http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net ...is a good thing Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:48:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Twenty-five days of school this year, and we're doing well. We're more or less where I'd like us to be for spelling. Spelling is still her biggest weakness, so we'll likely double up on a step sometime next week. This week we aren't doubling up because we're going to be doing ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/09/20/twenty-five-days/ Well, here we are... the first day of Gillian's third grade year. We decided it was important to have extra days to take 'off' of school in November, so we started earlier than usual - three entire weeks earlier than usual. This also gives us some flexibility for later in ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/08/11/first-day-of-third-grade/ The excellent, important news is that we finished our summer history! There are several books that fall under the category of supplemental reading that we'd like to see Gillian read between now and 11 August, but I don't think it will be a huge problem, plus they definitely fall under ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/07/07/summer-session/ Essentially, we're going to be concentrating on historical fiction covering early American history (Jamestown through the 49ers), but I'm also putting in children's versions of important literature that was published during that time frame - i.e., The Three Musketeers, The Jungle Book. We already have a number of books. I ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/06/22/literature/ I've been lurking over at the WTM boards again... they suck me in more than I would like to admit, from time to time. At any rate, there have been a spate of posts recently about planning - how people do it, what people keep in their own "teacher notebook" and ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/06/08/planning/ We're actually completing our history work at a faster pace than originally thought; currently, we'll finish history as the calendar finishes June. This is excellent news, though, because starting next week, we'll begin Latin again, as well as spelling. Both of those will continue throughout the summer. The goal for ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/06/05/pressing-onwards/ I sketched out more details for our summer of history tonight, and it appears that we will finish SOTW2 by or on Thursday, July 10. This is a good spacing; if we have supplemental reading, it can be available for the remainder of July and all of August, and there ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/05/29/further-musings/ We are, in theory, set for a summer 'history intensive.' We're reviewing Chapters One and Two in Story of the World: Volume Two, and we're going to 'do' Chapter Three tonight as well. In an ideal world, we'll do at least one chapter a day, sometimes two, depending on how ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/05/29/history-intensive/ The first rule is going to have to be: do not hit snooze more than once. We started with copywork, as we often do. I usually do this because it doesn't involve a lot of complex thinking for the first assignment of the day. Today's copywork: "For Jupiter is king to ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/04/10/minute-by-minute/ x-posted from my personal blog 01. History for Gillian for next year. Time period 1600 to 1850 in world history, so that's a lot of ground to cover. In addition, I want to have her read supplementally about American history, specifically, during that time period. I have no idea how to ... http://patchfire.homeschooljournal.net/2008/04/09/ponderings-on-the-state-of-school/