Charting our own course...

In days of old, sailors would keep a journal while at sea to chronicle their lives as they travelled the world in search of adventure... and perhaps an ounce or two of treasure. In this spirit, our family has also set its own course. My husband's career as a naval aviator keeps us travelling to distant shores... adventures await with every new 'port 'o call' we visit! Because of our nomadic lifestyle we have also embarked upon the adventure of homeschooling our twin boys, age 6 (aka: The Crew). The Crew started their 2nd grade work on 06 Aug 2012. I hope you'll enjoy our story as we chart our own course thru life and set sail on new adventures... gathering our stories and treasure along the way.

Fair Winds and Following Seas my friends!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Crew Log: Week Two

The Crew has another week of hitting the books, in the books!  I'm really pleased so far with our curriculum choices for first grade... I was a little leary at the work load, but as usual the boys continue to be up for the challenge, and so we're forging ahead!   We've settled into a nice rhythm and our workload seems to be about 2 1/2 solid hours/day.  Once we start HomeConnection in September, that will bump our days to a solid 4 1/2-5 1/2 hours/day of school time.  It's going to be a busy fall and winter, but the classes at HC are so great, I just couldn't help myself when signing up last spring!

This week we finished up the last few lessons of our K math program... I had hoped to get this done over summer break, but 'summer fever' proved to be too much to overcome (my own case being quite severe!)  It has actually worked out well as a bit of 'review' before hitting our first grade material.  The Crew retained much of their math facts over the summer, but as usual it was money problems (specifically adding various coins together i.e.: nickels, dimes, and quarters) that proved to be the most challenging.  We've had a solid review and seem to be back on track!  We look forward to cracking open our new workbooks next week!

I won't go into specifics of all our subjects this week, but one of the highlights of our day continues to be our history program.  This week we focused on 'Early People' before farming and after farming came into play.  The Crew really enjoyed the story of "The First Dog", filling in their map of The Fertile Crescent, discovering the first irrigation tool used for farming (a Shaduf!), and doing some Cave Painting of their own.  Next week I believe the early egyptians make an appearance, and I know The Crew will love that as they are already fascinated by this bit of history!

As for the rest of the story... well, it's all there, but the specifics are not nearly as exciting as actively participating in the experience as it happens.  I'm constantly amazed by these boys.  They both have subjects they adore (and some that they are bit less enthused about) but they continue to rise to the challenges that learning new skills presents.  I love that we can have this experience together as a family, and am thankful to get the chance to do so!

Until next week...

1 comment:

MissMOE said...

Great post! It's refreshing to read about families that enjoy each other!