My Reflection On August

Today I did a lot of reflecting back over our first month back in school. Sometimes I feel there is so much more that we could have done, but as I reflect on it I realize that the amount of school work has been just perfect.
Reading:
We don’t have an actual reading curriculum, but do we really need one? We did review and will continue to review some of the concepts in Progressive Phonics. Though Selena truly just enjoys reading with me, or to me. What better way to learn and gain a passion for reading then to just sit down with a pile of books and begin to read. We do however, need to learn the concept that just because we can make it through the first half of a book, that we can come back and finish the last half. Selena thinks we have to just start the book over again, only to discover that she reads only to where she left off the last time. Her idea of having sight words has really gone by the way side as she has discovered she knows 90% of the words, I guess you can say she got bored with them very fast.
Spelling:
We do not work on any formal type of spelling except to reinforce our phonics, and how to pronounce words. Selena is still much more interested in the longer words then the shorter words. She loves to challenge herself when it comes to sounding out words like stethoscope, microscope, etc… I have to admit she is pretty good at putting all the sounds together to pronounce these words as well. She surprised me tonight as I prepared my materials for Sunday school how well she can read the names of the books of the old testament.
Grammar:
Selena has had so much fun learning about nouns and verbs. This was an area I truly wanted to just introduce her to, and didn’t plan on doing a lot of work in just yet. Selena, however had other ideas, and is quick to inform me on words, and rather they are nouns or verbs. I am curious to see how she does with prepositions, and the games that I know to teach prepositional phases. We might just have to give it a try and see what happens. I never expected my 4 year old to be so interested in the parts of speech.
Math:
Selena still insists that math is her favorite subject this year. She has been very happy to solve all the story problems that I have created for her, and in fact just the other day she asked if we could add another math buddy to her existing math buddies. She wants three of them now, she informed me so I can learn what 1+1+1=” I asked well what does that equal? She proudly announced “3!”
Writing:
I did order Writing Without Tears, we looked through it, but Selena lost interest in it real fast. I believe she will just begin to write when she is truly ready. She knows how to make every letter, it is just waiting for her to decide she is ready to put them together. She is asking to go back to the arrows that I made for her last year, so I think I will make some new ones, and let her have fun making her letters for a while with those.
Geography/History:
Selena is still enjoying doing her map work, and is thrilled to be learning more about maps this year then we touched on last year. She seems to enjoy her History book, and is often found just flipping through it on her own. We are still taking baby steps with it and I haven’t really figured out how deep we will dig into it this year. It has been some extra reading though and we have been able to use the map skills to reinforce the following directions and completing our tasks.
Science:
We’ve been a little week in science so far this year. Yet, Selena is learning more and more through her curiosity around the house. I hope to dig in more with science as we move through the year.
Art:
I haven’t really planned a lot of specific art projects this year. Selena is enjoying just creating on her own. We do need to get the paints out more though, as she has been dabbing in them with her brushes. She does enjoy the art projects we do in Sunday school. I picked up a bag of colored wood shavings this weekend at a garage sale, and look forward to all that we can find to do with them.
Other:
I have been so proud of how Selena conducts herself in our Sunday School class. She is the youngest one in there, but she keeps right up with the rest of them. Her participation in class has sometimes just surprised all of us. I am thrilled over how well she does on her workbook pages, while at times she is slower then the older children, she generally always finishes them. The other children have been very good about being patient and waiting for Selena to finish each step.
She starts back into AWANA next week. She is so excited to be a cubby again and has been packing her handbook around throughout the house. She randomly announces all the Bible verses she remembers and has memorized. I think this will be a much better experience for her in AWANA then our first attempt, since she is quite a bit more mature.
I will probably focus more on learning to play our recorder, this year for our music, and prepare with some note reading in hopes to get some piano lessons for Selena next year. We also have a flute and a clarinet so truly it will be Selena’s choice as to which way she wants to go.
I also believe we will put Selena in T-Ball this year. She wants so bad to learn how to play baseball. I think it will be fun to watch her have fun and learn at the same time.