Fall 2014

I wrote most of this back in November, but am just now getting around to posting it.  

This is my 4^th year of homeschool and I now have three students and a sweet little mascot.  Luther is 8, Pearl is 6 and Calvin is 4 and Knox just turned 1!  We don’t know what grades to say they are in.  It can be a bit confusing when you homeschool and let the kids go at there own pace.  After a few years we have found curriculum and outside classes and activities that we love. I know this is going to be my favorite year yet! So here is a run down of what the kids are doing for school and extra curricular activities this year. 

Luther would be in 2^nd grade if he were in “real” school (due to his fall birthday), but at church and in his weekly co-op he is in the 3^rd grade class. He tends to do better with older kids because he is pretty big for his age and fairly mature.  He was 4’ 4’’ tall and 73 lbs at his 8 year check up.  He had previously taken MMA for 1 ½ years but when Knox was born we took a semester off.  Luther didn’t seem interested in going back this fall and James wanted him to try soccer. So, James found a nice city league and signed Luther up.  He ended up on a great team with an awesome coach who was so nice and encouraging.  He went to two practices and one games each week.  It was busy, but the park is not far from our house and we would all go as a family and enjoy the time outside together. Luther had a blast and learned so much about soccer and team sports.  He got better and better as the season progressed.  He did a great job on defense and passing to assist with goals.  And, he ended up scoring 2 goals for his team! They won most of their games and Luther really bonded with a few of the boys.  They just finished up the fall season, but he plans to play again in the spring.  He also took a homeschool Art class this fall.  Pearl had taken the same class last fall and loved it.  Luther asked if he could join her this time, so they took it together.  He was very serious about his projects each week and always ended up with a beautiful work of art.  On Thursdays, he(and Pearl) go to a co-op school for homeschooler from 8:45am-2:30pm.  The 3^rd grade class that Luther is in is doing Art, Creative Writing, History and Science.  Luther loves his co-op and looks forward to it every week.  Lots of the boys there bring Pokémon cards to trade during recess.  Luther is very generous with his cards and loves trading them.  He seems to enjoy all of his classes, but he always sounds the most excited when he talks about his Pokémon trades.  He has had homework in his writing class every week and many times in his history class as well.  So, that has been helping him learn some more responsibility, listening and communication skills as he has had to learn to find out what he needs to do, make it home with his work, complete it and then return it.  That’s a lot of steps for a distracted boy!  But, he has been doing a good job.  We have only had one homework mishap so far ;) He is also doing Kumon Math classes twice a week and has math homework everyday from that class.  He has worked his way this fall thought 2 and 3 digit addition and subtractions and is now doing multiplication.  I have been pleasantly surprise at how fast he has progressed.   He has also been moving very quickly in piano.  He has been taking lessons for 10 months now.  He finished his primer book, did his first concert in May and is now halfway though his Level 1 book and is practicing for a Christmas concert.  Pearl and he are working on a duet!  He practices every day and seems to really enjoy playing.  Luther is also doing a lot of Bible memory work for his Awana’s class at church on Wednesdays.  So, those are the main extra curricular activities he has been involved in this fall.   The crazy thing is that I haven’t even started talked about his “real” schoolwork!  Our main curriculum that we use is Heart of Dakota.  It is a wonderful Charlotte Mason style curriculum that I’m able to use the same level with both Luther and Pearl.  I did the Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory with them last year.   It has 170 days of lesson plans in it, so we actually didn’t finish it up until mid August this fall since we use is 4 days a week, with the kids going to co-op one day a week.  Then we went right into the next level, Bigger Hearts for His Glory. Most of our subjects are covered in these daily lesson plans- Bible, history, poetry, hymns, character traits, vocabulary, grammar, handwriting, listening and comprehension.   I use a separate curriculum for spelling, reading and math.   I have always let Luther go at his own pace in these subjects.  We use All About Spelling and he is about half way through level 2.   I go very slowly in spelling with him.  He seems to need lots of review in this subject.  Spelling has always been my most difficult subject!  It’s hard!  He is moving a very steady pace in reading.  He is All About Reading Level 3 and had learned enough phonics at this point that he is able to read just about anything he want too.  He has been enjoying reading more and more.  I commonly find him reading to one of his siblings :)   He is in Level 2A in Singapore Math.  He has been progressing much faster this year in math because of all of the math practice he is getting with his Kumon work.  

