The Final 2009-2010 Curriculum Choices

This years decissions have been a real roller coaster ride. There are lots of great things out there, but I had to try to figure out what would be the best for us all.

Here's the final selctions.

Everett 5th grade
Language arts: Junior Analytical Grammar, IEW All things fun and facinating, Phonetic Zoo, Penmanship pages I made myself using Startwrite based on the Draw Write Now books.
Math: Teaching Textbooks (finish 5 move on to 6) with MUS for extra fact practice.


Annika 2nd grade
Language arts: Finish McRuffy Language Arts 1 move on to 2, Apples and Pears Spelling, and penmanship pages I made myself using Startwrite based on the Draw Write Now books.
Math: McRuffy math 1 and with MUS for extra fact practice. Move on to McRuffy math 2 with MUS as a supplement for math facts as needed.

For Both Everett and Annika
History Finish History Odyssey Early Modern Times (we only got through about 1/3rd of this last year, but took our time and followed lots of rabbit trails)
Science Sonlight Science 2 (this is the one that didn't change)

Art and music will be Artistic Pursuits and Pianamals. I have really been thinking about if I want to throw Latin in there, but he more I think about it the more I don't really think Latin is for us. We'll probably do some of The Complete Book of Spanish for fun.

Lucas Pre-K
We'll be using a combination of some books from Sonlight's P4/5 list and Kumon workbooks.

My newest spelling creation

Hi all,
Since I have no weekly reports to do lately because we've been on vacation I decided to share a new project I worked. I have decided that even though I love All About Spelling and will continue to use it next year with Annika, that Everett needs to move a bit faster and since he loves taking quizzes (not sure about why) that we're going to try Phonetic Zoo for him next year. Well in looking things over I loved the idea of creating a "Zoo wall" but we don't have the space for one, nor do we have the space for the poster they show in the Teachers resource guide, which is like a large trifold diplay. I decided to go with something I know the kids enjoyed in the past, Lapbooks! Well over the last day I made a Phonetic Zoo Lapbook. Here's a slide show of it along with some simple instructions of what I did.

I started by folding 2 standard manilla file folders in a shutter fold manner. Then I glued the two together joining them at one of the small flaps.

I then cut out the referrence things I wanted from the printable pages that came with my PZ teachers guide download. I also cut some pieces of contruction paper slightly larger than the referrence items, this isn't necessary but since I was just using plain folders I decided the colors would help brighten things up. I folded up the lapbook and glued the title to the front, then I opened it so I was looking at the folder on the left and glued the rest of the referrence items in where I thought they fit best. I didn't use all of them, but you can if you'd like and just fit it all together in a way that's appealing to you. I then opened it so I was looking at the folder on the right. I taped 2 8.5x11" pieces of colored cardstock to the top and bottom to make the flaps. I then used those flaps and the folder itself to glue the "cages" to. The only cages I had to cut apart were the Personal Spelling Victory ones. Those I glued to the smaller flaps on the right folder.

That's all, now I'll have my son use Animal stickers to decorate the cover and any areas in the referrence area that look bare to him. As we go through the program he'll now have a place to build his zoo.

Annika can't wait until she's older and get her own zoo. We'll see, I'm not sure if it would be a fit for her, and we have something that works for her now, so I may have to find another way for her to create a zoo.

Hope you all enjoyed a peak at my latest foray into the lapbooking world.

Our 3 day Field Trip to Washinton DC

Hi all,
We're back from Washington DC and had an amazing time. The kids had a blast and thought everything we saw was great fun. They all wanted to stay longer, and maybe next time we will. There were so many things we didn't get to see this trip, but the ones we did see were all definately worth the 3.5 hour drive.

Here's a few slideshows of things we did and saw.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer filled with fun things to do.

Fawkes Academy has Finished the 08-09 School Year!

Yes you read that correctly. We are finished with the 2008-2009 school year. The kids pushed hard after getting back into a groove at the beginning of the year and we wrapped things up today. We'll be taking 2 weeks off and then we'll do some light Math and Language Arts work over the next few months just to keep things fresh.



Our official start date for 2009-2010 will be July 27th.



I will do my best to keep updating here with some of the fun things we'll do this summer.
We're kicking off this Summer break with a trip to Washington DC. I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures from that.



So until next time, Have a great summer.

Weeks 25-27 in Review -- April 12 - May 2

It's been a while since I posted a review of our week, but with not much left to finish up the year there wasn't much to report. I thought it would be best to wait and put a few weeks together. We haven't done a full 5 day week since we started back after testing, but we've been having lots of fun with outdoor fun, life skills and field trips.

Here's the latest news on the school front...


Everett
Grammar: He wrapped up the chapter on nouns and then I started him on Institute for Excellence in Writing's Student Writing Intensive level A. He is having a blast with IEW. So far he's written Keyword Outlines, rough and final drafts for paragraphs on Sea Snakes and Desert Tarantula's. He loves that the SWI gives him a new "teacher" since they show Dr. Pudewa teaching a class. I love that the program uses models for him to learn to do keyword outlines from thus enabling him to write a paragraph in his own words. He's not caught off guard with things like "Write about your favorite sport" with no idea what to do. He was given very specific steps and loves that one of the rules is that I can't complain about his penmanship on his outline or rough draft. He also enjoys the fact that I'm to be his "human dictionary" thus taking spelling out of the writing mix. It's a great program and has turned him into a boy that wants to write, and enjoys it.

Math: 54-63 and quizzes 8 and 9 were completed. These covered decimals - both with carrying and regrouping, money word problems, thousandths, and beginning division. Other than an issue with the screen on the laptop he was using suddenly going all white with no way of knowing how to fix it, things have gone well. Hopefully when Matt returns he'll be able to find a way to get the old Math 5 file off of it so we have a record of the first 62 lessons and all the quizzes he did.

Annika
Phonics: She has made it through lesson 26 in the CLE Learn to Read program. She's doing so well. We've reached the point where she gets to read a new 1 page story (3-4 short paragraphs) with each lesson. She's now read 10 new stories in her primer and loves it. She likes that she doesn't have to keep reading the same story over and over again. I love that I know she's not just memorizing the stories. She's even read Matt a few of the stories via Skype so he can see her progress. Sure it's not fluent, expressive reading like an adult would do, but she is reading and so proud of herself. I just wish I would have found the program sooner.

Math: CLE lessons 58-67 were completed. She's now reached the 1st quiz in lightunit 104, she is still doing very well with the program and looks forward to math everyday. Her math facts are coming along great and it's such an easy program to teach.


Everyone:

The kids are still really enjoying their gym classes they take weekly and are very much looking forward to the half day, week long summer camps the gym is having that they will be attending. We've enjoyed some beautiful weather here and even got to spend the other morning at the YMCA pool. We also took a field trip to the Zoo and had a blast looking at all the animals and riding the brand new train they put in.

Our read aloud of The Magician's Nephew was pushed to the wayside for a while but we found an audio version at the library and are now back on track listening to that. It's performed by Kenneth Branagh and he does a phenomenal job. I'm enjoying the story a lot as well, which is always great. We're about halfway through and the kids are so excited for the next chapter which is "The Founding of Narnia" they've only seen previews for the movies and never read any of the books, I think this will be a fun journey. Lucas has been asking to do school along with us and is almost done with the first About Three workbook, he's doing a great job and has been a joy to add to our school time at the desks. The poor boy has been stuck working on an inexpensive end table propped up on a kaboost chair booster, so I've been scouring craigslist trying to find him a small desk, but have had no luck yet. Hopefully I'll find something soon.



Well I hope you enjoyed the review, I'll be back in a few weeks with another one.