This post is really for my records please don't torture yourself by reading it!
I think the motive behind this post is that I woke up at 2:00a wondering what my girls had learned over the last 5 months. I had a brief moment of panic and needed to figure out just where we've come.
We are still enjoying our Classical Conversation classes. Jeremy and I are making plans for next fall and Classical Conversations will be a part of that plan {although we will hopefully be moving to a different campus}
What the girls have learned in CC this fall semester:
History: The 10 commandments, names of the Greek & Roman gods, the 7 wonders of the ancient world, they can explain the split of the Roman empire and the fall of Rome. They can briefly explain Hinduism, the Age of Imperialism, Confucius and the Heian Empire.They have also learned basic facts about the Byzantine and Muslim Empire.
Geography: They can identify 5-7 locations within the following Empires/locations from memory {this has also been a good tool for us to use for our phonics because we talk about the starting sounds} Fertile Crescent, Assyrian Empire, Hebrew Empire, Hittite Empire, Egyptian Empire, Roman Empire, Indus River Valley, China, Eastern Asia, Japan, Byzantine Empire & Muslim Empire. They have also learned how to identify all 7 continents.
English Grammar: They have learned what a preposition is and have also learned all of the prepositions...about, above, across, after, against ... etc.
Math: They have learned their multiplication tables through skip counting with numbers 1x1 through 12x12
Latin: They have learned the parts of Latin grammar as well as all 5 Latin declensions both singular and plural.
Science: They can list and are learning how to explain...
Classifications of living things and what the five kingdoms of living things are. They can tell you parts of a plant and animal cell. They can list the major groups of invertebrates and vertebrates. They can tell you about the three ways that animals reproduce and the different types of seed plants. They have learned what some of the parts of plants are and the different kinds of leaves and leaf parts. They have also learned the parts of a flower and currently they are learning the plant systems.
In addition to CC we also do daily work at home. We have hit phonics extremely hard this semester. They have pretty much mastered every sound of every letter. Now that we know those really well reading is becoming much easier! The girls are using two different programs, Hooked on Phonics & All about Spelling in order to be successful readers. Jeremy is also currently reading to them the Chronicles of Narnia and I still try to read them at least 5 kid books a day. Lots of exposure to words is our goal right now.
In our "at home math" we switched to Math-U-See and that has made a HUGE difference! We are working on simple addition problems, writing numbers and basic math concepts.
Jeremy is also still doing science Saturday...usually on Sunday and the girls LOVED being a part of the science fair.
What's coming up:
We will be adding in more writing practice this winter/spring semester. I'm still working on how to do that.
My gift for Christmas is a PIANO!!!! So piano lessons are heading our way.
And besides a baby that is all we're adding.
This list makes me feel better ... there is knowledge being shoved into their tiny little heads plus we have found a really good balance of learning and play.We are finding our homeschooling groove and it feels really, really good!
