Goals' Check: Our 1st Quarter (40 Days Completed)

We've completed our first quarter of learning for the 2014-2015 school year! It's time for a goal check! Are we staying on track to meet my education goals?

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Cati is using Saxon Grammar and Writing (Grade 8) for English. Since she's only in 7th grade AND Saxon is a thorough, time-consuming program, my goal is for her to complete half the lessons this year or 55 lessons. Each quarter she should finish 14 lessons. This quarter she has completed 16 lessons and her test average was 97%. She also completed all 4 of the writing lessons required in the first 16 lessons.

She wrote a daily journal. I highlighted misspelled words and she looked up the correct spellings, editing her writing. Fewer and fewer words have needed to be looked up as she is correcting them before I review her work. She is keeping a "running list" of these words in the back of her English notebook. And she has started sharing creative stories at Wattpad in her free time.

Sam is using a combination of Easy Peasy Homeschool Reading and Language Arts, 2 days per week, and MobyMax, 3 days. It's harder for me to pinpoint number of lessons, so my hope is he continues at a steady pace. He did complete 13 days of Easy Peasy.

Both programs include Reading, Spelling, Writing, Literature, and Grammar skills, but I have incorporated additional Spelling through Spelling City (where he completed 6 weeks) and Grade Spelling (where he completed 25 weeks) to fill in spelling gaps. He started at Grade 1, progressing quickly through lessons as he only started in October. My goal is to finish through Grade 3 by the end of the year.

Books read

Cati -  The Two Towers (Tolkien) • The Throne of Fire (Riordin) •  The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe (Lewis) • Prince Caspian (Lewis) • The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Lewis) • The Hobbit (Tokien) •

Sam - The Adventures of Captain Underpants (Pilkey) • The Story of Davy Crockett: Frontier Hero (Retan) • Something BIG Has Been Here(Prelutsky) •

Read Alouds -  Johnny Appleseed (Moses) •  Henry and Ribsy (Cleary) •

Videos
"Disney 1958 Paul Bunyan" (Literature) (You Tube) • "The Legend of John Henry" (Literature) (You Tube) • "American Legends Volume 1: Johnny Appleseed" (Literature) (You Tube) • "Rhymes, Rhythm and Alliteration" (Poetry) (Smarttutor) • "Syllables" (You Tube) • "Syllable Skycoaster" (Game) (GotKidsGames) • 

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Cati's learning Math with Saxon Algebra 1/2, with a goal of completing all 123 lessons. She completed 31 lessons of 31. Her test average was 97%.

Sam's learning Math with Saxon 54, which has 141 lessons. In the back of my mind I would like to have him finish the entire book, but I'd be content with 113 lessons completed (80%). Out of 28 lessons, he finished 26. His test average was 94%. He also plays on-line games with Math Fox to reinforce concepts.

Math Facts Quizzes

Cati - Multiplication Finished!

Sam - Addition Finished! Subtraction Started

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I use the same Science and History curriculum with both Cati and Sam despite their different ages. Science is completed through reading and notebooking, which is adapted for abilities. Our labs are completed together. Only Cati completes the on-line self-assessment quizzes.

We are learning Earth Science with Prentice Hall. My goal is for Cati to complete all 21 chapters and Sam 14. (Earth Science is a middle school level curriculum; Sam is only in 4th.) This quarter Cati needed to complete 6 chapters and she finished 7.  Her self-assessment quiz average was 90%. Sam needed to complete 4 and he finished 4. 

Experiments

Videos

• "Maps and Globes & Their Uses" (Earth Science/Geography) (You Tube) • "3 Rock Types Igneous Rocks, Sedimentary Rocks and Metamorphic Rocks for Kids" (You Tube) • "Learn about the Land Forms" (You Tube) •  "Inside the Earth" (You Tube) • Layers of the Earth" (You Tube) • "Continental Drift & Plate Tectonics Theory for Kids" (You Tube) •

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There are 42 chapters in Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times. I hope to finish SOTW earlier in the year so that Cati can devote a quarter to Maine Studies, a required subject in grades 6-8 for homeschoolers.  (I am not sure what Sam will do at this point, but perhaps devote his time to his other core subjects.) This quarter we completed 14 chapters of 14. Our studies include reading the SOTW book, completing map work, creating a wall timeline with graphic and date cards, and You Tube Videos.

Videos
• "What is Archaeology?" (History) (You Tube) • "Ancient Mesopotamia" (History) (You Tube) • "History of Egypt Part 1" (World History/Geography) (You Tube) • Ancient Egypt and the Nile River Valley (World History/Geography) (You Tube) • "Written Word: Birth of Writing" (World History) (You Tube) • "Maps and Globes & Their Uses" (Earth Science/Geography) (You Tube) • "The Expedition of Lewis & Clark" (US History) (You Tube)  •"Mummification Parody" (You Tube) • "Great Pyramid Mystery Solved?" (You Tube) •  "The First Sumerian Dictator" (You Tube) • "Joseph's Tome and Palace Found?" (You Tube) • • "Indus Valley Civilization: Crash Course History" (You Tube) • "World of Mysteries: Tutankhamum" (You Tube) • "Ken Burns' Dust Bowl (Netflix) •

Read Alouds
• Hieroglyphs for Children (Kamrin) (Ancient History) •

Field Trips
• Historical Society Museum (Sam & I) •

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Everything else is considered an "extra" around here, including Music, Art, Culinary Science, Animal Husbandry, and Handicrafts.

Life Skills
• Cooking & Baking • Domestic & Farm Animal Care • Home Maintenance (i.e. Cleaning & Simple Repairs) • Saving, Budgeting & Managing Personal Finances •

Field Trips
• Apple Picking at Wight's Orchard with Family •

Activities
Cati - Jazz and Concert Band
Sam - Cub Scouts

Phys. Ed.
• Walking/Hiking • Swimming • Kayaking • Biking • Calisthenics (Sam) •

Art
• Stained Glass Paper and Markers Project (Color Theory) • Warhol-inspired Art with Crayons (Artist Study) •

Videos
• "Intro to Color Theory" (Art) (You Tube) • "How its Made: Stained Glass" (Art) (You Tube) • "Introduction to Pop Art" (You Tube) •

What do we need to work on? We're doing well staying on track in our core subjects (and those are areas I'm most concerned with), but there's always room for improvement, right?

2nd Quarter Additional Goals (Beyond Core)
Word Roots
Mind Benders
Art Projects
Field Trips
Nature Studies
Earth Science Experiments