End of the 2015/2016 School Year

 The end of April is always my goal to finish up the school year. The weather is so beautiful, and we want to enjoy it before it gets TOO hot and humid. We finished up right on time this year and celebrated with our first Dairy Queen Blizzards! 

I wanted to document what we did this year so I can look back in several years and remember. 

LA/Spelling: Sonlight LA level 2. We added in memorizing more parts of speech, all the helping verbs, and loosely began to label the parts of speech in a sentence. Sonlight wants kids writing a good bit of stories, but Drew loathes writing, so he would narrate and I would transcribe. He has a fun imagination that is ALL boy! (Read: lots of stories about being lost in the woods, guns, bears, snakes, etc) We will be using something more Robust next year. 

Reading: Epic app for Reading independently and read alouds with mom. We also read Sword in the Tree, Runaway Ralph,almost all the Henry Huggins books, Mr. Popper's penguins, and the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. All were big hits! 

Math: Singapore 2a and 2b. We used magnatiles in the geometry part which helped, fraction manipulatives, and flash cards to drill math facts (something Singapore doesn't tell you to do, but I find useful).

Handwriting: we completed the 2nd grade book and finished the cursive kick start Book. His cursive was surprisingly really good! 

Science: science4us.com I was really unsure about doing science online, but I'm so glad we did! Where I was lacking time for experiments and prep work, this site made up for it. Drew learned a LOT this year in science, and I got a good refresher. He studied magnetism, forces, energy sources, heat sources, different types of particles, review of machines, and so much more. There were times where I would explain a biblical view of what they taught, and it was never a big deal. 

Phonics: Explode the Code online. We completed the entire book minus one on syllables. (We covered syllables elsewhere.) 

History: Story of the World Volume 2. We used the Kingfisher's history book and the usbourne internet linked textbook as additional references. We also read several books loaned to us by a good friend about becoming a knight, the structure of castles, and Robin Hood. 

Bible: we read through the entire beginner children's bible, Jesus storybook bible, and also some from his Nirv. I ordered some booklets from Christian Light Publications that were okay. They felt like Sunday school busy work and I likely won't purchase them again for Hannah and Jonah. 

I feel I'd be missing a huge advantage to homeschooling if I didn't add in the fun extras: hunting days, a skating field trip, zoo days, spending 7-8 hours outside some days, children's museum play dates, soccer both semesters, gym and tap dance for Hannah, overnight trips to family members' homes, and lunch dates with Daddy add an extra fun touch to our days! Did I mention Drew and Hannah sleep in until 9? BIG bonus. 

Speaking of Hannah, she is reading CVC words and doing simple math. She completed her preK handwriting book and really enjoyed the different Kumon cut and paste books and various workbooks I got her. We started using some of the Christian Light kindergarten materials with her and she found them interesting and easy to complete. We just aren't used to lots of worksheets, so I find it's just busy work, BUT I was trying to keep her busy while Drew completed his studies, so it served its purpose. 😉

Our school day took anywhere from 1 1/2 hours on an easy Friday to 3-4 hours on a Monday-Thursday, depending on how many word problems we had to hurdle that day. 😉

It's safe to say we were ready for a break, and we fully intend on living it up for the next couple of months! We are so proud of our babies and all their work!