Second Grade, Bible, Set Six

Week One:

• Hymn: When We See Christ
• Memory Verse: John 3:11
• Searching for Treasure: Study 18, Intro - #3
• Review Catechism
• Pray daily
• Finished reading Escape from the Slave Traders (We met some people from Malawi, which is next to Lake Nyasa, which we read about in this book. It was really neat how it all worked together.)
• Reviewed previously memorized passages

Week Two:

• Hymn: He Touched Me
• Memory Verse: John 3:12
• Searching for Treasure: Study 18, #4 and Study 19, Intro - #2
• Bible Reading: Exodus 31 - 35
• Prayed daily
• Began reading Sinking the Dayspring about John Paton

Week Three:

• Hymn: He's Everything to Me (K. really likes this one, I've heard her singing it around the house)
• Memory Verse: John 3:13
• Searching for Treasure: Study 19, #3 - 4 and Study 20, Intro
• The Princess and the Kiss: Lesson 14 in the Life Lessons book. This lesson is about being pure in your life so you don't build walls between yourself and God or yourself and those in authority. We also read Mrs. Rosey-Posey and the Chocolate Cherry Treat.
• We prayed each day.
• We continued reading Sinking the Dayspring

Week Four:

• Hymn: Face to Face
• Memory Verses: John 3:14-15
• Searching for Treasure: Study 20, #1 - 4; this study was on was on working hard
• Catechism: # 100, 102, and 104
• We reviewed all the catechism we have learned once, and this year's catechism once.
• We prayed
• We finished reading Sinking the Dayspring

Week Five:

• Hymn: To God be the Glory
• Memory Verses: John 3:16 - 17 -- this is a long section, but K. already knew verse 16, so it was really only learning verse 17
• Lost in India: This is a four week program that Mission India and Sonlight Curriculum are doing. Each Tuesday and Thursday there is a new video to watch about Chris, who went to India to see a friend, but flew to the wrong airport and now has to travel through India to meet his friend, Justin. There are activities that go along with each video, which include stories about children who have become Christians through Mission India's Bible Clubs. The goal is to raise money for these Bible Clubs.
• We prayed
• We started reading Kidnapped by River Rats, which is about William and Catherine Booth.

Second Grade, Math, Set Six

Addition

• K. completed six addition problems (three addends to ten thousands place with renaming). Then she marked which sums were odd or even, compared the sums using the < or > signs, and rounded to the nearest ten or hundred.
• We played games from the books, Adding and Subtracting Book 1 and Book 2 by Ann Montague-Smith.
• We practiced the order principle and grouping principle.

Problem Solving
Map Skills -- I discovered I had the book Map Mysteries by Lisa Trumbauer. It is for grades 2 - 4. We are completing one mystery each week. K. is really enjoying it.

Geometry
We are continuing the book Mirror Magic. This book covers congruence and symmetry.

Subtraction

• K. completed six subtraction problems (to thousands place with borrowing). Then she marked which differences were odd or even, compared the differences using the < or > signs, and rounded to the nearest ten or hundred.
• We played games from the books, Adding and Subtracting Book 1 and Book 2 by Ann Montague-Smith.
• I made up word problems that had to do with comparing. Such as, John had 3 apples. Ken had 7 apples. How many more did Ken have?

Multiplication with Marvelous Multiplication

• We used the squares we made for the four times tables to play a game.
• I put the squares out with the words showing (one, two, three, etc.)
• We took turns tossing tokens.
• We had to give the answer for which ever square it landed on, even if there were already tokens on that square.
• We kept going until we used all the tokens.
• If a wrong answer was given, we took any tokens that were on that square off and put them back in the pot to be thrown again.

• We explored the ten times tables by putting sets of hand prints on a large paper. Each set is a ten, so one set is 1 x 10 = 10; two sets is 2 x 10 = 20; up to 10 sets is 10 x 10 = 100.

• We played the dominos game with a double 6 set.
• Each player has a card with the numbers 1 through 36.
• Players take turns choosing dominos and solving the multiplication equation it represents. That player puts a token on the answer on their card.
• The first person with six in a row wins.
• Dominos with a zero, mean you can put a token anyplace on your card.

