Homeschool review

I haven't updated our homeschool review in a while.

In math, I'm just giving her math page after math page with answers equaling no more than 20.  I want her to learn the basics.  The rest of math is so much easier when you don't need to count on your fingers 8+7.  She is getting bored, though, so we might have to mix up the math for a while.

She is still loving reading her Magic Tree House books, although her reading has slowed down.  When it's reading time she wants to run off and play with toys.  We recently discussed compound words and now she is identifying them all over the place. 

She has learned most of her cursive lower case letters.  There's just a few that she isn't able to do without looking at an example.  Once she's got those down, we'll start capital letters.  Her handwriting is just beautiful when it's in cursive.

We have discussed some early American History by reading about and watching videos about the Mayflower and the early Pilgrims.  We also talked about the Liberty Bell and watched a fun video on how bells are made.  Then, we tried to make our own bell, but not with metal.  First we tried papier mache, but that didn't work well.  We couldn't get the dried bell off the cup we used as a mold.  Then we tried it with clay, but that was a disaster too.  It was lots of fun, but we couldn't make it work.

We've talked about tons of stuff.  Every moment with her is an opportunity to learn.  We talked about what a Coat of Arms was and I tried to get her to draw one for our family but she just didn't get the idea, even after looking at pictures of several.

In other art, we read about self-portraits and I had her draw one of herself.  Poor girl, she got my drawing abilities.  (I'm pretty untalented)  It doesn't keep us from trying and having fun though.

This week we will start a new science section - animal habitats and biomes.  I think she will enjoy it.  We will continue to do math, reading, grammar, art, history, cursive writing and what ever else we can squeeze into our days.  I've realized, though, we have not been doing any creative writing.  Her birthday is coming up and she will be getting a real journal.  Shhh, don't tell her.  Perhaps she will be inspired to write great things in her new journal.  I know I love writing in mine.