Our First Week Of 6th Grade Homeschool

We kept the first week light, I haven't added writing & language arts yet. We are following My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures and we did get everything done that was listed :) We only skipped the handwriting review & the John 3:16 poster (started cartography instead). Here are some highlights from our first week of sixth grade:

Geography, History, and Art

In addition to MFW, we are drawing maps using Mapping The World With Art by Ellen McHenry - My daughter loves it! The program has excellent instructions and includes short historical lessons. Here are Lindsey's maps of Mesopotamia and the Nile River from the first week -

We also followed the recommended MFW activity of drawing the continents on an orange then peeling it to view the flattened result. Such a neat way to compare globes and maps!

Lindsey has started collecting postcards and is currently trying to get all 50 states. You can read more about that here - Postcard Exchange: Fun Addition To Our Middle School Geography Study

She has also created a "Flat Lindsey" (a flat version of herself, like Flat Stanley) to travel the globe this year. This photo was taken just before mailing her out for the first time. We will post more about Flat Lindsey soon and continue to post about Flat Lindsey's adventures as she travels around the world. She is currently on her way back from her first adventure in New Jersey.

Math: Review

We are using Khan Academy for math right now & it is working well. I had Lindsey complete the addition and subtraction skills, and it was a good easy review for her to ease back into math with after being off all summer. She likes doing math on the computer and likes earning the little online rewards Khan Academy uses for incentives. I like that I can easily track her progress.

Science: Ecosystems and Zoology

In addition to studying Properties of Ecosystems with MFW, we are using Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day from Apologia along with the notebook. Lindsey is enjoying both so far. The highlight of the week was an experiment for zoology using Skittles as "prey" and Lindsey as the "predator". She had to hunt for the candies in a basket of construction paper pieces the same colors as the candies, make predictions and compare the results. I gave her 30 seconds to hunt for her prey (the recommended 2 min. was too long). After completing the experiment she got to eat her prey ;) The prey vs. predator lesson worked well leading into the MFW Earthworm's Niche Activity. I am pleased with how complementary the two science programs are so far, and plan to study the different animals in zoology as they correspond to the different countries.  

Foreign Language: French

Lindsey wanted to learn French, but I couldn't afford to buy Rosetta Stone, so I searched out other programs and found Duolingo and decided to give it a try. I can't believe how much she's learned already! Best of all it's a FREE online program!! There's even an app for my phone! I took 3 years of French way back in high school, after trying the program out myself I was amazed how much I remembered. Now Lindsey keeps trying to beat me (and she does have more points). I'm so excited we found Duolingo!

Review of Week 1

Since Lindsey was asking to do school over the weekend, I'd say week one was a success! We are still getting into a routine, and we still need to finish organizing/unpacking our homeschool room (maybe over the weekend) and I think that will help us stay focused. The only thing that wasn't a good match for us was the Wee Sing cd - the first song anyway seems to be geared toward younger children. I will try to find music more on her level & maybe composers to study from different countries. She is also learning to play the Ukulele, so that covers music for us too. 

Merci d'avoir lu au sujet de notre première semaine. À bientôt!
(Thank you for reading about our first week. Goodbye for now!)