Thursday, April 9, 2009

One Month To Go!

Due to my extreme curriculum compacting and our steady pace for the last several months, we have approximately 8 Calvert lessons remaining. Because I do not want to be 'done' with school at the end of April, I made a list of the things I'd like to do with those 3 or 4 weeks until the end of May.

Life of Fred
JT has started working his way through the Life of Fred Fractions book. So far, he loves reading the stories and is challenged by the math. I'm wondering if it might not be a little too challenging. The parent introduction in the book suggests that the parent does not need to assist the child, that all the lessons are self paced. I am finding that I need to sit with JT when he gets to the questions at the end of a lesson to be sure he understands what he is being asked to do. We will continue working through this book to the end of the school and possibly sporatically through the summer. We are also still practicing the multiplication tables daily. They just don't want to stick in his head!

Geography
We have been using a geography text book (I believe 5th or 6th grade) off and on throughout the last couple months. Right now we are working on learning states and capitals by region.

Spanish
Our language studies have been on the back burner for a while now. I really want to spend some time working on conversation skills. I've been checking popular children's books written in Spanish from our library to read aloud with JT. I want him to hear the language more than be able to read it at this point.

Power Point
I am not that talented when it comes to using Power Point and other similar applications. I would like to allow JT to spend some time just playing around with it and see what he can come up with for fun. Maybe I will learn a little in the process.

Arts Alive
This is the fine arts program provided by PA Cyber. The child watches a short video online and then logs that they have watched it. We are a little behind in these, so I see a marathon day of internet viewing....

Composition
Our weakest subject needs some real attention as we come to the end of the year. I have to admit, I avoid it like the plague. Not because I dislike it, but because JT does and lets me know it! I am hoping to have him spend more time learning to organize his thoughts and working on his sentence structure. I will be having him keep a journal through the summer. We can't afford to lose ground on this one.

Getting out of the house!
We are going to spend at least one day a week on mini adventures in May. We have a trip to a local museum planned and one to a state park. I'm not sure what the other days will involve, I just know we've spent enough time in the house and deserve a little fun.

It's hard to believe the year is nearly over. I'm hoping the next several weeks will be the best of the year. I know I am looking forward to a little more variety!

1 comment:

Annie said...

I'm a bit late, but congrats on seeing the end in sight!

One thought on the foreign language, have you considered looking for children's shows in Spanish? I keep meaning to do this on Netflix, but never get to it. I figure if they want to watch an animated cartoon, they might has well be working to understand it. :)

-- Annie