Homeschool - January

Reading:

 

We went through Lesson 29 and 31 of  The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  It’s a little bit closer to my goal of completing one lesson per week, but I require close to mastery before we move onto the next lesson. 

 

At first I could tell that she was starting to memorize as opposed to sound out words; I was afraid the skill of sounding out wasn’t being grasped.  However, let me tell you the immense joy in this mother’s heart when we opened Lesson 31, and L sounded out jam and ham without every seeing them before!  YEA!

 

L is learning to read!

 

We do reading with flash cards and on the white board.  I make up my own sentences daily for her to read from the words that she knows.

 

I have found that it is much easier for L to concentrate on reading new words when they are isolated; hence, I made some flashcards.  (Print front and back.) 

 

L has also been working on some beginning letter sound worksheets from a preschool book that she received for Christmas.

 

Math:

We are using Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1 as our main text and jumping off point.  Most of L’s work this month was ‘vocabulary.’  She learned about Straight and Curved lines as well as Sides and Corners of shapes.  We also discussed longest and shortest and largest and smallest. 

 

She’s also been working with the concept of same and different.  L can sort easily, but the vocabulary has be tricky for her.

 

History: 

She is still reviewing the Pledge of Allegiance and the Presidents of the United States as part of her Memory Work.

 

L watches the CC Timeline video that I made for the Age of Ancient Empires.  She has been working on putting the mini timeline cards from And Here We Go! in order.  Thus far she can put events from Creation to Assyria falls to Babylon in order.

 

Bible:

L continued to practice the books of the Old Testament

and also memorized Matthew through Colossians in the New Testament.

 

She is also doing well memorizing the Exodus 20 passage; she has verse 1 through 15 down now. 

 

We were blessed to win the Mega Verses Volume 3: All Scripture from the giveaway at The Adventures of Bear.  It’s been in our CD player for away.  I can tell L is picking up bits and pieces of verses!

 

We have talked about Abraham and Sarah, and their son Isaac.  We talked about how Abram was born in Mesopotamia, and L likes to located it on the map.  She has also begun to memorize the tribes of Israel via this song.  (The actual song is at the end of the video.)

 

English Grammar:

L is learning a list of prepositions as part of her Memory Work.  Thus far she has memorized: about, above, across, after, against, along, amid, among, around, at, atop, before, behind, below, beneath.  She learns a motion to go along with each word from this YouTube video, and a simple, biblically- themed sentence that uses the preposition.

 

 

When she was learning before and behind.  I set up some animals in a line to get a crayon.  I asked L ‘Who is before the polar bear in line for a crayon?’  or ‘Who is behind the kangaroo in line for a crayon?”  She thought this was great. 

 

Music:

 

She learned the songs:  God is so good, When my cup runneth over with joy, and I believe the bible. 

 

Geography:

 

L is slowly learning the countries and flags in North America.  She has picked up the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans as well as the 5 Great Lakes this month.  She’s also memorized and is able to located the tallest mountain in North America, Mt. McKinley.

 

L was introduced to the land forms, island and lake.  I purchased the Land and Water Form Book from Montessori Print Shop.  Instead of putting it together like a book; however, I cut and taped the definition to the back of the pictures, like flashcards. 

 

I also printed out these FREE Land and Water Form Nomenclature Cards with actual images from The Helpful Garden.  L matched the drawn illustrations to the actual images for lake and island.

 

Science:

L began learning the parts of a flower with the Montessori Puzzle and nomenclature cards, as she learned the parts of a tree and leaf in the past.

 

 

Calendar & Vocabulary:

 

L is still using Brain Quest for 4s.  It’s definitely very challenging for her, but she was beyond the 3s book.

 

Fine Motor:

 

L rotates through doing a page from My First Book of Uppercase Letters , My First Book of Lowercase Letters , and My Book of Alphabet Gameseach day, about 4 pages total per week.  She is really enjoying learning how to write!