HS: December

This month Jacob and I just took a step back a little with school.  I don't know what happened this year, but the holidays were just crazy!  I took on a lot of projects that took a lot of time and I was just not able to do more.  Plus, Jacob had a nasty, super high fever for three "school" days so we didn't get as much as we would have liked.  But we are both pretty excited to kick things back up in January!

We didn't do any science or handwriting this month.  We DID do language arts, math, and read aloud every day though so that was good!

Jacob has enjoyed being in his "green book" for language arts.  I really love this program and feel like it is a great fit for Jacob and I.  We've been moving slowly, but surely.  We've been working on his phonics cards which have been really good for him.  He finished up two of his sight word ladders.  And things are clicking with spelling, when he's in the mood :).  We reviewed vowels and consonants and the short and long vowel sounds.  Did some poetry!  And worked on one and two letter words, simple words, word families, and ending consonant blends.  He's also doing really well with his mini books.  

Jacob is really enjoying the math, as well.  We both really like the approach that it is.  Since we just started this new curriculum in November, we are still mostly reinforcing things he already knows but it's still been good.  Plus, stronger foundation is never a bad thing!  We reviewed numbers 0-9, introduced rectangles, circles and patterns.  

We did two art projects this month!  The Shape Train and a Winter Landscape!  In the Winter Landscape we talked about perspective and foreground, middle ground, and background. 

We read a lot this month!  We finished The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting and really liked it.  We also read a poetry book by Mary Ann Hoberman called, The Llama Who Had No Pajama.  I wasn't sure how poetry was going to go but I think we both really enjoyed it.  Then we read, Richard Scarry's Please and Thank You Book which was a lot of fun - and it's been great to reinforce some manners that we have been trying to teach at home.  Now, we are reading The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose which has also been lots of fun and crazy - I had NO idea there were so many Mother Goose rhymes!