Our First Week of School

Well, we started our school week last weekend. With our crazy schedule, we really have to do school every day we are home. So far, I've been really happy with our new curriculum, our lesson plans, and our progress.

Here's what we've done:

Math
Completed pages 1-8, a review of the basic rules of addition and subtraction. We've also learned big words like addend, sum, minuend, and subtrahend. Sometimes I think I'm reviewing my Math skills right along with him!

Reading
Reagan has read and answered questions from a book of stories, and is continuing to read a chapter book on the Incredibles. After that, we'll be reading The Indian in the Cupboard which I think he'll really like!

Language Arts
Completed lesson 1 in Spelling. Reagan received 100% on his pretest, so he was able to skip the final test.
Completed pp. 1-3 in his Grammar book. Discussed complete sentences, capital letters, periods, and sentence parts. Today he also practiced dictation. He still needs a bit of work on the proper use of capital letters. We've also switched to broad lined paper this year. Remembering to make lower case letters smaller than capitals, without the dotted line to remind him, is going to take a bit of time.

Religion
Continued where we left of last year, learning about the Mass. Especially the Presence in the Eucharist. Reagan interviewed Daddy about his First Communion, and he wrote two letters to Jesus. Very cute stuff! We've also talked about the Nativity of Mary, as it's coming up on the 8th.

Science
We began our year in botany. We had a number of Science books this year, and I'm still trying to work out how to use them all. But botany looks to be the most fun/hands on. Maybe we'll put it aside in the dead of Winter, but right now it's really fun. Reagan is getting real Science and information and enjoying it!

Social Studies
We'll be touring foreign countries this year! We've started with Canada. We've begun planning our "trip". We can go by car, because we're close by in Minnesota. We learned about the weather and have decided to pack warm things. We've learned about their flag, and drawn a picture of it on our travel brochure. The tallest mountain is Mount Logan, and Reagan is fascinated by it. We've also begun our new Map Skills book.

Handwriting
We've completed the letters A-D this week. I'm thinking one of those laminated boards may be in order. That way he can practice them over and over and then erase them.

Poetry
He memorized a 4 line poem, which he recites beautifully.

Art
We're reviewing coloring skills in preparation for lessons in shading, etc.