Second Grade - Second Quarter, A Review

We made it through the second quarter of our first year of homeschooling intact!  We're both still liking it a lot.  Phew.

Here's a summary of what we've been working on the past few months:

Phy Ed - This was the area that I needed to work on because we didn't do much of anything in 1st quarter.  I'm happy with our progress in 2nd quarter!  She has been taking skating lessons at the St. Paul Figure Skating club once a week.  We've also been doing our normal walks, plus ice skating at the outdoor rink and swimming.  My goal was to do PE twice per week (because that's slightly more than she did at public school.  Yes, I'm comparing).

Reading - I've found that Millie can read slightly more advanced books than I thought if she reads quietly to herself.  I ask questions about what she's read, and she is comprehending the books.  If we read out loud however, she gets hung up on words, and needs to work on her speed and expression.  I should have been having her read out loud more than I have been, so that's something I need to work on next quarter.

Grammar - We're still using Grammar 2 from BJU Press and loving it!  We're moving at a much slower clip than I had anticipated, but this is a subject that Millie needs more help in.  I'm glad to be able to spend more time here because she needs the extra help.  In fact, when it came to learning about common and proper nouns, we did the work from the book, printed the extra worksheets from the Grammar 2 CD, printed worksheets from superteacher.com, AND from the BrainQuest 2 workbook.  I think she finally got it!

Spelling - Same old, same old.  We're doing 12 words per week.  She writes the words, plus does an activity with them each week (word search, word scramble, alphabetizing, etc).  I quiz her each day and she writes the words she gets wrong 5 times each.

History - We just finished learning about ancient Egypt.  This was a really fun unit, we both learned a lot!  We used History Pockets, watched a few documentaries, read out of the Usborne World History book, read The Magic Treehouse Mummies & Pyramids Research Guide, wrote our names using the hieroglyphic alphabet, and took a field trip to see the mummy at the Science Museum.  It was so cool to listen to her converse with the guy manning the mummy station.  I was able to see that she was retaining a lot of the information I had taught her. 

Math - She's cruising along in her Saxon 2 math book.  I also started having her do XtraMath.com to help her identify addition facts quickly. 

Science - We touched on animals/culture/geography in South America and Australia, and learned about our body's  functions (lungs, blood, heart, nerves, hearing, sight, etc).  We did a lot of really cool experiments during that unit!

Fine Arts & Unit Study - Millie is continuing with her piano lessons.  She was supposed to have a recital earlier in December but it has been postponed until late January.  We saw a ballet at the Landmark Center, which the girls both loved.  They took a class at Silverwood where they learned how to make apple cider using a cider press, learned about apple pollination, and painted with apple halves.  It was a great class, I always learn something at Silverwood!  November was filled with learning about the true story of Thanksgiving.  I would have like to have done more crafts, but we didn't get around to it.  We read a lot of books, though.

The "S" word - Millie has been seeing her friends at least twice per week, either during co-op activities,
play dates, church, skating class, etc. 

That about sums up what we've been busy doing for the past couple months!  Is there anything I'd like to change?  Of course!  I'd like Millie to see her friends at least twice during the week, not including skating or church.  Fridays are a given, but I would like to get her out to a class of some sort at least one other time.  I'm having socialization guilt.  I'd also like to keep up with and increase our physical activities.  Maybe a goal of 3 activities per week would satisfy me :)

Our Favorite Holiday Traditions

One of the pages in my 2011 Christmas Planner is a Christmas Festivities Bucket List.  This list consists of everything I'd like to do during the holiday season.  My list has 28 items on it.  Let's do the math:  There are 37 days until Christmas, and I have 28 tasks to complete.  Hmmm, I have a feeling they're not all going to happen.  I asked my family what their most important traditions are, and they replied with the following list:

• Drive around and look at Christmas lights
• Attend the Rice Park tree lighting ceremony
• Pick up a tree from the St. Paul Farmers Market, bring it home, and decorate it
• Skate at the Wells Fargo Winter Skate

Our revised "mini list" is totally doable, and it will satisfy our desire for a season rich with tradition. 

What are you most important holiday traditions?



Photo From Wells Fargo WinterSkate



Getting Behind...

I seem to be falling behind in my blogging duties!  Here's a recap:

• We did a few other fun activities for Halloween
• We trick or treated at my sisters house in Eagan with her two little boys.  My parents came too.  It's a fun tradition that I hope continues for a loooong time :)
• My mom, sister, and I went on our annual Mother/Daughter/Sister Christmas shopping trip last weekend.  For me, Christmas has already started!  I looove it! 

I'll try to be better from now on about posting!  Life seems to have been getting in the way.  Imagine that!

