Devotional- For March we continue to read the New Testament with Penny Gardner's Storied Scriptures and our value for the month was Friendship. We read a wonderful e-book I received through Homeschool Freebie of the Day called Being a Good Friend (its meant for girls, but I just made adjustments as I read) and we read stories on Friendship from The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennet, which included one of our favorites "The Selfish Giant" by Osacr Wilde (If you haven't read Oscar Wilde's fairy tales you should!).
Math- Currently working on chapter 21 in Math-U-See. We also focused on our addition and subtraction facts through math games using dominoes, flash cards, dice, as well as playing math games for fun, such as tangram puzzles.
Literature- A is reading a biography of George Fredierc Handel for his book club, and N and I read a couple of the American Girl Kirsten books for her book club. We read from Pot O'Gold: A Treasury of Irish Stories, Peotry, Folklore, and (of course) Blarney by Kathleen Krull for the month in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. They listened to Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone Away by Elizabeth Enright. We started Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes as our group read aloud. A and N have spent many hours in their bedroom playing with Legos and listening to books on CD. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a favorite of A, and N likes A Little Princess and The Secret Garden.
I had A and N do a few online reading assessments out of curiosity-
Sound Reading Assessment- A scored 9.5th grade, N scored 2.5th grade
Reading Level ASsessments- I had them do the first test- A scored 8th grade, N scored 2.5th grade
I wasn't surprised by either of their results. I am thinking of doing Explode the Code Online for N to help her with her fluency. Actually I'd like A to do it as well to improve his skills- he gets caught up with pronouncing words phonetically even when the word is pronounced differently. Anyone have any experience with this program?
History, Art & Music Appreciation- We read chapters 1-5 in The Story of the World: Ancient Times and did several projects suggested by the Satori Smiles plans. A and N each made cave art on cardboard, an Apple Mummy, and writing with hieroglyphs. We completed weeks 2-6 in the Harmony Fine Arts plans for Art and Music which including learning about prehistoric art (Lascaux Cave, Stonehenge, and others) and moving onto Egyptian Art (pyramids, pottery, and tomb art). We read several picture books to go along with the Ancient Egypt time period- Ms. Frizzles Adventures: Ancient Egypt, Egyptian Diary: The journal of Nakht, and others we found through our library. We listened to Egyptian Treasure: Mummies and Myths (audiobook) by Jim Weiss- they thought it was a little spooky!
For Music we have focused on the Orchestra- the string family and keyboard instruments. We were also able to attend a "Peter and the Wolf" performance for kids done by the Utah Symphony.
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Science- March was an exciting month for Astronomy. In addition to reading from Exploring Creation with Astronomy (chapters 9, 10, & 11), we watched many programs on NASA TV, including the blast off and landing of Discovery, interviews with astronauts, and other programs. We are looking forward to the upcoming Expedition mission launch on April 19th. We also watched a few shows from the series The Universe and on Khan Academy-Astronomy. We are also excited for the weather to be warmer so we can do some star gazing without freezing!
Nature Study- We have had some beautiful sunny days that we have been able to spend outside, but we haven't gotten back to doing our nature study challenges. This month's goal!
PreK- Oh how O and J are giving me gray hairs! I know they are learning by exploring and eperimenting with the world around them, but it is exhausting trying to keep up with them! We continue to read and do activities together most days.
Baby Life- What is S up to these days? Opening and emptying cupboards, climbing stairs (and anything her short legs will let her reach like the dishwasher when the door is down, and getting new teeth.
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