The next semester

We do school for two months, then take two weeks off.  I call each two month block a semester and we've just completed the last one.  I gave my son an evaluation and he still struggles with some concepts I'd hoped he would have mastered.  Now, I'm not exactly sure if we should continue working on those concepts or move forward with brand new subjects.  On the one hand, we're both pretty tired of doing the same old stuff.  But if we move on, will he lose traction?

For example, he learned his basic shapes - triangle, circle, square, rectangle, trapezoid - but is still in the beginning phases of learning a hexagon and pentagon.  If we move on, will he completely forget how far he's coming in learning hexagons?

But I've decided that it's time for some new subjects and hopefully I'll be able to incorporate the things he still needs work on into the new topics.  So we're going to bench the calendar, geography, shapes and extinct animal lessons.  I'll leave them up on the blog if you're interested in taking a look.  We'll keep reading and math and we're going to add 50 States, Presidents, Spring Science, Bible Studies and A Day in the Life.

I'm excited about each of the new topics, although we'll see if these are too many subjects for my little guy.  I may have to bench some of them until the next semester. 

The 50 States is pretty straightforward.  I bought a giant floor sized sketch book that we're going to make into our big book of states.  I wanted it to be really big so he can feel free to fill each page with tons of information and pictures and I wanted it to be something that we can keep and use again next year.  We'll probably go in alphabetical order and learn some basics - state bird, flag, ect. - then something interesting and unique about each state.

The Presidents is an "play pretend" subject.  I plan on dressing up like a different President each week, then going over basic information - birth day, state where they were born - then tell something interesting about each.  My son loves animals so I've already found lists of pets various Presidents had in the White House. 

Spring Science is going to be divided into two blocks.  The first is the life cycle of a butterfly then the second ....well, I was thinking the life cycle of a frog, but maybe I'll do the life cycle of a seed.  That way we'll learn about plants and animals.

Bible Studies is something new for us.  I bought a book from a local Christian book store and plan to do the lessons in order. 

A Day in the Life is another "play pretend" subject.  It's basically like career day once a week.  We'll dress up like a specific job, learn what they do, then actually do an activity based on the profession.  I think he's really going to enjoy this one.

As I get the lessons together, I'll start posting them.  I'm hoping that with each semester I get a little more organized!