As of June 20th, we have another homeschool year in the record books!  This was quite an eventful year, with the switch to elementary studies and our big house move over the holidays.  Danny has lost 4 teeth, grown 2 new teeth, is taller and is riding his bike like a pro every chance he gets.  His Minecraft craze has given way to a new relationship with Siri on his iPad, mostly asking her for “The world’s largest _______” or “The 15 most interesting things about _______”  Following is a summary of the work he did this year in each subject.

Mathematics

1. Reflex Math – Addition & Subtraction In Progress 49%
   • Reflex helps students of all ability levels to develop fluency with their basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
2. Khan Academy Early Math – In Progress 64%
   • Counting, Place Value, Addition & Subtraction within 20, within 100, within 1000, Measurement & Data, Geometry
3. Montessori Math:
   • Bead Chain Linear & Skip Counting, Snake Game (Addition & Subtraction) & Stamp Game
   • Large Bead Frame 4-digit Addition & Subtraction
   • Introduction to Graphing
   • Fractions – Equivalents, Addition with same denominator
   • Geometry – Constructive Triangles, Geometric Cabinet 3-part Cards, Iron Insets – Equivalent, Congruent, Similar
   • Attribute Blocks Task Cards

Danny spent most of his time doing mathematics this year, when operations, fractions, geometry and math facts are all taken into account.  He started the year with fairly standard Montessori math, using the Stamp game, Snake game, Bead Frame, and Bead Chains.  He understands math almost instantly, but he was stagnating with memorizing math facts.  Lets face it, it’s a drill and there’s no getting around that.  About mid-year, I added reflex math, which is an iPad app that uses games and puzzles to gain fluency in math facts.  Although I resist using technology at such a young age, I’m making an exception for fact memorization.  He’ll continue to use Reflex Math through the summer and, once he’s mastered addition & subtraction, he will use it for multiplication & division fact as well.  Towards the end of the year, we used Khan Academy Mastery Challenges to assess how much of the early math curriculum he has accomplished.  According to their metrics, he has completed 64% of their “Early Math” program, which seems to go into 3rd grade, and much of what he has completed is considered 2nd grade, mostly because Montessori teaches 4-digit operations much earlier than other programs.

Science

1. Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding – In Progress
   • BFSU provides both teaching methodologies and detailed lesson plans embracing and integrating all the major areas of science; lessons follow structured learning progressions that build knowledge and develop understanding in systematic incremental steps; lessons all center around hands-on experience and real-world observations. By Bernard J Nebel
2. Waseca Biomes North America Portfolio – In Progress, Completed Temperate Forest
   • Take a journey through a continent exploring each new biome with a local guide. Stay with local hosts and learn about customs and culture. Explore the landscape, flora, and fauna of each biome.
3. Rad Science Homeschool Enrichment with Michael Gervais
   • The Beginning of Everything – Montessori Five Great Lessons – 6 week class
     • We’ll explore the big, important events and time periods that brought us to the present day. From the big bang to dinosaurs, to the development of language and math, science has helped us to understand our place in the universe and the world around us.
   • Microworlds – 6 week class
     • In every scoop of soil and every drop of pond water, there are millions and millions of living things. Using microscopes and lab techniques, we’ll explore the very small to learn some very big things.
   • Mystery Science: Problem Solving with Science – 5 week class
     • Students will be presented with a problem that must be solved by following specific steps that build on each other to unlock learning goals based in science, engineering and math. Through collaborative, group efforts, students will work together to unlock the pieces of the puzzle. These will be fun, story-based problems that must be completed in the right order to be solved.
   • Myth Busters Science Class! – 4 week class
     • We’ll use scientific methods to test some common myths and stories. Here are some ideas to get us started, but we’ll get creative as a class, think up some myths to test, and devise our own ways to confirm or bust them.

Science is hands down one of Danny’s favorite activities along with History.  He can’t get enough of it.  Throughout the year, he attends a weekly Homeschool Enrichment science class on various topics and then at home we’re working our way through Volume I of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding.  BFSU Vol I is meant for K-2 grades and we’re about half way through it.  Towards the end of the year, many of the BFSU chapters focused on biomes, animal classification, habitats, and adaptations, which are areas that Waseca Biome materials really excel.  I have to admit that I am much more comfortable with concepts of matter, energy, and physics than I am with the natural world.  I appreciate all the hands on help I can get!

History, Social Studies & Geography

1. Bookshark History K – Intro to the World: Cultures – Completed 03/28/2018
   • Enjoy a very broad overview of world history and explore the way people ate, dressed and lived throughout the centuries.
   • Books Read: Usborne Children’s Encyclopedia (History Section), Living Long Ago, Wild Place, The Story of Exploration
2. History Odyssey Ancients I – In Progress, Completed Lessons 1-10
   • From the first cities to the Byzantines Empire, Ancients level one is a complete one-year curriculum guide that combines history with activities, world geography, great books, and writing.
   • Books Read: Usborne Encyclopedia of World History (Ancients Section), A Child’s History of the World, Story of the World Vol I, History Pockets-Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors
3. Montessori Fundamental Needs of Humans

This is the first year that we have done any sort of formal history, although we had done some geography and cultural studies in previous years.  Danny is a huge fan and talks often of wanting to be an archaeologist or paleontologist when he grows up.  I used two purchased curricula during the year, first Bookshark’s Intro to the World and then History Odyssey’s Ancient History, which we’ll continue into next year.  Both of those programs align well with the Montessori concept of the Fundamental Needs of Humans, so history and culture lessons consider how people through time and across the world meet their basic and extended needs, rather than focusing on wars and governments.

