The Adventure of a Lifetime

It's hard to believe it, but on Monday Hannah will start 2nd grade. Can this really be our third year to homeschool?! Time flies when you're having fun!

I thought this week I'd give you a virtual peek at our bookshelves so you know what we'll be doing for the upcoming year.

Our main curriculum is My Father's World, which includes Bible, history/geography, science, art, and music. All we have to do is add our own math and language arts to the mix and we're ready to roll. This year we're using Adventures in My Father's World, which is basically American History and Geography for 2nd and 3rd graders. Ready to see our resources? Let's go browse the shelves!


Bible

We started reading Leading Little Ones to God at the breakfast table over the summer. We've all enjoyed it and Millie seems to be learning from it, so we'll stick with that until it's finished. For the MFW Bible lessons, we'll use either Hannah's new NIrV Bible or her NIV Bible we used last year. Honestly, I think she prefers using the NIV because it makes her feel grown-up, but she is pretty jazzed about this new Bible that came with her curriculum.


History/Geography

• Adventures in My Father's World Teacher's Manual
• The Story of the U.S.
• Student Sheets
• Map of the U.S./map of the world
• American Pioneers and Patriots by Caroline D. Emerson
• North American Indians by Marie and Douglas Gorsline
• Red, White, and Blue by John Herman
• The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
• The 4th of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh
• Celebrate America CD
• Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla
• The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
• On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Sarah Whitcher's Story by Elizabeth Yates
• In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson
• Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates
• Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Interactive 3-D Maps: American History by Donald M. Silver and Patricia J. Wynne (not included with MFW package)
• The American Dream CD (not included with MFW package)
• Little Hands Celebrate America! by Jill Frankel Hauser (not included with MFW package)
• Plus whatever great books we find on our topic at the library each week!

Science

• The Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of Science
• Usborne Science with Air
• Usborne Science in the Kitchen
• Birds, Nests and Eggs by Mel Boring
• My First Magnet Kit
• The Magic School Bus: A Journey Into the Human Body science kit

English


We'll be using Preparing to Build, which is Rod & Staff's 2nd grade grammar and writing curriculum. This was the first curriculum I picked out when we decided to homeschool. Grammar nerd that I am, I love everything about it!


Spelling


We started All About Spelling in April of last year, and Hannah loved it! We still have five lessons left in Level 1, so we'll finish those lessons, then continue with Level 2. If we continue to work at last year's pace, we'll be able to finish Level 2 and Level 3 this year. ("Level" does not mean "grade level." It's just the next book in the series.)


Math


This year we're switching back to Singapore Math. I do not want to be a curriculum hopper, but Hannah absolutely hated CLE Math when we switched to it last year. Did I say she hated it? Good. Because when I say she hated it, I mean she hated it! The whole experience didn't exactly gel with my "teach them to love to learn" philosophy, so we tossed CLE aside and went back to Singapore.

Since our new books arrived, the child has been begging me to let her start her new math this week, but I keep telling her she has to wait until school starts on Monday. I have a feeling she's going to fly through 1A, slow down a little for 1B, and definitely work at a more normal pace for 2A, if we even get that far this year. We may use the Intensive Practice books and the Challenging Word Problem books over the summer break to keep her fresh and sharpen her skills, but we'll just have to wait and see.


Singapore Math is a great program, but it is lacking in basic math fact drills. After a year of CLE, I don't think Hannah ever wants to see another flash card in her life! (But I will say her facts through 10 are solid, and all thanks goes to CLE Math!) Anyway, I got several games we can play to memorize math facts in a fun way. Giggle Facts is a set of 50 games that helps reinforce addition and subtraction facts. RightStart Math games are not only good to help learn math facts but also for logic skills. Rainbow Rock is a computer game put out by Singapore math. And FlashMaster is an electronic version of flash cards. (But shhh! Don't tell Hannah that!)


Art


We're using I Can Do All Things, which is the art curriculum that came with our MFW package. I decided to go ahead and purchase the DVDs, as well, so Hannah can see and hear the artist/author as he teaches each lesson. The book is divided into four categories: Beginning Drawing, Colored Pencils, Colored Markers, and Beginning Painting.


Music


This year we'll do a composer study of Tchaikovsky, which is part of Adventures in My Father's World. We'll also use the Alfred's Piano series for piano lessons.

• The Story of Tchaikovsky in Words and Music CD
• Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker Highlights CD
• The Nutcracker Ballet retold by Deborah Hautzig
• Tchaikovsky Discovers America CD (not included in the MFW package)
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Lesson Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Theory Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Activity & Ear Training Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Notespeller Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Technic Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Solo Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Christmas Joy Book Level A
  

Foreign Language

We decided to follow the MFW recommendations and add a foreign language this year. And since we live in Southeast Texas and have family in Argentina, it only makes sense for that foreign language to be Spanish. We're going to use a program called The Learnables this year, and next year we'll probably sell everything we own so we can afford to buy Rosetta Stone.


