Core A 1st 6 Weeks!

Well, we started Core A 9 weeks ago and have accomplished 6 weeks of curriculum! One week off for Hannah’s birthday with family in town and one week off for a trip to Texas and a week of catch-up due to having busy Wednesdays. Overall, I am pretty pleased with our progress and enjoyment level and don’t feel at all like we are ‘behind’. That’s one of the beauties of homeschooling!
^ This is Hannah starting a lapbook to display all the things she’s done this year!

This year’s goal is mainly to touch on as many different topics as possible in order to give children a broad ‘framework’ to add details to as we go back and study things in more depth. This is also true of the bible and history sections. It’s very general and some people complain that it is too shallow. However, I really like the idea of just touching on so many subjects because I can really see what my children are interested in and what they aren’t. And if I was picking, we wouldn’t even touch on many of these subjects because “I’m” not interested in them. Hehe.

In science, we’ve studied frogs, weather, earth science (water cycle, mountains, other habitats). We made a tornado in a bottle, a volcano, a boat, fossils, wind sock, weather vane, and did other experiments. We’re starting a cycle on caterpillars and are watching 5 little guys turn into butterflies over the course of the next 5 weeks. And we have a little ‘garden experiment’ growing radishes, watermelon, tomatoes, and peppers. So far, they have all sprouted.

In Language Arts, we’ve just been reviewing the weeks that Hannah had already done when we had the girls here. I decided to keep it light to start with so we can get in a rhythm in the other subjects. We’ll be picking up new material in a couple weeks. Her reading level is way above 1st grade, but I want to make sure to touch on all the grammar subjects so will continue to let her read ahead, but still make her to the requested reading to check off for the day. She’s been doing bible verses as copywork until we start the new stuff.

In math, we do a page a day (most of the time) of the Horizons K material. We’re up to counting to 90, doing numbers before and after, bigger and smaller, counting coins, calendar, and some addition problems. Some days she is resistant and I think she may be bored with the repetition (its spiral). It could also be the number of problems, sometimes I will write the answer she tells me and that makes her happier.

In history, we’ve studied cave men, vikings, ancient Romans, ancient Egyptians. Also some early missionary stories like Saint Patrick, and others who spread Christianity to new nations. We read Boxcar children, No Children No Pets, and My Father’s Dragon.

For extras, Hannah took a little chef class and learned some recipes for snacks and easy meals. Now she and Benjamin are in a PE class that they are really enjoying.