August So Far

Well the month is almost over, and I decided to go over the work the kids have done, and list the things we did, and any interesting things that happened on the start of our educational journey. To start, I paid fifty dollars and became a legal private school teacher in Tennessee. That's what I did. Here's a summary of what the kids did:

Josie read 17 books or magazines

Jake read 15 books

Josie got a penpal

Jake wrote a letter to grandma

Josie wrote a letter to some friends and one to grandma

Read 17 chapters of despreaux

Jake did 11 pages of math plus a placement test , has a clear understanding of math concepts for 2nd grade

Josie did 9 pages of math plus a placement test, there were a lot of problems to solve on each page and she handled this well. She has a good understanding of these math concepts (rounding to the nearest 10th, and 100th. Reversing a sum to come up with the difference. Adding and carrying the one) This is review from last year.

Jake has done a handwriting worksheet for every day he didn't write a letter.

Josie is practicing writing in cursive and her handwriting is nice.

We learned about human evolution. We learned about the skeleton, the muscles, the organs. Learned about digestion and the role of the pancreas. Began assembling the Visible Woman. Went to Atlanta to see the body exhibit, viewed black lungs, a baby at all stages of fetal development, handled a rubberized brain, liver and gall bladder. Saw the circulatory system suspended in water.

Played with friends at least three times a week.

Went to Cades Cove, the Cove Park, to the library twice, to the post office where they mailed the letters themselves and purchased stamps from the machine, to the vet twice, learned to sing Love Me Tender, and A Fool Such as I, discovered Josie shares musical taste with her dad, while Jake tends to like the kind of music I do.

Josie designed art for book bags

Jake made up a story and drew a picture to go with it (this is big for him).

They learned to make pizza on their own

Josie captured a cicada killer and fed it grasshoppers. It died. Caught fish in cades cove three weeks ago and of four two are still alive and thriving, oxygenates their water every night by passing it from cup to cup and pouring it back in.

Bought a microscope and learned how to use it.

Mad Libs

For physical education learned the tortoise and the hare, the bear walk, the frog sit, the inchworm, the crab walk, the wheelbarrow, the gorilla walk, and the russian hop from hell. Riding scooters with our friends. Swimming.

Don't get me wrong. We watched a lot of TV, and I surfed the web a lot. We did cut down on the Playstation. But it's just so interesting how much kids do and learn that you miss if you don't keep track. We never sat down and did schoolwork on paper for more than 2 hours at a time. Often we would do worksheets after dinner, and reading at bedtime. They have accomplished all of this in 28 days. Not all of these days were spent "schooling" either. Yep. So far it's working out just fine.