A Look at February's Lessons

Bible - Our hymn for Bible this month is Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. We'll be completing Volume 2 of Bible Study Guide for All Ages this month. (It's our second time going through this series.) We are currently reading 1 Peter and we'll continue on to 2 Peter, 1 John, Jude, and Revelation. That should take us through to the end of the month. I keep meaning to add in some Bible memory, but it is one of the things that always slips off the list.

Language Arts - Literature - David and Emily are reading A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is the first of 4 Sherlock Holmes novels. Conan Doyle also wrote 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes and they will be reading two of those. Chapter summaries will be completed for each of the 14 chapters in the novel. They are also writing an essay as culmination of our study of The Count of Monte Cristo and they'll be gathering with their co-op class to watch the film of that book and have a discussion of the differences between the novel and its film adaptation.

James is finishing up Tom Sawyer and will move on to The Summer of the Monkeys, which was written by the author of Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls. He'll be doing some different comprehension and language arts activities instead of writing chapter summaries for this book.


Language Arts - Other
Suzy is reading the A Beka Book Aesop's Fables and doing much better than I anticipated. Her frustration is very high but her skill is better than I had imagined. She can't STAND not being able to do something well. She is also still working in the Pyramid book to learn skills for multi-syllabic words. When she finishes, I will have her do that section over for mastery. She is also working in Explode the Code online. I realized she has not been signing in as much as she should, so I will redouble my efforts to make sure she does that daily.

David and Emily are reviewing some comma skills with this website. James is working on alphabetization with Alphabetter. Suzy and James are studying Spelling Power daily and working on typing and penmanship a couple times a week.

James and Emily are taking my Wordsmith writing class with a group of other students and they are covering writing descriptions of people and places this month.

All the kids are writing once a week in their communication journals, which I love doing with them! They are also still working on editing their NaNoWriMo novels, with the goal of being done by the end of the month.

Math - David continues with Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2. I bought him a scientific calculator which has helped him greatly. Right now he is working on graphing first degree equations with two variables. He is working independently to master the material. Sometimes I wonder if he should be receiving more actual instruction, but he seems to be thriving on the independent study method.

Emily is doing remedial math and has proven that she knows her math facts - a huge relief to me!

James finished Teaching Textbooks 6 and I borrowed a copy of TT7 that he has begun. I noticed he was working on Roman numerals.

Suzy is doing Teaching Textbooks 4. She is on Disc 3 of 4 and is working on division.

History - David and Emily continue with their study of the modern age - focusing on the 1960's this month. I think I need to get a little more focused on what they're doing, since I think they're only managing the bare minimum (and Emily may not even be doing that much).

Emily, James and Suzy continue with their Michigan History class once a week, which they are enjoying greatly.

Science - David's physics topics this month mainly consist of Thermal Physics and Static Electricity. Of course, he is getting a TON of hands-on electrical and programming work at First Robotics League. He is there five or six days a week.

Emily dislikes teaching the younger two their science topics. They're not very co-operative, but I make her do it anyway. It's good for all of them. In Considering God's Creation, they are covering trees and insects and beginning the classification of animals.

Other
David is still working on his online ACT prep course through Kaplan in anticipation of taking the test in April (or possibly June). He is also taking a Government class through co-op and he has assignments sometimes for that class as well.

Emily and James are taking the Red Cross Babysitting class through co-op, so in April, they will have their Babysitting cards. I have volunteered Emily to work with a local mom of 4 young children so she can get some hands-on practice.

We skipped Art class this month, but the kids participate in Sketch Tuesday each week (though lately we have not been sharing ours online).