Where We're At...

With taking a bit of time off over December for our Winter Holiday studies we're technically "behind" a bit on our regularly scheduled curriculum schedules for Geography, Literature and Science. I'm surprising myself though in not worrying about it. We're already catching up and with our new block schedule for subjects it's easier than ever and doesn't even feel like we're cramming which is good. This is where we're at currently with things...

Science

Last week we finished up our studies on the brain using Guest Hollow's anatomy curriculum. We have since moved on to eyes and the sense of sight.  

Dollar Drop experiment (we just used paper) Gauging how the nervous system needs time to size up a situation to react appropriately.

Zoey started reading the book Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield this week and we are planning to hopefully get in a cow eye dissection before the week is over. 

Geography

Following Build Your Library's Geography curriculum, we're working on some map work for South America and Zoey is reading a few new books in addition to her regular spines for geography. They are The Well of Sacrifice by Chris Eboch and In the Land of the Jaguar: South America and It's People by Gena Gorrell. She's enjoying the The Well of Sacrifice but says that the other one reads more like a textbook which isn't so fun. 

History

New this semester, we're adding in some history specific studies starting in on ancient times. I think we can handle this now that we've gotten our feet wet with homeschooling. Zoey is the one saying to bring it on, so we're going to try it!

Math

As of right now Zoey only has four more lessons to go before she is finished with her math book! This is awesome because one of our (many) reasons for homeschooling was that she was experiencing some frustration with math and the things that were being tried at public school to help her, just simply weren't working or helping at all with the fundamentals and/or concepts that she struggled help with. I really wrestled with the decision initially to back way up in math, despite many recommendations to do so, as I was worried we wouldn't catch up to where we were supposed to be (I know...so silly to think this way!!). But, here we are, our first year isn't yet over and we're still on track and moving forward in math. At this rate and with her current enthusiasm for the Math-U-See curriculum we're going to be just fine. 

Writing and Grammar, as well as Spanish, Logic, World Religions and Music Theory are moving right along too. Art has been somewhat sporadic as of late. Perhaps because we're coming out of the holiday season and we did a lot of crafting for handmade gifts, etc. Zoey started a drama class at a local homeschool co-op and is enjoying it so far. I'm so happy for her, I just wish it wasn't right smack in the middle of one of our free days thus making it a bit tricky to stay on task before and after traveling to her class. 

This is where we're at! So far, so good...it's fun to see that we're making progress but most of all that I can see Zoey enjoying learning.