Division with Dazzling Division

• We practiced our 3's
• I would give K. a number of colorful game pieces and she would divide them evenly between three circles I drew on a sheet of paper.
• We practiced our 4's
• I printed out pictures of ten animals that have long legs (horse, cow, giraffe, zebra, etc.) then I cut the legs off of them.
• I gave K. four legs. That was enough for one animal. (4 ÷ 4 = 1)
• We continued with 8, 12, 16, . . . 40
• We played computer games to practice our 1's, 2's, 3's, and 4's. K. really liked playing Flurry of Flavors. I liked it because it was not timed, which allowed her to skip count to find the correct answers.

Second Grade, Reading, Set Six

We switched to the reader, Pilgrim Boy. It is a third grade A Beka reading book that I picked up at the thrift store. I decided to use it now since it goes with the time period we are studying in history. It has comprehension questions after each chapter. There are 16 short chapters.

We finished Pilgrim Boy and started reading BJU's 3-1 reading book again.

Comprehension Skills
This section is learning to read at different speeds. You read rapidly when skimming to find an answer or searching for a name in the phone book (yeah, who does that anymore!). You read carefully when studying, following directions, etc. A normal rate is used when reading for enjoyment.

• Obey the Speed Limit; this was a board game in the book, players took a card, read it and followed the directions. Cards said things like:
• Whoops! That is too fast to read directions for putting a model together. Move back 2 spaces.
• The directions to the game you want to play are complicated. Move ahead 1 space very slowly.
• Good for you! You found the key word in the paragraph. Move ahead 3 spaces.
• This joke is pretty good. Move ahead 2 spaces and read at a normal rate to enjoy it.
• Where are the Phrases?; one way to read rapidly is to read in phrases rather than word by word. We looked at a poem and broke it into phrases.
• I had K. read a science experiment rapidly. Then asked her what we were supposed to do. Then I had her read it slowly and asked her again.
• We searched for friends names in the telephone book.
• I read a story to her and we found the five most important words in some of the paragraphs.

From Games for Reading:

• See It - Name It page 138 -- we did this on the way to the park one day
• Goofy Sentences page 64
• Interview with an Alligator page 171
• Go Togethers page 140

Second Grade, Grammar, Set Six

Parts of Speech

• We used an old reader and underlined the verbs, pronouns, nouns, proper nouns, plural nouns, and adjectives in one story. The story had four pages, so we did one page each day.

Sentence Structure

• We divided sentences between the subject and the predicate.
• We added subjects to predicates.
• We added predicates to subjects.

Usage

• We learned that 'I' gets used in the subject of a sentence and 'me' is used in the predicate.
• We completed sentences to avoid using double negatives.

Listening and Speaking Skills

• Giving an oral book report from an outline

Writing Skills

• To prepare for writing a descriptive paragraph (she chose to write about chocolate cake), we completed a Word Web and a Senses Chart.
• We practiced combining sentences that had common subjects or common predicates.
• I had K. pick two words from her word web and two from her senses chart that were plain, everyday words. We used the thesaurus to find more interesting words to use. For instance, soft was exchanged for spongy.
• She spent two days writing sentences from the things on her charts. I asked her to write five sentences each day.
• The next day we looked for sentences that had the same subject or predicate and she combined them into one sentence.
• She decided on the order her sentences should be in the paragraph, and wrote the paragraph in her best writing.

Second Grade, Fine Arts, Set Six

Art

• We completed pages 20 - 24 in the Art Museum book. I found a video on You Tube of someone carving (time lapse) and we watched it.
• Making a Assemblage (My Art Book)
• We read the book The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau. We copied one of his jungles from My Art Book this year, so when I saw this book at the library, I picked it up. It is about his life. An interesting book with great illustrations.

Piano

• One page a week

Sewing
I looked on-line for hand sewing projects for children. Then I let K. choose one. I found a pinterest board that is just felt ornaments -- so most are hand sewn. K. and I were looking at the pins and saw a few things that she would like to make.

• We made Flower Broaches.

 

• We are working on Felt Pumpkin Magnets. They are almost finished.

Second Grade, Writing, Set Six

• Forbidden Letters; the letter was H this time. It was on the "less easy letter" list, but it is a really hard letter to not use. You can't even use the word 'the'. 'H' is really pretty popular. After a few sentences we were frustrated and stopped. (Games for Writing)
• Welcoming Words; K. made a sign to welcome her friends to our End of Summer Party. (Writing Hangups)
• That's Good / That's Bad; we take turns writing a story where each sentence is followed by either "That's good." or "That's bad." (Games for Writing)
• I created a monster this week! Rules and Regulations was the writing assignment, so I had K. write rules for the bathroom. She came up with about ten. Some were funny, such as: No throwing flies in the toilet. But then she decided to add fines to each rule, and now she is making rules for other rooms. (Writing Hangups)
• We wrote a poem using Rhyme Time. I had written out six words, and had K. pick two. These were the words that had to rhyme in our poem. We took turns writing two or three lines at a time.

