HS Year 1, Week 2

This is going much faster than I thought it would. There have been some definite ups and downs. On the first day of school, my children nearly took an entire day to complete their work. This had me in a complete panic. The largest struggle was my 6 year old, who wasn't able to work independently. At all. Thankfully, as the week progressed, our skills improved. My 10 year old can complete all required tasks in less than 3 hours.

Here is what we will be doing this week.

10 Year Old:
Our Weekly Bible Verse - "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct they path." - Proverbs 3:6

Saxon 7/6 Math - Lessons 17-22 (this completes over 1/6 of the book! Yay!)

Science - A Beka Chapters 1.5-1.8, 2 Quizes, and begin preparing for a Chapter 1 Test next week.

History - Story of the World Chapters 2 & 3, plus a small book on the Rosetta Stone (Hieroglyphs chapter)

Geography - Examining the Middle East and Northern Africa. Identifying modern day countries, rivers, seas, etc. 

Latin - Lesson 2 Consonants and Diphthongs, continuous review of previous lessons.

Literature - 10 Weeks of Poetry, Week 2... Poetry in Music. :-)

Music - Piano & Violin Studies

6 Year Old:

Weekly Bible Verse - Same as above!

Math - Telling Time, Place values, and add/subtract multiple digit #'s w/ carry. XtraMath! 

Comprehension - Short story reading w/ detailed narration afterwards. 

Reading - Daily readings.. 2-3 level books and 1 or 2 challenge books/chapters

Latin - Lessons 1 and 2

Geography - Printed a map of town, Understanding a Map Key, Reading a Compass, etc

Literature - Reading level appropriate poetry

Science - Literature reading (in a few months, I plan on using our Apologia Astronomy book)

Music - Piano Studies

I've eliminated the majority of textbooks from my youngest's schedule and we're doing our own curriculum. Most of everything he is doing is reading, and that's what I believe he needs to do right now. It seems like I'm having him read a lot of books daily, but really it's not. His level books take him a max of 10 minutes to read himself, without much help. His challenge book is usually read after lunch time, when we're trying to quiet down a bit. We also read his challenge book before bed, together. We are about half way through his Read With Me Bible, and I'm pretty proud of him. We've been working on it since the very end of May. Also, his comprehension passages are only 1 paragraph long. He may do 2 or 3 separate paragraphs, but it's not much. 

Anyway, we will all sit down to work around 8:30 AM. At this point, we've already eaten breakfast, showered, and gotten ready for the day. My oldest will go straight to work, without talking unless he has questions, and will work until he is finished. Last week, he was typically finished by 11:30. My youngest would sometimes be complete by noon or 1.

Today, I was ready to pull my hair out. We started about an hour earlier because of a local Summer Library Program from 9:30-11. We braked around 9:20 and went back to work at 11:15. My oldest was still done by noon. My 6 year old stopped to eat lunch, but did not get done until 2:40. Even then, he still didn't complete all his daily subjects. I have to stay on his butt! I thought I had changed my original "plan" for his schooling so that it would be easier for him... but wow! He does a lot of wall-starring. 

I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining. I'm excited and I want this to work! It's Monday, so I just need to see what the rest of the week brings. I'm sure he will be okay after awhile of working on the same schedule. :-)

Our First Week

Hello! My name is Leah and I have two boys, ages 6 and 10. This is our first week of home school! Everything is so overwhelming at the moment but I wanted to create some type of journal to look back at in a year. I want to see where we were, where we will be, and where I would like us to go. Since there are already so many home schooling blogs, I figured this would probably be the best way to keep some sort of record for our family. :-)

We started on Monday, July 14 2014. My oldest will be in 5th grade this year, and my youngest will be entering 1st. I think I could just list off what curriculum's or methods I have decided to go with this school year.

5th Grade Daily Curriculum, and in short what we are covering this week:

1. Verse Memorization: "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." Galatians 6:9
2. Math, Saxon 7/6: Lesson's 11-16
3. Literature - 10 Weeks of Poetry: Week 1 - Cliches. 
4. History/Geography: Story of the World Vol 1: Introduction & Chapter 1
5. Science: A Beka Chapter 1.1-1.5
6. Copy Work (Hand writing):

1st Grade Daily Curriculum, and what he's covering currently:

1. Verse Memorization: Galatians 6:9
2. Math, Xtra Math and Saxon 1 (I do not like this at all. Saxon 1 does single digit addition and subtraction at the very end of the book, where my son is doing 2 digit addition and subtraction...I will soon be swapping methods, or utilizing Khan Academy until he's ready to start multiplication tables)
3. Literature: Reading Time Rhymes, Beginning Poetry for Children, 20th Century Children's Book Treasury
4. Reading: Read with Me Bible - he reads this out loud to me twice every day. We just finished talking about Elijah and Elisha before he went to bed. :-)
5. History/Geography: Story of the World Vol 1: Introduction, also using beginner map reading print outs
6. Science: Apologia Astronomy Chapter 1, supplemental beginning reading Astronomy books, Constellation and Planet print outs
7. Copy Work: Lessons in Manners (by Sandi Queen)

Group Lessons (both boys together):

1. Latin - Memoria Press: Prima Latina, Lesson's 1 & 2
2. Verse, Grammar, & Vocab Study

This covers everything we're doing so far. I have us scheduled out in Trimesters that are from 11-15 weeks long each. This trimester is 11 weeks, lining us up for my youngest son's 7th birthday. He has recently made a comment about how we always do big trips around his brother's birthday (late winter/early spring), but we never do trips around his birthday (very end of September), so I am trying to plan our schedule out so that we may do a nice trip during break. Hopefully it works out! :-)