Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas

In the words of my five year old, "Best Christmas ever."

Just a quick reading update. A couple of times this week Jenna has taken it upon herself to pick up a book and just start reading. I love the fact that she is doing this on her own. And she read to her dad (most of the time she only wants to read to me and no one else). This is a step in the right direction when it comes to reading. I am very proud of her once again.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Plans for the second half the school year

Looking forward to the second half of our school year. I will be adding some grammer, writing, vocabulary and spelling to Jenna's language arts. I have been looking into some reading material for her reading level. I have a list started on my amazon wish list. We will also be studying prehistory and geography.






Here is a look at what we will be using



Grammer - first language lessons



writing - writing with ease



spelling - spelling workout



vocabulary - wordly wise



reading - mid to advance 2nd grade level

Explode the code workbook 3 and then move on to the next





Math - Horizons book K 2



Writing - Handwriting without tears 1st grade



history - prehistory - The Usborne Internet-linked Encylopedia of World history, charlies playhouse timeline, lots of books and hands on actvities. I got alot of great ideas from this blog http://satorismiles.com/curriculum/prehistory/lesson-1/



Geography - Evan Moor beginning geography - Around the world coloring book - Geography from A-Z - maps and globes and lots of books on relating to the country we are learning about.





Art - Artistic Pursuit The way they see it



I will slowly be adding the new subjects to her schedule. And at this point I am unsure of how many times a week we will be doing each subject. I am just going to take it slow and easy.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

mid year assessment for Jenna's K4

Last week before we went on break, I did a mid year assessment on Jenna. The results were great. It's unbelievable where she was at when we started the last week of July and where she is at now.

Math - She started out in the beginning of the year knowing how to count to 20. Writing numbers 1-10 (but had some reversals here and there).
           
She now knows how to count to 100 and to count by 2's, 5's and 10's.

She can write numbers beyond 100 with no reversals.

She learned how to add and subtract using the number line, but is now adding and subtracting without the number line.

 She can tell time on the clock at an hour, quarter after and half an hour.

 She also recognizes 1/2 and 1/4 and knows how to write it.

She recognizes all the coins, how much they are worth and can add them up individually with no problem. She has mastered any coin with a penny added to it. She has her nickels being added to any coin almost mastered. And we are working on the dime being added to the quarter which she is working on mastering.

These have been some big math milestones for her. I am very proud of  her. We both love using Horizon for math and will continue to use it for the next level of math as well.

Reading - She started of the year reading cvc and some consonant blends.

 We added Ordinary Parents Guide To Reading (which we both loved using) and her reading just took off.

She finished up right before her 5th birthday in November. She is now reading books at a high 2nd grade level. She read all the Arthur chapter books that I had on hand.

She is now working on her fluency which is getting better everyday. And for review I have her doing Explode the code. I tried Explode the code at the beginning of the year and she did not like it. I put it away and pulled it back out last month. She now says she is liking it. We finished up book 2 right before our break. We will continue with the other workbooks after our break.

I have been coming up with a good list of books to give her a challenge when it comes to her school reading. And when it comes to night time reading, I let her pick out whatever she wants. I am a big believer in reading outloud, her to me and me to her. I have not given her independent reading as of yet. But she has done it on her own here and there.

 I never expected her to be done with her phonics program in k-4 and reading at a high 2nd grade level. I am beyond proud of her achievement in reading.

Writing- Jenna taught herself how to write. Her letter formation wasn't very good, she started from the bottom instead of the top. She had some reversals.

We started using Handwriting without tears in the beginning of the year. I had some resistance to the program in the beginning, but as soon as she started to see some improvement all was good. After about 5 weeks I seen such dramatic results. Her letter formation was correct, reversal were very rare and the neatness of her writing was very good for being 4.  As time went on we moved from the k book to the 1st grade book (which she is using still). I am very pleased with Handwriting without tears.

She now has penpals and is able to write alot of sentences at a time. She grasped the concept of a complete sentence without any formal instruction. For the most part she starts sentences with a capital letter and knows to use punctuation. She loves to write stories in her free time.

Spelling- Well we started off using Evan moor 1st grade spelling, she was able to spell alot of the words, but was too young for some of the worksheets. So we ditched it. I think she has learned to spell more words just in her everday writing. We will be starting a spelling program after break.

Jenna has made excellent progress in all her subjects and I love homeschooling her. I am proud to be apart of her everyday achievements academically and in everyday life.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

90 days of school done and it is time for our December break

Well a break is much needed around here. Jenna has accomplished so much in the last 90 days of school. 

Our tree is up, but not decorated. We wil be working on our Christmas decorating and crafting next week.

Math - Horizon K book 2 -  She is doing very well with this program. She only has 30 lessons left and then she will be done with the K level.

Reading - She has been reading a t school time and at night. Explode the code book 2 is done. We will move on to the next book in January.

Writing - Handwriting without tears 1st grade - Her writing is coming along good for only being 5.

Spelling - We have been using the words for Explode the code book 2 for spelling. She can spell all the words with no problem at all.

I am very happy with everything we have used for school this year.