I kept putting off updating our blog because I hadn't emptied pictures off my camera. I still don't have any pictures to share, but I wanted to do an update because starting Monday we're going to shake things up a bit. More on that later. :)
So our story left off with our 100th day of school. After that lesson, we spent a week learning about Spain and missionaries. It worked out nicely that Adeline has moved on to the extra credit book in AWANA, which includes a study of missionaries. She chose to learn about George Whitefield. We found his picture, read about his life, learned how he shared the Gospel and imagined what it would have been like to help him. During our study of Spain, we learned to count to 10 and say ten colors in Spanish. Adeline is fascinated with other languages and constantly asking me how to say ______ in Spanish. Unfortunately, most of the time I have no idea! Spanish will definitely be one of her subjects next year - and we'll be learning together!
The next week's focus was the United States. We learned about Hawaii and watched beautiful clips from YouTube. We also learned about growing bananas - which reminded me why I prefer to buy organic. Daddy taught Tuesday's lesson that week while I went to a Love & Logic conference. The theme that day was the Statue of Liberty. I didn't get a very detailed report, but from what Nathan and Adeline said, the day went pretty good. Nathan did comment that he makes a better electrician than teacher. :) The next day was the Luray Caverns. We watched a really neat video on YouTube, then tried to make our own stalactites and stalagmites using two glasses of salt water and string. The experiment was a flop, though. Nathan thinks we didn't have enough salt in the water. I didn't think we could get any more salt to dissolve. I guess that's part of experimenting! We ended the week with Alaska, watching more beautiful footage and finding the state on our map.
The next week began a unit on weather and the seasons. We made a model of the earth and sun using a ball and flashlight. The kids were fascinated with the idea of the earth rotating and that night on one side of the earth is day on the other. They ask on a daily basis what time it is in Germany, and now they understand why Kathi is asleep when we are eating supper. :)
Weather forecasting was the topic of another day that week. We watched our local weatherman predict the day's weather, then compared his forecast with what actually happened. He was pretty close! I tried explaining the use of radar and other instruments, but it mostly went over the kids' heads. Around this time, I had a day of feeling sick. I was laying in bed watching one of my favorite shows, Storm Chasers, on Netflix when Adeline crawled in bed with me. Not exactly the best show for a 5 year old, but she was so intrigued by the tornado footage I let her watch it. Now we'll find out this spring if the show makes her more or less scared of severe weather.
This week we have continued with the theme of seasons, specifically focusing on summer. God worked it out for us that the weather this week has felt a lot like summer! We spent time talking about the fun things we do in the summer, and experimented with placing a thermometer in the shade, then in the sun. I was surprised to find our sidewalk measuring 110 degrees in March! We have soaked up the summer-like sun this week by doing all of our school work outside (you should see our driveway! We need some rain to erase our "chalkboard!") and spending lots of time at the park.
So that was the fun stuff. Adeline has been working really hard in Language Arts adding to her knowledge of phonics. Sh, Ch, Th, -ng, and Wh sounds were added early in the month. The past two weeks have been spent on words with long vowels and a silent "e." I was a little worried about trying to explain silent "e," but it only took a day and Adeline had it down. I've been dictating a lot of words for her the past two weeks. I've been really surprised at how well she can spell, and how eagerly she does it. In addition to her schoolwork, she's been reading about 3 books a day. It's really hard for me to believe how far she has come since September. So proud of her!
Math this month included a chapter on subtraction to 6 and a chapter of solid shapes. Yesterday we had a living math activity. Adeline helped me measure our future garden and plot it on graph paper. I thought the activity was great! Adeline, however, told me, "Mom, I thought this was going to be fun, but it's work." Not sure how much help I will get out of her this summer!
That brings us to the present. We have 8 weeks left in this school year and I've decided to use those weeks to try out next year's style of curriculum. Styles of homeschooling range from those who "un-school" to those who have "school at home." Admittedly, I'm much closer to the "school at home" end of the spectrum. I want to break the mold (a little!) and use unit studies next year as our core curriculum. We will add in Language Arts (right now I'm planning to use All About Spelling and All About Reading), Math (Math-U-See) and a couple other things to round out first grade. From the samples I've seen and the reviews I've read, I'm really excited to try out Amanda Bennett's unit studies. Starting Monday, we will spend 4 weeks on her Easter unit. I will definitely be blogging this experience! At the end of the Easter unit, we will jump into her 4 week Garden unit - which will end just in time to start planting! I can't wait to get started and to share our adventure!
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