i've learned how difficult it is to get into a groove with a baby and a 6 year old and still manage to keep up with housework etc. i've learned not to buy a bunch of crappy curriculum on a whim or just because one person recommended it and to instead do a lot of research and talk to other moms. i've learned that the more expensive books aren't always better than the ones a fraction of the price. i've learned to ask the lady who owns the teaching store in town what she uses for her son who just finished grade 2. i've learned to stay connected with other homeschooling moms in order to stay sane. i'm learning how to keep up with haye and his signals for when he is overwhelmed or just needs to run around. i'm learning that lots of days bookwork isn't the answer for him. in fact, lots of weeks go by where we do very little bookwork and just answer questions, read books, and play at the park. we've met a lot of good friends and interesting people on this journey and i'm excited to try again in grade 2. grade 1 was a huge learning curve but i think we can do this better next year. my new motto: less curriculum, more learning.
SCIENCE
haye is working through colour yourself smart - the birds of north america colouring and facts book we got at MTF. he has shown a huge interest in birds and claims that when he grows up he is going to be a birder and fly around with me all over the world so we can take pictures of birds and check them off in his book. :) we have also made some bird feeders and hung them up in our yard and on walks.
we gave up on a reason for science as it was (as you have probably already read in this blog) the. worst. curriculum. ever. i bought this apologia science curriculum for next year and then got home and realized it was sort of like a reason for science in theory, and was a little bummed out that i had got sucked back into this endless cycle of bad curriculum. and then i sat down and read it...and realized that this series is SO amazing and so much better than a reason for science could ever be. i spent almost half an hour totally engrossed in going through this text book and was glad to see that it literally only covers flying creatures and over half the book is about birds! haye was so excited to hear about this.
haye also joined cloverbuds (4H) and is learning a lot about a wide range of things. right now they are studying sheep, and we went on a field trip to a sheep farm and learned everything about a lambs life cycle (which is actually quite short...) it was honestly a little horrifying to see where they were slaughtered and learn all about it, but that's life on the farm and it's what we signed up for. haye wasn't too traumatized thankfully ;)
we also recently took a fun field trip to the orchard museum and learned all about bees and their importance to the orchard. it was pretty fascinating.
haye and derek went to a really special sleepover with our homeschool community friends at the vernon science center a couple of months ago where they watched a planetarium show, studied reptiles, learned about gravity, and did a bunch of science experiments. haye had a blast and learned a ton.
we are also going to be taking part in a science fair for homeschoolers on june 21st locally. we are unsure as of yet what haye will contribute but i'll make sure and post it up here after the fair! it is just for fun and all ages, and we are excited to see what everyone makes.
ART
haye has recently gotten into painting and spends a lot of time outside with his friends painting his dollhouse and cardboard we have nailed up around the yard. he is also working on his adventure cards a lot lately (a game he made up that is similar to pokemon). he sewed derek a small stuffed heart with very little help for valentine's day, and as i already said is doing a great job in his bird colouring book. haye never used to be into crafts or colouring very much but i think he just hated crayons because he has really been taking off with markers and coloured pencils. his maze book is still unfinished but i am going to persuade him to finish it as soon as possible.
an adventure card
MATH
thankfully i sold rightstart as it just wasn't working for us AT ALL. with recommendations to try jump math next year, i picked up 2.1 and 2.2 (grade 2) and haye has done 60 pages in 2.1 already! at this rate, we might get into 3.1 before the year is over. it is meeting him right at his level (it is a little bit too easy for him actually) and he is breezing through it.
haye is really into estimating so we've been playing a lot of lego estimating games with him (ex: one of us builds a sculpture or a tower and then counts the blocks and writes it down while the other person guesses the amount of blocks used) . haye also recently rolled and counted all of my mom's change for her along with derek (somewhere around 75 dollars!) and is familiar with all of the coins and how to add them up in various ways to make a dollar (or more). i don't think a day has gone by in years where haye hasn't asked us some form of math question.
LANGUAGE ARTS
we had a free trial for a long time of Reading Eggs (which is AMAZING) and haye actually finished the whole site (120 lessons but he started somewhere around lesson 60 i think after the placement test) and has moved on to Reading Eggspress where he reads books and answers test questions to earn golden eggs. he has been doing SO well and has learned so much. the site covers comprehension, composition, definitions, etc. it is amazing to me how quickly he progressed using this site! i would recommend it to anyone (we ended up paying for a subscription).
i've also been encouraging haye to write short paragraphs or even sentences to go along with drawings he makes on various field trips we go on or for books (short novels) we read. at first he was hesitant to write anything unless he knew exactly how it was spelled but now he will write on his own without worrying too much about whether or not he is right.
we have also been going to the HCS library often and getting out 7-8 books at a time.haye is really into comics lately and has spent a LOT of his free time reading calvin and hobbes and garfield comics over and over.
BIBLE
we have just finished up king's kids for the year and haye had a great time with his friends learning about the old testament. he memorized some verses and learned a bunch of stories (or rather, had them reiterated as he already knew most of them) and made a lot of new friends. we are also attending our home church where haye is working through a workbook and going to sunday school at another church we sometimes attend. he recently got a new comic bible called the action bible that he really loves and talks about god often.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
haye is getting really good at basketball and plays often with derek. they have also been skateboarding a few times. we live in a housing co-op and there are a lot of kids here so haye spends a lot of time playing grounders on the playground and soccer in the field with them. we have also been walking quite a bit to the park down the street to meet friends for playdates in the morning and haye has ridden his big wheel there also. we have gone on some hikes in mission creek park and take the dog to the dog park every day.
HEALTH AND CAREER
we are finished health and career for the year and i can't really think of any new PLOs we have covered, other than random conversations we have had with haye. some of these include what to do when you find pills or needles on the ground (we have actually found 3 in the last few years in our neighbourhood) or how to express feelings without hurting other people's feelings.
i organized a field trip to the fire hall for a homeschool group we are a part of for kindergarten and grade 1 kids. it was really fun and informative and haye had a blast. i think it really put his mind at ease because he was quite scared of fire.
SOCIAL STUDIES
we are finished social studies too, we haven't really introduced any new concepts since the last term. haye is still really into geography so we've been working on that in a great geography book that i got in a book swap online called geography wizardry for kids. we will be continuing this over the summer and into grade 2 as well. haye is really interested in distance (kilometres). when we drive to my mom's house, he enjoys figuring out how far we have driven since the last road sign he saw. his math is usually right on.
we picked up this proffesor noggin game a few weeks ago and haye LOVES it. these games are really quite cheap (under 15$ a game) and you can learn a ton of facts. we are going to pick up a few more soon. haye and i have both enjoyed learning about different types of houses, art, spiritual matters and boats, just to name a few things. we have played it a few times and haven't even come close to reading all the facts yet.
we also picked up this canada geography bingo game which is pretty decent but doesn't really teach you any facts...either way it is a good, quick time killer for bored kids and encourages reading.
i am going to be teaching haye about the map of canada over the next few weeks and have a few ideas up my sleeve for that. i'll post them when we are done!
so there's grade 1. bring on summer!!!!
