Academic Year 2011 Review (Content Areas)
We had a good year. I’m pleased with the advancement in knowledge and skills the children made. I’m disappointed in my own inconsistencies because I think we could have easily gotten further. I, particularly, wish we had gotten through more of the content areas of Bible, history, and science. All in all, though, I’m content and happy. I’ll be doing separate posts for the children’s skill areas, but maybe not today.
Content Areas:
Memory Work:
- Hymns – We learned Amazing Grace; Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted; Oh, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing; Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul; Praise to the Lord, the Almighty; Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken; All People That on Earth Do Dwell
- Genesis 1-2:3 – This continues to be a work in progress, we continue to recite a day of creation every day.
- Psalm 130 – I added this for Lent from my original plan. I’m so glad I did!
- Galatians 5:22-23 – I also added this because it kept coming up in discussion.
- Psalm 1 – they learned this quickly and it is a favorite.
- Psalm 100 – we’re still working on the order, they know the verses but have a hard time remembering what comes after what.
- Nicene Creed – I don’t know if they could recite this on their own, but as it is generally recited in unison, that’s OK with me.
- IEW Poetry – M-girl and N-boy need to recite Level 1 for Daddy and they’re done with the first level. R-girl is partway through, learning “There Was an Old Person Whose Habits” by Edward Lear. I’m absolutely *thrilled* with this.
- Catechism for Young
Children – M-girl has learned through Q108, N-boy has learned through Q83, R-girl has learned through Q46 and has been working on 47-51 for a couple of weeks. - Science – we memorized different lists about plants, the 11 systems of the human body, and the 5 senses.
- History – we’re still working on our sentences, I’ve made a few changes but am pleased with the recall they have because of these sentences from Hannah’s HS Helps.
- Geography – We love Geography Songs! We learned all the states in the United States and the provinces & territories of Canada.
Morning Reading:
- Poetry books – finished Mother Goose and are most of the way through A Child’s Garden of Verses.
- The Burgess Bird Book – finished the blasted thing … an exercise in perseverance.
- The Burgess Animal Book – decided against it.
- Fifty Famous Stories Retold – not done, decided hit! We all love this.
- Family Book of Manners – pretty dated, but we’ve enjoyed it and it has led to discussions of why some things are good manners and why some aren’t.
- Aesop’s Fables – I found a beautiful hardbound Milo Winter edition second hand and we’ve enjoyed reading the fables and talking about them.
Bible: Covenantal Catechism supplemented with Bible Lessons for Juniors from Reformation Heritage books. I really, really like this pairing. We really learned a lot from Covenantal Catechism, but got derailed part way through. This is something we need to address in our new schedule in January. I really want to complete all this series, I’m very impressed.
Spanish: El Espanol Facil Jr (supposedly we did this last year … it may get dropped again this year) … and it was completely dropped. Too much.
History: Story of the World I supplement with Mystery of History … Dropped Mystery of History immediately. Story of the World was enough. We had fun with the stories, projects, and mapping. The last few weeks we were just ready to be done. We’ll finish up and go with part II in 2012.
Science: God’s Design for Life supplement with Elemental Science … Dropped Elemental Science. It was too much for me to arrange. I do like God’s Design for Life. It’s a tad dry, but gets the job done … when we do it.
Art: Artistic Pursuits … did more art this year! We’ve loved having our friends over and doing projects with them. We loved doing some of the projects that lined up with SOTW (clay bowls, cave drawings, Minoan art, etc.)
Music: Piano, Choir … Piano and Choir are both big hits! All three children are in Piano as of September. M-girl and N-boy are both in choir and love it.
Phys Ed: Gymnastics, Soccer, Baseball, swimming … our athletic choices have been pretty good. We’ll be continuing Soccer and Baseball. Trying to find a reasonable way to get swimming lessons scheduled.
Remember that history & scince come second at this stage so, WELL DONE! Especially with all the memory work! 🙂 You all should have a partyor special dinner to praise God for the past year!
Look forward to hearing your plans for the next year!
Give yourself some credit, girl! You're doing a great job with those kids!