Saturday, March 3, 2012

Homeschool Curriculum

Since we have taken Elizabeth out of school, we have kind of been feeling our way through this whole homeschooling thing.

We have been pretty diligent in studying English and vocabulary.  We have both been reading Wuthering Heights to prepare for Elizabeth's book club this month, and last month we read through Booker T Washington's Up From Slavery.  That was a pretty hefty book, and the book club meeting was unlike anything that Elizabeth had ever attended.  Since I was still working full time at the time, she went, very bravely, I must say, alone.

The group consisted of 2 families of homeschoolers who knew each other for a long time.  They also had all of the questions that were to be discussed before hand, and although this group meets in the public library and is announced in the library circular, I don't think that the group was quite prepared to receive the thoughts and ideas of someone new...someone who had very different opinions and thoughts than they did.  But, Elizabeth seemed to enjoy herself, and it was quite an experience for her to take part in this group, so she will go again this week.

She has also been studying spelling and vocabulary words.  Here we are walking along the parkway on one of those beautiful days last week with Gabriel and Jesse studying hard.  She aced the test that she had 2 days later. 



Elizabeth has been working her way through her geometry book, but we do need to work a little more on that and get a plan set so that she finishes the book in line with what her class is doing.

We have a great French program, thanks to a certain French someone, so Elizabeth is excited and working her way through that.

We have realized that for the most part the science that she was studying in school was just review to prepare for the SOL's, so we have decided to just quickly work through the rest of the book and move on to either chemistry or biology.

We need to play a little catch up in civics, but I am not really concerned about that.  I know that it is not necessary for us to follow the same plan as the public school, but we just figured it would be easier, at least for this year.

But...

In addition to our regular studies, we have been learning other very important things.

One thing that we have been working on it organization, and we have learned that there is a place for everything, and everything should be in its place, even the cat:



We have been studying the language of the toddler, and have learned that 'Take it?' means that Gabriel wants to 'take' Jesse and hold him...ever so gently, of course!

And we've worked on climbing...

..and hanging...


...and the necessary skill of tummy swinging.

But, I think that the most important and useful lesson that Elizabeth learned this week, was the lesson she worked on Friday morning:


The very important talent of removing a balloon that is tangled in the kitchen ceiling fan. 

She passed that one with flying colors, too.  Both the fan and the balloon were saved!

1 comment:

  1. It sounds like you are well underway with your homeschooling. I think it was a wise decision to not abandon what she has been doing in school thus far. It's a good framework.
    I wish our weather was warm enough for a little tummy swinging.

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