Monthly Highlights: September 2010 For B

If you've been reading along for awhile you might remember that I spent some time doing weekly review posts. These became tedious and took the enjoyment out of blogging for me though and so I decided to do away with them.

I have however missed the ease at which you can look back over a period of time and see what was done, even though it is a near impossiblity to include every little thing in a wrap up style post it does give you a really good idea of what was covered. A month is a little trickier to remember everything, unless you write things down or have a 'plan of attack' which I did not. I might try one out next month though ;-)

So I have decided to try again, but this time looking back over a month in review, we'll see how they go hey!

Language Arts

Began Cursive Handwriting with Handwriting Without Tears. Completed pages 7 to 15 and doing very well. He has been asking to learn cursive for nearly 12 months and is loving it. Just itching to be able to write in cursive though, so the handwriting lessons can't come quick enough at the moment.

Read Alouds - Mrs Pepperpots Outing and The 27th Annual African Hippopotamus Race, along with several picture books. 

Free Time Reading - The Adventures of Ook and Gluk. Star Wars The Visual Dictionary (post coming) Books, especially free reading is one area that I lose track of if I don't write them down, so I have no idea what else he read this month!

Phonics - Explode The Code - Completed Book 3 (we use ETC for enrichment) Lessons 11, 12, 13 and the Post Test. His reading is coming along nicely but his spelling is not. We took the time to discuss this and have decided he will complete Book 3 1/2 and I have now ordered a Spelling Program for him.

This part of homeschooling is one that I love. We could actually discuss this together, so that I could hear his thoughts and let him know mine. As opposed to just doing what the 'teacher' feels best.

He completed Lessons 1, 2 and 3 in Book 3 1/2 of ETC.

Fitzroy Program ( phonics, sight words, comprehension, grammar, spelling) - Completed Lessons 29 and 30 and the Level 4 Test.  Covered sounds ow as in how and ee as in tree. Covered sight words made, again, flew, corner, heard, Four, whole, laugh, mean, learn. Covered nouns and contractions and reading comprehension is included in every lesson.

Time 4 Learning - he also used T4L quite a bit since we had a review to do on this. Covered synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, homophones and idioms.

Mathematics

Qld Targeting Maths Year 3 - Fractions: halves and quarters, Area in squares and area grids, Subtraction to twenty, Angles, Rhombus, Money Subtraction, Estimation, Calculator Work (This is the first time I have allowed him to do the calculator exercises. I think they are introduced far too early these days). Division as sharing, division with money. Time o'clock and half past, digital and analogue. Multiplying by 3's and 4's (this is the first bit of mulitplication he has done and did very well). Comparing mass.

Targeting Mental Maths Year 2 (national book which is Year 3 in Qld) - pages 30 - 39.

He's been saying that Maths is starting to get hard and he isn't enjoying it as much as he used to. We have decided to put these two on the backburner somewhat. They will still get worked in but not as our primary source for now. We have gone back to Math U See, which has been sitting on the shelf for far too long :-( so he is still only in the Alpha Stage, but of course is he breezing through the lessons and these will ensure he has a nice solid foundation before he tackles multiplication head on. He completed lessons 12, 13 and 14.

I found some Math Fact pages that another homeschooling mum has put together so we did a couple of Maths Corners ones.

He has also spent more time this month playing online games to assist with fact recall. He knows all of his addition and subtraction facts but just needs to build his recall skills.

We also have a copy of Evan Moors Daily Word Problems book and completed 2 weeks (set up for one word problem a day, revolving around the same theme for the week) of word problems. These are great for word problems and really helps to put the math into practice for real life situations.

Time 4 Learning - He covered Place Value beyond the hundreds

Science 

Professor Jellybean Science class with our Home School Network.

History

We have just about wrapped up our Pre-Hisotry Unit  covered Big Bang Theory, Evolution and Charles Darwin.

Art/Craft 

Cake decorating with our Home School Network.

Self initiated papercrafts - Ferris Wheel and Waterfall. (post coming)

Crazy Candles with Home School Network.

Self Initiated Drawing - he is constantly drawing and we always have far too many pictures for me to blog about all of them.

Painted Toilet Paper Trees in art class with Home School Network.

Fathers Day Handprint Posters.

Paper Towel Tie Dye activities were done this month also.

Unit Studies

Lego Lapbook - he very keenly completed this Lego Lapbook (post to come) covered, history, geography, science, maths and language arts topics within this.

Social Studies 

We've been watching Heston's Feast, this guy is truly amazing with what he does with food. A great series! The kids have loved this to bits. Be warned, there sre some elements to this that are not suitable for children but overall it is fabulous. Thankfully we have our TIVO and the kids watch a recorded version that we can skip parts if needed. Check it out here.

Sport/Outdoor Activity

His Golf lessons for the term wrapped up this month. He has decided to not continue next term with golf.

We went Bowling one afternoon with some of our Home School Network friends.

Soccer season also wrapped up this month.

He always spends considerable time on his scooter, kicking his soccer ball around, running around the backyard and coming up with new dance moves with his sister.

Other - he, along with his dad and sister built an outdoor cubby/lean too in the back yard. (post coming)

We have also technically had two weeks of public school holidays during this month, but shhhh don't tell the kids, we've just kept on going, although at a much more casual pace.

Add into that a week of illness for both B and K (as in lying on the lounge we can't do anything mum) and well I think that's more than enough, don't you?!?!

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