2011-2102

Yes, it has happened. A yearly update. Things went well this year. Busy as usual.  We learned a lot and accomplished most of our goals.

For language arts, Arwen read books, did copywork, used Growing with Grammar, worked through Rebecca Sitton spelling list and did some freewriting. Kali read books, did copywork, used Growing with Grammar, worked through Rebecca Sitton spelling list, used Writing Strands 4, and did some composition from the 6th grade K12 book.  Sierra read books, did copywork, used Growing with Grammar, worked through Rebecca Sitton spelling list, used Writing Strands 5 and started 6, and did some composition from the 8th grade K12 book.

For math, Arwen did Singapore 4 and memorized her multiplication facts. Kail did Singapore 5 and 6.  Sierra finished Thinkwell Prealgebra and started and finished Thinkwell Algebra.

For science, we  used Apologia Exploring Creation with the Human Anatomy and Physiology.

For history, we used a History of US.  We made it through book 9 and will read book 10 at the beginning of next school year before we start our Ancient History studies. I really enjoyed this book series.  I learned a ton and I hope the kids did, too.

For foreign language, Kali learned Italian with Live Mocha and finish the 101 level.  Sierra learned French also with Live Mocha.  She almost finished 101, but then we switched to Active French level 1.  Still Live Mocha just a different set of lessons. She finished that, but we kind of rushed through the end, so I am going to have her go back and redo some of it next year before starting the next level.   I can't decide whether to have Sierra do the 101. 102, etc. lessons or the Active lessons.  The Active lesson seem more focused on words and sentences needed for traveling and the other lessons seem more for just learning the language.  But the Active lessons have grammar lessons and I think the other lessons expect grammar to be picked up intuitively.  I actually think I will have the girls all so both. Hopefully, the extra lessons will help solidify the concepts.

For music, the girls participated in a choir. Arwen is taking piano lessons, Kali is still learning violin, and Sierra is still playing the flute.

We didn't do a whole lot of official art lessons. The girls often draw while I read aloud.  And we learned about artists and musicians as they tied into our history studies.

We also spent a couple of months leaning about Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand in preparation for our upcoming trip.

Overall it was a very good year.  Since moving to Hawaii, we take less field trips  and go to very few activities (well, official field trips with other homeschoolers. We do go to the beach often and have been to other tourist sites over the years).  There are not many homeschoolers in our area and my kids are not really friends with those who are here.  They would rather stay home get their work done and be available to play when their friends get home from school. It sometimes makes me sad because I enjoyed that part of homeschooling, but I guess we are just in a different stage of life now.