As summer activities are over, we have started doing more book work. I worked with Jade some on math and spelling but not much more than that. The main books we'll be using for the next few months:
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| Handwriting, Grammar, and Math |
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| Jade will eventually transition to cursive in his handwriting book |
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| I like that the book uses scripture verses for handwriting practice |
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| History, Human Body Science, and Language Lessons |
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| Mystery of History uses good chronological order |
Jaden probably reads at what would be classified as fifth grade level or so, but he's using Grade 3 math, and it seems to be right at the correct level for him. I actually stopped his math lessons for a couple weeks so that we can work more on addition and subtraction flash cards. He simply does not have his facts memorized, so it takes him too long to do his lessons, because he counts on his fingers and seems to struggle. He does get most of the problems correct and seems to be doing all right, but for now math is not a strong point, and I've got to get him to memorize his facts before we move on. He's done eleven math lessons, I think, and then he is also doing a page out of his
Daily Word Problems math book, but he's also not doing that until we finish with the flash cards.
I chose
Horizons math, and I'm really glad I did. I've had a difficult time finding a math curriculum I like, and I must say I like this one so far. It's starting to get into multiplication a bit, though, and it's going to be moving too fast for Jaden if he doesn't yet have his addition and subtraction facts
memorized.
I like the
A Reason for Handwriting, as he needs more handwriting practice, and it is set up to offer five lessons a week that are simple and scripturally-based. On day four he traces the entire verse, and then on day five he picks a lined page in the back that has a picture and writes the entire verse by himself. He does handwriting on the first day of the week through the fifth day. The book I chose will transition him to cursive handwriting within a few weeks. I told him that after he learns how to write cursive, he is not mandated to continue writing that way, if he chooses not to do so. I prefer print myself, though my handwriting is a mixture of both, where some letters are sometimes cursive but some are always print. Nathan loves cursive and even writes the details section of his invoices in legible cursive. Jaden does not seem to be looking forward to it, and he struggles with reading anyone's cursive handwriting. I actually read a couple months ago that some states are dropping the requirement in public schools to teach cursive handwriting as they are teaching typing earlier. That is a bit odd, I think, since everyone at least still writes signatures in cursive. Perhaps they should just teach a person to develop a signature. After all, my signature does not follow the rules of standard cursive letters, and the same goes for many people.
I really look forward to starting back in
Mystery of History. You may remember that we started in the book earlier this year, but swimming lessons and everything started, so I decided to put it off and go back to it later. We started everything but science and history a few weeks ago, and just yesterday we started on science (although both science and history is an ongoing learning experience in our home, just not in the organized curriculum form). I'll review what we already did in history and then continue. In the picture above, you can see how in one lesson King Solomon is discussed, then the Phoenicians, and on later India and Hinduism is talked about, then the Olympic games, followed by the prophets Jonah and Amos. I really like this curriculum; it's exactly what I wanted for history. I wanted something that put the history in the bible parallel to other things going on in different parts of the world, and I wanted everything chronological through time that way, not divided up as a focus on the Far East after Asia history has been learned. This is so much better than how we learned in school, so much more fun and exciting!
We are also still using
Sequential Spelling. I'm still a big fan, too. Just as I was disappointed in math curricula, I was also disappointed in spelling ones...until
Sequential Spelling.
Besides book work, some other things we've been doing:
My mini food chopper I've had for years finally stopped working properly. I used it all the time, though. Nathan got me a new one for my birthday. I told Jaden William he could take the old one apart. He kept the gears...for I don't know what, as he is always coming up with ideas and such. More exciting, though, was the motor. Nathan taped around the appropriate area to make it safe, and then Jaden stripped the end of the wires and connected them to nine-volt batteries. He started with one, but then he got the idea to use more for more power. He actually bought more batteries for this.
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| An Eastern tailed blue butterfly on Jade's eyebrow |
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| Jumping spider about to make a feast of caterpillar blood |
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| Jaden with an Ovenbird that he rescued from the cat's jaws |
We're still enjoying wildlife as always. We still have butterflies around, though the numbers are dwindling as the weather is cooling. I really hope we get to see the Monarch migration this year. I've only witnessed it two years in my life, but I LOVE it, and that's one of the special things I hope to see each year.
We've read about a lot of cool things in recent issues of
Ranger Rick and
Your Big Backyard. Jaden also got his first inclusion of
Science Spin in his Weekly Reader, and it talked about Leatherback turtles, among other things.
I thought it was interesting that I saw the jumping spider (pictured above) attacking the caterpillar, which I showed the boys, and then a few days later we read about jumping spiders in
Ranger Rick. We learned some interesting things and enjoyed some great pictures. Jumping spiders come in all sorts of colors, and some are quite beautiful.
I think the bird pictured above in Jaden's hands is an Ovenbird, but I'm not positive. I didn't recognize it. Jade rescued the bird from Sylvester the cat's mouth. Sadly, it did not survive, but Jade lovingly comforted it in a bird nest (one that he found in the past) until it died. Speaking of bird nests, he found another one recently.
The boys also got rats, which they keep in their bedroom. Jaden rescued a chipmunk (not the first time) from Sylvester's jaws, and he put it in with the rats. I was not sure about this, but Nathan and Jaden observed them for quite some time, and it seemed to them that all was well, so it was left in there overnight. Well, toward the latter part of the next day, Jaden noticed that the chipmunk was dead with a huge chunk eaten out of its side. How morbid and awful. I did not want to look closely. I wish they'd have let the thing go before we went to bed. It was neat while the arrangement lasted...until the animals' dark side came out.
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| Rat and chipmunk |
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| Trust and Liv studying my shells |
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| Liv showing me one of the shells |
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| New bible rhyme books for Trust and Liv and an alphabet magnetic book for Liv |
Trusten and Liv stay busy with learning activities, too. I think it worked out well that we learned about univalve and bivalve shelled creatures in
Ranger Rick not long after Trusten and Liv explored my shells one day as I was doing Spelling with Jaden. Jaden used to play with my shells all the time. Sadly, it was short-lived with Liv, because she decided to chew one up! I found the new bible story books with a rhyming theme at Dollar General. So far they've been enjoyable.
I've been doing workbook work with Trusten, too, and he's practicing using a pencil correctly as he circles things and such. He's also enjoying his
Weekly Reader issue each week. After he's more comfortable with using a pencil correctly, he will start learning to write the letters of the alphabet and numbers.
There's much more I could say, but this is good for now. Look soon for my post on our Feast of Trumpets celebration. Coming after that will include discussion on Jaden's new interest in candle making.
Until next time...
