This is all the work that the girls have completed over the last few weeks. These weeks have been filled with winter colds and bugs. We’ve needed to take days off here and there and it has felt more disjointed than I like. On the plus side, Abigail expressed the wish to do something more socially. Of course, I’m naff at all things social and am as happy as a pig in muck footering around at home. But this is where Gary comes in to his own! Abigail is now attending three more activities, and bless him, Gary is doing all the lifts and being involved when necessary. I am so thankful that homeschooling doesn’t just depend on me 😬
Morning Meeting
Who Am I? We have finished Lesson Two. I chose not to start lesson three until after Christmas.
Mystery of History Volume Two: We completed the following lessons: Daily Life in the Dark Ages; King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; Justinian I and Theodora, Rulers of the Byzantine Empire; Columba, Missionary to Scotland; Early Japan and prince Shotoku; Gregory the Great; The Sui and Tang Dynasties of China
Depending how long each lesson is, I sometimes divide a lesson between two or sometimes three days.
The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way – This has to be our favourite resource this year! I bought this for Thomas years ago but I have never read it. Even Becca loves listening to it and she hates all things science! We’ve covered Chapter 5: More on Numerals, Geometry and Math’s Origins: Babylonian, Egyptian and Mayan Numerals; Egyptian Maths Textbooks. Chapter 6: Elementary Matters: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water and Empedocles. Chapter 7: Being at Sea.
Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories – This one is especially for my artist, although my scientist really enjoys listening as well 😊. This term we have learnt about Donatello, Jan van Eyck, The Aztecs, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Durer, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titan
Lessons of Blackberry Farm – I’m reading this for Becca who particular enjoys Karen Andreola’s writing. We’ll be finished by Christmas.
English
Read Alone Books
We are continuing with our Chronicles of Narnia study. Over the four weeks we have completed The Boy and his Horse with lots of accompanying writing assignments (I am going to write a separate post on these next week which I will link here). I also read outloud one of C S Lewis’ biographies and we are about a half the way through The Land of Narnia by Brian Sibley, which we are all thoroughly enjoying. I get the girls to write about Narnia three or four times a week and then I mark it with them sitting next to me. We are working hard to improve Becca’s spelling and sitting next to me whilst I mark is really helpful for her.
Becs also goes over to my mum’s each day to learn different spellings. My mum is wonderfully detail orientated and having her help with things like spelling, reading and grammar has been amazing. And it’s win win because the children love it and she loves it! ❤️
Maths (Conquer Maths)
The girls use Conquer Maths and it’s all on line. It teaches using a video and then checks understanding using questions.
Abigail (Last year of Key Stage 3)
Continued with Algebra II and completed the following lessons:
- Grouping Symbols IV (100%)
- Grouping Symbols V (82%)
- Generalised Arithmetic (88%)
- Binomial Expansions (90%)
- Perfect Squares (75%)
- Difference of Two Squares (100%)
- Factorisation by a Common Factor (100%)
- Topic Test (81%)
Equations (I took a photo of all the lessons she completed – so much quicker than writing them all out!)
Rebecca (First Year of Ket Stage 3)
Becs is working her way through the first year of Key Stage 3 and completed the following lessons:
Finished The Number System:
- The Cube Root (100%)
- Averages I (100%)
- Averages II (100%)
- Topic Test (100%)
Fractions (again, I took a photo!)
Abigail (Aged 13-14, Year 9)
Abigail’s main school outside of maths and English is mostly science based.
This month’s Environmental Management has been all about Human Populations, which she has finished. Abs has just one more chapter before completing the whole course. I’m certain she’ll do this over January. We’ve decided not to put her in for the exam this summer, but instead to focus on learning the material well. I’ve found a video series which covers the whole Environmental Management syllabus. The plan is for Abs to redo the whole course, but this time focusing on the videos and her revision text book. Mum has offered to begin testing her on the basic knowledge each day. I just feel so blessed by her ❤️
Last month she started a GCSE in Psychology and a GCSE in Sociology. She is loving both and is happily applying everything she is learning to herself… She is slowly ploughing her way through the Research chapters of both subjects. It feels very slow going, yet she is putting in hours of work each day. After Christmas, I think I probably need to be a little more involved, and perhaps give her a little more help with things she may be finding hard.
She will be doing these courses over two years and hopes to take the exam the year after next.
Lastly, Abigail is working her way through the Apologia text book and Key Stage Three Science book two. She works at these at her own speed and we do the end of unit questions together verbally. She has finished all the Chemistry lessons in the Apologia Text and will now move onto Physics. She has also completed all the Biology Lessons in the second Key stage three text and will now move on to Chemistry.
Rebecca (Aged 10-11, Year 7)
Rebecca’s main school apart from the English and Maths is 100% creative. She is currently studying towards a Level One qualification in Mixed Media and another Level One in Textiles.
Becs began her textiles work before her mixed media so we have been focusing on mixed media to get her to the same level. This month she completed Booklet Three in Mixed Media. Last month, she learnt all about Art Nouveaux, carried out a study of William Morris and tried out different techniques in silk painting. This month, she has developed her ideas and carried our some simple design sheets:
She started and finished her scarf, with her own designs:
The Final Scarf
Modelling
Extra Curricula Stuff
The girl attend church and are active in the church youth group. They sing in a children’s choir once a week and gave their Christmas concert a week ago. They both visit a friend’s house once a week and Abs also sees her best friend once a week if they are both free. Abigail and Becca have both began a homeschool exercise group and another homeschool youth group, both of which they LOVE. Abigail has also joined the Army Cadets, which she is not 100% sure she wants to continue. There is a lot of bad language which she has not really ever been exposed to. But she’s going to give it a chance after Christmas, before deciding.