Language Arts

1. Reading-
   • The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading – Completed 11/17/2017
     • A plain-English guide to teaching phonics by Jessie Wise Bauer and Sara Buffington
   • Read Aloud Books:
     • Here’s a Penny
     • James Herriot’s Treasury for Children
     • No Children, No Pets
     • Out of Darkness
     • A Grain of Rice
     • Twenty and Ten
     • Mary on Horseback
     • Little House in the Big Woods
     • Children Just Like Me
     • The Light at Tern Rock
     • Beezus and Ramona
     • The Story of Doctor Doolittle
     • The Hundred Dresses
     • Magic Tree House Series 1-28
     • Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose
     • The Llama Who Had No Pajama
     • Johnny Appleseed
     • Brick Greek Myths
2. Writing-
   • New American Cursive Penmanship Workbook 1 – Completed 08/31/2017
     • The NAC Penmanship Program presents a simplified set of letter forms and a refined multi-sensory method that help young students–and adults–develop the necessary skills to write well.
   • New American Cursive Penmanship Workbook 2 – Completed 11/27/2017
     • The NAC Penmanship Program presents a simplified set of letter forms and a refined multi-sensory method that help young students–and adults–develop the necessary skills to write well.
   • Scholastic’s Cursive Writing Practice Jokes & Riddles – In Progress
     • Cursive-writing practice is painless with these rib-tickling reproducibles! Each page features some quick “word warm-ups” plus a hilarious joke or riddle to copy with care.
3. Word Study & Grammar-
   • Words Their Way: Within Word Pattern Spellers – In Progress, Completed Unit II-III
     • Designed to help teachers working with transitional readers in the within word pattern stage of spelling development (Grades 1-4), the sorts in this companion volume help students begin contrasting long and short vowels and sorting words by grammatical and semantic features.
   • Waseca Grammar Box Cards – In Progress (began Noun, Article, Adjective, Verb)
     • Our American edition has been rewritten and revised from the traditional version, and isolates plural rules in the study of nouns, explores the various categories of adjectives, illustrates the appropriate use of articles and demonstrates the function of each part of speech within the context of a sentence.

In the early part of this school year, Danny completed a rigorous phonics course by working through all the lessons in Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading.  He amazes me at how well he reads and he reads everything he can get his hands on, including everything he sees along the road as we’re driving.  I haven’t had him tested, but based on the Lexis score of the books he reads most often, he would score somewhere around a 3rd grade level.  I also did a lot of reading aloud to Danny this year, both during school hours and at bedtime each night.  Danny can sit and listen to me read for hours and hours and then ask for more when my voice is going hoarse. For handwriting, I’m still encouraging Danny to write in cursive, although he has begun expressing interest in writing in print, so it’s possible we’ll transition to that in the next year or so.  We also began grammar study this year using the Waseca grammar box cards and lessons and mid-way through the year I discovered a great word study/spelling program called Words Their Way.  Both of those activities were fairly casual this year though because I wanted Danny to focus on phonics, math facts and whatever else interested him.

Art & Music Appreciation

1. Piano Lessons:
   • My First Piano Adventure Book A by Nancy & Randall Faber – Completed 03/15/2018
     • Written for ages 5 and 6, My First Piano Adventure® captures the child’s playful spirit. Fun-filled songs, rhythm games and technique activities develop beginning keyboard skills.
   • Piano Adventures, Primer Level by Nancy & Randall Faber – In Progress, through page 42
     • The Primer Lesson Book introduces the keyboard, note values, and the grand staff. Students play in C 5-finger scale patterns, develop recognition of steps and skips, and learn letter names independent of finger number
2. Beginning-Intermediate Ceramics at Dahl Arts Studio – completed six 7-week sessions
   • Students will learn the art of making pottery – both decorative and functional. We will cover both the basic and intermediate level working with clay, wheel thrown, sculpturing and glazing. Students will learn to express themselves through clay.

Although this section comes towards the end, these items are by no means less important.  Although he complains about regular practice, Danny has a natural affinity for music and he has grown immensely in his piano skills this year.  We finished the school year with his piano recital and if you follow Discovering Our Way on instagram you can see his performance there.  Also, throughout the year, Danny attended a weekly ceramics class in a real ceramics studio.  It is one of his favorite parts of the week and something we’ll continue into the summer.  This class suits his personality so well as it is entirely open ended and he can do anything with a lump of clay that he can think of.  It is one of the many highlights of the excellence of homeschool opportunities for him.

 

Physical Education

1. YMCA Homeschool Swim & Gym Program – Completed three 11-week sessions
   • One-hour of Gym class each week
   • One-hour of Swim class each week:
     • Achieved: Submerge, Front glide, Water Exit, Jump/push/turn/grab, Back Float, Front Float
     • Working on: Roll, Back Glide, Tread Water, Swim/float/swim

Although Physical Education isn’t a requirement for homeschooling in Washington state, it is important to us and this program at the local YMCA is a perfect opportunity to spend fun time with friends each week.  And the swim lessons have really expanded Danny’s comfort level in and around water.

Field Trips

Another great benefit of homeschooling is the ability to go on fun field trips and attend fascinating workshops.  We started the year with an epic trip to Oregon to experience the full glory of the 2017 solar eclipse.  Then we finished off the school year with a science-minded forest crawl and a low-tide visit to a local beach.  The reality is, there is no shortage of opportunities for adventure in our homeschool community.

And with that, we wrap up the 2017-18 school year to enjoy a fun-filled summer and begin to prepare for yet another epic year next fall.