Two Continents

This year our social studies curriculum is focused on studying different countries. We started with North America, and this week we are finishing our study of South America by focusing on Argentina. I have followed through with my plans to read different picture books and chapter books and eat at least one new food for each country. I have totally fallen off the bandwagon when it comes to doing a craft for each country. If it's any consolation, I signed Nadia up for an art class at the children's museum which starts next week (presuming I have a way to get her there given our car problem), and they are going to start offering an art class in addition to the gym class on Fridays at our church starting in January (yahoo!). The kids also have enjoyed listening to music from the different countries (thanks to the public library). Oliver loves dancing to Latin music! Next week we will be starting our study of Europe. Considering we will only spend one week on Australia and no time on Antarctica, really that leaves us with five continents which means two down and three to go. This week we are finishing the biography of Nate Saint for South America. It is our third biography this fall. The other two were on Bruce Olson and Cameron Townsend. The next one will be on George Mueller. The fiction chapter books we've read for social studies this fall thus far include: Stone Fox, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, Incredible Journey, Anne of Avonlea, Chucaro : wild pony of the Pampa, Rainbow Garden, The Secret at Pheasant Cottage, Nory Ryan's song, and Shadow of a bull. Nadia also learned to identify all the South American countries on a map and most of the North American ones (not every single island). She has already learned more than half of the European countries. Paul works with her on that after the boys go to bed.

This is our 11th week of school this year, and I thought it was time for an update (since we don't do report cards). My kids have not experienced a report card, test, quiz, or homework. They have never gotten a grade on anything either. Anyhow here is where they are after completing one fourth of the school year (I plan to end this school year on May 6).

Math: Nadia's newest skills including regrouping with two digit addition and rounding to the nearest ten. Tomorrow I am going to introduce regrouping with two digit subtraction to her; she's about 70% of the way through the 2nd grade math book. We also have been working with flash cards to improve her speed with her addition facts to 20.  Ian has been working with patterns, coins, and adding and subtracting (to 12). He's about 20% of the way through the 1st grade math book.

Handwriting - Nadia really wants to learn cursive. I think in January I will let her start on that. She still has issues with reversals (p/9, b/d, and some other letters less frequently). Some days she does a page from the Draw Write Now series, and other days I have her do something like write a card to a child we sponsor through Compassion or write a paragraph using some of her spelling words. Ian is almost done with the first grade handwriting textbook. His pencil grip continues to improve although still isn't exactly what I would like it to be. Once he finishes that book, I am going to have him start writing in a journal every day. In terms of fine motor skills, Ian finished a cutting book and now has been working through a drawing book. He's showing a lot of improvement!

Spelling - Nadia is about 80% of the way through the third grade book, and Ian is excatly 3/4 of the way through the first grade book. Spelling has come very easily for him thus far. He rarely gets any of the words wrong the first time around. This week he's been working on doubling l, f, and s at the end of single vowel one syllable words.

Science - This is Ian's favorite subject. I did the ABeka kindergarten and first grade books with him this fall, He's now about 1/4 of the way through  Purposeful Design's 1st grade book. Nadia is in the second grade book. I need to do more hands-on activities with the kids with science (aside from what they do on field trips). 

Reading - Nadia has been reading on average 60-100 pages a day from chapter books. Her favorite series right now are the Alex books, Boxcar Children, and American Girl books. Ian is about 40% of the way through the 3rd grade curriculum. We have taken a break to read other books. First he read all the Frog and Toad books. Now he is reading all the Little Bear books our library has. I am very, very pleased with the huge strides of progress he has been making lately with reading.

Music - Nadia practices the piano most days, and both kids are singing in the choir at church on Sundays. 

P.E. - Both kids played soccer this fall and will be playing on a basketball team in the near future. They both have been in a 90 minute gym class on Fridays playing soccer, basketball, dodgeball, and kickball. They are both in a gymnastics class on Monday evenings.

Field trips - Although we cancelled a few trips (such as one today and one tomorrow due to being down to one car), we went on seventeen field trips over the past two months. Field trip number eighteen is scheduled for this Friday to see a show about Curious George and visit the Steamtown National Historic Site.

This morning I took two videos, and after I had emailed them to myself, I deleted them from my phone. Well I don't know where they went, but I guess I should have held off on deleting them. I redid one of them this evening (although the lighting wasn't as good) of Ian saying John 3:14-16. I will redo the one of Nadia playing Jingle Bells on the piano tomorrow. I also need to sew Ian's patch on his vest because I had ironed it on last week, but it fell off tonight. Oops! Nadia finished her AWANA book and has made it through a large part of the extra credit book. Ian has only five sections left to finish his AWANA book. I want him to finish it on December 2 so he can start his extra credit book in January. He learned the books of the New Testament this fall. Nadia hasn't been doing much with Spanish or keyboarding lately. At some point this year I want to do more with those. I am very grateful I can homeschool my kiddos!