J's first dance competition of the season was a couple of weeks ago. This one was local and one we love doing. She was in 5 groups and 1 solo. No vocal this year. She's just not as into it as she is dance and tossed it for now. I'm proud of her that it was something she'd always wanted to try and was really successful at it for 2 years (even winning junior title at one comp last season). She's thinking she might sing for the recital in June. Anyway, J's numbers were all top scoring and one lyrical group number won best choreography overall for the day. That was really exciting. Now J and her friend Mich are working on a duet to take to the next comp in March. The choreographer they have is unbelievable (new to the studio this year) and the girls will have it nailed in only 3 hours of rehearsal time. For the March competition, J will be in 6 groups, a solo, and a duet. I love competition season!
Tuesday, W and I went to another Mad Science class. The 10-class series revolves all around the same detective theme. W enjoys it, but has been longing to get back to the game place in the West Village. J, too. So that's where we'll alternate going until mid-March when the science series is over.
Daily academics are going well. The kids and I fixed up the morning schedule and we're very happy with it. Here's a look:
Monday, Wednesday, & Friday:
- W and I do 2 AO readings with narrations while J reads some classic literature.
- W does 1 lesson in TT5 and J does 1 or 2 LoF chapters.
- I read a poem aloud and both kids do poetry copywork.
- W does 1-3 pages in his language arts workbook while J does a page or 2 in her writing workbook.
- W and I do another AO reading w/narration and a few pages from a "free reading" book.
- Then it's: Nature study (Mon) using the Outdoor Hour Challenges from handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com, French (Wed) using livemocha.com and various books, and Timeline (Fri - for W), where he creates a few index cards of different people and events we've read about during the week.
Tuesday and Thursday:
- W and I do 2 AO readings w/narrations while J reads science (Tue) or history (Thu).
- W does a page or 2 in his math workbook and J does a chapter or 2 of LoF.
- I read a poem aloud and both kids do poetry copywork.
- W does 1 lesson in his HoP Master Reader program while J does a few pages in her English workbook
- W and I do another AO reading w/narration and a few pages from a "free reading" book.
- Then it's: Artist Study (Tue) and Composer Study (Thu), where we look at lots of paintings/works from the focus artist/composer and learn about their life.
This is so simple and works beautifully. J is glad to be hitting the books, getting ready for school in September. She even has summer reading to do for the school. She's confident and feels ready to take this on. The rest of this school year looks to be really busy and fun. We'll be pulling back on many of the homeschool group classes mainly to do our own thing (with only 1 or 2 other families). The kids definitely prefer it that way. I can't wait til spring.
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