November 11, 2005-January 31, 2006 Quarterly Report

Arithmetic: The areas of math Rachael continues to study/practice are :
word problems     factors                        2 digit multiplication,division
fractions                multiples                     addition
decimals               prime factorization    subtraction
percents                prime numbers          money math
number lines         geometry                    time/clocks
fact families          times tables                real-life math experiences

Rachael continues to struggle with 7, 8, 9 times tables. She will continue to work on these basic skills. Her grade has gone down this quarter in this subject because the math has increased in difficulty. The more challenging it gets, the more she tends to struggle. This was a problem for her in public school and continues to be a difficult area for her in homeschool as well. Grade: 2 (N)

Reading: Rachael demonstrates continued excellence in her ability to read with accuracy, appropriate inflection and intonation, and poetic expression. However, she continues to struggle with comprehension. Often she is able to determine meaning through context, however this is an area where she may continue to
struggle due to her Language-Based Learning Disability. Rachael excels in memorization of vocabulary and spelling assignments, (but not math facts!) regularly uses dictionaries to complete work, and reads for pleasure. Rachael has finished all books in the 7-book series of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, totaling 1540 pages. Rachael has been reading selected poems by Lewis Carroll, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, as well as classic fairy tales, non-fiction articles in National Geographic, Highlights Magazine, scriptures,etc.She has also read other reference sources for her Ancient Civilization research project on Babylonia. She has completed this project and posted it on her homeschool website.
Grade: 3 (G)

Writing, Grammar & Language Arts: Rachael prints and writes in cursive daily. Rachael continues developing skills such as note-taking, brainstorming, and organizing ideas. She has posted her ideas, various assignments and essays on her internet homeschool webjournal. She has written letters to family members, replied to family emails, written thank-you notes. She has improved her writing abilities by studying proper grammar; parts of speech, sentence structure, and phrases. Rachael continues to learn to respond to literature through writing, art and narration. Literary devices, such as symbolism, metaphors, allegories, and personifications have been focused on in our current curriculum-a unit study based on The Chronicles of Narnia. Rachael requires assistance with refraining from redundancy in her writing & organizing ideas, especially with her Ancient Civilization project. She needed at times excessive help with organizing ideas and sentences in order for her presentation to make sense. Though she loves reading and writing, she consistently struggles in the area of writing. She puts forth the effort and time required, willingly, however requires constant guidance in this area. We have also focused on analyzing poetry, song lyrics, and re-examined importance & uses for periods, question marks, exclamation points. She has familiarized herself with various literary techniques: alliterations, onomatopoeia, assonance, rhyme, rhythm, imagery and similies. Grade: 2 (G)

Health & Safety: The focus this past quarter has been on smoking prevention, resisting peer pressure, the dangers of various drugs, the importance of choosing good friends, healthy relationships, the importance of expressing feelings, snowboard & skiing safety precautions, good nutrition, importance of drinking water, dangers of household electrical appliances and used batteries. Grade: 4(E)

History: Rachael continues to study various time periods in history. Ancient history studied this past quarter has covered: Pyramids and Pharoahs of Egypt, 10th Century King Ahab, his wife Jezebel and the death of King Jehoram. She has studied the emergence of the Anglo-American World Power, the influence of Rome in Britannia, and it Hellenistic cultural origin. Rachael has been studying important explorers and their contributions to world history as well as American history: Cartier, Champlain, LaSalle, John Smith, George Washington. Rachael reads about current events. The History Channel and PBS documentaries have been recent favorites. She has continued study of the history of New York State as well as the leaders in local and state government. In addition, on Martin Luther King Day time was set aside to reflect on his and his widow’s important contributions to the Civil Rights movement. She has finally finished her research project on the ancient civilization of Babylonia and posted it to her homeschool website. All these topics covered are done so with the use of maps/charts/social studies CD roms. Grade: 3 (G)

Science: For science, Rachael has learned parts of the ear, how we hear, the science of sound. She has studied the Grand Canyon and it rock formations, minerals and weathering. Natural Science topics covered have been: penguins (cycle of birth, reproduction, father’s role, logistics of egg hatching in sub-zero temperatures, mother’s migration habits, danger of predators, etc), salamander habitats, lynx reintroduction into the Rocky Mountains, Polar Bears habitats, mating habits, effects of their period of hibernation, how salt lowers the freezing point of water, tornadoes and tsunamis. Grade: 3 (G)

Art: Rachael has created macrame jewelry from hemp and beads. She has created line drawings and computer-generated designs using Corel Draw. She also created thank-you note cards with a stamping kit recently purchased for the family. Rachael equally enjoys self-directed art projects, as well as the assigned ones. She drew portraits of her cousin and siblings. Rachael consistently demonstrates hand-eye coordination and artistic expression through her projects. Grade: 4 (E)

Music: Rachael continues to practice guitar, piano and fiddle regularly in addition to singing weekly at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She has studied the life of famous musician Beethoven.
Grade: 4 (E)

Physical Education: Rachael has participated in many physical activities including swimming at the JCC, skateboarding, scootering (during the recent warm weather!), sledding, skiing and snowboarding. Grade: 4 (E)

Typing & Computer: Rachael is excelling at typing with proper hand positioning and appropriate speed and accuracy. Her computer literacy skills are improving and she demonstrates near -fluency in several programs and internet research to aid in completion of schoolwork, as well for the purpose of finding information for personal interests. She continues to improve her punctuation skills with the use of various typing programs. She is learning to manage her computer files in an organized fashion. Additional skills focused on include: copying, pasting, using key controls, linking, site organizing, weblogging, checking email, using SiteBuilder to prepare for future instruction in XHTML. Grade: 4 (E)

Rachael is progressing at a satisfactory level or above in all subject matter. She has had one absence from instruction this quarter, due to illness, and has completed the required 225 hours of instruction.

My main concerns for Rachael lie with her difficulty in accurately recalling math facts that should have been mastered by the third grade. We will continue to work on this together. I plan to keep all the children in the homeschool focused on math during the summer as well. I don’t believe it would be in the best interest of the children to” take the summer off” from doing math. Consequently, math will be an ongoing subject until they graduate our Homeschool. :)

Our homeschool curriculum for the upcoming quarter will include the use and guidance of the Prairie Primer. Initially I had thought I was running behind in our homeschool curriculum schedule. Upon re-examining the calendar, I realized that ending this Narnia unit by January 31st would actually split up a 10 month school year perfectly in half. In which case, our homeschool is perfectly on the right track, time-wise. :)