Half-way done

According to my records, yesterday was Nadia's 90th day of third grade, which means she's half-way done because we have to log at least 180 days this year. I usually try to end our school year at the end of April or early May, and we are on track to do that again this year. The only subject that might hold us back is math. When we got to the chapter on multiplication I slowed down a lot because the textbook assumed a child could learn one times table a day (what?!?). The same goes for the division tables. (I don't think so!) To make up for that I have been having her do two pages a day this week using a chapter farther in the textbook on time because I knew we hadn't yet gotten to the middle of the math textbook. In everything else she is ahead of where she "should" be. I think there are MANY benefits from field trips so I am not going to let the fact we are a little behind in math with Nadia deter us from continuing to take many field trips. We went on 17 field trips during the past two months. Just looking at this week and next week we went to the library for a program on Monday, saw a two hour Underwater Bubble show at Bucknell last night, Nadia did a 2 hour crime busters program at the library today, tonight I'm taking the kids to an African Children's Choir concert, and on Saturday Nadia and I are going on a bus tour to Harrisburg to tour the Capitol building, the State Museum, see a planetarium show, and see the Nutcracker ballet. On Monday and Tuesday next week we plan to go to the children's museum and science museum in Pittsburgh with my dad. We don't normally do that many field trips in nine days, but I have to add that all of those were FREE aside from the gas involved driving to and from the various places.


The library program today was really outstanding. There was a crime scene, and the 12 kids were put in pairs and had to examine and do experiments related to their assigned section of the crime scene. The experiments included fingerprint development and analysis, testing PH levels, iodine and vinegar demonstrations, ink chromatography, and DNA fingerprinting. In the end they determined that Mrs. White had committed the crime.

I don't write any report cards for the kids so this is as close to a quarterly report as I'll get.

Reading - Over the past two months I read them (or we listened on cd)  35 chapter books. This morning we finished Caddie Woodlawn's Family. Tomorrow I plan to start Rasco and the Rats of NIMH. In the van we are in the middle of listening to The One and Only Ivan. Ian read 4 1/2 chapter books over the past 2 months. Just in the past week he has really taken off and is now reading on his own initiative. If the past he has been at this week continues, he will read FAR more books in the next quarter than he did the last few months. He hasn't transitioned to silent reading yet. Even when he's reading alone, he almost always reads out loud. Nadia has really taken off the last several weeks. She sometimes reads 1-2 books a day from start to finish. She has especially been enjoying books by Ron Roy (mysteries). Thus far in 2016 she has read 80 chapter books. 

Spelling - Ian and Nadia should both finish the textbooks they are in right now sometime in January as Ian has only 6 lessons left in the 2nd grade text and Nadia has only 5 lessons left in the 4th grade text. They'll start the 3rd and 5th grade books when they finish these.

Bible - Thus far we've read (most of) Genesis through Ruth plus Job and the first 20 chapters of I Samuel. We had only read Genesis during the first quarter of school so we did all the others during the last two months. From December through February I want us to finish I Samuel and then read from II Samuel through Ecclesiastes. Today we started reading a few Psalms at lunch, and I plan to keep doing that while during our school work time we're reading from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

Social Studies - We will conclude our study of Ancient Egypt this week. We have also studied a few Jewish holidays (Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kipppur). Next up will be the Trojan War, Hittites, and Assyrian Empire.

Piano - I am very pleased with the progress both children are making in their respective books. I'll be needing to buy new books for Nadia before I know it! She is using both hands at the same time (up to three notes at a time) and occasionally is using the pedal. Ian is playing one note at at time but using both hands. He is just starting to learn to read music. In January I want to start teaching Nadia to play the recorder.

Math - Nadia is in the middle of the seventh of fourteen chapters of the third grade textbook. She is just starting to work on learning her division tables. She and Ian have *almost* mastered all of the multiplication tables (0-10). Ian is half-way through the second of twelve chapters in the second grade textbook. Math comes more easily to Ian than it does to Nadia. Both of them still need to work on not reversing some of their numbers (for example getting P and 9 mixed up).

Science - Ian is on chapter eight of twelve of the 2nd grade science textbook, and Nadia is on chapter twelve of fifteen of the third grade science book. I am hoping they will finish around the same time, and when they do I am going to have both of them start a science text together from a different publisher (Apologia). We already do social studies and Bible together, and I want to start doing science together. At some point I will have Ian do the 3rd grade text that Nadia has already completed, but for awhile I want them to have science together.

Handwriting - Nadia can now write all the letters (upper and lowercase) in cursive although of course she still needs a lot of practice. She is currently on page 55 out of 94 of the fourth grade textbook. Ian is on page 56 out of 94 of the second grade manuscript textbook. Once they finish these textbooks, I will have them write in a journal each day as a way of practicing their  handwriting and also working on their writing skills.

P.E. - They played on soccer teams in October and were in a 90 minute gym class on Fridays through November 18. That class will resume in January. They will start playing on basketball teams next month. I haven't decided yet whether I will sign them up for ice skating lessons this year or not.

Other subjects - Nadia does either Rosetta Stone Spanish or a Typing program on my laptop most days. I also have been doing some English (grammar) instruction with her for the first time. Although in general art gets the short end of the stick, we did a better job at that last week. My goal is to complete at least one of the creating a masterpiece projects per month from December through May.