were available automatically, because it was discouraging for him to open up the Learn section each time and never see any apparent progress.

Overall, we’ve been pleased with GPALOVEMATH. The boys loved earning rewards, and I appreciate both the thoroughness of the program and the independence it allows. We plan to continue using it as our primary math curriculum at least until the end of this school year.

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Wrapping Up Week 29 (2014-15)

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Deanna

The weather feels like summer already in Southern California, and between the heat and the time change last weekend, it’s been really hard over the last few days to remember that we still have several weeks of school left! Now that we’ve finished up with history, I’m thinking we need to just plow through and finish up a few other subjects so we can make the last month of school pretty light.

Math

This week was our last week with CTC Math, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be back. Both boys covered fractions this week, and Ian blew me away. We haven’t touched on the concept at all (though my husband tells me they’ve encountered fractions in some of their favorite games on abcya.com), so I was wondering if this was going to be challenging. I couldn’t believe how quickly Ian was throwing out the answers about halves and quarters. I think it’s because he seems to be grasping multiplication concepts really well. Whatever the reason, I’m glad fractions aren’t a battle at this point!

I’m really going to miss CTC Math, which provided a great balance of structure and flexibility when it came to covering the full math curriculum. In the meantime, Ian will continue working on his lessons in GPALOVEMATH (review coming next week!), as well as his facts practice on xtramath.org. He’s been doing so well with the addition facts, I’m changing his settings to start working on subtraction flash cards for a bit.

Literature

One of the books we’re reading that I haven’t talked much about is Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling. It traces the journey of a small carved wooden Indian in a canoe that travels through all the Great Lakes over the course of a couple years. Each chapter covers a small part of the trip, teaching about the geography and industry of the Great Lakes region. The Ambleside Online, Year 1 schedule spreads this book across the entire school year, and while I understand the reasoning behind that, it really hasn’t worked for us. The chapters are so short we barely have time to get into them before the week’s reading is done. I’ve ended up intentionally skipping a few weeks in order to save up several chapters to read at once.

This week we made it through chapter 23, where Paddle goes over Niagara Falls and ends up in the mists at the bottom. Ian looked at the pictures of the Falls and said, “They don’t look very big,” which surprised me, since we’ve seen videos of them before and I thought he understood how huge they are. So we watched the episode of 19 Kids and Counting where the Duggars visit Niagara Falls (“Duggars Over the Edge“), as well as an interview with Roger Woodward, the youngest person to ever go over the Falls (at age 7!) and survive. He describes what it was like and gives a beautiful testimony of God’s grace.

History Cycle

We finished up the last series of Friends and Heroes and are now taking a break from history until Ian starts the self-paced history course on the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation from Veritas Press. (On sale only until tomorrow, March 14, so don’t wait to check it out!)

I have to admit, the history lover in me wanted to jump into the Veritas Press program right away. For one thing, I think Ian is really going to love studying this period in history. I also think he’s going to enjoy the format of this course. However, since Veritas Press allows you to delay the start of the 12-month course, I fought against my own nerd nature and forced myself to give Ian a well-deserved break. I set our starting date for July, which is when we usually begin our school year. That way he won’t be forced to finish up the work before the end of our school year next spring.

Science

We’re still plugging away through our last term of God’s Design for Life. I have to admit, The World of Plants was the book I was least excited about out of the three that make up this year. I have one of the blackest thumbs of anyone you’ll ever meet, and I’m horrible at remembering the names of different types of trees and flowers. Plants just aren’t my thing.

Still, I’m really pleased with this curriculum. It’s making a subject I find boring a little less so for Ian. All the kids have really enjoyed watching the seeds we planted a few lessons ago grow. In addition to the beans and popcorn kernels we planted back in the lesson on monocots and dicots, we also added a little jar with some sweet pea seeds I had lying around. They’ve all grown SO much this week, which has been fun for all of us to observe (especially this mama, who somehow manages to kill succulents, which I mistakenly thought I could handle, given how I’ve heard they’re one of the easiest things to grow).