Pearl is in 1^st grade.  I feel like most school work comes easy to her this year.  She seem to progress through lessons much quicker than Luther did at her age.  However, I learned a few tricks along the way while teaching Luther, so she is getting a more experienced teacher!  Luther, like me, is the first child AKA “experimental child”, as my parents always said!  Pearl is in Level 2 of All About Reading and Level 2 of All About Spelling.  She is in Level 1B in Singapore Math.  She does all of the Heart of Dakota subjects with Luther. Their Heart of Dakota time use to be pretty stressful last year trying to get them to listen, answer questions and not fight or distract each other.  But, it is now the best time of most days.  They love it and are soaking up so much knowledge from all of the great books, poems, hymns, devotions, Bible stories and devotions that we have been reading/studying.   She loves her co-op class on Thursday’s as well.  She looks forward to it each week.  She loves the crafts, schoolwork, recess, eating lunch with her friends and especially show and tell!  She comes home each week with a folder full of beautifully colored papers and projects.  She is very artsy and is loving her 2^nd semester of taking Art.  She is also taking Kumon Math and has been cruising through addition and subtraction.  She takes dance once a week and this is her third year.  She has been doing ballet and tap for the last 2 years, but this year she got to add jazz, which she was very excited about.  She will be in 3 dances at her recital and have 2 costumes.  They are doing Cinderella and she is SO thrilled.  She is such a girly girl and she really enjoys dancing, the spending time with the girls in her dance class and the costumes! She makes friends very easily and has several friends from co-op that are also in her dance class.  She is doing her 2^nd year of Sparks at Awana’s on Wednesdays.  She is flying through her book, thanks to the fact that she was very familiar with the verses because Luther did the same book last year.  She has also been taking piano.  She is the one who wanted to take piano and asked me about it over and over until I found her a teacher.   Luther wanted to take lessons once he saw Pearl was taking them and he ended up starting the month after her.   He kept asking for extra songs each week so he could catch up with Pearl.  They are both doing so well, but it does come easier for Luther than for her.   She loves piano but she gets very overwhelmed with new songs, so after many tears we finally learned that she didn’t need to do quite as many songs every week. She was upset because Luther passed her up in their lesson book, but she agreed that the previous pace was too much for her.   Their precious teacher is just 15!  But, she is excellent!  She plays lots of games with them to make it really fun and teaches music theory to them as well.  We have been very pleased! Pearl seems to have a very good ear and she can always tell if she hits the wrong note, instantly!  She seems to want to play by ear after she has played through a song a few times and knows how it sounds.  So many parts of school that were very stressful and super slow with her last year have gotten so much better! Her handwriting is beautiful and she can write quickly (last year it would take her an hour to copy a sentence) and her reading has gotten much faster as well.  She still struggles with getting distracted but she has really gotten into the daily checklist I made for Luther and her.  That has really helped her stay on task.  She loves to go check off a subject after she is done.  Also, setting a timer for a subject has helped too.  She loves to beat a timer!

Calvin is 4 but actually just started kindergarten curriculum this fall. But,  I’m going to just leave him in the 4 year old class at church with his normal age group.  I have a wonderful helper, Anna, that has been with us since last fall.  She comes 3 mornings a week to help us during school time.  She mainly helps with the little boys so I can devote my attention to Luther and Pearl.  I was giving her lots of preschool activities to do with Calvin for the past year.  But this year he seemed like he was ready to do more, so I went ahead and got the Heart of Dakota Kindergarten curriculum(Little Hearts for His Glory) and she has been doing it with him.  He is doing very well and they are really enjoying doing the lessons together!  And, I think he feels like more of a big boy now that he has is own “school work”.  He is writing the alphabet and numbers well and reading 3 letter words.  He has an excellent memory and knows just about as many Bible verses as Luther and Pearl.  Many times he learns the verses they are working on before they even do! My plan is to take over his schooling next year once he is 5 and let Anna oversee Luther and Pearl during their independent work time while I work with him.  I can’t believe how quickly he is growing.  He has grown 7 inches in the past year!  It is also crazy how much he has learned just from absorbing the school going on around him.  This is his 2^nd year of Awana’s and everyone say that he is so good in class!  He loves his Cubbies class and looks forward to it each week, but he always comes out sad if he doesn’t get Cubbie Bear.  He says that he tries really hard to be the “goodest” so he can get Cubbie.  He still loves basketball!  He also has really enjoyed playing soccer on the sidelines with James while Luther was at practice each week, but it has not replaced his love for basketball! He is also still attached to his beloved blanket, Meme! He is so sweet and cuddly and his enthusiasm for what he loves/enjoys is contagious!