Behold The Christmas Planner

I know, I shouldn't even be thinking about Christmas yet.  I should be focusing on getting those Halloween costumes finished.  But, it's impossible not to think about it a little bit.  After all, I have started getting Christmas catalogs in the mail (only Fleet Farm, but they count, right?  Their Christmas toyland is already open!). 

Here she is!  The 2011 Christmas Planner.  Filled with a spot to keep my pen and highlighter, slot for catalogs and receipts, my calendar for November and December, Christmas list and budget, Christmas "bucket list", and blank pages to put my menus and party outfit schedule on.  I'm good to go!  C'mon Mother/Daughter/Sister Christmas shopping day, I'm ready!

Second Grade, First Quarter In Review

I'm almost done with my first quarter of homeschooling Millie!  So far so good.  We've both learned a lot, and made some really nice friends.

Here's what we've been doing, in detail:

Math - She's using Saxon Math 2, and breezing through it.  She really "gets" math.  We just finished lesson 50 today.  We've been skipping forward quite a bit, or else she'd be bored.  I think I'll be buying Saxon Math 3 before the school year is over.

Science - She spent a couple weeks learning about North American animals (...and culture...and geography.  She wrote and performed a 1 act play as part of her presentation on wolves), dinosaurs, volcanoes and plate tectonics, how machines work, and magnets/batteries. 

Reading/Read Alouds - She has been reading a book per week.  She's progressed to the "next level" of books already, and is now focusing on reading classics by DK Readers Level 4 (Black Beauty, in specific).  I'm really pleased with her progress!  We're also reading out loud each night.  She especially enjoyed The Cricket In Times Square and The Boxcar Children.

Spelling and Grammar - The spelling program that I'm using is helping a lot with phonics.  She's doing great!  Her first few weeks of grammar were focused on sentence structure and different types of sentences and punctuation.  Right now (and for the rest of 1st quarter) she's working on a writing unit.  Her first project was to write about an experience (The Renaissance Festival).  Right now she's working on writing about our trip to Craguns.  It's fun to see the progress she's making!

History - We're both LOVING history!  We started with the dawn of time, dinosaurs, evolution, etc.  It's been really fun (I can't believe how much I'm learning!).  She loved the book Life In The Great Ice Age. 

Fine Arts - She learned about Pieter Bruegel, and studied his use of color.  We used pastels to create warm and cool color pictures.  We also studied Georges Seurat, and made pictures using only tiny dots.  Millie started piano lessons, too.  Her teacher is fantastic, and Millie can read notes and play a few simple songs already :) 

Phy Ed - We haven't done as much as I'd like in this department.  Our phy ed has mainly been walking, biking, and hiking.  This is an area that definitely needs improvement for next quarter!

Field Trips and Out-of-the-home classes - We've taken MANY field trips during the 1st quarter!  Her first was out to Silverwood for a class about papermaking with her co-op friends.  She took another class out there about textures in nature, and made texture tiles out of clay, using textures she found on a nature walk.    When she was learning about fossils, we went hunting for fossils at the Lilydale Brickyard and made fossils at home using plaster of paris.  Every week for the past 5 weeks she's gone to a Farm Explorers class out at Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista.  It's an absolutely fantastic class!  Only one of those left...  We are learning about the renaissance period later this year, so we took a trip out to the Renaissance Festival.  She learned about local history, dipped candles, and watched someone pretend to make ice cream at Gibbs Farm.  The last three outings of the quarter will be science day at the Roseville Library (Newtons 3rd law), a trip to see Luna Negra at the Ordway, and a mother/daughter trip to the theatre to see Dolphin Tail (she learned about Winter the dolphin last year, and it's now a movie, so we're going).

It's been a really great first quarter!  So far we're both loving this homeschool thing :)

What do I need to improve on?  Adding more phy ed into our day, and sticking to our monthly "unit of inquiries".  It was my intention to do more art, and  a lot of nature study.  We didn't do ANY nature study, which I'm disappointed about.  I'll have to up my efforts in the Spring.

Spooktacular Countdown - Let The Sewing Begin!

Only 14 sewing days until Halloween!  Can you guess what I'll be doing every evening for the next few weeks?  My fingers are crossed that I can get everything done on time, and that everything turns out.  Elise's costume looks like it will be hard!  I've never sewn with silky fabric and sheers before.  Now that's scary!

Here's my temporary sewing station.  I'm set up in the corner of my living room, on a card table :)

Spooktacular Countdown - Decorating for Halloween

15 Days until Halloween...

We finally brought up our fall/halloween decor boxes!

My favorite is my bowl full of acorns and old crow figurines.

Elise enjoyed dressing up in Millies old costumes.  She looooved the pirate costume, and it fit her perfectly.  Remind me why I bought a pattern and ridiculously expensive supplies to make her a costume this year...!?