Learning Notes ~ Week ending August 13th

This week we added some more subjects into our day: history (Sonlight Core 2), world geography, and our First Language Lessons studies (ds8 is doing FLL3, dd6 is doing FLL1).

What we accomplished…

Morning Board/Calendar ~ Last weekend I finished putting together our new “Morning Board” (inspired by Homeschool Creations).  I introduced it to the kiddos on Monday morning…they loved it! 

Bible ~ We are enjoying our new Bible curriculum, Bible Study Guide for All Ages.  This week we continued our study of Joseph.

Language Arts ~ Ds8 began using FLL3…so far it’s been mostly review of information he learned in FLL2.  Dd6 was so excited to begin FLL1…she learned a lot by listening in on ds8’s lessons last year (we did FLL1&2 in one year), it will be interesting to see how much she remembers from his lessons :)

I am very pleased with the progress that dd6 is making with her AAS lessons, she has already completed the first three steps…and she is well on her way to finishing up step 4! 

I ordered another set of AAS student materials (through Level 3) for ds8…he is a very strong reader so I know he will probably speed right through most of the early lessons (that’s why I ordered through Level 3).  I haven’t added AAS to his day yet, hopefully I’ll be able to fit it in next week.

Math ~ Both of the older kiddos completed a couple lessons in their CLE Math books…and there was not as much complaining from ds8 this week :)  He claims to not like doing the daily speed drills…I always smile and tell him “but it only takes a minute” ~ it’s a one-minute drill :)

Sonlight Core 2 ~ We finished our summer read-aloud on Sunday evening…so we were ready to start our first Core 2 read-aloud, Red Sails to Capri.  The kiddos have enjoyed listening to it ~ and they are pleased that it doesn’t have as many cliff-hangers as our last read-aloud (so far).  We also began our history reading from Window on the World…I plan on tweaking SL’s schedule so that I can coordinate the readings from this resource with what we’re studying in geography.

Geography ~ When I saw Confessions of a Homeschooler’s new Expedition Earth geography unit last week, I was very tempted to purchase it…I am still trying to decide ~ but in the meantime we began our world geography study beginning with a study of the continents and oceans.  We reviewed each of the continents and oceans, read excerpts about each from Usborne Children’s Picture Atlas and The Usborne Internet-Linked First Atlas, completed an unlabeled world map (from TOS E-Book: Travel the World ~ June 2010 Planner Module), and sang the “Continents and Oceans” song from Geography Songs {the tune is quite catchy so we sang it many, many times…even the 3yo joined in :)}. 

Next week I plan to add science and circle time into the mix…

This post is being linked to Weekly Wrap-Up hosted by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers