HS - October

And just like that another month has come and gone with school!  October was full of fun things and we finished up a lot of units too!

We continued our study in DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS.  We are going a little faster than I wanted but we are hurrying to be done by January.  This month we covered the missions to the Lamanites, learned about Zion, the first Bishops of the Church, the Law of the Church, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, gifts of the Spirit, the revelation to settle in Missouri and the beginning of that settlement, the Doctrine and Covenants, how parents should teach their children, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon's mission, the three kingdoms of heaven, how Joseph Smith continued his work despite persecution, and Joseph Smith visiting Missouri again.  

MATH!  Math is going so well.  I cannot gush enough about the curriculum we are using.  It's just beautiful.  Jacob is doing so well.  We are still on his addition and subtraction unit.  We've done tally mark addition, ABB patterns, subtraction, talked about the minus symbol, taking away from five, making squares, practiced taking away with tally marks, making hexagons, and practicing plus one and minus one.  

PRESCHOOL!  Sarah's preschool is still going good but still needs a change.  This month I got a plan in place for what I think we will begin doing but it's going to take me some time to get it all together.  As much as I want to dive right in, it probably won't begin until January and that will give me a couple months to get things set up so I am not constantly rushing to get things ready.  

This month she finished her bear unit!  She loved it!  The emphasis was on the color black and obedience.  Obedience has been a topic brought up a lot lately so this was timely ;)  We then moved on and finished his third unit - DUCKS!  This unit was all about the color yellow and patience.  She was so adorable and brings up being patient a lot now.  I do love how it has helped us talk about these virtues a lot more in the home.  

HISTORY!  We finished up our first unit in history!  We have really loved talking about ancient history.  I've been so impressed with what Jacob (and Sarah actually!) have absorbed.  This month we learned about Abraham, Isaac and Rebecca and the Ancient Trade Routes, Joseph in Egypt, and Moses and the Passover.  We also finished our book, Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones.  It was a really fun mystery book that went perfectly with what we were learning.  It has been really amazing for ME to make connections that I never have made before between these biblical events and how they relate in history as a whole.  I've loved it.  We are excited to move on to the next unit!

SCIENCE!  This month we finished up our water unit!  This unit has been so fun and we have learned A LOT.  This month we learned about icebergs and glaciers, groundwater, water power and clean water (this lesson was really powerful to discuss and show the kids how precious CLEAN water is and how inaccessible it is to many).  

As much as we have loved water we were all excited to move on to our next unit - SPACE SCIENCE!  We have only barely begun but we are excited!  We did a little introduction to space and discussed the solar system, what a galaxy is, and the Milky Way.  Then we learned about stars - how they are formed and the different brightness of stars.  We watched some amazing time lapse videos from Mauna Kea (which I had never heard of but would love to visit now!).  They were incredible.  

LANGUAGE ARTS! This month has been awesome.  He is continuing to make good progress with his spelling, phonics cards, and has passed off several of his sight word ladders.  He ALSO memorized a poem this month called, "Whisle" by Dorothy Aldis.  It's adorable.  

"I want to learn to whistle,

I've always wanted to;

I fix my mouth to do it, 

But the whistle won't come through.  

I think perhaps it's stuck

and so I try it once again;

Can people swallow whistles;

Where is my whistle then?"

This month we learned about consonant blends BR, TR, and DR, what a subject of a sentence is, verbs, artwork, AR and OR words, and /ER/ phonograms (ER, UR, IR).  We also dived into the life of Beatrix Potter and her connection with nature and read The Tale of Peter Rabbit (one of our favorites!).  We also did some art appreciation and discussed some paintings from Meyer von Bremen.  Jacob even wrote a letter to him about what he liked about his painting.  It was so sweet.  

HANDWRITING!  Jacob's handwriting is so beautiful.  I secretly (or maybe not so secretly) love it.  He continues to work on his copy work while I read aloud to him.  We finished Little Pear by Eleanor Frances Lattimore which was sweet and funny.  And then we just finished The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne.  Jacob loves it and even asked me to start reading it again as his bedtime story.  The end of that story makes me teary eyed every time.  When Christopher Robin knows he is growing to grow up and things are going to change.  I feel like we get closer and closer to that time every day with Jacob.  If you have little boys especially, read this book to them!

"...wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place, on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing."

It has been a great month of learning!