Homeschool Report Card- Second Grade, First Trimester

At the end of each trimester, I like to take a look at what we've accomplished.  If Jasper were in school, it would be about his ability to measure up to their expectations.  They would not have chosen the curriculum or goals with him in mind at all, and he would simply be expected to sink or swim.  For me, a report card is about assessing how we're doing as a team. 

This fall, we went to:

• 8 living history events
• 33 nature walks   (If the sun was shining, we were outside!)
• 24 science lessons from hands-on activities to adult lectures (Science remains Jasper's favorite subject.)
• 50 social activities with other homeschooled friends
• 29 art activities including hands-on art making, performances, and visual art events
• 22 phys ed activities including two sessions of bouldering classes, a session of swimming classes, archery classes, and visits to The Lumberyard indoor bike park.

My philosophy is that direct experience is the best teacher.  These are the lessons we remember longer and enjoy more.  It's no surprise that Jasper's favorite activities so far this school year have been in the natural sciences.  He especially loved learning about wolverines, feeding elk, and visiting the new Portland Aquarium.  

Last school year, Jasper was just beginning to learn to read, and curriculum was definitely helpful to him.  It broke the learning process down into bite sized pieces. But eventually, things clicked for him and he was ready to simply read.   For handwriting,  we continued to use Handwriting Without Tears, and he also likes practicing silly sentences made with a template from this website.

I noticed something remarkable when we started doing math this fall.  In the spring, we had finished Jasper's first grade math curriculum, and I thought we might start the second grade curriculum.  But I found him really struggling, so I decided to just stop.  This fall we began where we left off, and Jasper discovered that the same problems had become easy.  This was a good example of what can be accomplished just by waiting for cognitive development. 

We also tried something new, Math on the Level.  This is a thoroughly well thought out math curriculum by and for homeschoolers that covers all pre-K through pre-algebra concepts.  Kids learn math concepts through activities and review them through only 5 math problems a day. It's designed to be used for many years and for several kids at different learning levels at once.     A book called "Math Adventures" details the focus of the curriculum, which is how to teach math concepts through activities.  Another called "Math Resources" lists additional teaching information such as a math dictionary for teachers, templates for creating word problems, how to help children with memorization, and more.     Math is broken down into four teacher's guides:  "Operations", "Money and Decimals", "Fractions", and "Geometry and Measurements".  When a child proves unready for the next sequential operations concept,  you can just move on to the next concept in, say, geometry.   There are no suggested grade levels for anything; students work according to their individual readiness.

Kids learn at their own rate, they learn mostly through real-world activities, and busywork is eliminated. Pretty much all the reasons kids learn to hate math are discarded. Doesn't that sound awesome?   There's only one hitch:  Math on the Level does require considerably more time and dedication on the part of the teacher than just buying a workbook for each grade and handing the student pages in order.  I have always prioritized direct experience, usually away from home, so hours of careful reading and lesson planning are definitely not my thing.  But... I have to say that whenever I take the time to use Math on the Level, we benefit.  So far all the advice has been sound, the sequence of concepts enlightening, and the ideas for engaging students inspiring.  I'm glad it's intended for many years of use, because I think I'll definitely appreciate having it on hand.

For social studies, the arts, and especially science, I would find it frustrating to use curriculum.  I generally use a combination of as much direct experience as possible and the best library materials I can find.  We've gone to living history presentations, read books and watched lots of history documentaries as a family.  We've learned about different cultures and attended many cultural festivals.  We've experienced the creativity of others through performance and visual art, and Jasper has had lots of opportunities to make his own creations.  We've investigated the natural world and heard experts in many fields share their knowledge.  And we've really enjoyed learning about all kinds of topics in way more depth than any second grade curriculum would cover.

One of the most thought-provoking things we watched was a three part documentary based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. It gave us insight into all our history studies.  We have been learning about ancient civilizations, and of course finding it difficult to uproot resources that do not explain history strictly from a Eurocentric point of view.  What's the big deal about western civilization?  Why has it dominated the globe?  Jared Diamond actually set out to attack the really big question:  What are the true roots of global inequality?  This school year we've been astonished at the inventions of the ancient Chinese, filled with curiosity about the Indus Valley cities that seem to have thrived without weapons, and admired the people of Mesoamerica who had the word's largest cities of their time, yet seem to have used wheels only for children's toys.  Sophistication and ingenuity are to be respected and admired in every culture. We found Diamond's conclusions  to be fascinating.

Moving forward, I want to get Jasper to record more of his responses to the things he's learning and experiencing.  We've been doing this with drawings and a high percentage of dictation, because he'd quickly get frustrated with the process of writing long before he was done having something to say.  I'd like to gradually increase the amount of writing he's doing, to encourage him to express himself and to tackle spelling more often.  I'd like to increase the amount of math activities we do together, and challenge him to participate in the everyday math I do on a daily basis.  I'd like for us to participate in more cultural celebrations in our community.  I used to be somewhat afraid of going to an ethnic celebration where we "didn't belong", but I've found that we've always felt welcome and learned something.  And I'd definitely like to find more opportunities for us to learn about natural science and participate in biological surveys.  I think it's going to be a great year!