Second term into the year

A three week break and we're back to another term of scheduled activities and learning. Our Autumn break was marked with significant gatherings, and lots of time together as a family to enjoy conversations and outings. We now look ahead to some quieter days as a general rule, but we're also leading up to that time of the year where emphasis is on dance competitions (for Maestro only, this year).

We had started using Winterpromise's 'Animal and their Worlds' for Mariposa at the beginning of the year. The books are certainly lovely, but much of the content was very much like what she'd already covered in Sonlight's Science 3. I don't want to 'put off' anyone wanting to try Winterpromise. It was just unfortunate that it wasn't a good fit for her this time. We are continuing to finish off using the readers, and have held on to the "One Small Square" books, as these are just excellent.

So, Mariposa will now move into learning more Australian geography and history. I've been collecting some books for her and will share them as we go. We started off looking at Aboriginal life, and a trip to the Melbourne Museum to see artifacts was a wonderful experience. We also saw a puppet play, showing one of the Dreamtime stories enacted, which was very interesting.

On other subject matters for Mariposa, she's continuing with her Singapore Maths (level 3), All About Spelling, LLATL (yellow), along with various books from Winterpromise and Sonlight. She is also working through Sonlight's Science 2 schedule very quickly. As predicted, it's a little easier than work done previously, but we're compensating by letting her do most of the work independently, and at a rate of a week's scheduled work in two days.


Maestro has settled very well into Sonlight's Core G (previously known as Core 6). There's a marked difference from Core F. Core F was a very full core; it could also be that he's used to the routine. Considering we only had 3 full days to dedicate to bookwork last term, he's keeping up the pace extremely well.

Maths is about to be stepped up a level. Once Maestro completes a couple more sections of Singapore Maths Primary 6B, he'll be starting the high school books. We couldn't get this completed last term because of time doing the bow and arrow workshops, but it'll be done in the next two weeks.

Language Arts is a collection of various books. We've got Worldly Wise 6 on the go, along with LLATL (tan). Add to the mix a new curriculum we started in the last couple of weeks ... and it's working so well for him! (I'll be writing up a review for this soon.) Maestro started using the Michael Clay Thomas Language Arts program, and he's taken to it very well. It looks as though we'll be passing up the LLATL for him at the rate he's going, as this new curriculum is moving at a pace that's much better suited to his learning style.

Apologia General Science has also been a huge success. He works through a module over a two week period, so we're well on target for getting through this level by the end of the year. We've also now acquired a dvd of the BBC program "The Story of Science", which has drawn the whole family in.

So, I'll work on getting some more reviews and other information up on this blog soon, especially with regard to the new things we're doing. I'll have a little more time to write now that we're more home-based again.