Truman will be in 4th grade at the Wednesday homeschool "school" but they don't do to much there, except prepare for the end of the year school district test (too much ugly public school influence.) He is reading the Year 3 literature according to AO, which is still seriously advanced, and reading at a 12th grade level, according to the Shonell Reading Test. He is also in 5th grade math, but has all the maturity of a boy exactly his age. So I am a bit confused as to how to label his progress. I am comfortable with calling him nothing but homeschooled, but he apparently needs to have a place to assign himself so that he knows where he stacks up among his peers.
Truman's Books for the year include:
- ENGLISH (Narration)
- American Tall Tales-Stoutenberg
- Tales from Shakespeare-Lamb
- The Heroes-Kingsley
- The Princess and the Goblin-MacDonald
- Children of the New Forest-Marryat
- The Jungle Book (books 1 & 2) Kipling
- William Blake* Poetry
- Sara Teasdale and Hilda Conkling** Poetry
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow*** Poetry
- Sequential Spelling-Level 1
- 1st Language Lessons-Level 3 & 4
- Writing with Ease-Level 2
- ARITHMETIC (Notebooking each book)
- Math 5-Teaching Textbooks-DVD + workbook
- Penrose the Mathmatical Cat-storybook
- Mathematicians are People, Too-storybook
- Brainetics DVD’s-DVDs
- Logic Links-Logic Games
- Mythmatical Battle-Game!
- The Life of Fred Apples-storybook, with Henry
- The Life of Fred Butterflies-Storybook, with Henry
- HISTORY (Notebooking, Narration, Time Line, Map Skills)
- An Island Story-Marshall, English History 1400-1600
- This Country of Ours-Marshall US History
- The Story of Mankind-Van Loon
- Trial and Triumph-Hannula, History of Religion
- Da Vinci* Hahn
- Michelangelo* Stanley
- Marco Polo- Clint Twist
- Adventures of Marco Polo-Freeman
- Good Queen Bess**, Stanley
- The Landing of the Pilgrims*** Daughtery
- Captivity of Mary of Scotland, Yonge
- Who was William Shakespeare? CD Mannis
- A Child’s Geography of the World, Hillyer
- Giants of Invention, Tharpe
- The Arab Marco Polo Inb Battatu
- SCIENCE (Notebooking and Nature Study)
- Secrets of the Woods-Long (Spine)
- Golden Treasury of Natural History, Parker (Spine)
- Plant and Animal Ways, Podendorf (Spine)
Ancient Forests
A Tree is Growing
The Everywhere Bear
Magic School bus inside the Earth
Bizarre Birds
Weather!
Awesome Ocean Science
Hydro’s Adventures Water Cycle
Earth Cycles
Sharks
Bats-Strange and Wonderful
Birds-Usborne
The Young Naturalist
Weather Words
A Forest Tree House
Assateuge WIld Ponies
Insects
Seals
Tough Terminators
Discovering Ants
Science with Plants
Plant Life
Baby Whale
Volcanoes
Poison Dart Frogs
From Tadpole to Frog
Bugs
Animal World
Rocks, Hard, soft, smooth, rough
The Rock Factory
The Stars
Looking at Rocks
100 Birds and how they got their
name - FINE ARTS (Notebooking each artist/composer, Lessons outside of the home)
- Jean Honore Fragonard*
- Mozart*
- Albert Bierstadt**
- Mendelssohn**
- Norman Rockwell***
- Bartok and Hindermith***
- Piano Lessons Dr Irene Bowling
- Trumpet Lessons Shelley Devlin
- You Can Draw Anything-Gamble
- Lives of the Artists, Krull, Hewitt
- Lives of the Musicians, Krull, Hewitt
- Meet the Great Composers, Montgomery
- Art Masterpieces to Color, Dover
- FOREIGN LANGUAGE (DVDs, Computer program, cartoons, speaking opportunities)
- Getting Started with Spanish, Linney, The only Book!
- Learn Advanced Spanish Verbs, Standard Deviants
- Verbs, building on the Basics, Standard Deviants
- Visual Spanish CD Rom
- PHYSICAL EDUCATION/HEALTH
- Soccer at the Zone
- Yoga Kids, DVD-For when Mommy is losing her patience
- TRAMPOLINE in playroom!!
- It’s so Amazing, A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families (uh oh)
- APPLIED ARTS
- Cooking with Children, Marion Cunningham
- FREE READING
- A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
- At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald
- Men of Iron by Howard Pyle
- Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
- The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major
- Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
- Unknown to History: Captivity of Mary of Scotland by Charlotte Yonge
- Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
- On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
- The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
- English Fairy Tales and more by Joseph Jacob
- King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (18th century, Africa, France and England)
- The Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright
- Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright
- The Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong
My challenge this year is to make sure that Truman's brain is engaged (since he is at such different levels in his different subjects) and to make sure that he has plenty of time to play, and learn with his brother. Truman's playing years seem that they might be dwindling, while Henry is still smack in the middle of them. It is delightful that they both are crazy about Legos, and can spend hours together creating and playing. I think that homeschooling the boys has helped them to build a really strong relationship, and keeping them together in a few subjects, and having Truman help to teach his brother will only strengthen that relationship.