Cursive Writing Made Easy and Fun:

• Riding the Cursive Wave; Write a word in cursive. Then imagine you set it down on water. If it was floating or starting to sink, where would the water go? Color in the "bottoms" of some words.
• Cursive Concentration; a game where the manuscript and the cursive forms of a letter are the matches

Second Grade, Spelling, Set Six

At the end of this week I gave K. her spelling test in sentences, using three or four words in each sentence. She seemed to like this better than just writing a list of words.

Examples: (spelling words are underlined)

• The other zipper is better.
• I found another letter under the banner.

This week's lesson in the spelling book was reviewing words from the last five lessons. The last time we had a review lesson, K. didn't like having to review. I know that review is important, but since we are dealing with words that she can already spell (she spells them correctly on the pretest), I decided to go with an alternate plan this week.

• Monday I gave her the children's dictionary and had her pick ten words that interested her and she didn't know how to spell. (Her words were: chaps, delphinium, estuary, delta, bison, birch, chameleon, chandelier, chimpanzee, circus)
• She wrote the words in her spelling notebook and wrote them again putting a dot between the syllables.
• Tuesday I gave her a sheet of paper with a picture of each word. She wrote the words underneath the correct picture.
• Thursday I gave her a blank graph and had her fill it in for a word search. Then I found the words.

Second Grade, Science, Set Six

We are learning about and experimenting with one simple machine each week. The two books I'm using for experiments are:

• Mighty Machines by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone -- experiments from this book will be denoted by (MM)
• Simple Machines by Deborah Hodge -- experiments from this book will be denoted by (SM)

Levers

• We started out the week by reading the book Levers by Chris Oxlade -- it teaches what a lever is, the three classes of levers, and shows many ways levers are used in everyday life. The photos in the book are large and colorful with just three or four sentences on each page.
• (MM) page 14 -- experiments to see the three different classes of lever at work; you just need a spring scale, a rod or yard stick, a small bag of rice or pebbles, and a chair. Use the chair for your fulcrum. Use the spring scale to measure the amount of force it takes to keep the lever level when:
• the fulcrum is in the center and the load (rocks) is at one end and the force (scale) is at the opposite end.
• the fulcrum is at one end, the load is in the center, and the force is at the opposite end.
• the fulcrum is at one end, the force is in the center, and the load is at the opposite end.
• (SM) page 4 -- Table Trick -- you need a sturdy table, a chair with a strong back, a broom handle, and a volunteer or a heavy box. Have the volunteer sit or lay on the table. Put the chair with its back to the table. Use the chair back as the fulcrum and lift the table with the broom handle. You may want to have your child try to lift the table with their hands first. Have them experiment with lifting the table with different length levers. They will find that the longer the lever (on the side opposite the table) the easier it is to lift the table and volunteer.
• (MM) page 16 -- You need four tennis balls and a bat. Go to the park (if you don't have a big back yard) and put one ball down on the ground. Put one hand close to the small end of the bat, and the other hand (second hand) as far down the bat as you can reach. Hit the ball. Get the next ball. Move your second hand up the bat a ways and hit the ball. Get the third ball. Move your second hand up the bat more and hit the ball. Repeat with the fourth ball. Which ball went the farthest? This experiment plays very well off yesterday's experiment. Also, Curious George has a good episode about leverage.
• (SM) page 6 -- Balancing Act -- use a ruler, blocks, and a fulcrum, such as a toilet paper tube cut in half. Experiment with balancing blocks. Put some blocks far from the fulcrum and some close to the fulcrum -- Can you make it balance?

Wheels and Axles

• We read the book Wheels by Chris Oxlade -- it tells all about wheels, axles, gears, and shows them in use
• (MM) page 26 -- this experiment shows how adding a wheel to the axle makes turning it easier. Put two chairs back to back, about 1 foot apart. Place a broom stick across the backs of the chairs. Fasten a bucket to the broom stick with a length of string or yarn, etc. Put a small load in the bucket (we used sidewalk chalk). Turn the broom stick to raise the bucket. Then add a ruler to the end of the broomstick. (You can use tape.) Use the ruler to turn the broom stick.

