Thursday, October 23, 2008

Trimester Report


It is time for a long overdue weekly report here at Ambleside Classical. However, I am going to have to change the Weekly Report to a Trimester report this time. Blogging has taken a backseat to my home, homeschooling, and outside teaching responsibilities. Here goes. Sixth grade has been a transition year for us. I have always sat right there with dd to make sure the school work got done without dawdling. We did unit studies, projects, and read-alouds. This year is different.

My dd is now working more independently, and is not interested in big projects or unit studies. She just wants to b
uckle down and hit the work, and is preferring more traditional methods. Projects are of little interest to her this year, and this was my hands-on loving child for so many years! As a unit study, project-loving Mom, this has been a hard transition as my role here in our homeschool seems to be changing.

I encourage you to take time to DO THE PROJECTS while you still may. They day will soon come when they are laid aside and the time for them has passed.
I don't regret one mess we made, in fact, I miss them. Textbooks and workbooks will always be there, but the time for pioneer bonnets, medieval princess hats, and Viking shields is gone all too quickly.

Here is what we have finished during our first term:

Art
  • Completed Artistic Pursuits Lessons 1-4 - not as many as I would have liked
  • Did a couple of drawing lessons from Nature Friend magazine
  • Lots of drawing in free time, especially enjoying drawing cartoons
Science
  • Completed CyberEd Lessons 1-3
  • Read science biography Thomas Edison: Young Inventor (Childhood of Famous Americans)
  • Participated in co-op Earth Science class
  • Took a couple of science-related field trips
History/Geography
  • Read Reconstructing America by Joy Hakim chapters 1-24 and completed selected exercises from the corresponding Oxford study guide
  • Have been reading the TruthQuest commentary aloud on Mondays to tie in all the readings with a Christian perspective
  • Read daily from book basket (self-selected TruthQuest Selections)
  • Have done map work weekly from either Trailguide, State Report Projects for Any State, or as assigned by Mom: related to history reading

Literature
  • Old Yeller
  • Huckleberry Finn
  • Read-Aloud: Little Women
  • various free reading books (self-selected)
Writing
  • Completed history-related writing assignments every other week. I am pulling these from the History Study Guide and other sources. An example of a typical writing assignment: "You have just arrived at Ellis Island. Write an entry in your journal about your trip over and what happened when you arrived." Creative writing has actually been a hit here! Some of these assignments have been illustrated or worked up into scrapbook pages.
  • Working through the Four Square Writing book. We are doing this twice a week, and I am hoping this will help her structure and organize her writing.
Math
  • CLE Math 5. Finishing up the second Light Unit. We are loving this curricum. My dd was a former math hater, and we have tried so many curriculums in the past. CLE has built her confidence, and she no longer struggles. Her tests and quizzes have been in the 95% and above range. In fact, I have heard a few, "I like math" comments now and again!

Language Arts
  • CLE Language Arts. This is going well. We are definitely CLE fans! This year, dd is doing the entire lesson twice a week, spelling and all. On other days, she does writing or dictation.
  • Open Texture Elementary Greek. We are only a few lessons in, so the verdict is still out. We finished Hey Andrew! before beginning Elementary Greek, and that was a definite hit.
  • Typing Instructor Deluxe software. Dd enjoys working on the computer for typing.

Bible
  • Using Open Windows by CLE as devotional reading, and Wise Up! by Positive Action for Christ for Bible. We alternate these every other day to keep things fresh. This seems to be working well.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great report! Miss M has been a busy gal. My ds isn't crazy about hands-on either. He can take it or leave it and also much prefers to dig in and get things done asap. We're using Time Travelers for history and they offer many notebooking pages to do, so we use those portions instead of the cut out, glue together things. Look for our quarter report on my blog soon. Sounds like life is changing for you. It's hard to handle the changing seasons of life, but new seasons are nice aren't they?
Warmly,
Stacy :-)

Rhonda said...

My two have never like hands-on projects related to history. It took me quite awhile to let go of that, but I finally have (pretty much, anyway). I have switched to more typical art projects and that seems to be going well.

I like your trimester report. If we ever get to the end of our first trimester, I think I'll do the same.

Rhonda

Melissa said...

Your honest reflection about what your daughter needs is touching, and you are a wise mom to adjust accordingly. My oldest is just now 10, and I am taking your advice about hands-on projects to heart. Thanks for sharing your experience. And your digital scrapbook pages are beautiful!

Melissa (party of 5)

Paula said...

I just discovered your blog; I am new to homeschooling (my oldest is 5) and I love Charlotte Mason; I will have to do some exploring over here and see what I can glean.