Homeschooling

On the schooling front...things are going quite well.

Books we've read:
The Boxcar Children
My Father's Dragon
Elmer & the Dragon
The Apple & the Arrow
Johnny Appleseed
The Hundred Dresses
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Come Look With Me: Enjoying Art with Children

Mickade himself is reading on approximately a 4th grade level, but we still keep the selections he reads out loud on a second grade level (remember he's in "first grade") as recommended by our literature-based curriculum. The idea is to stimulate love of reading and fluency, instead of too much challenge and frustration...so he reads books to me like "Frog and Toad" and other stories.

We've made crayons. We took all our old crayons, unwrapped them, and designed our own crayons. I put them in the oven to melt them..the kids enjoyed the project. They came out quite nice!!!! One small caveat, however: do not do this in your stoneware, even with cupcake liners...the wax leaks through, forever ruining it. So while I did manage to save $3 on a box of crayons, I lost $30 for a muffin pan....oops!!! At least we ALL learned something....lol.


In October, we did a unit on presidential elections...it was fun. We made a lapbook of our work. Mickade was very interested in it all. He even went on nick.com (they had a program going for kids to vote) and researched all the candidates on his own. He knew how many children they had, where they were from, etc.....all from looking by himself. His researching skills are quite strong.


We use a program called RightStart Mathematics, and it rocks. It is actually FUN and makes math engaging...the true understanding coming from it is amazing. Mickade actually ASKS to do math and play the games in the program. He can add numbers in his head and extrapolate what he has learned and can apply it elsewhere. He recently kept score in his head for a nerf shooting match he, his dad, and grandfather had that included points of 5, 10, and 100. I included a couple of photos here of him using place value cards and base ten cards to build numbers and 'see' what they are made of, then do trading and eventually add quite large numbers.



For science....we use our backyard. :) Mickade is obsessed with sharks...he reads all about them, researches them online, finds videos....it's fantastic.