After five years in school, will homeschooling be a fit for our family? Walk with us as we try to find out!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Weekly Wrap Up: The Home Stretch

It certainly feels like we have entered the home stretch both here at the lab and at school for RA.  I sent back TS 1's PASS test answer sheet and now we wait for the results to be returned to us in the next two to four weeks.  We have four more weeks of school left and while most of the academic work has entered the review stage, there are a few subjects in which we are still working full steam ahead.


Both test subjects completed their science curriculum with Dad this week, including a comprehensive review of all they learned.  They have a planetarium field trip planned, as well as some hands on activities to reinforce what they learned this year.


As for history, we seem to be right on schedule.  We have about three weeks of lessons to go so we will take it at a slower pace, delving deeper into the subjects that are more interesting.  We have all learned so much and been exposed to such wonderful literature through Tapestry of Grace this year.  I am excited to study colonization and early American history using TOG next year.  


TS 1 will be starting the last unit of Growing with Grammar by the end of next week, so it looks like he will complete the book by the end of the year after all.  I was not sure he would, as I've mentioned before.  I think he still needs some drilling on the fundamentals of grammar and parts of speech, but I have a summer plan for that.  Writing class is also coming to an end.  He has one more assignment to write for the class, a persuasive essay.  As for math, I think TS 1 will be about halfway through the Epsilon book by the end of this year.  You may remember that he started at the Delta level of Math-U-See at the beginning of the year.  I have some ideas for math over the summer that I am mulling over, but I am hoping that by September, TS 1 will not have much of the Epsilon level left and will hopefully be ready to begin the Zeta level sometime in the fall.


TS 2 completed All About Spelling with flying colors this week.


I'm not sure what to do for him in terms of spelling for next year.  He certainly does not seem to need a formal phonics based program anymore, yet I am hesitant to abandon spelling all together at such a young age.  A friend mentioned I look into Spelling Power, so that is on my to do list as I plan for next year.  (If you have used Spelling Power and have any feedback, please leave it in the comments!)  We are working on the last few lessons of First Language Lessons, which are mostly a review of the concepts he learned and poems he memorized throughout the year.  We are actually a little behind in his Writing with Ease curriculum, with 5 weeks of lessons left and only 4 weeks of school.  I plan on looking through the lessons we have left and simply excluding one.  He is also almost finished with his Math-U-See Beta curriculum, with only two lessons to go.  


RA has had so many fun experiences in Kindergarten these past few weeks.  Her class cared for 12 chicken eggs and were blessed to have one hatch into a healthy little chick!  Fluffy is an adorable, if a bit noisy, addition to their classroom.


They are also currently observing butterflies emerging from their cocoons in the classroom.  And last week, we had a Mother's Day celebration in class.  


On Monday, they had their spring musical, Bugz!  She was a love bug, perfect, wouldn't you say?  


Yesterday, her class went on a community helpers field trip to a local police station, fire department and library.  Today, she will participate in the school's annual walk-a-thon.  We are all so excited to have her join us in homeschool next year!


Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

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