In May we ended up doing only 3 weeks of "official" school. Then the weather became nicer, we had some house guests, field trips, birthdays, and even though we completed most of our subjects for the year, school sort of fizzled out.
Devotional
This is the one subject which we continue to do (most days anyways) by starting out with a prayer, singing songs, memorizing scriptures, and reading our way through the New Testament. The value for May was Courage and there were many wonderful stories to go with this value in the Book of Virtues.
Math
We finished Math-U-See Beta!!! A and N have also had some great practice with their math and strategy skills playing dice and card games, and board games like Life and Othello.
Literature
We finished Pilgrim's Progress and they both promptly asked to start reading it again. We will, but we will probably wait for our full schedule to start up again in the Fall. They have both been excited about checking books out from the library - Star Wars series, Bionicles series, a few more of the Warriors series and a couple Chronicles of Narnia books for A, and Magic Tree House & other easy-reads for N. They've also listened to:
Swiss Family Robinson
Pollyanna
Johnny Tremain
Alice in Wonderland (BBC Radio edition)
Thimble Summer
The Sign of the Beaver
The Cricket in Times Square
Half-Magic
And some old favorites too-
The Lord of the Rings (BBC Radio edition)
Gone Away Lake & Return to Gone Away
Pinocchio
Tales from the Odyssey
The Wind in the Willows (BBC Radio edition)
Homer Price
The BBC Radio editions are actors acting out the books, so the story is somewhat abridged and my kids think they are harder to understand and follow, so we'll be getting the unabridged version from now on.
History, Art, & Music
I was going to keep doing this through the summer, however I decided to be realistic and knew we wouldn't really want to do a lot in the summer. So when we reached the end of week 12 in the Harmony Fine Arts program and it was also the end of the Egyptian Art section I decided to stop us there. We also stopped The Story of the World: Ancient Times at chapter 12. We will pick them both back up in the Fall. History is one subject that has greatly improved this year - the kids are more interested now that I've found resources and methods that work with their learning styles and attention spans.
Science
We finished Exploring Creation with Astronomy- the last couple chapters were about Stars and NASA. We watched Endeavor launch and a number of the mission videos and interviews. We also watched the landing of one of Russia's ships, which was a great way for the kids to compare the differences with the space shuttles. To finish up our Astronomy studies we went to Clark Planetarium for a morning. The kids had a great time trying out all the exhibits. We will also be watching the launch of Atlantis this coming week.
Nature Study
We have been doing our nature study these month - I haven't been very good at blogging about it. I did get a few posts in May - Bird Study, Mammal Study, & Wildflowers/Hike. I don't think I will be posting June's - it too hard to catch up sometimes!
So what are we doing for the Summer?
We are going to continue with our Devotionals, Math, Handwriting, & Literature. We also have a summer science focus - this year its rocks & minerals. We've been growing crystals, cracking geodes, and learning about the rock cycle. Examining and testing our rock sets and creating our own rock collections. We did a hike to Mt. Timpanogos cave where we say stalactites, stalagmites, and many other formations. We have all enjoyed reading library books with a "rock" theme, though not necessarily non-fiction books, for example The Blue Stone, A Gift From the Sea, Elizabeti's Doll, Rocks in His Head, and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. I am also planning some fun rock crafts - rock pets will be one. We don't do all subjects, every day, but on days when we are going to be home and don't have much going on. Its really better for all of us to have some structure.
We've been on lots of hikes, swimming, biking, playing in the sandbox, going to parks, jumping on the trampoline, watching birds, catching bugs, and eating lots of Popsicles. We are potty-training the 3 year old with the usual mixed success :) and our baby turned 1 and is learning to walk. We are using our 4 year old's necessary doctor appointments and MRI's as learning experiences for our older kids, who are curious and concerned and sometimes think they are being left out.
It's summer and lovely!! We hope you are having a good time too!
