In the Learning Room....

I love homeschool blogs and teacher blogs that share ideas to compensate for my own lack of creativity and give us the resources that fill our wishlists.  With just a few days left until Christmas break, I want to share what worked for us this semester (which is 1st grade for Sweet Pea and Kindergarten-part 1 for Titus)
(We do K over two years so if these summer birthdays ever integrate into the school system, they will be the older ones in class.)

GRAMMAR
*We started the year dedicating a full week to Grammar Camp.  One week of games, songs, and worksheets to introduce punctuation and parts of speech.  The highlight was donning gloves and masks to perform word surgery (learn contractions).  The idea came from here.
*We supplemented that grammar intro with occasional Smart Cookie worksheets and that was that.




HISTORY
This is where school came to life!  Since history was my favorite subject in school, extra time and extra school money find themselves here.  (Notice the sticker book and such - not necessary, but fun.)
*We are working through Story of the World Middle Ages.  One of the Activity Book ideas: brown sugar + animal cookies + M &M's + tootsie Rolls + green gummies = Oasis


 











*We added extra craft projects through Hearts and Hands Middle Ages Discovery Kit and Ancient Far East Discovery Kit.  One such project was a fish print....they even sent the fish.

*Our read alouds came from this time period: Son of Charlemagne, Saint George and the Dragon, Men of Iron (this one was over the kids head, but after we started they HAD to know what happened to Myles, so we finished it), King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
*We even watched The Dark Ages on Netflix, but thankfully it was on the itsy-bitsy ipod screen, so they could see it come to life without being too scared.



SCIENCE
*Working through a science textbook and nature journal.

*The kids are still loving their velcro body.  It is as big as they are and has three layers - organs, bones, and skin/clothes.  (The picture is a conglomeration of all the layers.)  A crafty person could make something like this pretty easily.  For the rest of us, there's Discount School Supply.

Because it was my least favorite subject in school, extra effort goes into finding other people to pass on a love of science to my children, so we....
*have a zoo membership
*visited the planetarium
*went to Fall Frolic at the Nature Station
*attended a Doktor Kaboom! show
*are doing a Holiday Nature Advent Study now

BIBLE
This semester we stuck with Scripture.  Read through Mark and Acts in the Easy-to-Read Version and listened to the dramatic radio theatre version.

MATH & LANGUAGE ARTS

This is our core bookwork - Saxon Math and Abeka Phonics.  We did do a Unit Study on Charlotte's Web. 
We attend Storytime at the library religiously.  This week they decorated gingerbread men.  Every week they check out books at the library and Sweet Pea can often be caught reading when she should be sleeping.

ACTIVITIES
My motto this fall was, "You want to try soccer?  Art lessons are your favorite thing in the world?  This may be your last chance.  Let's do it!"  So, we were quite overcommited.  The big kids both did a session of swim lessons, plus......
Sweet Pea played soccer, took dance, and started piano lessons.  Her favorite by a long shot is piano with Emmy.
Titus did art lessons and music class.
Little Matheny did toddler music class.

Next semester we're changing our focus and history will have to take a backseat, but I love that we had this semester to do it BIG and the freedom to make changes as the dynamic and needs of our family develop.