I’m not entirely intent on finishing curricula on any particular timeframe, so a lot of what Poppy will be doing for the first part of third grade is carried over from second grade. I might be more concerned about it if we were switching to a different curriculum, but we’re sticking with a lot of the same stuff so there won’t really be any interruption in the flow of things when we switch from, say, Volume II of “Story of the World” to Volume III.
I’m adding a couple of things to Poppy’s schedule this year, such as Latin and an official writing program. Her days look pretty busy on paper, but I think it’s going to be a nice year.
In our state you have to be 5 years old by August 31st to enter kindergarten. Pete’s birthday is in November, which means he wouldn’t have been able to start kindergarten last fall if he were a public school student. Having tried to do a lot of sit-down work with him at the beginning of last year, I can see where that’s a good policy. His attention span and motor skills weren’t where they needed to be for him to do the work without major meltdowns from one or both of us, so we scaled back considerably for what we called his “Kindergarten 4” year. His attention span and motor skills have improved greatly since last fall, and I think both of us will enjoy his Kindergarten 5 year.
We’ve reached that point in our school year when the kids ask me every morning how many days we have left. As of today, the answer is 9. There was much rejoicing about that, even though they know full well that we’ll be doing a our usual June session. I think they’re just excited about their annual end-of-school ice cream breakfast.
Science
This week the kids read about the life cycle of a ladybird beetle (aka the ladybug). The specimens in our ladybug garden have entered their pupa stage. They haven’t been as entertaining as they were last week, when they were very active little larvae.
The last of our trio of caterpillars finally entered his chrysalis stage this week, so now the three of them are all busily metamorphosing in the butterfly hatchery. I’d never given much thought before to exactly what goes on inside the chrysalid, and I kind of wish I didn’t now know that the caterpillars completely liquify themselves before they reform into caterpillars. It’s an amazing and totally gross process.
First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out.
I’ll never look at a butterfly the same way again. Nature can be pretty creepy.
I see a wing!
History
This week we talked about the Black Plague. It was a pretty bleak history study.
Reading
Poppy seems to have the same issue I have with reading in that she reads too fast and then can’t remember what she read five minutes later. So this week she started a reading journal, in which she’s supposed to summarize each chapter as soon as she’s finished reading it. I feel kind of bad for doing it, because I certainly wouldn’t want to interrupt my reading time to jot down any thoughts, but I think it’ll be good for her in the long run.
Extracurricular
Most of the kids’ extracurriculars are winding down, too. Poppy’s last soccer game is tonight, Pete’s it tomorrow, and Poppy’s ballet recital is this weekend. I’m looking forward to having less running about for a few months.
I’m not entirely intent on finishing curricula on any particular timeframe, so a lot of what Poppy will be doing for the first part of third grade is carried over from second grade. I might be more concerned about it if we were switching to a different curriculum, but we’re sticking with a lot of the same stuff so there won’t really be any interruption in the flow of things when we switch from, say, Volume II of “Story of the World” to Volume III.
We’ve reached that point in our school year when the kids ask me every morning how many days we have left. As of today, the answer is 9. There was much rejoicing about that, even though they know full well that we’ll be doing a our usual June session. I think they’re just excited about their annual end-of-school ice cream breakfast.