Homemaking


And finally, we're definitely keeping Lessons in Responsibility for Girls in our schedule. Homemaking was Hannah's favorite subject in school last year! She has expressed a desire to start sewing lately, so we'll also use Sewing Machine Fun for Kids as long as there is an interest there.

So there you have it! Sounds like a very full, very fun year, and we can't wait to get started on our Adventures in My Father's World!

I'm Baaa-aaaack!

So maybe it somehow escaped your attention, but for the past year I've taken a bloggy break.

It all started when I got behind on my school posts, and rather than skipping a few posts and (heaven forbid!) posting out of order, I tried to play catch-up. Big mistake. Big. Huge.

So I've decided to start posting again because, quite frankly, I like to take a stroll down Memory Lane every now and then, but Memory Lane is looking kind of like a ghost town these days! I've decided to go ahead and chronicle our 2nd grade adventures as they unfold, even though (gasp!) there's a huge one-year chunk of our lives that's missing from this blog.

Hopefully you'll check back one day and find the missing chunk, nicely summarized and placed right where it belongs. But for now, I'm just taking it one day at a time.

Life According to Millie (Part 3)

This was the moon we enjoyed on our way home from the grocery store tonight:


Sure, in the picture it looks a green pea that somehow caught fire and was thrown into the sky, but in reality it was a big, beautiful, full moon.

Millie must have been studying it in the back seat because she said, "Mom, does the moon start off in a big circle like that and then pieces just fall off?"

Loving the 3-year-old thought process,

Welcome, Summer!

Greg and I spent all of yeserday evening and the better part of today at the table saw cutting the wood that will eventually be our kitchen cabinets. When I went to check on the girls at one point, they had moved their picnic table under the shade and were each enjoying a popsicle with Sheba at their side.


No doubt about it: Summer's here!

Everything in Moderation

Hannah asked if she could put on her own sunscreen today. And "put it on" she did! I guess if a little is good, then a lot must be great!

Reading Reward Day

Today was Hannah's last Reading Reward Day for kindergarten. At first she wanted to take a friend to Bungee Zone in the mall, but she decided a couple of days ago to take Millie instead. (All together now: Awwww!) It worked out really well, too, because Greg is in the midst of finals week, so he was able to sneak away a little early and come join us for the fun! Here are a few pics:

Waiting patiently while the group before them finishes up.

Millie was content with tot-sized bounces . . .

. . . but Hannah wanted to fly!

Reaching for the stars—what a great way to wrap up a year of reading success!

Vv Vegetables

Today we finished our Vv Vegetable unit. Well, according to my teacher's manual we finished it. But remember, we have a nice little garden growing in our back yard, so the fun's not over yet! (Yes, I can definitely feel a huge proud grin on my face right now!)

We read in one of our books that a tiny plant can be found in every seed. We all wanted to see what this tiny plant looked like, so we soaked several lima bean seeds and took them apart to see what we could find.

Here's Hannah with our soaked beans.

Millie helped peel the seed coat off of one of the beans.

The seed coat peeled right off, and the two cotyledons separated easily.

We found our tiny plant nestled safely between the two cotyledons!


We cooked some of the squash and zucchini from our garden one night. As I was slicing the veggies, I took one of the seeds and asked the girls if they remembered what was inside of it. Hannah said, "You mean there's even a baby plant inside of that little bitty seed?!" What a priceless moment! We talked about what a marvelous creator God is to be able to form a baby plant in even the smallest of seeds.

In one of our other books, we read that seeds only need water and sunlight to grow. I thought they had to have nutrients from the soil, as well; so we put some popcorn kernels in a plastic baggie with a moist paper towel to see what happened. Turns out that author knew exactly what he was talking about! Go figure!



Our special words to remember this week were "God gives me all that I need."


We looked at Psalm 104:14: "He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate—bringing forth food from the earth." We talked about different ways God gives us what we need physically. He has created healthy food for us to eat so our bodies can stay strong. He has created the land, the sun, and the rain so that when we put seeds in the ground, they grow and bear fruit for us. We also discussed that God gives us what we need spiritually, too; but just like a gardener has to spend time tending to his crops in order for them to bear fruit, we need to spend time with God in order to bear spiritual fruit in our lives.

This unit was almost effortless since we've already been focusing so much on our garden lately. Scripture has a lot to say about sowing and reaping, and I'm thankful the girls are having an opportunity to learn about it in the physical realm so they can transfer their knowledge to the spiritual realm as they get older. Maybe instead of fishers of men, they'll be pickers of people!