School Progress Report

I thought it was high time to give a report on where we are in school. Since we go year-round, it is hard to find a time when things stop or start. In fact, it seems sometimes like things just flow ever onward, on . . . and on . . . But I digress. In fact, we are starting some new things this year, and we are slowly working those into our schedule.

We took May off after Grace's birth, but we started doing school again in June and kept going through the summer. We only did the main subjects--Latin, math, spelling, grammar, and memory work--and we didn't do much, if any, school in the afternoons. I even took stuff to Ohio when we went in August. I have found that it really helps retention, especially of Latin vocab, to do a little almost every day.

So where are we now? First off, math: Nathan is about 10 lessons from the end of Saxon 6/5, and when he finishes that, he'll move right into Saxon 7/6 . Luke is halfway through Saxon 5/4, and Caleb is over halfway through Saxon 1. We just sort of keep right on plugging away, and when someone finishes a book, they go right on into the next book. Boring, I know, but at least we can skip all that pesky review in the first 30 or so lessons of a new math book, LOL.

Latin: We started doing the first 5 lessons of Latina Christian II before Grace was born, I think. Those lessons review pretty much all the vocab and forms of LC I, and they also introduce the concept of using the accusative case so you can write sentences with direct objects. This was a hard concept for the boys, not so much recognizing a direct object when translating a sentence into English, but in translating an English sentence into Latin. So we worked on that A LOT over the summer. Also, by the end of LC I, they could use verbs in the present, future, and past imperfect tenses, but those still were not second nature or anything to them, so we did a lot with them too. I started making up 4 sentences each night for them to translate when they started their schoolwork in the morning, 2 into Latin and 2 into English. That helped tremendously, and in the beginning of September, we moved on in the book. I was so ready for some new vocab words to make sentences with, LOL!

Spelling: This is, of course, my big bugaboo with Nathan, and this year we are trying something that has been very highly recommended on the Well-Trained Mind board, Sequential Spelling. I'll let you know how it works; so far we aren't far enough in it to see if it is having any sort of impact. Luke is going to do Spelling Power, although a little modified. The idea of it is that you test the child on the list of words, and then they only work on those that they missed. That may sound great, but not to a perfectionistic child like Luke. It really stresses him out to miss words, so I am just going to give him a list at the beginning of the week, let him study them, and then test him at the end, like a traditional spelling program. I am still giving him placement tests, however, to determine exactly where in the program to start. And at least I won't ever have to buy another book for him.

English: We are finishing up the last section of Easy Grammar 4/5, which we did last year. It was perfect for a year when I was so exhausted, but now we are ready for something meatier, so we are going back to Rod and Staff--3 for Luke and 5 for Nathan. I am projecting we'll start that next week.

History: We started Story of the World 4 last week, to much cheering from Nathan. History is definitely his favorite subject, and he has missed it during the summer. The boys are outlining the sections we read, and we are also doing more writing associated with it. Each week they are writing at least a paragraph on some subject that came up in the reading. This week they chose "Hinduism", since we read about the Sepoy Rebellion.

Since: Right now, their co-op is doing a unit on physics, so we aren't going to start doing science at home until that is over. Then we'll delve into chemistry using Fizz, Bubble, and Splash.

I guess those are the main subjects. We are also doing logic puzzles and other things, like art, as they come up. I finally have decided to assign Luke books to read, since I kept waiting but he never really started choosing books other than Star Wars books to read on his own, once he finished the Lord of the Rings and Redwall series. We're still going to listen to books on tape. That is just working really well and makes me less stressed than trying to fit reading aloud in and feeling guilty when it didn't happen for all levels. We're working on Eph. 6:10-20 right now for our new memory passage, and I think we will start the Gettysburg address as well.

And now, enough with school . . on to dinner.