Halfway through 4th Grade

Woohoo! Halfway through 4th grade (US History II). This unit was on westward expansion between Civil War and moving up on the beginning of World War I. I’m hoping we’ll do ok maturity wise with some pretty difficult topics that are coming.
We’re late in the year for all the same reasons as Benjamin, but we’re having a harder time with Hannah because she has a bigger load of work to do and it is getting harder to squeeze it in other places in the week when we get pressed on time. With adding Joel to the mix, I’m going to have to be more picky about our outside activities during school time.

In bible we have been working through 1 Samuel and memorizing larger passages at a time. We also have a devotional called Starting Strong and are working through some Prims material.

In history/social studies, our spines are Landmark History of the American People, Vol 2, Children’s Encyclopedia of American History, and Wee Sing America. During this unit we read Caddie Woodlawn, The Great Turkey Walk, The Great Wheel, and started Little Britches. We also have weekly selections from Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems.

In reading and language, we’ve been learning lots of new parts of speech as well and continuing our spelling. We use Sequential Spelling 2, The Gramma Ace, Wordly Wise 3000, Book 4, and have one creative assignment a week. Hannah has been enjoying her books that she reads to herself. She finished up Old Yeller, Hellen Keller, The Wright Brothers, Hero Over Here, All of a Kind Family, and George Washington Carver.

Science continues to be difficult to get in. I think largely because some of the tasks have to have table space to set up so I need to figure something out for that. We finished up magnetism unit in TOPS:Magnetism, Electricity and Magnetism, and Discover and Do Level 4. Now we are starting molecular science in Mysteries and Marvels of Science.

Math is Horizons 4. We’ve started more difficult multiplication and introduced division and are starting some equations. We also do a bit of keyboarding on days we need a break from math.

Extras are so fun! We have weekly piano, Girl’s Ministry, and park days. We went caroling, had a service day, and a Bunco night at church. There was also a fall awards ceremony for Stars. We saw a children’s production of Into the Woods with our homeschool group. Hannah had fun attending all of Benjamin’s basketball games and is gearing up for another volleyball season. We had multiple family trips away from the house and had family visits to see us as well as Hannah turning 10! Woohoo.