Week in Review

Our first week of homeschooling has come to a close! I took the kids to TCBY on Friday to celebrate our first week (also on Fridays you get a free kids scoop with any regular purchase :p)  Here is what we accomplished in the past 5 days:

Math: The first lessons are reviews of counting and writing numbers before we get into the nitty gritty of it all.  This is something I really like about this curriculum that I got--the pace is not too fast and you're constantly reviewing what you previously learned along with new material.

Reading: Hannah can read 'at', 'cat', 'sat', and 'cot'. She is so excited about learning how to read! Her reading lessons don't start out at the beginning of the alphabet--it starts out with the most common letters and sight words.  Obviously these are the first 5 letters. :) I tell her that when I read her a story to point out any of these words, and eventually she'll be reading to me!

Geography/World Atlas: The first lessons were what a map was and how things look from a bird's eye view.  While the first couple lessons were fairly simple the last one we did was a bit startling since it seemed to require a seasoned reader.  There was a simple map with street names and to name what streets the various buildings were on.  Before we started I told Hannah what the streets were, and she did so well! I was honestly anticipating to become frustrated. :/ I guess if I did become frustrated that it would have been more my fault, since I had been expecting it.  The possibilities of frustrations should probably be left at the door when homeschooling, or at least kept in check as to not discourage your child.

Language: The curriculum for this subject has a "Charlotte Mason" flavor, as so stated on the workbook.  Charlotte Mason is a method of homeschooling which I guess all homeschoolers use to a certain extent. The first page in the workbook had a painting that Hannah had to make up a story about off the top of her head (the painting was of some sheep and chickens in a barn).  Hannah threw in some dialogue between the animals telling each other to not be afraid of the hay or something like that. LOL I really enjoyed that exercise.  I should just do that when we see random pictures.

Thinking Skills: Through doing these exercises, I finding out what a great memory Hannah has! Very impressive! We have four workbooks to go through, so it will be exciting to see how far she comes.

Art: We don't have an actual curriculum.  After we do the first part of school in the morning, Hannah enjoys painting.  I give assignments such as making pictures of us going to big church and spending the night at Papaw's house--just whatever is going on in our lives.  Through a local online homeschool group, I learned of some art classes at Advantage Learning Center I can sign her up for.  My goal for this coming week is to get details on that and, depending on how much it is, sign her up.

I can guarantee every week won't be so exciting I will post a summary of it. :) I'm just really thrilled that the first week went so well!