Homeschool Update

 

We've now finished 9 weeks of school. That means that there are only 7 weeks until Thanksgiving and the holidays. This is how school goes:

I get up, and if I have enough time, I feed the animals and hang out the laundry. Sometimes that doesn't happen and I take a break in the middle of the school to feed the animals and hang out the laundry.  Next, I wake up all of the kids who aren't already awake and we have group learning time. Currently, during that time, I read:
 The Book of Mormon-- we're in Ether
Isaiah--because in 3rd Nephi we learned that Christ told the people to study the words of Isaiah-- we're

on chapter 8. 
The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith-- we're on pg 180. There's so much to learn in this book.The Biography of Heber C. Kimball-- because I learned a great many things from that book, and my heart softened-- we're on chapter 31.
The Naked Communist by W.Cleon Skousen-- we're studying communism for history this year and this book covers Karl Marx, Engals, Russian history, American history, and the rise of communism in China. After this, we're going to read biographies from China and Cambodia. 
A Spanish lesson. On Thursday, we have a zoom lesson with other homeschool families. 
Science-- we watch videos for science this year.
The Lord of the Rings-- we start The Two Towers on Monday.

Then, the kids start their independent work and individual lessons with me. But first, I take a break and feed the animals if I did not already get to that and hang out more laundry. 

I take Adam for Math first. He is doing pre-calculus and struggling a bit. I think that we will be covering pre-calculus over two years, so he will be on the same path that Ruth took. But if he gets to the point where he can be given a problem a solve it without a lesson, then I may change my mind on that. I want him prepared before calculus and I do think at this stage there's no cutting corners. He's got to learn to think for himself and to do things without a teacher. On his own, Adam does the language arts curriculum that I wrote, geography, reading, some computer programming, Japanese, and Spanish. He's coming along, fairly well.

Next I take Rachel for geometry. She hates it, but she is getting it enough to be getting all of her problems right. She does not like to write proofs down, but when I tell her to prove something verbally, she can do it easily. On her own Rachel does the language arts curriculum that I wrote, geography, reading, Spanish, and cursive writing. 

After that, I take Susan. We go through her alphabet, sound, and word flash cards. She then reads three books to me, and we do a lesson in the Good and Beautiful language arts. Next, I read the Old Testament Stories to Susan and Sam, and finally I read a chapter book to Susan and Arwen. Curently we're reading The Secret Garden and I'm finding that it is still one of my favorite books. On her own, Susan does a math page, a hand writing page, and a phonics worksheet.

Then I take Arwen and Josh for their good and beautiful lesson, math lessons, and Josh reads to me each day. On their own, they read their scriptures, read a chapter book, do Spanish and cursive writing. They also do a math assignment and spelling words. 

Next, I do math with Anya and Joseph. They're in Algebra I and doing fairly well. Joseph gets it a little better than Anya, but they're both solving equations well. Sometimes they need reminders on negative numbers, fractions, and decimals, but those are part of their daily work anyway. 

Finally, I give Adam, Rachel, and Anya a spelling test. Adam usually passes on Monday. I simply have them practice the words and take the test until they get a 90% which is 9 out of 10 words.