Wow! It actually seems like longer than a month, maybe because I've been doing this all along. Up until a month ago I was homeschooling after school, and on weekends. Now I don't waste 40 minutes per day dropping off and picking up my daughter, and she doesn't waste six hours sitting at a desk daydreaming while the rest of the class catches up.
We've had a good first official month. The hardest part has been in my realization that a third grader had virtually NO writing skills. I clearly recall many writing assignments in my own third grade, but here and now they just haven't gotten to that. I began assigning my daughter essay type writings. She composed very sloppy "list" type papers with atrocious grammer. I explained she needed to write in paragraph form. She drew lines and labeled them "Paragraph 1, paragraph 2". So, instead of typical 3rd/4th grade assignments, we have gone back to 2nd grade for writing. We began with the very basics of topic sentences, and supporting details. We learned about indenting, which she had never heard of before. We have also been learning proper grammer. She knew simple nouns and verbs, but had no idea what "plural" meant, or "possessive", or common versus proper, or any other gramatical terms, such as adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, or conjunctions. We have touched on each of these for a brief introduction, and next year we will have full units on each grammer concept, and much more in the way of writing skills. Her paragraphs are not great, by any means, but they have improved considerably from what they were a month ago. There is so much to good writing; neatness, punctuation, form, grammar, spelling, and a natural flow. Luckily, my daughter shares my spelling ability. We both just seem to know how things should be spelled, so I promised her no spelling for 4th grade.
She has gone from hating math, to it being her favorite subject. I am so glad, because after reading, math is foremost in importance to me. I think her opinion changed when she realized that you do not have to sit for an hour covering old concepts. She has learned much in 30 days, and each lesson plus homework takes her on average 10 minutes. The longest one was about 30 minutes, but it was actually quite difficult. This particular assignment involved locating 2 numbers on a chart, one 4 digits, and multiplying them, and then adding or subtracting a third 4 digit number to that. She long ago mastered all multiplication facts from 0x0 to 12x12, and has now completed basic division facts, too. I find it interesting to watch her do problems in her head; I always hated showing my work as a student, and she does, too. I understand the neccessity of it, though.
An interesting side note on math. Our oldest daughter (17 in two weeks) applied for a job. The application involved a test of her abilities. She came out furious because they asked several fraction questions, and she didn't know how to figure them. We asked what she meant, and she gave the example of, "1 1/3 + 1 1/3" She said she didn't know, so just guessed. Little Miss Nine Year Old said, "Isn't that just 2 2/3?" Boy was our high school junior mad when we informed little sis that she was right! I'd say, "LOL" right here, but actually it is pathetic. That's a simple problem, and she is almost out of high school, and hasn't learned simple addition of fractions! Yep, public schools are great....
We have also spent time on reading comprehension, science, history, and geography. Geography is, by far all of our favorites. We save it till afternoon so the five year old can be included. She gets really excited about "playing with the globe". We finished up our Map Skills, and have begun an in-depth study of Africa. Our first choice was North America, since it is familiar, and we will be studying U.S. History all year for 4th grade. The company I like didn't have the North America books, so we decided on Africa, instead, as it is where civilization began.
For science we have been working through a worktext, with short, simple lessons. We have ended up with several impromptu projects, however. With all the earthquakes, both here, and where the girls' adored uncle lives, we have learned quite a bit about quakes, tectonic plates, and seismic and volcanic activity. We also ended up having a fun day with magnets and their properties. Who knew? LOL Our most interesting science activity resulted from a day at the park. We found a skeleton, complete with teeth, so spent about 4 hours on forensic science. First we spent quite awhile studying the remains. We decided it was a young animal, due to the teeth....no tartar buidup, no decay, but not a baby, because these were full-size teeth. The rib-cage and pelvis were interesting. It couldn't have been a large animal because of the short spinal column. We guessed a dog, more specifically a pug, because of the size, and the shape of the skull. After much googling of mammal skeletons, we proved our hypothosis correct! Don't worry! The girls did not ever touch it, and it was not gruesome at all. It was actually very cool.
I can't stop writing without keeping folks updated on my youngests' accomplishments this month. Technically she is in pre-K, but she works at K level here at home. She has gained the all important skill of blending and sounding out words, both in reading and spelling! This is huge, because she now has all she needs to read! She already wrote all lowercase and uppercase letters well, but until the past few weeks, hadn't quite grasped the concept of actually blending them together. We will continue working on reading skills for many years, but she actually can read well, now! Little One's other MAJOR accomplishment just two weeks ago was taking the training wheels off her bike. She had no problems what-so-ever. Much to our surprise, she took right off on two wheels, although she needs to work on her turns still. This girl is smart AND catches on quickly. I'll have to be careful not to push her too hard. She tested at the age of 4 into 1st grade math. I originally thought to start her there, but have decided for the next few months to concentrate on her reading, and bought a kindergarten math curriculum, just to keep math fresh, and review with her. Whenever we finish that we will go right into first grade math, which I've had for 5 months now.
It's been a good month. I am SO thankful I pulled my daughter out of the public school. Her stress is gone, and she sleeps all night, now. I feel better because I see how much she is learning, and I'm not forcing a miserable, crying child go somewhere where people hurt her physically and verbally. I have had a day or two that I've thought I wasn't doing a good job, but overall I know I have, and after only 30 days I can't expect to undo 6 years of public school damage. (2 years of pre-K, K, 1st, 2nd, and most of 3rd.)
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