SOCIAL STUDIES
This semester we reviewed house, street, city, province, country, continent, & planet.
D has finished My First Map Book.
She also covered all the socials topics in the first half of CSBM vol 1.
D understands the way that the changing seasons change daily life for animals, people, and plants.
SCIENCE
D has been working through the science topics in Come Sit By Me. We are halfway through the CSBM vol 1. having finished the first 4 units. As a result she has learned about gold, the inuit, what cat nip is, the purpose of whiskers on a cat, tides, the food chain, habitats, types of trees, the inside of Earth, igloos, where frogs go in the winter, why lakes freeze before rivers do, and the changing seasons.
She took a weather co op class in the fall that ended in December. She learned a lot about water, wind, rain, snow, cloud types, the atmosphere, humidity, the planet and the effect that the sun has on all of those things.
She learned about catergorizing animals. We talked about how we group animals by defining characteristics such as milk production, cold blood, feathers, more than 4 jointed legs,or having gills and fins.
D learned about the solar system we live in. We talked about each planet and what makes it unique. She put together a solar system puzzle while we talked. She asked questions about the planets, the universe, and God.
She has been doing activities out of this seasons book.
HEALTH & CAREER
D has reached the outcome goals in goals & decisions, healthy living, healthy relationships, career development, and Christian stewardship. She is still working on Safety & Injury as I have not put an emphasis on recognizing unsafe substances or accessing emergency services.
She is however working on remembering our phone # and house address.
PE
D is active everyday. She got a dance game shortly before Christmas that she loves to play on the Xbox kinect. It monitors her movements and she is getting pretty good at it.She will usually play for an hour or more each time and wears herself right out before she stops.
She plays constantly with her brother whether indoors or out.
We have gone to both of the major ski mountains sledding in the past few weeks and have discovered that D really loves sledding! Thankfully our yard is sloped and when we don't make it out to a hill both the kids are running up then sliding down the backyard (as long as there is snow).
When the weather has permitted we have gone on walks. D has also gone swimming with her Grandma and is gaining in confidence in the water.
Dancing with Nicelodeon Dance on the Kinect.
BIBLE
We have been reading a bible story every night for the last few months. We read straight through 2 different kids Bibles and are starting on the 3rd now. We discuss how God might have felt and what the people may have been thinking during the stories. We also talk about the truths that God teaches us through His word.
D helped me read from this one at bedtime.
FINE ARTS
D continues to create at every turn. We have not touched our official art program this semester as she was all too happy to be creating her own things with playdoh, paints, felts, crayons, etc.
Drawing of a show she likes to watch about real aquatic life.
Pointalism painting.
Water colour painting.
Playdoh art.
LANGUAGE ARTS
D continues to improve in her writing with daily practice and is approximately halfway through the grade 2 HWT workbook. She also does copywork in her notebook and creative writing in Write About Me.
Her printing is very lovely when she is doing copy work.
D's reading chart is below. She has improved her reading abilities since our visit in the fall. The books she read slowly then are easy for her now. She is now up to lesson 88 in the OPGTR. I am finding that she already knows some of the rules that the book has not yet covered just from reading stories together. I find that OPGTR is not overly engaging for D. She enjoys reading storybooks much more. OPGTR is also an awkward sized book to read from so I must confess that I prefer storybooks too! Yet we will continue to slog through the textbook just to be sure she learns all the "rules".
Her printing is still pretty good when she is doing creative writing.
It is not quite as tidy as her copywork, but still done well.
December Examples.
January Example.
This is a poem/song that D came up with on her own one morning.
From First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind D has completed up to lesson 60.
MATH
D has completed up to lesson 52 in Grade One Right Start Math. She enjoys math and has figured out that knowing what 3+3 is helps her to easily know the answer to 30+30.
We read about Sir Cumference, Lady Di Ameter & their son Radius. We enjoyed the book so much that I may buy all of the Sir Cumference books.
Math samples:
Graphing.
D has learned how to play Sudoku.
D has been playing her new geometic game Equilibrio.
It increases co-ordination while teaching about balance, weight and geometric structure.
Equilibrio also requires translating a flat image in the book into a standing 3D structure for improved problem solving abilities.