• (SM) page 10 -- Candy Collector -- Make a pinwheel with a pencil for the axle. Attach a piece of candy to a string and the other end of the pencil. The instructions have you put the pencil in two slots of a half gallon juice container, but our would not stay in place, so I made holes for the pencil and put a rubber band on one end. As the child blows the pinwheel, the string winds up and they get the candy. Just make sure the string isn't too close to the end of the pencil, or it keeps falling off. See the video below.

• (SM) page 12 -- Bubble Race -- You will need a hand rotary eggbeater for this experiment. Half fill two bowls that are the same size. Put 1 teaspoon of dish soap in each bowl. Do not stir it. Give one person a spoon and the other the eggbeater. Let each whip up bubbles for 30 seconds. The wheels (gears) and axle of the eggbeater allow the beaters to spin fast and make more bubbles that the person with the spoon.
• (MM) page 28 -- this experiment shows that since a screwdriver (wheel) is bigger around than a screw (axle), it doesn't take as much effort to screw the screw in. Get a piece of styrofoam and a screw. Try to screw the screw into the styrofoam with your fingers. Then try it with the screwdriver.
• (SM) page 8 -- Whacky wheels -- make two cars by cutting a half gallon juice box in half from top to bottom. give one wheels by using colored pencils and spools. Make a ramp by placing one end of a board on a stack of books. Put both cars at the top of the ramp and let go. The car without wheels doesn't move down the ramp as well as the car with wheels because of friction. Wheels reduce the amount of friction so that the other car can zoom down the ramp.

Inclined Planes and Wedges

• We read Ramps and Wedges by David Glover -- this book explains ramps and wedges and has lots of illustrations to show them in use.
• (SM) page 18 -- Egg drop -- You will need two eggs, a plate, a food can, an empty aluminum foil box. Cut the top and one end from the box to make a ramp. First, place your hand on the can and drop one egg onto the plate. Next, set the top of the ramp on the can and roll the egg down the ramp. Both eggs went from the height of the can to the table, but the ramp lessened the force of the egg. The egg had to travel farther, but it had a safer landing. An inclined plane allows you to lower or lift heavy objects using less force, but you must move the object a greater distance.
• (SM) page 26 -- Funny face -- You need a paring knife, a carrot, a soft apple (such as Golden Delicious) or a pear. Cut the carrot into 1/4" slices. Try to push a slice of carrot into the apple. Then cut a carrot slice into a point (wedge) and push the point into the apple. Which is easier?

• (MM) page 38 -- You will need a piece of styrofoam, an unsharpened pencil, and a sharpened pencil. First, try to push the unsharpened pencil into the foam. Then try the sharpened pencil. Which is easier? The sharp end of the pencil is a wedge. The wedge changes the direction of the force: you push down, but the wedge pushes down and sideways.
• (SM) page 20 -- Marble lift -- Make a ramp by putting one end of a board on top of a pile of books. Attach 2 yogurt cups to string or yarn. The yarn should be just a little longer than your ramp. Tie the other end of the yarn to toy trucks or cars. Put the cars at the bottom of the ramp and hang the yogurt cups over the end. start putting marbles or coins in the yogurt cups. How many does it take to pull the truck up the ramp? Change the height of the ramp. Now how many marbles does it take? The steeper the inclined plane, the more force (marbles) you must use.

• (MM) page 32 -- Make a ramp by putting one end of a board on top of a pile of books. You will need your bag of rocks or rice (weight), a spring scale, and a toy truck. First, use the scale to pull the weight up the ramp. Check the scale to see how much effort it took. Next, place the weight at the bottom of the stack of books and use the scale to lift it to the top of the stack. Does this take more or less effort? Last, put the weight in the truck and pull the truck up the ramp with the scale. How much effort does it take? You can raise and lower the ramp to see how it changes the amount of effort if takes.
• (MM) page 34 -- Change the length of your ramp from the above experiment (longer or shorter) and see how it effects the amount of effort.

