School - Wrapped Up & Looking Ahead

On Sunday (Mother's Day) Nathaniel came running up to me exclaiming, "Look mama! I wrote you a card!" I was in a conversation with someone, and had never seen Nathaniel actually write any letters at home, so I took the card, glanced at it, assumed it was his scribbling "writing" and continued my conversation. As I sat down and looked at it closer I realized that he really had written! The card says, "I love you mom" going counter clockwise. I was so surprised! He had copied it down from the board during his Sunday school class! He had never written any letters (other than N) at home before. This, coupled with his sudden reading, just goes to show that when a child is ready to read and write he will. 

I was determined to finish our Core B Curriculum from Sonlight before we headed to Pensacola. We had already been winding down our school year (Math had been finished weeks before) and I didn't want to come back from a week at the beach and still have school work to do. It sure felt good to finish up with the fall of Rome and put all our books and binders away! 

We really enjoyed this past year of school. Sonlight Curriculum is a perfect fit for our family. (The boys picture even made it into their catalog, page 35!) We spent our days mostly reading good books, marking up maps, and filling in our Book of Time. Even Nathaniel enjoyed participating in our Core studies and can tell you what a viaduct is and who Marcus Aurelius was. Jeremiah sped through the Horizons 1st grade math with very little help from me. We both enjoyed Language Arts, Jeremiah likes to write stories and is proving to be a great little speller. I am enjoying actually learning some English grammar rules this time around. 

Aaron and I spend some time every year thinking and praying about what to do the next year. After talking and praying we still feel that schooling our children at home is the right choice for our family right now. However, next year will look a bit different because we are adding an outside science class for Jeremiah and a bit more "formal" work for Nathaniel. 

I was initially a tad concerned about adding more formal work for Nathaniel. But he has shown so much excitement and is initiating so much learning on his own (see the reading and writing) that I think we will all adjust very well. He is super excited to have his very own work books. 

Jeremiah will be attending a science class one day a week at Hilger Higher Learning here in Chattanooga. We visited the facility a few months ago and were very impressed with the teachers, staff, and students there. He will be studying Astronomy this year and is pretty excited. 

Here is what the rest of our next year looks like:

Sonlight Core C - the fall of Rome through modern history. This will include history, geography, and some Bible memorization. Nathaniel still seems to enjoy and keep up with the basics of the core work, but for geography he will be focusing on learning the continents, oceans, and points on a compass rose. 

Jeremiah:

Language Arts - Grade 3 

Handwriting - A Reason for Handwriting, Transition

Math - Horizons  2

Science - Hilger Higher Learning, Astronomy

Nathaniel

Reading - Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons, BOB books

Handwriting - A Reason for Handwriting, K

Math - Horizons K

We definitely were ready for a break. But our new curriculum is here and all the shiny new books are tempting us so we will continue some things through the summer like reading and handwriting practice.