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Homeschool

This week in homeschooling: Shakespeare, spelling and civics

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Every week we get to Friday and I think “We didn’t get a thing done this week!” And then I start to write this and realize that we did, in fact, get quite a bit done. Next week, however, we actually won’t get a thing done because we’ll be on Fall Break. We are all looking forward to it.

Here’s a bit of what we did this week:

Reading

We are still listening to “Little Women,” even though the kids told me they already know about “the big twist” because their cousin listens to “Little Women” constantly. I was not aware of that before I picked the book. But it’s a good book, so I stand by my decision.

Much to my chagrin, I realized today that Poppy hasn’t been reading much of anything lately. We’ll need to do something about that. Pete has been reading the “Warriors” series and a biography of Hillary Clinton that he picked out at the bookstore a few weeks ago. He really enjoys the “Who Is” biographies, if any of you are looking for something to give him for his upcoming birthday.

Language Arts

Poppy finished one level of WordlyWise 3000 this week and — once we figured out how to activate it — moved on to the next one. Pete is also continuing his WordlyWise studies. He’s also been working with a spelling tutor for the last few months. It seems to be going well, but I haven’t tested him or anything. Poppy’s work in her writing class tells me we need to start a formal spelling program with her again, too. I’m looking at Spelling Power, but I haven’t made a final decision on what we’ll use.

Math

Rockford has been working with Poppy on her math in the evenings, and I think both the change in timing and personnel has been good for her. Pete continues to sail through his math book with just a little bit of help.

History

“Story of the World: Volume 4” seems to be a great leap in content and effort from Volume 3, and we were getting a little overwhelmed with it. So we’re slowing down a bit and taking two weeks for each chapter. Last week we talked about the Canadian rebellions in 1837, and this week we started learning about post-revolution France. We’ll revisit France after our fall break.

Extracurricular

Poppy saw a performance of “Twelfth Night” this week, both kids had their usual music lessons and Pete went to chess class while I had coffee with a friend. We also had a brief Civics lesson, in the form of standing in line for an hour to vote. There wasn’t much time spent at tae kwon do this week — due to “Twelfth Night,” doctors appointments, haircuts and soreness from new braces — and Poppy only had two days of soccer practice this week rather than the customary three.

How was your week?

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

Homeschool

What third grade looks like at our house (version Pete.0)

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Mabel's Labels GiveawayBefore we get into this curriculum talk, I need to tell you this: Mabel’s Labels has given me an Ultimate Back to School Combo to give away. And I want you to win it. So at the end of this post, you need to dot the I’s and cross the T’s and drop your name into this giveaway. I have been labeling everything since I bought a set of labels from Mabel when the kids went to camp. And the things that have gone off on playdates and to soccer practice and everywhere else have actually made it back home. It’s magical.

… and now back to our regularly scheduled programming …

Somewhere along the line we’ve dropped into a wormhole and accelerated through time and space, because my calendar is telling me that this wee, bee-driving gent

tinypete

will be in the third grade when we start school in a few weeks.

While Poppy was somewhat interested in going to school this year, Pete has zero interest in such a thing. He enjoys doing his schoolwork on his schedule, which generally means getting it out of the way early and leaving the rest of his day to spend as he pleases. Here’s what he’ll be rushing to complete this year:

Social Studies

We’ll all be listening to “Story of the World: Volume 4“ together as we drive around to various activities. Hopefully we’ll do some of the projects this year, too. Pete will also continue working through the “Map Skills” book he started last year. It’s a book of worksheets on cardinal directions, map reading and state facts.

Math

Pete should finish McRuffy Math 3 by the end of 2016, and he’ll start the fourth level of the program after that.

Language Arts

I’m hoping to get the next level of Michael Clay Thompson’s grammar curriculum this year, but it’s pretty expensive so I’m still not sure it’ll happen. Pete will continue doing the WordlyWise 3000 vocabulary program. And for spelling…

Spelling has been an ongoing challenge for Pete and I, and this year we’re going to try to remove the potential for Mama & Pete conflict from the equation. Pete will have a couple of lessons each week with a tutor.

Science

Poppy is taking an Earth Science course elsewhere this year, and I thought it would be nice if Pete was working on the same subject at home since we’ll be doing some experiments when she’s home. We’ll be using “Classic Science: Elementary Earth Science” from Mr. Q’s. The texts are ebooks. I loaded Pete’s copy onto the family iPad and the teacher copy onto my Kindle, and I’m going to have all of the worksheets, lab reports and tests printed and bound. That’s going to cost about $30, but it’ll be good to have them all in one place and not be at the mercy of my printer.

Art & Music

Pete is still taking guitar lessons, and I’m thinking about having him do Kahn Academy’s art history lessons for art.

Extracurriculars

Pete is a green belt in tae kwon do now, and he’s going to be starting a chess class in the fall.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I just like Mabel’s Labels a lot, and they asked if I wanted to give away a set of labels.

a Rafflecopter giveaway