(I am trying to get caught up! We’re currently on Unit 11, and I have only posted Unit 1. We did Unit 2 before Christmas, and it’s now March 16th. You’re going to be bombarded with posts in the next few weeks, because I am determined to get through it all!)
This week, we read about pioneers from England settling Jamestown. Did you know that Jamestown was settled BEFORE the Pilgrims came to America? Jamestown was settled in 1607, and the Pilgrims founded the Plymouth colony in 1620.
In these pictures, Alex is adding Jamestown to his timeline grid.
This week’s Bible verse was Galatians 6:9. We compared how we should not grow weary of doing good with how the men in Jamestown worked hard and thanked God for their blessings. I love how each day of the unit has a few questions to help children relate the verse to their own life, and most days have an active way to practice the verse with motions or exercise. Alex and I enjoy doing these little exercises together!
Each week includes a reading from a devotion book called Morning Bells. Though this is an old book, and the writing and language styles are not typical of what read we often read, there is much to be learned from reading this book. Alex doesn’t care for it, but the lessons seem to stick in his head anyway.
I really wasn’t sure how we’d handle spelling this year. I considered Spelling You See, Level B. I really believe that Spelling You See, Level A gave Alex a great deal of confidence in spelling. I also really wanted to try All About Spelling, Level 1. I’d purchased it at our homeschool convention last spring, as I’ve been so thrilled with All About Reading.
Beyond has spelling built into the guide, though, and that’s what Alex chose when given his options. He really likes using the index cards to copy the words on to the white board or on Lego spelling paper pages that we found online. He is using List 2, which is 2nd grade spelling words. This boy is really quick to pick up on spelling concepts, and he’s breezing through the words with ease!
Days 1 – 4 are spent working on spelling and copywork. Day 5 of each unit is devoted to a grammar concept and copywork. This unit’s grammar concept was finding the correct place to put a period to separate run-on sentences.
Uh, I have no pictures & I have NO idea where we were at with math at this time because we’re going at Alex’s pace. We were somewhere in the middle of Singapore 1A
I can’t find a picture, but Alex learned about map skills, drawing a map to show how to find Sally’s missing little brother Richard. (These are characters in our history reading.)
We continued to read through Gladys Aylward, learning about this brave missionary to China. Although this was the most challenging chapter book I’ve ever read to Alex, I am so glad we read it. It has opened his eyes to challenges, the courage of missionaries, and what it means to truly live out our faith. It has also helped him learn to sit and listen to a long chapter book.
We printed all of the poems from the files in the Beyond Facebook group, and I had them bound into a book. Each day, Alex copies two lines of the poem to practice copying, handwriting, spelling, and proper punctuation and capitalization. At the end of the week, he illustrates the poem.Copywork is not his favorite thing, but I am seeing him improve as we continue through Beyond.
The Day 5 Bible study was to read and discuss the story of Ruth and Boaz. After doing so, the Artistic Expression activity involved making an accordian-folded field and brown/black pieces of grain to stand in the field. I can’t find a picture. It was a good lesson in following directions to make an art project turn out correctly.
After reading about how Sally’s brother caught a baby squirrel, we learned a little about squirrels in science. We learned how tree squirrels can stretch and flatten their bodies to glide through the air.
We explored this by dropping a crumpled paper ball and a full, flat sheet of paper. We looked at which one fell faster, and we talked about how spreading out flat could help the tree squirrel to glide.
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