We don’t do grades in our home school right now (Nicholas
does like an A+ on his paper though if he gets everything on a math test
correct). But, I do watch Nicholas’
progress and mastery of each subject. I
know which areas are his strengths and which are his weaknesses. Most things come easily. Our biggest battle comes when he thinks he
already knows something and isn't teachable.
He is doing great overall though.
I thought I would go through each subject and touch briefly
on his progress.
Math: This is a
subject he really likes. The only time
he really makes mistakes is when he rushes and doesn't check his work. He is currently in a second grade math book. Last I checked, he still wants to marry math.
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| He completed both sheets in less than 3 minutes each! |
Handwriting: This is
probably his least favorite subject. I
spend a lot of time erasing and he spends a lot of time rewriting. It is not that his handwriting is bad. He just doesn't care enough to write the
letters on the line correctly. They’re
just floating in between the lines. I am
looking for effort in this subject, not perfection.
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| He does handwriting four days a week. |
Grammar: The book we
use has a script for me to follow. He
memorizes a lot of definitions; does copy work; memorizes poetry. He doesn't have any feelings toward it. I don’t think it is his favorite, but he
doesn't complain about it either. Just
like in Classical Conversations, his mind is a sponge and he has memorized a
lot this year.
Spelling: He is a
pretty good speller. Nicholas is
currently in the Level 3 book. I,
personally, am learning a lot of spelling rules I never knew. It really helps me understand why we spell
words the way we do. If Nicholas makes a
mistake when spelling, I usually just remind him of the spelling rule and he’s
able to correct it. I may be enjoying
this subject even more than him.
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| He finished all of the sentences I dictated to him. |
Reading: Nicholas’
reading has improved so much in the last year.
He went from reading words to paragraphs. He can read words well above his grade
level. I think the reading program we
use has helped tremendously. I also
think that it helps that we read a lot together.
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| He is explaining his reading game to me. |
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| This is what we do with reading games when we are done! |
History: This is a
subject that he says he likes. We’re
reading chronologically and studying Ancient Times this year. This book will be used by us again in future
years. Each lesson has a small activity
that can be done at the end for three different age groups. We don’t always do an activity for each
lesson, but I try to do at least one a week.
Science: We are
studying flying creatures this year. We
started with a study on different kinds of insects and will be ending with
birds and bats. This is another subject
where I've learned a lot too. We haven’t
done as many experiments as I would have liked so far, but hopefully we’ll be
able to do more after Christmas.
If I were to imagine a report card written by Nicholas’
teacher, I think it would say:
Nicholas is a pleasure
to have in class. He’s always willing to
answer questions. He grasps the material
quickly. He’s working at or above grade
level in all subjects. Nicholas does
need to work on not talking while others are talking. He also is having trouble sitting still. Overall, he is a great student and member of
our class!
Thankfully, I am his teacher. I do let him wiggle, but there are times when
I require that he sit still or stand still for a short activity. He does talk A LOT! I’m trying to teach him to stop and listen
and wait to talk or ask questions. I had
the opposite problem when I was in school.
Teachers loved having me in class, but I always got the comment that I
needed to participate or raise my hand more.
I never liked to raise my hand, but I would answer when called
upon. I figured that was good enough.
Nicholas does like to learn and learns similar to me, so it
has been easy to teach him, but hard at times.
When there is a struggle, I can clearly tell you why – he thinks he
knows it all, or I am getting frustrated with him when I need to give him more
grace. He and I are both works in
progress. I’m learning so much about
Nicholas and so much about myself during this process. Both of our characters are being
refined. We have a lot of good days
sprinkled with a few harder ones, but overall, it is working out so well.
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| A little physical education - swimming! |
So, this is Nicholas’ progress for the first half of First
Grade. I’m looking forward to the next
half. We’ll be adding a writing
program. He has been interested in
writing stories, so I thought it would be good to teach him the basics of
sentence formation and paragraphs.
Nicholas’ Overall Grade:
Excellent!