Anyway… here’s our little mini-garden. On Monday we took the seedlings off their wet paper towels and planted them in soil. I’d love to move them from my kitchen counter top to a planter outside where they’d have more room, but I’m sure that will be the end of them so I’m holding out a little longer.

Upcoming Reviews

We’re currently getting familiar with several products. Watch for reviews soon!

The Beginner’s Bible: Come Celebrate Easter Sticker & Activity Book from Zonderkidz
GPALOVEMATH from GPA LEARN

Posted in Ambleside Online

Math Analogies-Beginning software (Crew Review)

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Deanna

$Math Analogies Review$ If you’re looking for ways to help your kids develop their minds, be sure to check out The Critical Thinking Co. They offer a wide variety of products designed to help kids build problem-solving skills in multiple subjects at every grade level. We recently received a copy of their Math Analogies Beginning downloadable Windows software for Kindergarten through first grade.

What is it?

When I first heard the words “math analogies” I was curious as to what this program was going to include. The only time I remember working on analogies in school was in my high school English classes, and I wasn’t sure how those word analogies were going to compare.

Not only was it easy for me to catch on to the way Math Analogies Beginning worked, both Ian and Elijah had no problem understanding what to do right from the start. Each analogy presents a pair of related pictures, followed by a single picture for which the user has to find a match. Four possible answers are given, and the user simply selects which picture they think makes the best match according to the relationship in the first set of pictures.

$math analogies 1x$ Like the above example, many of the analogies can be understood just by looking at the pictures. Others require some prior learning (i.e. reading ability, knowledge of U.S. coin values, telling time). Once an answer is selected, the program lets the user know whether it was correct or incorrect.

$math analogies 2x$ A few of the analogies were really challenging for my boys (ages 5 and 7), and I had to help them see the relationship between the pictures.

In Analogy 5 above, for example, I asked them questions about the first pair, focusing on things that would also related to the second.

“Are the eyes opened or shut?”
“How about the mouth?”
“Is the face happy or not?”

Once they started looking at these details they were both able to figure out the correct answer.

There are 152 analogies total. When you first open the program, it asks you to enter your name and then keeps track of how many analogies you have attempted, as well as what percentage of those you have gotten correct.

Once the user has gone through all 152 analogies, a second attempt can be made, which only shows the problems answered incorrectly the first time through. When all the analogies have been completed correctly, no more attempts are offered (though you can select the “restart” option at the top, which erases all previous information).

The entire set of Math Analogies are also available in book form ($11.99). The main difference between the software and the workbooks is that only the software offers multiple choice answers. In the workbooks, the answers have to be drawn or written in all on your own.

Our Experience

I was really impressed with this program. I loved that it helped build critical thinking skills without feeling like typical math problems. Both Ian and Elijah were immediately intrigued by the analogies and dived in enthusiastically. Ian completed over a hundred analogies the first night, and Elijah spent just as much time working on it, though he was a little slower in processing and only managed to get through 74. (After that their enthusiasm waned a bit, so I just had Ian complete 5 a day after his regular math assignments, and Elijah just jumped in whenever he felt like it.)

$math analogies 3x$ I liked that most of the analogies could be solved just by looking at the pictures. Elijah won’t even be in Kindergarten for a few more months, so I’ve never really taught him concepts like how to read an analog clock. This was the main reason I chose the Beginning software rather than Level 1. I think both of my boys could have handled many of the Level 1 analogies, but after looking at the samples given on the website, I was afraid there would be too many that required them to know things we haven’t covered yet.

What I Liked:

It’s helpful to see a score based only on the number of problems attempted, rather than the total amount.
I love that this is a software program. It seems like so many educational companies have turned to an online subscription model, which means I won’t be able to use what I’m paying for with my younger children without spending more money. Since we have lots of kids who haven’t even reached school age, I really value products that we’ll be able to reuse.
At $6.99, I think this software is a great deal. I love finding things that help my kids develop thinking skills, and this is an affordable way to do that without cluttering up our school room shelves. (Requires Windows® 8/7/Vista. No Mac version, but it is available as an app for iOS and Android.)
There are more levels! Once my kids have mastered this Beginning level, there are still two more levels of software that can continue to stretch their minds.

