HS: November

This month feels like a blur...and that includes school!

We definitely didn't accomplish nearly what I had planned but that's one of the great things I am learning about homeschooling.  There aren't any set rules and there isn't one good way of doing things.  It's amazing how much I have learned (and am sure I have much much more to learn!) just in the few short months we have been doing this.  

We mostly hit the pause button on a lot of things because I was just stretched pretty thin.  But here is what actually did happen this month.  

Jacob finished his kindergarten primer last week.  I am so glad we did that and really helped Jacob at a pace that worked for him.  He began blending words and he's gotten pretty solid on short and long vowel sounds.  He read his first little books and I actually got a little teary-eyed the first time.  I am so proud of him and know once all of the pieces get together for him that reading will be a great outlet.  We reviewed letters and their sounds for a couple of days and actually just started TODAY on his new Kindergarten Language Arts book.  This includes phonics and reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation, literature and art appreciation.  It adds a lot more to our day but I think Jacob is ready for it and he was really excited to move to the "green book".  

Handwriting is still going well.  I started picking my three favorite letters that he does on a page and that has upped his motivation which was starting to get a little sloppy.  

In math, we actually made another switch in our curriculum which I think means that I changed every single thing from my initial plan this year.  I was hoping to beat the odds that I had read from every other homeschool parent and it turns out I am just one and the same.  I really didn't dislike the math that we were using before but I think this new one fits more of the style that I teach the other subjects and will be better in the long haul.  Plus, Jacob thinks it's awesome, so there's that :)

For science, we finished up our arthropod unit and it was so much fun.  I think Jacob and I learned so much.  Our last lesson was on crustaceans and we learned what they were.  Seriously, so fun.  We loved it.  

We also started our new unit but have hardly done much with it...YET!  We started our meteorology unit and I am really excited for it.  I never went to a school that incorporated religious thinking into academics and never really thought much about it.  But I love that we get that opportunity to incorporate the two here at home.  To start off we talked about the creation of weather and read about the creation and then we started introducing the seasons and their different characteristics.  We are excited to dive more into all of this in December!

Jacob used some paint to draw what he thought things looked as they were being created, like "light in the firmament".  Pretty cool.  

The four different seasons.

Art was another subject that just got pushed to the side this month.  We only finished one project - the silly germ!

Our read alouds were another thing that just kind of hit the pause button.  We are still reading The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting and still really enjoying it!  We will definitely finish that up soon!