I had posted at the start of the school year our plan for the year, but that was the desired vision and it is sometimes more useful to talk about what we actually did.
Then if I get a chance (and, GET ORGANIZED), I'll post our pie-in-the-sky vision for the coming year. It's spread out on the table now. Definitely not organized.
(Again, these are my personal, non-reimbursed opinions regarding any products mentioned.)
Classically Catholic Memorization
This was really super. I highly recommend this program - it was extremely complementary to his learning this year and really smoothed along some of the more difficult parts of his learning (like multiplication, catechism, etc.). We did this in a co-op context where he had classmates, primary and secondary teacher, handouts, etc. I was amazed by how quickly he memorized things and how they stuck with a minimal amount of review. We will be doing Beta year in co-op this year.
Sing, Spell, Read, and Write
Finished right at mid-year! I ordered a trophy from a large online distributor for a minimal fee, and he was SO excited to get a trophy. It is prominently displayed along with his piano medals and the trophy he earned for Piano Festival this year, and he talked about the trophy incessantly the first few weeks he had it. It's still a prized possession.
He's done a crazy amount of reading this year - we are at the library about constantly. Some favorites:
-Walter Brooks - Freddy the Cowboy and related
-Magic Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne
-Beverly Cleary - Ramona books, Otis Spofford, Beezus and Henry
-Cam Jansen mysteries by David Adler
-Encyclopedia Brown books by D. Sobol
-Anne Pellowski - similar to Laura Ingalls Wilder books, writes about Polish immigrant families in Wisconsin
-Gordan Korman - one of Hubby's favorite childhood authors - not all are appropriate for younger children, but Daddy has been screening
-Finished the Little House books this year
Explode the Code
Because I'm so awesome, I skipped books 3 and 4 (because I simply forgot I had them) and we did books 5 and 6. It's a good review and he likes the active work - assembling words, funny illustrations, etc. I like the teacher's manual - it has some helpful ideas such as starting a Sight Words Wall, constructing tongue twisters out of the week's words, rhyming exercises, and so on. We'll do books 7 and 8 this year.
Handwriting without Tears
Worth its weight in gold. Handwriting went from illegible to decent. I love the lefty-friendly workbook. He still needs reminders to slow down and write neatly, but he has a good base from which to operate.
Story of the World
This is also awesome, totally awesome. If you ask him his favorite study, he will instantly respond, "History!". The chapters are short enough to hold his attention but thorough enough to provide a lot of areas to expand and enrich. We have supplemented extensively with our library (SOTW workbook provides a recommended reading list for each chapter) and done at least one activity along with each chapter. Some are simple board games which reinforce the topics, others are really nifty like Egyptian death masks, Spartan and Athenian paper dolls with associated weapons and scrolls, make a Pharos light house out of Pringles boxes, etc. Lest you think I am a super mom (I am not!!!), we still have a Cornish Game Hen in our freezer waiting to be mummified. It's been there since October. Pretty soon the freezer will mummify it for us.
Two favorite authors for supplemental learning:
-Mary Pope Osborne (author of the Magic Treehouse books) - wrote a two volume children's version of the Odyssey. He read these several times each and couldn't get him to do any chores because he was so absorbed!
-Marcia Williams - books about Egypt, Rome, and just found two volumes of Shakespeare plays. Hilarious humor and illustrations, accurate historical info, and leveled appropriately for early to mid-elementary.
Right Start Math
Completed Level C except the last 10 lessons. There were 140 lessons in this one compared to only 125 in Level B - that was a rather rude surprise. The 2nd edition, I believe, does have a standard amount of lessons from level to level, but we don't have the 2nd edition because they are about 2 months behind our current level with revisions.... blech. I did do a diagnostic test for reading and math, and was pleased with how this math program is helping him learn concepts. A few more word problems might be helpful, but really hands-on, and that makes a big difference for him.
Espanol para los chiquitos
It's a decent program (my personal opinion, too expensive for what you get, or for what we used of it) but we just didn't have the time and energy to devote to using it well. It doesn't lend itself well to sporadic use (like most language programs, ha). His interest level wasn't really there, either.
I Can Do All Things
Big waste of money. He did 2 lessons and hated it.
Religion/Catechism
He did Sacrament preparation this year, and most of it ended up being home-made as our parish did a very limited/brief preparation. That being said, I feel what we did was good preparation for what he did on the parish level and they were complementary. Books used:
-A Little Book About Confession by Kendra Tierney - excellent resource, used this extensively
-Fr. Lovasik books - about 10 Commandments, Confession, Sacraments, Sacramentals
-Baltimore Catechism - springboard for further learning about grace, sin, forgiveness/mercy, etc.
-Children's Bible - gifted him his own Bible - the full version with easier language. He used this a little on his own, but mostly read to him from it. We read the Gospel of Matthew, some Psalms, and Acts of the Apostles together - to get a sense of sequence.
Science
Totally and utterly bored by the Harcourt Science I ordered. We switched to a unit study format just a couple weeks into doing the science - units on Seeds, Space, and Vertebrates. Supplemented heavily with library books, a Solar System model (Hobby Lobby has an awesome one to assemble complete with glow-in-the-dark paint), NASA and Hubble websites, Classically Catholic Memory science topics, and culminated with a trip to the zoo to identify different types of vertebrates (Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Mammals, Birds) and make a flip book with pictures he took. I may continue to use the Harcourt book to get some ideas for topics and content, but will need to get creative with this so he doesn't hate science... that would be bad and I would be sad.
Field Trips
Hahahaha.
We used the Let's Go Learn reading and math diagnostic tests available through Seton at the end of the year to determine learning, strengths, weaknesses. I found this very helpful to get both broad and specific data for him, although found it lined up very closely with my personal assessment of his strengths and learning needs. It was cheap (around $40) and online - next year we will probably do a standardized test for further testing experience for him.
This was a helpful exercise for me - after typing this up I feel like maybe we actually did learn something this year, because honestly it felt like the year was an exercise in futility. Like waking up most mornings thinking, "I can't do this!" but muddling through it anyway. The Boy loves it and he is doing well, so I guess that needs to be my standard for success!
