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Monday, August 24, 2009

School Starts In Earnest Today

Mother and Child Reading - Lila Cabot Perry - www.allposters.com

With all of our craziness around here lately, we have only done a few days of school here at home. We usually start around the beginning of August so that through the year we have flexibility in our schedule.

This year I have a 10th grader, a 5th grader and a 2nd grader officially. The beauty of homeschool is that I have the freedom to do history with all my children together. We are continuing our studies of World History. This is our third year, but since there have been about 6,000 years of world history, we aren't doing too badly! Actually it is great to take our time and work from creation until now. We are at the reformation period.

We use a great chart called "Adams Syn-Chronological Chart or Map of History", which goes along very well with Ushers "History of the World." The Chart is a giant fold out in full color that shows you a time line of all the dynasties and kingdoms of the world and shows them in relation to one another! It's awesome!

Emily is also doing biology this year, and British Literature. She is also doing math, art, music and Home Economics.

Rachel is doing math, language arts, health, civics, geography, fire safety, music and art. The great thing about elementary age is that many of these subjects can be combined.

Sarah is finally getting the hang of reading...her glasses for her focusing muscle issue have been a great help to her, she is beginning to read! This is huge for her as she has been wanting to read for so long! She comes from a family of readers and wants to be able to do what everyone else can! This is my main focus with her this year, but of course she will do the same subjects as Rachel and will do most of them with Rachel.

I am not sure exactly what I will do with Kyle. He already knows his letters, numbers, can count nearly to 100, he knows how to spell his name, he knows his colors, right and left. I guess I may work with him to start writing - boys sometimes struggle with fine motor skills but I have found him a large Ticonderoga pencil, that may help him. I honestly think he could start reading - I never have had one of my kids read so early but he seems ready. So we will see!

I have been stopped many times during the writing of this post, to answer questions, help with math problems, show how to form letters in a proper way. This is the life of a homeschool mom.

I wouldn't trade it for the world!

5 comments:

Becky K. said...

Sweet, isn't it?

I took the history book along to the Oral Surgeon's today and scoured it for several classes worth of history that Jonathan may not be familiar with. Silly guy is such a history nut that I have a hard time staying ahead of him.

He doesn't need any more but I enjoy the challenge. So as he was trying to wake up I was quizzing him. He got so much right...

Enjoy your schooling.

Becky K.

Anonymous said...

I am homeschooling my two daughters 10th grade and 7th grade. I hope you have a great year!

Renee

Ky

Anonymous said...

I am glad all the girls can read. Maybe then can start reading to me since my eyes have a difficult time focusing when I try to read.

Ha Ha

Mom

Nicole said...

:o)

For Tylor, he has fine motor issues that go with his Aspherger's Syndrome, but the therapist told use to have him play with play dough, brake a regular pencil so it is the size of his hand (better control), and to let him do things like make a sensory box for him to find small objects inside sand. These all worked great and even though he is not up to grade level, of course, he has made great improvements this year alone.

Mel started reading between 4 and 5 too :o) the perks to younger ones homeschooling with you :o)

Kelly said...

I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world either. It's such a blessing in so many ways. I LOVE being with my children! Today, Zeb drew some pictures using shapes he's been learning, and we were reading Curious George and the Alphabet and he stood up and formed some of the letters with his body! In this book they show the letters as other things, and he used his body! He's a smart little boy. He just needed someone who would spend time with him.

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