Screws

• The book I had requested from the library on screws had not come yet, so I read the two pages about screws in Mighty Machines.
• (MM) page 44 -- You need an unsharpened pencil with an eraser, string (2 feet long), tack, ruler. Push the tack a little ways into the eraser. Tie one end of the string around it, then push it in all the way. Hold the pencil upright on its unsharpened end. Hold the string out so that the untied end is on the table. (The table, pencil, and string will make a triangle.) Use the ruler to measure the distance from the pencil to the end of the string. Rotate the pencil so the string winds up on it. This shows that a screw is really an inclined plane wound around a rod.
• (SM) page 22 -- You will need a tall can (Pringles can) or a thermos, a clear plastic tube, tape, a bowl half filled with water, and food coloring. Put some drops of food coloring in the water. Tape one end of the tube to the top of your container. Hold the other end at the table top (so it makes an inclined plane). Rotate the container so the tubing winds around it in a spiral. Place one end of the container and tubing in the water. Slowly turn the can until some colored water moves into the tubing. Lift the container out of the water, tilt it slightly, and keep turning it slowly. The water will climb the tube and come out the top. If it doesn't work the first time, try holding the container at a different angle. It would be difficult to make water go up a straight tube, but the spiral makes it easier.
• (MM) page 42 -- You need different types of screws so that you have some with ridges close together and some with ridges far apart, (we used drill bits from a set for a hand drill) styrofoam, and a screwdriver. Let your child guess if it will be easier to screw one into the styrofoam that has the ridges close or far apart. Then let them try it. The one with ridges close together should be easier. Remind them of the experiments with short and long ramps. Talk about why one screw is easier than the other.
• (SM) page 24 -- There is a pattern in the book to make a twirling "helicopter" from paper and a paper clip. We each made one and flew them. Then I took a wadded up piece of paper and dropped both it and my helicopter from the same height. We talked about why one got to the floor faster, and likened it to the egg experiment from last week. Here is a link to the same helicopter pattern.

Pulleys

• We read Pulleys by Sarah Tieck -- this book was from a different series, and I did not like it as well. It didn't give a much information as the other books.
• (SM) page 14 -- you need a pole (broom stick will work), an empty spool, yarn or string, ribbon, plastic bucket with a handle, and the bag of pebbles that you used before. Find a place where you can set up your pole so it is supported on both ends and is level. You can use the backs of two chairs. Thread the yarn through the spool and tie it around the pole. Tie one end of the ribbon to the bucket and thread the ribbon over the spool. Put the pebbles in the bucket. Have your child lift the  bucket. Then have them pull the ribbon (using the pulley) to lift the bucket. Which is easier? A pulley changes the direction of the force.
• (MM) page 20 -- for this experiment you need a pole at least a couple feet off the ground, two buckets with handles, a spool, a ribbon, yarn or string, and marbles or pebbles. Find a way to position the pole so it is level -- you can put each end on a chair. Put the yarn through the spool and tie it to the pole. Tie one end of the ribbon to one bucket handle. Thread the ribbon over the spool and tie the other end to the other bucket handle. One of the buckets should not be on the floor. Have your child start putting marbles in the bucket that is not resting on the floor. What happens? This shows that a single fixed pulley lets you pull in one direction and move something in the other direction. See video below, although you will have to look at it sideways!
• (SM) page 16 -- for this experiment you need two broom sticks, a rope, and three children (so we did this at a park day). Have two children hold the sticks about one foot apart. Tie the rope to the top of one stick, then loop the rope around both sticks a few times. Have the third child hold on to the rope, when she is ready to pull, the children holding the sticks pick them up off the ground and try to pull them apart, while child #3 is pulling on the rope. Who is stronger? The child pulling the rope should be able to force the sticks together. Each time the rope is looped around a stick, it is like a pulley. Pulleys multiply the force of your muscles, giving you extra pulling power. Here is a diagram of this experiment, although they have the broom sticks horizontal instead of vertical.
• (MM) page 22 -- set up your pole, again, tie one end of the ribbon to the pole. Tie the yarn that goes through your spool to the bucket handle. Thread the ribbon under the spool. Lift the loose end of the ribbon. This is a pulley that moves. The bucket has two supporting belts (one from pole to pulley and second from pulley to hand) this should make the bucket seem lighter. We went on from here to make a block and tackle. To do this get another spool and put yarn through the spool and tie it to the pole. The ribbon will go from the pole under the spool attached to the bucket and over the spool attached to the pole. Now you can pull down to lift the bucket, which is easier than pulling up.

Second Grade, History, Set Six

We started out by reading chapter 72 from Child's History. This chapter covers:

• Louis XIII
• Louis XIV
• Richelieu
• Thirty Years War
• Gustavus Adolphus
• Treaty of Westphalia
• Oberammergau / Passion Play
• Versailles

In addition we read:

• The King's Day by Aliki -- this book takes you through a typical day of King Louis XIV. There are more illustrations than text, so this is a great book for young children, but has enough information to interest me.
• Welcome to France by Kathryn Stevens -- I have decided to get books about countries that are mentioned in Child's History. This book has lots of large photos and not too much text.
• Sweden by Deborah Grahame -- this book was a bit above K.'s level, but it was the best one our library had. We mostly looked at the pictures and I read small excerpts.
• John Wesley by May McNeer and Lynd Ward -- this is a well-written, interesting biography of John Wesley. It has some black and white illustrations.
• Palace of Versailles by Linda Tagliaferro -- this is an interesting book with lots of pictures and not too much text that gives good information about the palace.

