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2006-2007: My oldest son is moving right along through the cores at a
pace of one per year despite the fact that he is a year younger than the SL
recommended age. He loves learning and while it is true that he would get
more out of it if he were older, I am still satisfied with what he is
retaining. We all get more out of something if we come back to it with a
little more wisdom and experience in out lives. That's why I continue to
learn from the cores as well.
The boys have been anticipating this core for about 3 months now. They are fascinated with knights and castles at the moment. They can't wait to learn more about them. Each year, I ask my children what they want to learn or what improvements I can make to their learning experience. This year the request was for more hands-on things to do. I am trying to make their wish come true and have added quite a bit of hands-on things. Core 2 Readers 2 Intermediate I was surprised to see that this level still contained some level readers. SL tends to schedule these books with light reading and then a longer chapter book and then back to lighter leveled readers throughout the year. Readers 2 Advanced Sonlight Science 2 I love SL science but some people may have problems with the dinosaur book SL includes with this level. Pre-read it and decide for yourself whether or not this is a good fit for your family. Classical Writing - Aesop A We are really enjoying this LA program. It is exactly what our family needed. We made 1 slight change though to better fit my sons needed for not a lot of handwriting in one day. Instead of doing the entire writing project on Friday. We space it out over the week. Monday we do the outline, Tuesday the rough draft, Wednesday we edit, and Friday my son types up his final draft and creates a picture to go along with the Fable. This is working great for us! Classical Writing - Poetry for Beginners A This was originally recommended to be the second semester to Aesop A. The recommendations for this have recently changed and it has been moved to a second semester with Homer. I have not yet decided what to do with this. Math-U-See Alpha, Beta, and Gamma? We have tried a ton of math stuff over the year. Please see school subjects for more information on why we choose this for this year. Alpha and Beta are both a review for my son and I am expecting each to take him around 1-2 months to complete.
Art With A Purpose I found this last year at
Rainbow Resource Center for about $5. It is a cheap easy to use art program.
You need 2 packets. one to create samples for your child and one for your
child. This teaches all the basics of art that I never thought of teaching.
It also introduces art terminology. We will be using level 2 this year.
Color the Classics - Composers II There is 1
more book in this series that I am hoping to add to our year and then we
have completed this series. I really like it a lot! We will also be
finishing up the Christmas one from last year.
The Amazing Pop-Up Geography Book This is a
great book! But for an older child who can be very careful as there are
lots of flaps, strings, things to spin, pull, push and more in addition to
the pop-ups. This is a really fun book to look at geography. Not sure how
educational it is but lots of fun!
Computer Basics This
book teaches basic computer terminology and parts. A great introduction to
the computer. We will be studying more about computers in the future.
The Kids Guide to First Aid This is great! A
simple book that teaches kids the basics from what is an emergency to have
to clean a scrap. Includes some hands-on activities as well.
Life Skills for Kids
This is one book that I wish I had purchased when my kids were still PK age.
Well --2 of them still are but I wish I had it when the oldest was in PK. It
has a lot of tips on how to help your children to grow up to be independent
in a variety of different ways. Includes suggestions for chores for
toddlers.
History Odyssey - Grammar Stage Middle Ages
This is a history program that combines CHOW and SOTW along with some
hands-on things. Since if it is not in a schedule then it probably won't get
done -- I needed this for all the things I plan on using this upcoming year.
Equate A math version of scrabble. We spend a week using this as a
review during our math time prior to moving up to the next level book.
Scrabble Junior We are using the junior
version with my three year old to teach blending, recognize letters, etc. It
is an interesting game we made up. My older one does spelling with this. He
could use the regular version but alas -- I went with this to combine them.
Ant Farm
We ordered our ants with the coupon we got from Insectlore
but never received our ants and we have been waiting for 2 months now.
I emailed the company and I got the ants within 3 days of my email. About
half died within the first day, the rest died within 4 days. In other words
-- our ant far was a big flop!
I Dig Dinosaurs
This is so much fun! We got the t-rex version. It took us about 3 nights to
un-dig all the bones. Another night to put it together and paint it. I used
several books about archeology with this and we recorded our findings using
a grid sheet. Guessed how we might put it together and what our dinosaur
might look like. We used this along with the first 2 weeks of Science 2 when
we were learning about dinosaurs. We ran out of paint. It you are planning
on painting your model only 1 color - you will need to buy more.
Hands and Hearts History Kit - Middle Ages Love this, love this, love this! I only wished I had used it last year when
so many people on the SL forums recommended it. It is worth the money I
spent and more!
and.............
Usborne Books
Here is the list of Sonlight Usborne Books for Core 2 and
Science 2.
Usborne Living World Encyclopedia
The Usborne Book of Knowledge
Science Activities, Volume 3
Time Traveler
Usborne Book of World History
Teacher Resources I used
for the year are: These are the books that I purchased for me this year. To help me learn more about homeschooling and to become a better teacher. When They Rise Up
Other Supplements:
100 Things to Know about Knights and Castles We got this from the library as an introduction to our new core book. It was great! It has a good overview of the middle ages, quizzes about things covered, and some simple activities to do.
Usborne Supplements:
You can purchase these from you local consultant, retailer, or me!
The Great History Search
Along the lines of an I spy book. Not a lot of learning is going
on but it is fun for the kids and sometimes you just need some fun!
Stories of Pirates
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Copyright © 2006 Tuscan Sun Academy
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