An update on our home education

Grant (age 14)

Grant has finished Physical Science and will be beginning Biology in July.  I plan to purchase the Apologia Biology within the next few months. For the time being,  I am mixing Science with his writing. He’s spending extra time on perfecting his writing abilities.  Right now he is working on persuasive essays. Many of the themes that he chooses are based on Science and Government studies.

His last essay was on the Patriot Act. He chose to write an essay on how unconstitutional it is and he mostly used the United States Constitution to back up his thoughts against it.  I was really proud of him, not only because he chose this topic on his own, but he took a big interest in it by studying the Act, section by section and compared it to our rights guaranteed by the constitution.  His current essay is a persuasive essay in favor of nuclear power.

He is almost finished with 8^th grade math and will be moving into pre-algebra in May. He is currently working a Saxon curriculum, but has expressed that he doesn’t really like the way the book is laid out. So, we have evaluated the Math-u-see pre-algebra curriculum and he really likes the learning methods that they use, so I will be purchasing that for him next month when he is ready to move up.

He’s also begun a ninth grade vocabulary unit.  Here is his current word list: daunt, rudimentary, credulous, lucid, sacrosanct, docile, impartial, precedent, figurative, reiterate, prudent, negligence, innocuous, lax, precipitate, equivocate, aptitude, circumspect, metamorphosis, substantive, nepotism, and assiduous.

Grant has finished American History, most of his Geography, and World History. So, for the most part we are just adding to his knowledge through his reading and essay writing. Since writing is a skill he has difficultly in, we want to work on improving his skills.

He recently showed an interest in playing the piano and taught himself some of the basics, so I have put him in piano lessons. He’s doing really well. Each week when his teacher teaches him a new skill, he learns a little more on his own, so that he can advance quicker.

Raven (age 11)

Raven is really interested in the aspects of creative writing, so to encourage her interests, I am teaching her through a A Beka creative writing curriculum. I don’t usually use Religion based curriculums, but I really like the way this one teaches. The book encourages them to look at the world in a much deeper way. For example, it explains how if one is more observant, they can tell who is walking down the steps by the sound of their walk or how someone feels by their body language.

She is also writing a chapter book and yesterday she finished chapter 1 which is five pages typed.  I plan to only read it after each chapter is finished. The only thing I do is correct her grammar and encourage her to use more descriptive language where it is needed. Writing a book was her idea and I want it to be made up of her imagination, not mine, so I do not tell her to change any of the content. When it is done, maybe we will share it in a blog. If it is good enough, maybe she can get published. She says she wants to be a writer, so I want to encourage her dreams in any way possible.

For math, she is finishing up a 7^th grade Saxon Curriculum and should be beginning 8^th grade math this summer.  Because of her math skills being so advanced, she has recently begun doing a Physical Science Curriculum through Jason Science.

She only has one more unit left in her 6^th grade spelling curriculum and will be moving on to 7^th grade vocabulary soon.  She’s always helping and correcting her friends with spelling. I’m not sure if this is good or bad. It is good, because obviously she has the skill down.  Then again, some children her age might think it is rude to be corrected all the time.

For Geography, she is learning and reviewing map skills. This is her weakest subject, because she finds it difficult to maintain interest in the subject. Though, when I say weak, I don’t mean that she is below grade level. In comparison to her friends in public school, she is advanced.


For History, she is currently learning the constitution. Today we covered the 9th amendment. When she has covered all the amendments she will do a project. I am thinking of appealing to her creative side by having her design a rap song about the amendments.

Raven spent some time contemplating which new extracurricular activity she wanted to take part in. She kept changing her mind, but last week she decided that for sure she wanted to learn a Korean form of martial arts. She began last week and is really enjoying it.  Honestly, I was hoping she would decide on violin, but she didn’t.

Ben (age 7)

When Ben first came to live with us 9 months ago, I was not sure what to expect out of him with his school work, because his report card was very basic.  By the past e-mails shown to me, obviously he had issues focusing. Also, his previous school would not release his school records to me unless I signed something saying that I would comply with Virginia home education laws. Of course I would not sign it. We live in Texas and I don’t have to comply with their guidelines.  

After working with him for several months, he has gone way beyond what others might have expected of him. His strongest subject is math. He has mastered all 1st grade skills, 2^nd grade skills, and is working on 3^rd grade math.  So far he has covered basic multiplication, more advanced addition, and subtraction with barrowing.  We have not begun memorizing multiplication facts. So far he has learned the basic concept with grouping and skip counting.

For Geography he is expanding his knowledge with learning more about the continents and oceans. He had previously learned his continents, but now he is learning some facts about each. He says this is his favorite subject.

So far in grammar, he has covered nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, and adverbs. He writes sentences every day to work on incorporating these things into his writing.  Writing is his weakest subject, but I have noticed that he is making less and less mistakes. When his mistakes are limited in his basic sentences and we have covered other basic skills such as commas we will move on to paragraph writing.

For Reading and Spelling he is working on a Hooked on Phonics curriculum and is currently finishing up level 4.  He should be beginning level 5 next week.  This style of learning is working very well for him, so I might purchase levels 6 and up for him.  For spelling he also works in a spelling workbook to help him remember the concepts.

Right now he is not doing any Science. For younger ages I like to work more on grammar, writing, reading, and math.  With him I am alternating Geography/History and Science. For two weeks he works on either Geography or History and then for two weeks he works on Science.

Last month Ben began Karate.  He’s participating in a Japanese style that is much different from the Korean style Raven is doing. We decided this, because they are very competitive with each other and we would like them to shine individually in their own ways.

Antoinette (Age 17)

Antoinette is currently done with all high school courses and is studying for college entrance exams.  Our goal is to speak with some college counselors this summer.

She’s been teaching herself how to play guitar for some time now, so now that we can afford it, I have put her in some guitar lessons. She’s learning some blues music for me.