Grade 2.5 Review

Noah and I have been done with his Grade 2.5 school year for a month and a half now, so I better report back with follow-up notes now before I forget anything more than I already have.  We are fully into a summer vibe these days and it's taking a lot to gather any pointed thoughts.  Ha!  I will follow the same format I did summarizing last year.

Firstly, and I believe I have said this already, giving Noah another year to mature emotionally and academically before entering upper elementary was SUCH a great move and I really had no reason to doubt it.  Going 2.5 instead of grade 3 was great.  Mission accomplished in terms of redeeming that year I sent him to kindergarten a year before I should have.  We have righted that course and are so satisfied with how it has and will continue to change our schooling trajectory. I am sure I only doubted that "extra year" decision to begin with in relation to how others would perceive it and that was just silly.  Grade 2.5 was a much more enjoyable year together that saw some changes, but mostly things continued on the same path we began in Grade 2.0.

For the entire Language Arts block, we continued on with full 3rd grade material from Sonlight Curriculum.  By year's end, Noah was reading well into 4th grade level.  We did a bunch of read aloud and audio books of our own choosing.  I hate that we didn't document them all, but honestly, it would have become quite a chore to do so, we moved through so many books.  Noah killed it on the AR scene with 120 points, ranking second among all of the second graders in Josh's district. :}  We stuck with vocabulary practice again using Wordly Wise Online.  Noah got sloppy throughout the year, so when he finished all the 3rd grade coursework, I reset it and had him review all those word goals again to really solidify his grasp of that content. In the fall, I am going to try out a Word Build vocabulary program I checked out at the homeschool conference this year that relies heavily on Greek and Latin roots and word parts to unlock vocabulary.  I am convinced this sort of word study will go much farther than random words lists and definitions.  We shall see.  Anna, for her part, will use Noah's second grade curriculum from last year for her first grade year as she is already such a STRONG reader working on a second grade level as it is.

For History/Social Studies, we happily abandoned Sonlight as I detailed our head start into that jumped ship last March.  We kept pace with Story of the World and covered Medieval Times - from the last roman emperor all the way to the fall of Constantinople and the start of the Black Death.  We did not do hardly any of the projects that were suggested, but we did make it through the year with a smooth, effective routine of reading, discussing, mapping, and comprehending.  Given how abominable our SS hour was last year, we call this a HUGE step up.  In the fall, we are taking a break from World History for a year, to cover something a little more accessible and kid friendly and honestly, a little more fun ... US states/capitols and geography and mapping.  This will be a fun course load to take on with my first year with TWO kiddos of different grade levels.  I picked up Trail Guide to US Geography at the convention and, if we like it, will check out their Trail Guide to Learning Pathways curricula after that for the rest of World History and US History in the years that follow. 

For Math, we absolutely stuck with RightStart Mathematics and it continues to be Noah's favorite part of the day. Noah completed Level C (which is second grade equivalent) and are excited to tackle 3rd grade math in the fall.  Given what all Noah can do already in multiplication, division, fractions, and mental addition and subtraction of three digit numbers, I am chomping at the big to see what difficult math it will make easy next.  Love this curriculum!!  Even the geometry units this year were a success for Noah.  As an added help, Noah used Xtra Math online to improve rapid recall of all math facts.  It's a great resource and I recommend it every time it comes up in math conversation ... which is a lot with homeschool moms.  HA!  Anna will use the Level B math Noah used last year since it was technically first grade anyway.

For Science, we stayed with Sonlight curriculum in Science C learning about geology (rock and minerals), meteorology (weather), biology (plants, animals, babies), paleontology briefly (dinosaurs), and historical and mechanical technology (how machines are made and work).  The mechanical technology was a drag for me, but Noah was QUITE interested, so I sucked it up and just learned alongside him. Josh manned the science experiments every weekend again this year with both kids - topics covered electricity, magnets, and the human body.  Next year, we'll continue with Sonlight and Anna will do the same course study Noah does.

For Bible, we worked our way through an excellent kids bible study/devotion book called Long Story Short.  I was amazed with how spiritually mature the topics and discussion points were ... and how my son was completely in his comfort zone in those discussions.  Such a blessing to see his faith and understanding and that growth!  It is such a thorough bible study, we only made it only half way through and will continue the second half next year with Anna joining in.  I also want to somehow work this resource in as well - Get Wisdom!  It is very timely for the ages of my kiddos and we will also be able to rely on it for our community group kids lessons each week.

Josh wanted Noah to start learning to type this year as well, so we set him up on a free online typing program called Typing Club. He grew in leaps and bounds with this program and will continue that in the fall.  He completely learned all the letters and punctuation by touch, but will likely need to review all those again as I haven't made him continue in that this summer.  By 2nd semester, his goal will be to improve his wpm.  Exciting!  Anna will use this program, too.

Between all that, our 1 Timothy homeschool field trip group and his Anchored Enrichment co-op on Thursdays, we had a fun and full year and look forward to sharing the next school year with Anna on board!  Bring on 1st and 3rd grade!  I am not exactly sure how our schedule will shake out, but I am comfortable enough with the idea that we will figure it out when we get there and simply adjust as needed.  Homeschool freedom rocks!  Here's to taking mornings slow again, being our own boss time/schedule wise, and (Anna's favorite) pajama day every day of the week.  HA!