For this time period in American history, we read:

• Witch Hunt: It Happened in Salem Village by Stephen Krensky -- I assigned K. to read this book. I had already read it to make sure it was appropriate. This is a "Step into Reading" book. It handles the subject well and is interesting and well illustrated.
• Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars 1689 - 1763 by Betsy and Giulio Maestro -- this book has lots of good illustrations. I let K. color while I read it. I re-cap the main points to make sure she has understood them.
• The Thirteen Colonies by Brendan January -- this is in the A True Book series. It has lots of illustrations and easy to understand text.
• Tom Jefferson: A Boy in Colonial Days by Helen A. Monsell -- this book was published in 1939 and I came across it at a book sale. It is well written and at a second or third grade reading level. The book is about Tom's boyhood, what it was like being the son of a rich family during the colonial period.
• George Washington's Breakfast by Jean Fritz -- a book about a boy who wants to know what George Washington had for breakfast, and how he finds out.
• The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds -- a story that takes place in New York during the French and Indian War about how a family defends themselves -- okay, I'm not giving it away, but it is very exciting and a bit scary at times, but it all ends up fine.
• If you Grew Up with George Washington by Ruth Belov Gross -- learning about what life was like in this era.
• If you lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern -- New England from 1630 - 1730; helps children imagine what it was like to be a girl or boy during this period.
• George Washington's Mother by Jean Fritz -- an easy reader that tells about Mary Washington's life and it's effect on George Washington.
• Welcome to Felicity's World, The American Girls Collection -- lots of illustrations and information about the time period of 1774
• The New Americans: Colonial Times, 1620 - 1689 by Betsy Maestro -- very well written and illustrated; I used this book as a review, mostly looking at the pictures and reading snippets here and there.
• Dangerous Crossing by Stephen Krensky -- picture book about John Adams and his young son, John Quincy Adams crossing the Atlantic Ocean to France during the Revolutionary War.
• Write On, Mercy by Gretchen Woelfle -- a picture book about the life of Mercy Otis Warren and the part her writings played in the Revolutionary War.
• Daring Women of the American Revolution by Francis Walsh -- short accounts of eight women and the part they played in the war.

We read chapter 73 in Child's History. It covered:

• Peter the Great
• Charles XII
• St. Petersburg

In addition we read:

• Russia by Martin Hintz -- this is in the "A True Book" series, so is written for young children. It has lots of photos and easy to understand text.
• Peter the Great by Diane Stanley -- this book was very well written and illustrated for children, although it didn't seem to exactly agree with what we read about Peter the Great in Child's History.
• Catherine the Great by Elizabeth Raum -- this is Catherine II, who married the grandson of Peter the Great. It was interesting, but there were parts I skipped since it was written for a little older child.

Evaluation of Second Grade, Set Five

• Bible -- K. is doing well with her memorization and comprehension of our discussions.
• Math -- K. remembers more and is better at the things we are studying each time we "visit" them.
• Reading -- because K. reads on her own, enjoys reading, and reads well, I try to keep reading a fun time, concentrating more on comprehension and pronunciation than reading.
• Grammar -- we are finishing the book report and report on penguins during our weeks between set five and set six.
• Fine Arts -- K. is enjoying the art projects. We did the Paint to Music one during our weeks off. She is also becoming more interested in playing the piano.
• Writing -- K. enjoyed the writing projects we did in this set. She really likes it when we write stories together.
• Spelling -- her overall spelling is becoming better, and she seems to be more aware that words should be spelled correctly -- she is asking more often how to spell words she doesn't know how to spell.
• Science -- I think my attempt to keep the experiments fun in this set was successful. She does say she is tired of experiments, and wants to learn about animals again, but she enjoys the experiments, too. (Lesson for me: Don't plan a whole year of one type of science.)
• History -- we are getting into a time period where there are more books written for K.'s age and comprehension, so it is easier. We borrowed the movie, Felicity: An American Girl Adventure and watched it. Then I showed her the series of books. She is quite excited to read them.