July 2014 Progress

We don't have a clean cut off from one school year to the next.  In my mind, I considered July to be the start of the new school year, but my pupils didn't notice a difference.  For better or worse, we just put one foot in front of the other every day (well, as near to every day as a busy schedule allows) and keep plodding along.

I haven't done an update on our school progress in a while.  I'd like to start up again for the 2014/2015 school year.  My son is in 4th grade and my daughter in second.

As for our first month of the new year, July, I did keep track of the books we read, but for the other stuff, I don't have a clear starting point.  For those subjects, I'll record in this post where we are now and next month I'll note the ground we covered.

Also, in this post, I'll elaborate a little on our book choices.

Classical Conversation

This will be our sixth year in Classical Conversations.  This will be my son's first year in Essentials and both kids' second time through Cycle 3.

Bible

My kids are studying the life of Jesus at church using the Shaping Hearts for God Bible curriculum.  It is designed for home use during the week.  We cover one event from Jesus's life each day.  There is also a memory verse that we learn over four weeks.

Math

Her:  My daughter finished lesson 57 in RightStart Mathematics Level C last week.  She is in the midst of reviewing subtraction strategies.  We also do a page or so out of Singapore Math's Challenging Word Problems Level 1 and have just finished page 145, which addresses division.

I'm loving this combination with her.  She also does an on-line math program called Dreambox once or twice a week.

Him: I have loved, loved, loved RightStart since the beginning but for my son who finished Level D in the spring, he's left with only two more levels in RightStart.  We would be forced to make a change sooner or later.  I had a hard time deciding whether or not this was the year we jumped ship to something with more continuity.  He spent the first part of the summer doing Singapore, but I didn't love all the switching between books.  It may be a bad reason to abandon Singapore, but I hated it from the start.  On a whim, I landed on Saxon for him.  He started Level 5/4 a few weeks ago.  It's scope is behind where he was in Right Start and Singapore, but I'm a fan of review and think we'll both do well with the format.

He, too, does Dreambox once or twice a week.

Writing

Her:  We're in week 24 of Writing With Ease 2.  We're moving quickly through this because she usually asks for more.  She LOVES copywork and does great with dictation.  The narrations are her weak point.

She's also starting cursive and is two weeks into Handwriting Without Tears Cursive Handwriting.

Him:  The hit of the summer has been Writing and Rhetoric Book 1:  Fable from Classic Academic Press ("CAP").  We started in early April and are two weeks away from finishing.  It has been a real pleasure going through this program... or should I say, progym.  I'm not good at generating the conversation.  This has been a good catalyst to get us started in having good discussions.  I also love the imitative approach to teaching writing.

We'll finish the Fable book in time to start the Institute for Excellence in Writing's  U.S. History -Based Writing Lessons through Classical Conversations Essentials program.  Part of me wants to continue on with the next CAP book, Narrative 1, but I think the outside accountability and the integration with history will benefit my son.

English Grammar

Her:  We're just going to rely on Classical Conversations English grammar memory work for her.

Him:  We'll be finished with First Language Lessons Level 3 by the time Essentials starts.  It's been a great review of Classical Conversation Cycle 2 memory work and introduction to diagramming. From then on, we'll rely on Essentials for all his grammar needs.

Spelling

Her:  She finished Step 11 in Level 3 of All About Spelling.

Him: He finished Step 20 in Level 4 of All About Spelling.

Both kids do great with this program.  It is a winner.

Poetry

Both kids memorized Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll and The 23rd Psalm this summer.  I'm not sure what's next, but it will be something out of IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.  I think we'll hop around and pick out poems from various American poets to somewhat match up with our history.

Science

I'm sorely tempted to just rely on Classical Conversations memory work, experiments and activities for science.   We've done no science this summer.

History

We are just going to read various non-fiction, historical fiction books and folk stories related to American History, roughly following our Classical Conversations's history sentence sequence.  This summer, we started with the mound builders.  Here's what we've read so far:

Pre-Columbian Civilizations:

Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 by Charles C. Mann (Read Aloud) - excerpt addressing mound-builders only
The Discovery of the Americas by Betsy and Giulio Maestro (RA)
Journey to Cahokia: A Boy's Visit to the Great Mound City by Albert Lorenz (His Independent Read)
Ice Mummy:  The Discovery of a 5,000 Year-Old Man by Mark Dubowski (Her IR)

The Vikings:

Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire (RA)
Voyage with the Vikings (The Imagination Station Series) by Paul McCusker (Her IR)

Columbus:

Columbus by Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire (RA)
Pedro's Journal: A Voyage with Christopher Columbus by Pam Conrad (His IR)
Christopher Columbus (Step into Reading, Step 3) by Stephen Krensky (Her IR)

Native Americans:

North American Indians by Douglas Gorsline (RA)
How Coyote Stole the Summer: A Native American Folktale by Stephen Krensky (Her IR)
Indians of the Plains by Rae Baines (His IR)

Literature and Required and Free Reading

I am slowly reading the kids Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb after lunch.  They are surprisingly attentive while I read this.  They are amused by the similarity between stories, particularly in the number of times a woman dresses up like a man.

I've let our evening read-alouds dwindle to nothing.  It seems there are more exciting things to do of a summer's evening than listening to me read.  Here's a list of additional non-history books they've read independently during July:

Her:

The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh (required reading)

Him:

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O'Brien (required reading still in progress)
Warriors #4, Rising Storm by Erin Hunter
Warriors #5, A Dangerous Path
Warriors #6, The Darkest Hour
Warriors:  The New Prophecy #1: Midnight

Music

They are continuing their weekly violin lessons and daily pracice.  They learn songs using the Suzuki method and Irish fiddle tunes.  He is in Suzuki Book 4 and she is almost done with Suzuki Book 2.