{RECAP} August 2019 Schoolhouse

We have officially begun our THIRD year of homeschooling! WHAT?!!! Time is flying by and we are loving our new year!

We wrapped up our summer school unit and it was fabulous! It was just what we needed! Check out this post to find out ALL about it!

Language Arts

First we will start with Jacob!

Jacob began The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 2 and it has been so fun! He was so excited to start the “purple book”! Every year the expectations get a little higher {as they should} and Jacob has had a great attitude and done really well with it so far.

He’s been reading from his new reader for at least 20 minutes a day and has been enjoying that. He’s also cruising through his spelling words. This is his last year with the phonics cards and right now we are just reviewing the cards he learned way back in his kindergarten year. He’s doing awesome with it! And then he has already mastered one of his sight word ladders. WOOT! He’s also working on memorizing his first poem for the year.

So far we have reviewed the phonograms EE, OO, and OI; discussed sensory words and created some beautiful sensory filled sentences; QU; Commas in a Series; OR can also say ER; began GEOGRAPHY and learned about the continents; and Jacob began writing a fictional story called “Lydia and Her Kittens”.

Handwriting

Jacob began his new handwriting book. He is using The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Level 3 workbook. So far it is just review – but he loves doing it while listening to his read aloud.

Read Aloud

Our FIRST read aloud of the year is Stuart Little by E. B. White. We are big E. B. White fans around here and this one is not disappointing!

Math

Math continues to be a favorite here for Jacob!

This month we have practiced adding on to ten, subtracting to ten, ten more, ten less, taking away all but one, doubles – sums to 20, half hour, dimes plus pennies, introduced the nickel, parallel lines, and graphing.

History

We began Year 2 of The Good and the Beautiful History and it has been so fun so far! We are starting the year learning about Ancient Greece!

We’ve talked about the geography and mythology {yes, the movie Hercules has come up every time this gets brought up!}, daily life in Ancient Greece and Greek City-States.

While talking about daily life we made a fun little spread of Greek food {grapes, feta cheese and pita bread} – YUM! We also made our own red-figure pottery!

We also began a new read aloud for history – The Spartan Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins. It’s been fun to get the perspective about life during that time.

We can’t wait for more!

Science

For science, we have begun our first unit – Kingdoms and Classification from The Good and the Beautiful. I’m not going to lie, it’s a little bit heavy at times but the kids seem to be enjoying it and we are learning LOADS already!

We introduced classification, learned about the different levels of classification and the discovery of cells!

We get to use a microscope during this unit and the kids are PUMPED! They cannot wait!

So far we went on a living and non-living hunt outside, discussed the taxonomy of a human, and learned about unicellular and multicellular cells using legos. AWESOME.

We also added the book Karl, Get Out of the Garden! by Anita Sanchez to our learning and we loved it.

Typing

This is Jacob’s first year learning typing {he has been BEGGING!} and he is loving it so far! We are using The Good and the Beautiful Typing Level 1 and he is doing really well with it. So far, so good!

Music

We have barely scratched the surface of our new music curriculum. We are starting the year learning about the Baroque Era from Squilt Music. So far we have discussed the different keyboard, string, woodwind, and brass instruments that were used during that period. We can’t wait to start listening to some music!

Jacob also started back up with his piano lessons – but this time WITH ME! Last year, Jacob began taking piano lessons but he went to a private teacher. Mark and I both play but I will admit it was really nice to have someone else take this on. But we are changing things up and so far it seems to be going okay.

Civics

This is another new subject we are tackling this year {per Wyoming law}. I’ve learned that most just lump this in with their history curriculum {and maybe that’s what I should have done} but we are using Our America from Abeka.

So far we have finished the first short unit introducing our country. We have discussed our flag and the freedoms that we enjoy in our country. It’s definitely got a little different feel to it but it is going alright so far.

Handwriting

Moving on to Sarah!

This is Sarah’s first year doing handwriting. We are using The Good and the Beautiful Level K Workbook which we have never used before. So far it’s gone really well.

Sarah has self taught herself how to write all of the uppercase letters but she is pretty unfamiliar with lowercase letters. So far she has practiced her numbers 0 – 9, her first name, and letters Aa – Cc.

Peaceful Preschool – Letters A & B

I am really enjoying The Peaceful Preschool. We are definitely not doing everything it outlines every day but what we ARE doing is golden! I’ve adapted it to our needs and schedule and so far it is going swimmingly.

We are combining The Peaceful Preschool with The Good and the Beautiful Pre-K so each letter is taking us about six school days.

Sarah finished Letter A and it was so fun!

The books we read were: How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman, Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss, and I Spy: An Alphabet in Art by Lucy Micklethwait.

Our activities were making an “A” flashcard with glitter glue {and tracing it}, watercoloring a tree {and then adding red thumbprint apples!}, watercoloring an apple, glueing wheat seeds onto a letter A, and making an apple crisp!

We also just began Letter B!

So far we have read Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey and made a “B” flashcard with glitter glue.

TGTB Language Arts Pre-K

We have covered the first two lessons in The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level Pre-K for Sarah. We are combining this with The Peaceful Preschool. I feel like they are complementing one another really well. WIN!

We’ve discussed the sound that letter A makes, practiced writing Aa, done some counting, identified colors, looked at some art, read a poem, and painted an uppercase and lowercase A.

Come, Follow Me

We are continuing our study of the New Testament. This month we finished our study of Acts, Romans, and 1 Corinthians 1 – 13.

We focused our attention on talking about how God will help us when we experience trials, baptism and how it helps us become like a new person, that we are children of God, that our bodies are a temple, and that we should think about how we are following the Savior during the Sacrament.

Wrap Up

I’m not going to lie, there are moments when I feel like my brain is going a million different directions and going to implode at any moment. Doing this is no joke sometimes! It’s a lot of work.

I am lucky that I do not doubt what it is that we are doing often, in fact, it is pretty rare. And almost immediately when a doubt comes I get some kind of confirmation that this is what I am meant to do. I don’t think homeschooling is for everyone, but I do believe it is for us. And I am so grateful to know that I do not do it alone. I truly believe that I have help that I do not see from the other side and my job is to not get in the way too much 😉