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Fun In France

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For Foreign Language we are starting out with a mix of exposure to various languages. That being said, throughout the school year we will maintain a focus on Spanish, working through the Usborne Spanish Dictionary for Beginners. I love the pictures in this book, the simple categories groups of words are broken down into, and the online audible tools you can use to make sure you are using correct pronunciation.

But in order to keep things fun, we are also working through Words For The World, which covers the various families of major languages in the world, starting with the romance languages, in France. For our French study, we took 2 weeks to read the chapter on France, and incorporated other subjects for emphasis. We read about the significance of food and baking in French culture, then went to a real French Patisserie and ate Brioche and Croissants (yum!). For Science, we took a break from reading about famous black American scientists, and read about Louis Pasteur, the French scientist who discovered germs and created vaccines. For Art we studied Rousseau, the post-abstract French painter.

Next week we will make Coq Au Vin, which is French comfort food, and perfect for the Fall season. And if we are feeling particularly adventurous, we may even have some escargots (a family favorite)! As always, I try to ground these fun activities in reading and exploration about the subject. look online, go to the library, and let your curiosity lead the way!

Baseball Game Tally Sheet

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Before the school year started we bought tickets to go see the Giants play in San Francisco. It just so happened that it landed on our first official week of school, through Visions in Education, the charter we are a part of. But hey, this is one of the many reasons we decided to homeschool, so off we went to the game!

This year I am using McGraw Hill Math, which is the common core curriculum used by the state. I have used it enough now to see why so many people don’t like it, but for 1st grade it’s working out alright. I looked through the year of lessons and saw the section “Tally Sheets.” How perfect would it be for our son to keep score at the game with a tally sheet, and get his math done at the same time?

Since my husband is the resident baseball and graphic design expert, I employed his services in the making of the tally sheet. We also brought along the chapter work for tally sheets from the math workbook, to do together in the car on the way to and from the city. What fun!

Write Your Own Fun

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For our writing exercises, I try to always have my son write out a few sentences to describe what he is learning. For Bible, he write out verses or explains definitions of words. For Science, he writes a few sentences and draws a picture, etc. For reading, I have him write a few sentences about the chapter he read that day, and draw a picture, Pretty straightforward.

But I really want us to work on the discipline of writing as well. So I got a book that looked like it would be fun to work through, called Write Your Own Story Book. We are trying to work through the book in order of assignment, one per week. So far we have written stories about a detective in a strange museum, a parachuter who almost gets hurt (but not quite), a shy opera singer who wants a medal, and a letter to a boy in China, who has never been to America.

My son says he wants to be an author when he grows up, so I figure we should work on our writing 🙂