A New Springtime

Homeschool News/ Subjects That Are Being Studied

History:

Abigail (5th gd.) - Pocahontas

Hannah (6th gd.) - Gen. Sherman / Civil War

Max ( 8th gd.) - Otto & Pope John XII

Raphael (10th gd.) The French & Spanish War

Science:

Eliana ( gd. K) - Plants

Abigail - (5th gd.) - The Earth and Its Composition (earthquakes, this week)

Hannah - (6th gd.) - The 3 States of Matter

Max - (8th gd.) - The 3 States of Matter

Raphael - The Laws of Isaac Newton, The Laws of Elements

Religion:

Eliana - (gd. K) Old Testament (  New Catholic Picture Bible) Noah's Ark

Abigail - ( 5th gd.) The Forming of God's People

Hannah - (6th gd.) The Sacred Banquet

Max - Fathers and Doctors of the Church

Raphael - Confirmation Prep. worksheets on sacraments, etc.

Spelling:

Eliana - ( gd. K) short and long vowel sounds

Abigail - (5th gd.) words ending in  -ent

Hannah & Max - ( 6th & 8th gd.) words ending in -tion

Raphael - (10th gd.) SAT vocabulary words, Spelling and definition practice

Math:

Eliana - (gd. K) Basic Skills Workbook Adding & Subtracting

Abigail - (5th gd.) math Skills Wbk./Division

Hannah - Saxon 6/5 Reading the Centimeter Scale to the Nearest 10th

Max - Saxon 8/7 How to Write Division Problems

Raphael - Saxon Algebra 1/2, Advanced Equations

English:

Eliana - (gd. K) nouns

Abigail - (5th gd.) different kinds of sentences

Hannah - (6th gd.) singular, plural, possesive nouns

Max - ( 8th gd.) quotation marks and italics

Raphael - (10 gd.) reading Ivanhoe for Historical Fiction book report

Every Friday we read about a particular artist and do a related art project.

We also pick an African Country and read about it and take notes, color the flag, etc. and we are watching a 5 part series: The Human Journey: Out Of Africa

 

Filled to the Brim Homeschooling

Our homeschool days are filled to the brim with many different ages and curriculums. We have a :

• 2 yr old, with Down Syndrome
• 5 yr old, kindergartener
• 10 yr old, 5th grader
• 11 yr old, 6th grader
• 13 yr old, 8th grader
• 15 yr old, 10th grader

Each day the children are responsible for pulling out their own books and doing the assigned work. They have a weekly chart ,with each day of the week on it, to fill in. At the end of each day they hand it in and I fill out my daily curriculum page. All except the 2 and 5 year old do this on their own. This fosters a sense of independent learning and responsibitity. I am available when questions arise or difficulties with any lessons.

On Hannah's desk is her chart and her history assignment for the day, She is reading about early American History in "From Sea to Shining Sea" put out by CHC.

 All of the children have been working on figuring out the main ideas of paragraphs appropriate to their grade level. There is a great website called K12Reader.com and it has a lot of great literary worksheets and advice.

There are even high school level worksheets which exphose students to classic literary works. They have pargraphs from Moby Dick, Romeo and Juliet, The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to name a few. It can be used for an introduction to a longer novel or alone for those who may get overwhelmed by reading.

This is the science book my 8th grader is using, "  Life Science, All Creatures Great and Small". I spread this book out over a two year period and am excited to learn they are coming out with a new updated color version of this text at CHC, soon.

My little kindergartener has been working on the typical grade K work, phonics, addition, sequencing, the seasons, pilgrims, etc.  She used stamps to fill in the letters on the above worksheet, a fun way to encourage phonics and spelling.

She also takes up helping her little brother as well. Unfortunately, seasonal colds have been making their way through our homeschool as well.

 The kids display some of their favorite papers or activities on our show and tell bar we have hanging on our wall. Right now we have a leaf collection, a pilgrim coloring page and...

a drawing and description of a lion, part of our African study...

a "Lord of the Rings" coloring page. We are reading this as a group and our  kidergartener did this while listening to us.

Here is another part of the leaf collection by our 5th grader, she is also drawing flowers for her nature notebook. The kids do are quite good at keeping themselves on track in their individual subjects, they are interested learners and their lives are filled to the brim with learning opportunities.

Creative Minds

 I am not really a tv person, I like to be creative so I try to encourage that in my children as well.  Open ended activities are good for the brain and personal development. Birthdays are great oppurtunities to purchase these kinds of items but I also like to go to tag sales or second hand stores any time of year to see what treasures there may be.

 Summer is the perfect time for unstructured learning, certain games and books can stimulate kids and allow them to have memorable fun times! Here are some things we have been gathering and using.












 Creative activities nuture the brain but also the soul, the kids feel good about themselves when they do productive tasks. They also help and teach each other without even knowing it. It is so great for them to be little teachers and mentors. I so enjoy watching them during the day and get so excited when they bring me something they have created. I hope you are gearing up for a unstructured summer filled with many chances to learn new things!