Friday, May 22, 2009

Quick Recap of the 2008-2009 School Year

    During the 2008-2009 school year we continued to focus on phonics, spelling and basic math facts. I used Tapestry of Grace year 1 to supplement these basics. The literature selections were great for lower grammar students. We also spent plenty of time completing the hands-on projects suggested. Here are a few highlights:

Lapbooks for Unit one – these helped bring some focus to our discussions; they also proved to be a great review tool. The kids loved making their own books.

Field Trip to the King Tut exhibit in Atlanta, GA – I thought that this might be a little too much for my young children, but as it turned out they loved it. The realization that the books that they were reading were about real events was surprising to me. Their reaction to an actual mummy only confirmed what concrete learners young children are.

Salt Maps – What a great idea for teaching geography to young students. While we were working on the maps I was skeptical. Can my 5 year old truly understand the difference between a mountain and a mesa? The end of the year verdict was, yes, she sure can.

Using a children's Bible as our main history text- In September both kept asking me, "I thought that you said we were doing history, why do you have the Bible?" It took several months of explaining that the stories in the Bible are real. Real people, real events, and most certainly real history. I appreciate the Tapestry of Grace teacher's notes that help me tie Biblical events in with other aspects of history.

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