Summer 2016 Homeschool

Another school break upon us so it's time to kick it up with the homeschool thing.

Writing.

I decided to continue the writing lessons that we had been doing every holiday break. So far, we've done simple diary-keeping, creative writing winter, and started a bit of essay this time. We still have a long way to go in making a headway in a proper essay that should be useful in the coming years ahead.

Math.

Aside from writing, I can only add a bit of math review for this summer since the writing part really take some time to complete. I had planned on reviewing and solidifying (if I can) the "fraction skills" and cover the basic geometry (equations and all) before moving up to pre-algebra for next year. It's getting harder but I hope that I can still cover the basics in English coz he's learning everything now in Korean. This has been evident in some part of fractions (i.e. GCF, LCM) and solving for geometry equations. It seems that they don't use equations. Whew! I had a hard time wrapping my head around it as I tried to help my son a few weeks ago. I figured, I had to teach him this in English.

There are other topics that I think they missed like converting between the metric and imperial measurement system. This we learned when when we were in grade school so I pretty much have an idea using both. Of course, proper computation would mean knowing the conversion tables for such but I am more flexible in estimating smaller distances to say the least. I mean, at least, inches and cms. But km and miles are a bit off for me though. I want my son to be more flexible and not grow up with just one way.

Geography. 
I would love to do geography this summer but I have yet to find a good resource for this. We only have 5 sessions and I am not sure when we can squeeze it in.

Typing
This one is inspired way into the summertime already and I have to find a schedule for this. But this can be fun if done every other day.

That will be all for today. I'll write more about the writing journey, geography and typing later. Gotta to do quick chore for now before I head out for my gig.

School Break Home School

Winter was pretty long and even though P attended a couple of winter classes, there were still plenty of time to make use of. The easier one to compliment his reading interest is catch-up writing. 

We managed to at least cover some basics of writing paragraphs and write three journal entries per week for a month. That is quite a feat!

This coming summer break will be a continuation of that with a reward of a game board before the break ends which is around his birthday anyway. 

I was able to get on it and finished the curriculum-of-sorts yesterday. Not a complete one strictly speaking should be enough to get a big picture of what we will be covering and hoping to accomplish for this summer school break. 

We (well, me at least) are also planning other non-academic activities like a couple of indoor games, kitchen/baking and hopefully, short day trips. 

I hope we'll manage to accomplish this! 하자!

Intro to Lapbook this July

Here's a quick post on our activities this later part of July.

We did the science week from sometime around July 24th to 31st. The focus study is the basics of human body. The inspiration was taken from one of the science curriculum I was fiddling with these days and the free lapbook site I fortunately discovered. Some of these lapbooks might be a little daunting at first but as we did part by part, our first foray into lapbooks is quite promising.

Photos of our output are to follow. It must be noted that I tried to let the kid get into the cutting and gluing in the process. During the first ones, he was ok with it. But he still needs more confidence to solely do the things himself. Coloringwise, he is able to. Using the scissors and longer time squeezing out the glue stick might still be tricky. I am considering on getting a new pair of scissors for him, in case that what he's using is not as sharp as it should be anymore. Another one is the glue stick that I chose. I might have to get the "paste" kind of glue--the ca[ and twist thing which is generally just good for papers. Up on my list now.

As for the content of the things that we have covered, I do think that he doesn't only retain the facts and figures (?) but the concepts as well. At least he now knows more about the importance of our bones, muscles, heart and brain. ;)

After the science week series, I'm moving into language and literacy again. A week off and resume next week. Not that we didn't do any learning this week, mind you.

We happened to find a praying mantis in the "kulitis" plant growing in the corner lot. Seeing it's potential science lesson, we took it home. Googled it up and found (basically Asia, South America and only some part of Australia; and it is a carnivore. It only eats other insects even like grasshoppers.

We also took short walks, library visit and playground time for his motor skills.;) Since Lola Mama has been out of the hospital and currently recuperating from her foot surgery, we had our chance of visiting her more often these days. We would sometimes take a walk going to or fro her place to pick some ilang-ilang flowers on the way and do a pretend adventure in our slightly-forested street.

Note to Mom today was to put on some neat shoes and not open toed sandals. Mine is not really very comfy to walk with.

We also had a chance to have his friend over for a day. They played and did acitivities together last Friday. Starting with some mini-letter books, (for the friend to catch up phonics), origami, painting, and a few minutes viewing of Hi-5 and Backyardigans at home. Then off to the city library where we managed to read three books and the playground for their ultimate activity of the day. Did I mention the ice cream that they each got after a day's work and play?

Hopefully, we can put this thing on again next week. It's time to plan for another session!

Homeschool Update

My son's "homeschooling" is back on track. He is more inclined to do coloring and writing nowadays. His coloring skills had improved a bit. He's more aware of the colors outside the pictures and tries to color within the space. Writing letters, numbers and copying printed text he finds everywhere is becoming more often. A few months ago, I would be the one encouraging him to hold the pencil and practice something. He didn't really felt the same. He was more into "reading." It as almost frustrating to know that he can read but he can't write yet. Nonetheless, I took the time off and just let him be. Knowing that he will hear the "writing call" in his own time.
He now colors a lot more pages than before (more or less 10) and more often try to write with his pencil. Unlike before that he complains of "tired" after a short period of time.

His reading skills had improved immensely. He is never scared to figure out how to read stuff that he comes across. We've finished the consonants and vowels long ago and his "sight reading word bank" is growing day by day. As he tried to decipher new words, I keep in mind what part will be our next focus. My bet is on vowel families but I may have to try to figure out another one just in case there will be a better route. We did the "ail" family yesterday and he was so hyped on that. It may be another series to work on for us after the itsy bitsy books. Although, we're also doing the sight word set now, we might do both all together.

Another area that I want to deal with is the Math. I'm no math genius so I'm hoping that I can at least make a difference with my son. ;) I may have to work a little harder to figure out how to make it in this area but we'll see.

Off to check what's next on our "word family" and figure out how to go about fractions.