UPS delivered a box today with most of the rest of what we need to start school. I'm expecting one more box from Tin Man Press, and then that's it (until I remember something else I still need to order). Today's box (from Rainbow Resource) contained: Singapore math for Gus and Ari, Handwriting Without Tears for Gus, Spelling Workout for Ari and Milo, Writing with Ease 2 for Milo, and the Story of the World 1 Activity Guide.
I've just gone back through the reading list I made for Ari a few months ago, added some things (there are now Too Many Things on the list), and pulled the books that we already have from our shelves. Tonight or tomorrow I start pre-reading and making notes for discussion. I also need to put together a list of age-appropriate science fiction short stories.
Ari's ITBS results came the other day. We did the ITBS primarily because Georgia requires a standardized test every 3 years starting in 3rd grade for homeschooled kids, but I was also kind of glad to 1. get Ari used to testing and 2. have a little bit of outsider input as to whether we've been doing an okay job here. After weeks of insisting that he wasn't going to take the test, and I couldn't make him, there was very little drama once the big day(s) actually arrived. He'd never admit it, but I think he actually kind of liked taking it. Anyway, his scores were sufficiently reassuring. His math was a bit higher than language, which was interesting. Not surprising, exactly; I really wouldn't have been able to predict which would be higher. But he did well in both. The only outlier was the "math computation" section. Apparently, it's a common outlier, as they don't even include it in the math composite score. So that confirms what I already suspected--that we need to up the drill this year with math. I've been pretty lax about making him do it, as he hates the repetition and fights me so much on it. But, since he clearly gets the concepts, the only explanation for the relatively low math computation score is that he makes careless errors. And maybe that he still doesn't have his multiplication tables down cold. I was relieved to see his spelling is solid, since I went ahead and ordered the fifth grade Spelling Workout book.
The summer has been, predictably, less academically productive than I'd hoped. But it's been fun! We got back from the Cape on Friday. Right before we left, we bought a membership to Tellus, a science museum pretty close by, mostly so that we could use the reciprocal benefits on our trip. We went to FOUR different science museums using it, and the kids loved them. I'll try to post some pictures soon.
I sat down and worked on a rough schedule the other day. I feel like we have so much to fit in this year, and so many kids to fit in, and I'm a bit worried about it all. I came up with a schedule that has us going from 8 to 3 with an hour and a half break for lunch/play on days when we're home all day. And I can see ways to cut it down so that we're finished as early as 11:30 a couple of days a week when we have other places we need to be. At this point I have no idea where those other places might be, though. Well, that's not entirely true. I'm pretty sure we're going to do swim lessons one day a week. Ari and Milo are both swimming, but neither of them is swimming well enough to keep my kid drowning paranoia in check. In the past we've done a session of swim lessons here and there, seen no progress, gotten frustrated and quit. I'm thinking if we commit to a whole year of weekly lessons (well, commit in our heads; not sign something committing) then they might really get to be strong swimmers. And then I'm pretty sure we're going to do homeschool soccer one afternoon a week. Other than that, extracurricular stuff is up in the air. Dave's going to do a Math Olympiad team, but that will have to be when he's not working, so outside of our regular school time.
And I'm still not sure what's up with science. Yeah. I just don't know. I should probably figure that out. I could just keep taking them to a new science museum every couple of days and hope some of it sticks.
But here's what I DO have planned!
Ari:
Singapore 5a/b (and I'll order the new Challenging word problems book when it comes out)
MCT Town level
finish WWE 3/WWE 4
Classical Academic Press' Spanish for Children (along with an outside Spanish class I hope)
Spelling Workout E
Joy Hakim's Story of Science
massive reading list (or some of it anyway)
Logic Liftoff, Building Thinking Skills
Milo:
finish Singapore 1/Singapore 2a
ETC
finish WWE1/WWE2
Spelling Workout B
Building Thinking Skills
lots of reading
Gus:
finish McRuffy phonics
ETC 1
Handwriting without Tears
Singapore Kindergarten
Everyone:
SOTW 1
whatever I figure out for science
critical thinking stuff from Tin Man Press
2 comments:
Looks good! I wish I was on the same history rotation as you are. We're doing Modern this year, and Ancients in 11-12. Now that I'm digging into Modern, I'm excited about it. I'd love to talk to you about assigned reading, though. This is my first year doing it, and I could use some chat.
We had a very similar experience with Math Computation on the ITBS, except that in our case, it was a meltdown over the timed aspect. My oldest is a bean counter, so he took one look at the number of problems on the page and just lost it. He's sort of sheepish about it now. I'm waiting to see if the district will challenge me on not running a standardized test this year. NY requires alternate year testing in grades 4-7, but doesn't specify which years, so I ran the ITBS in 3rd grade and am doing a summary eval. anyway, which gives me a year to work on his weak spots (and spelling is one of ours) before we have to report any scores.
It's nice to see you blogging!
We actually have to take a test but then not show the results (or any evidence at all that we actually did it) to anyone. Georgia homeschool law is a little nonsensical. But easy!
My reading list isn't tied into history...well, some of it is, but most of it isn't. I mostly just looked at a million book lists online for 4th-6th grade or so and then made a list.
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