What Could Use Improvement

The biggest change I would like to see in this software would be to break it down into smaller groups rather than one big lump. After the boys’ initial voracity, they could have used something more “bite-sized” to help them work through the rest of the analogies. Just counting 5 a day provided no sense of accomplishment when they’d finished the assignment. When using the book versions of the math analogies, it would be easy to just assign a page; I wish there were an equivalent for using the software.
It would have been nice to be able to have records kept for multiple users. As far as I could tell, only one person was able to work through the program at a time. When we tried to open a new user, it erased all the progress of the previous one. We were able to get around this by installing the program on 2 computers (as our license allowed–another option allows for up to 6 computers) so the boys could work through the analogies at the same time.

All in all the Math Analogies Beginner software was a hit at our house. This was our first exposure to The Critical Thinking Co., and I look forward to exploring more of what they have to offer. Other Crew members have been exploring a variety of products, so be sure to click the banner below to find out what they thought of them!

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Wrapping Up Week 28 (2014-15)

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Deanna

This was supposed to be the week we got fully caught up and back into the swing of things. Then I got sick (again). We did manage not to get further behind, and sometimes that just has to be enough, doesn’t it?

Bible/Circle Time

We finished Part One of Little Pilgrim’s Progress this week, which was cause for celebration. For one thing, I was only requiring Ian to write up pages for our daily reading through the end of Part One. He ended up with a nice little book about Little Christian’s story. The other nice thing about finishing was that we can move at a quicker pace through Part Two since Ian’s doesn’t have to keep up. He often wanted me to read beyond our daily two chapters, but the writing was laborious for him and I didn’t want to make him do more than one page a day. However, I think we’re going to finish Christiana’s story in Part Two much more quickly now that we’re not limited. Ian’s even been asking to listen in the car to the dramatic reading of Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan’s original story) from Answers in Genesis so we can keep going with Christiana’s story when we’re not at home, but I think it only has Part One.

Math

Ian is continuing to do well with our online math programs. We’re almost at the end of our subscription to CTC Math, which I am really going to miss. We may have to come back to it later.

Literature

Now that we finally read “East of the Sun, and West of the Moon” in The Blue Fairy Book, we are officially caught up with our literature selections from Ambleside Online, Year 1 (woo hoo!). We also read Pictures at an Exhibition by Anna Harwell Celenza to learn the story of Modest Mussorgsky’s music by the same title, which the kids have been studying in their composer class on Fridays.

History Cycle

This week we pretty much wrapped up all that I had planned to cover in the first year of our history cycle. We’re still finishing the last few episodes of Friends and Heroes, but we listened to the last few chapters of Story of the World, Vol. 1 by Susan Wise Bauer and discussed the demise of the Roman Empire. Ian was especially fascinated about the secret burial of Attila the Hun (as was I, since the story was new to me as well).

I also made a rather big decision (and purchase) regarding our history lessons for next year. I know it’s rather early to be talking about next year’s curriculum, but I wanted to share about the great sale going on right now in case anyone else wants to take advantage of it ($100 off!).

Last year other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew had the pleasure of trying out the online self-paced history courses from Veritas Press. Ian wasn’t old enough for the course at the time so we weren’t on the review, but as I’ve heard people raving about them it made me curious. After checking out everything I could find online, I decided this would be a great fit for us for next year. Normally I try to save our curriculum money for things I’ll be able to use with other children in the future, but since I already have a ton of books and resources for Year 2 of our history cycle, I’m not too worried. With a new baby coming and Nico about to give up his morning nap, I’m planning on a very different sort of school day next year. Ian learns really well from videos and computer activities, so I think he’s going to get a lot out of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation class. If you’re at all interested in finding a fun online history curriculum, check out these courses before the sale ends on March 14! (There are 5 altogether, covering the whole spread of history.)

Science

We covered lessons 10-12 in The World of Plants, as well as talking about George Washington Carver. I was kind of disappointed we didn’t get to do anything with our sprouts this week, but it looks like we’ll get back to them soon. If I hadn’t been sick we might have gotten a little more into our study of roots, but all we did was read the lessons in the book and discuss them. Hopefully next week we can have a little more hands on activity!