Just a PICTURE!

The coolest thing I learned today... by Aurora

That the Aurora Borealis is cassed by magnetic fields like sunspots. I learned this watching a documentary. The coolest thing my Mom learned was that the moon is 400 times closer to us than the sun and the sun is 400 times the size of the moon. That is what makes a total solar eclipse possible. Great day!

Dear family,

How have you been doing? I hope you are fine because I’m sure good. I want you to know awesome homeschooling is going, but first I want to know how you’re doing if you write me back! I’m ahead of schedule in a few subjects like grammar, math, and science and my teacher is awesome. I have a whole classroom down stairs, I have all the stuff I need like pencils, erasers, glue and stuff like that. The best part is that I get to spend time with my lovely mommy! It is so fun and I get to only do school till lunch time. I miss you very much and I really want to see you more then I do right now. Hope you have a great year. Love , Aurora(: PS, write me back

Our geometric turtle made in math!

When WInter Comes - by Aurora

When Winter Comes

The days grow shorter and the air gets colder. You get buckled up in those warm snow clothes from the frost.

The bear sleep in, the birds fly south, and the forest is empty, quiet.

We put leaves in the garden so the plants are nice and warm.

We put the furnace on and stay inside, get snuggled in the warm blankets. It gets darker and colder as we go. We sleep more and stay up less. We have hot chocolate and nice warm tea for our throat.

We do all these when Winter comes.

A note from the Teacher….

A note from the Teacher….

Merry Christmas! I thought I would answer a few question about Aurora’s progress and how homeschooling is working. And a bit about her grades, too, since those are our three most common questions. Now that we have settled into a routine we spend about 3 hours a day, four days a week on directed lessons. That is where I am working one on one with her on core subjects. Then Aurora does self-guided work in art, reading and some project work without me. Her two dance classes and paper route count as PE and we do some field trips to the museum and art gallery too. We love the laid back pace and do work in the morning and evening only. Aurora picked all her own topics within the subjects and picks her own novels and poets to study, too. So the reading comes easier.

The result has been some great progress in areas where Aurora was really struggling. In September she struggled to write even a few sentences in her morning paragraph. So we backed it up and did brainstorming every day instead, then worked on topic sentences together and adjectives. She has written over 60 morning paragraphs now (filling a whole book already!!) and her paragraphs are descriptive and well formed. No more struggle – YAY! We backed up and redid a whole month of math over when it was clear she just wasn’t getting it. That helped and we have had 2 weeks off in math we got so far ahead!

As far as grades, testing and progress I am happy to report she is getting all A’s! Just kidding! We actually don’t have to submit tests, projects, essays or anything to anyone. We chose a homeschooling route that left us really open and free to do what we want. I chose texts and workbooks that fit the District 73 grade 5 program and other than that we just plug along. We get updates from her friends and use Adin’s homework as a guide sometimes to check in that we are on the right path but so far we have been ahead most of the time! The plan is still to return to Beattie for grade six and I am confident she’ll be ready and fine. We have done some math and science tests that were included in the workbook but I do them as open tests as I think it is more important that she learns how to find the information than it is to memorize it and spit it out at random. We do lots of research projects for that reason. Also lots of computer searches and games to help her use technology to learn. She is lucky to get the computer time. In school she would get it once a week….

So far we are loving it! She still goes to her book club and Guides, has lots of friends and playdates and does get out of the house a lot. Lots of people ask if we are worried about socializing her…. But she is pretty social all on her own and has lots of friends! That hasn’t changed! She enjoys the pace and the quiet mornings. Going back to school will be quite a change for sure but I am glad we took the year to get her ahead and reading really well. I think it’s been great!