First grade has been off to a great start here at Jenna Academy.

First let me say I know how lucky I am to be able to homeschool Jenna. I do not take any of this time with her academically or in every day life for granted.

So we did a little hit and miss school in August, more miss than hit lol. But that is okay, I just wanted to do some review and make it easier for her to get back into the routine of school. With that said , here is what we have been doing in first grade.

Math - We are using Horizon math 2 book 1. She does this 4 times a week. Right now we are doing two lessons a day (because it is mostly review, soon we will do one lesson a day) and on fridays she does drill sheets. This week we finally got to something new, the thousands place value was introduced.

Reading - We finished Pippi Longstockings, which we started in mid August and we are now on the last chapter of Ribsy. We read these books aloud, taking turns reading. Jenna's been busy reading on her own. Her independant reading for school consits of some Judy Moody books and diary of a whimpy kid. books so far. She needs to read 10 chapter books to get a free kids meal at Apple Bee's. Oh and mom has to get a meal as well so, yay me! She has two more chapter books to read. I don't let her count our read aloud books. We will also be doing book it from pizza hut, when it comes in the mail. Mmmmm pizza!

Writing - We are in the middle part of Writing with Ease 2 (started this last year after Christmas). I am having her do this every other week, 3 times a week. I like this program because it incorporates copy work, narration and dictation. On the week we don't use the program we still do copy work, narration and dicatation but we take it from our reading, science and/or history. She also pen pal writes once a week and friday I let her free write. This past week she wrote about her wanting to be a vet when she grows up.

Spelling - Spelling Workout C seems to be such a good fit for her. I don't feel it is busy work at all, she seems to be learning from the short activities.

Grammar - We are using First Language lessons 2 I only have her do this 2 days a week. Even though we did this after Christmas I have started at the beginning of the book reviewing and having her do the memorization of poems. We will be done with the review before you know it and back to where we left off.

Science - We are using Real Science Odyssey Life. Jenna enjoyed learning about living and non living things. And about plant cells and animal cells. I loved her exciement about science. We examined an inside of a chicken egg and she filled in her lab sheet. We also learned that plant and animal cells differ with some jello, grapes, orange slice and 2 different shape pans(rectangle and round). She filled in a lab sheet for that as well. We also learned about the skeletal and muscular systems. Learned some names of some important bones.

History - Story of the world 1 - We finally got to this at the end of last week. We did the intorductory of what history is all about. She is looking forward to learning about the Ancients.

Art- she got some new liquid watercolors which she is enjoying. A more formal art will start next month. But Jenna is creative, so art is done on a daily basis in this house.

So this is what we have been up to. Jenna told me her favorite subjects are Science, Spelling and Art. She isn't a big math fan, but as I told her math is a very importamt part of every day life. And she does well in math. I have a feeling that once we get into history more, that will be a favorite as well.

Jenna is very strong in the launguage arts, which I am very happy about. On her own time she likes to read, write reports on what we are learning in science and animals as well, and narrates about the books she is reading without me asking her too.

She also is a typical kid who loves playing her ds and wii. And now on my fb playing Angry Birds lol. And as I said she is very creative in her daily life.

So hopefully this is a good sign that we are going to have a great first grade.

First day of first grade September 4, 2012

Back to school celebration

IHIP done

Thank goodness I was able to finish up Jennas IHIP for the school system. Now let's just hope they accept it with no problems. Last year for K was alot easier. This year all subjects are to be reported on. I give the school system just what the laws require and nothing more.

Now the good times begin of organizing and planning the school year. Takes me a month to do that. So I better get my rear in gear lol. September will be here before i know it.

Summer 2012

We took the month of July off and are doing a light summer session. Then in September 1st grade will begin. I really like the fact of schooling year round, it works for us.
This is what our scheduling of our school year. We start the end of July with reviewing the basics, and then in September we start the new grade level. School is a full day, five days a week. If she gets alot done by the 4th day then sometimes we have a short day on the 5th day. We have a break on November 15th for Jenna's birthday, Thanksgiving week we take 2 days off, December is at least a two or three week break, my birthday in February deserves a day off, lol, and then we take most of July off. Of course there will be days that come up that we may have to take off because life is unpredictable.
This is what we have going on for first grade.

Math-
Horizion grade 2 book 1 and 2 some timed addition and subtraction math sheets and flash cards

Spelling-
 Spelling workout C
        

Grammar -
 continue with First Language Lessons 2

Writing -
continue with Writing With Ease 2 and penpals
              

Reading -
8 to 10 chapter books that we will read aloud, 8 to 10 chapter books for her independant reading, Science/history books that we will read aloud and  Any books of her choice for free reading at night.

                

Science -
Human body (Real Science Odyssey Life) and Animals (Kingfisher First Encylopedia of animals) and lots of reading supplements on each topic. And a nature study using The nature connection and various nature books,
             
               

History -
Story of the world 1 and activity book 1. Lots of supplement reading as well.
             
Geography -
continue using the weekly readers Mapskills for today and Using maps in your neighborhood grade 2. And using geography from The Core teaching your child the
foundations of classical education
                   
                     

Health -       
Personal hygiene, good eating habits, diseases, and general saftey rules 

Physical Ed -
Wii sports, Wii fit, bike riding, walking, cardio workouts and sports.

Art -
 How to teach children art and online art sites
        

Music -
Classics for kids

Tea time - which will be filled with poetry reading and writing.

I am reading bravewriter and I am so inspired by it, Also The Well Trained Mind has been the inspiration to give my daughter a classical education.
It is going to be a busy and full year. Looking forward to the growth I will see this school year in my daughter's academics and everyday life.  

                         

First school week of 2012

Jenna started back to school on Tuesday. I was a little worried after being off from school for over a week and sleeping in, how she was going to behave when break was over. But she did wonderful, actually I think a break was just what she needed. She got right down to business and got right back in the grove of things.

Math - Horizon first grade book 2, she did 4 lessons this week. And we reviewed addition flash cards daily and did a quick review on her coins on Tuesday.

Spelling - She didn't do a lesson in spelling workout book b this week, instead we did our own words, which were the days of the week. She copied words on Tuesday, reviewed on Wednesday, alphabetized them on thursday and reviewed and tested today. As a bonus we added the abbreviation of each day of the week.

Grammer - First language lessons level 1, she did 4 lessons this week and reviewed all her poems she has learned so far. She did very well reciting each poem. She learned about abbreviations, she did very well, reviewed pronouns and nouns.

Writing- She didn't do Writing with Ease 1 this week instead I had her do copy work from her narrations that she did after doing her science reading. She also did some copying of spelling words and penpal writing.

Reading- Well she got some more Ramona books and Diary of the Whimpy Kid for Christmas, so she has been reading those for school independant reading time. Yes she has two chapter books going on at one time, that's my girl she likes a variety. As far as reading aloud time we have read books on dinosaurs and fossils this week.

Science- We are studying dinosaurs, she read about them, narrarated to me what she learned, then I wrote it down for her to copy. She also drew pictures to go with her narrations. She learned about fossils and made her own fossils.

Art-  Drawing was a daily thing her for Science and her penpal got a beautiful drawing. Also she made me a girl snowman to go with my boy snowman that she made me last year. It is on our winter board.

Gym - We both did some Wii fit and Just Dance Kids.

She also worked on her dictionary skills looking up words from her reading that she didn't know the meaning of. It was a good week.