Arrivals

Here's what's shaping up for fall.

I will review 1B with Luke over the next few months & start him in the fall on 2A. I will begin Liv in 1A. (Oops the 1B didn't happen over summer, starting with review in September)

Lots of writing, drawing, & fun paper

I will likely order more of the 1-2-3 Draw themes. Great little articles on each ocean animal & the kids love following the drawing steps... Some fun & easy science. I thought Luke would be excited to read Stuart together, given his love for EB White's other novel, but for now he pleaded for another round of Charlotte.

Hopscotch, sight words, journals.

Multiplication DVD, math facts songs

Art & music - a start. Will also include plenty of listening. Luke is interested in learning the flute or violin, actually he wants to learn the whole orchestra but told me he'd start with one of those two. The violin teacher I talked said he's too young....would love to find a good Suzuki method teacher but that didn't happen.... The flute teacher recommended starting with a recorder.... So that's the plan.

History in the form of trains & planes & coloring. These modes of transportation will hopefully dovetail nicely with some of our historical fiction. . . Mazes because they love them!

We'll try out the Magic School bus science set.

A very small sampling of the books on the menu. Much of the menu I have in a box somewhere.

Some of it was just so tempting they couldn't wait! They're loving this fraction game!

History will start with historical fiction & student-interest topics. We will build on these topics through library books, research, field trips, map activities, videos, discussion, etc. We will also study history as related to holidays throughout the year. And finally, we will learn some US geography using puzzles & activities pictured.

Language Arts will be reading & writing & reading & writing & more reading & writing. Sight words displayed & referred to. Student independent reading & read alouds with discussion & some tie-in to story elements. Writing for real reasons- stories, articles, letters & editing/spelling/grammar all within the context of writing.

Math will be the only textbook. Although down the road, I'd love to incorporate & even focus on math classics, writings of

Mathematicians. For now I'm going with Singapore. In all I've seen, I find it to be simple & straightforward but at the same time focused very much on the concrete, contextual why's & not just on the "do this." Place value charts, base 10 cubes, manipulatives, real world measurement via cooking & working on a barn addition & more, fraction & other games, & memorization by song to be included.

Science will be student-interest, grandpa-interest, dad-interest based, nature walk inspired. Caterpillars & tadpoles are on our front porch right now. This month grandpa built a battery with Luke from lemons & dad panned for gold with him & taught him to identify the local minerals that showed up in the pan. Science ideas seem to spring up on their own left & right. We will run with these through research, books, videos, discussions, and hands-on projects. Visits to the beach and mountains will bring fresh ideas. Additional learning comes through the drawing ocean life book, reading highlights & zoo nooz magazines, trips To the zoo, etc. We will try out the Magic School Bus kit on germs. We will try various experiments from a few other books as needed to spur on the student, grandpa, & dad interest.

There will also be Bible, art, music, physical activity, life skills like safety & household chores...... But much of those seem to be so much a part of home anyways, I'm not sure how much will get categorized as homeSchooling in my mind.