This post is two-fold. The first purpose is to jump in on the Elementary Round-up over at Granola Mom 4 God (although, since we are almost finished school, this may be my first and last until the next school year :D). The second is my photo entries for Home Is Where You Start From. If you aren’t familiar with the Elementary Round-up, check it out! I’m hoping it serves as great reminder of what we have been able to accomplish throughout the school year.
We are actually wrapping things up around here – but have also started something new in our home for a subject! That would be our new math program – RightStart Math!
If you haven’t heard anything about RightStart math, you should definitely look into it. It is a math program which uses an abacus to teach number recognition in fives and tens, then working up to hundreds, etc. Learning is reinforced through games and repetition of exercises, keeping the practice sheets to a minimal.
Since we have only just started using it and are utilizing the transition sheets right now, I can’t really give a very good overview of what is included in the program. However, it has come incredibly highly recommended by a number of moms in our homeschool group. Math is my biggest weakness, and I have already, in just under 15 lessons, found MYSELF thinking and viewing numbers differently! If you knew me and my non-math skills, you would understand how truely amazing it is for me to enjoy math. Granted, it’s only the 1st/2nd grade level, but hey, at least we’re BOTH enjoying it!
We are almost finished with our First Language Lessons level 1 for Big Boy (he’s 6 and in the first grade), but will continue to use some bridge activity books (FROM COSTCO!!!!) throughout the summer to keep things fresh. He has really enjoyed the easy-going pace of these lessons, but I found I needed to add in some spelling rules and was using Christ Centered Curriculum for added phonics. The combination of the two has made him absolutely TAKE OFF with his reading!
It’s actually pretty funny (and I LOVE it!) because he wants to and is reading almost everywhere. It’s hard to get him to stop!
We are currently reading an abridged version of Black Beauty I found at our dollar store (it is crazy what you can find there!).
We haven’t been doing AS much reading together as I would like to. But my hubby got me a kindle for Mother’s Day, so we’re loading it up with books to take camping and I’m heading out to Value Village with my sister to see if we can pick up some more readers and classics. :0)
The last 2 weeks we began our search for monarch caterpillars, in order to “grow” them and watch the awesome metamorphosis that occurs during their life. (If we are successful in finding one, I’ll be posting about it!)
I cannot help but think of how their transformation is completely akin to a person coming to Christ. They are a monarch to start with, although somewhat ugly and gross looking on the outside, but then transform into this beautiful creature. Just as we, when we realize and confess our sin, and accept Christ as our Lord, have our hearts and lives transformed into something beautiful.
We are going to continue with our science during the summer – as I’ve mentioned before, we are using Apologia and have started with Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.
Honestly, I cannot say enough good things about this program! It is so concise, descriptive, interesting, loads of good ideas as extras! I will never be satisfied with anything but this program! While some of the information is a bit much for JJ (4) to absorb, I make sure we have lots of repetition and just take it slow going through the lessons.
So, it is quite appropriate that we are studying insects right now, over the summer, as we will have a plethora to examine and learn more about I am sure!
To sum up, the photo challenge over at Home Is Where You Start From this week is math. So I took a few shots of what our math lessons look like in our home. (Math is the VERY first subject we tackle each day as it has not been my favourite and requires the most brain power for everyone!)
