Mid Year Evaluation

Now that we are in our second year of homeschooling, I thought it would be a good idea to evaluate where we are mid year of the 3rd Grade.

Bible/Character: Thus far Caterpillar and I have been studying Stewardship and Teachableness in depth. We are thoroughly enjoying Character Building for Families, Volume II. This is our second year with this curriculum, and we just love it! We have learned that Stewardship means the responsibility to manage one's life and property with proper respect for others. We have discussed how this can apply to the use of our material things, other's property, money, food, our bodies and even our tongues. Our tongue is one of the smallest parts on our bodies, yet can cause such harm without proper stewardship and guidance. It even applies to how we handle the Gospel! Caterpillar and I have had many wonderful talks of various moments in life and opportunities that we face where good stewardship is so applicable. We have also discussed that it is of utmost importance to remember and respect that everything belongs to God. We belong to Him, we are the sheep of His pasture. We must look to Him for guidance, direction and discernment with regard to our stewardship. To do all of this, we must also be Teachable.

Teachableness means to realize that we are not perfect, and can improve by learning from others. We must have a willingness to learn and change. Teachableness, is not just a matter of obedience, it is a matter of the heart. Where our genuine focus, purpose and desires come from. Are our motives and desires for the Lord or for ourselves? Are we willing to learn and change? We also need to be careful as Christians where we seek our counsel from. Is our counsel Godly? Does it line up with God's Word? The only way to know this, is for us to be in His Word, fervently. Deeply. Seeking His Face, and asking the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts, to be teachable.


Handwriting: Caterpillar has done an excellent job in mastering the cursive formation of all the letters of the alphabet, and numbers. He is working diligently on connecting them together through daily practice. At the end of each week, he copies his weekly Bible verse on special handwriting paper with a picture or design that he can also color.


Mathematics: Caterpillar has also mastered all of his multiplication and division facts. He knows them forwards and backwards, and probably upside down too! He is a wiggly caterpillar, all boy as we like to say. Caterpillar loves Math; it is one of his favorite subjects. He is working a grade level ahead and is coming along nicely in understanding long division. We have covered up to the hundred billions place value, addition up to six-digits carrying, subtraction of numbers up to six-digits borrowing, multiplying of up to three digits times two digits with carrying, and two digit divisors and division with money. His work has been well above average.


Logic: Caterpillar has thoroughly enjoyed various logic exercise of both figural and verbal variety. We have used a few different resources, primarily from The Critical Thinking Company. One of his favorites are the Mind Benders!


Phonics: Caterpillar has mastered all of the 70 phonograms, and we continue with weekly review. This helps us to apply them correctly in reading, spelling and writing.


Spelling: His work continues in Spelling Workout at a grade level ahead. Caterpillar is above average with applying the spelling rules to his assignments as well as everyday work.

Vocabulary: So far this year Caterpillar has expanded his vocabulary greatly. By working through the fun exercises in Red Hot Root Words, he has learned to recognize many prefixes in his everyday study. We have also been using Wordly Wise 3000 to develop our everyday vocabulary. Through our vocabulary studies, we have practiced dictionary skills, as well as those for reading and writing.


English Grammar: Our grammar curriculum has been one of our best "picks". Rod and Staff English 3 has the perfect approach to grammar for our family. It is gentle, yet so thorough. We have studied and learned the proper use of the dictionary. Caterpillar still appreciates carrying the Merriam Webster Elementary Dictionary versus the American Dictionary of the English Language (Noah Webster 1828)! Wonder why? We have reviewed the rules for capitalization and punctuation. We have worked with nouns and pronouns, as well as verbs. We have learned action verbs and the forms of be. We have also learned about helping verbs, and why we need their help! Caterpillar has really enjoyed learning to diagram sentences. He was so excited to learn that adjectives are slanted down underneath the noun! How cool is that for a nine year old! We have practiced our editing and grammar skills with Daily Paragraph Editing and Oral Language for Daily Use. Caterpillar especially likes writing in 'red' on the whiteboard. It is fun to correct "Mommy's" mistakes!


Composition: Caterpillar has worked hard at developing good paragraphs. With much practice from Just Write, he has learned to develop and write paragraphs with 6-7 sentences. He has worked on topic sentences, as well as learning the supporting sentences must be of the same subject matter. He has learned that the characters need to be interesting, and the paragraphs are much more exciting with the use of good adjectives! We have enjoyed more writing practice through our copywork, dictation and narration work in History, Science and Literature.


History and Science: We have been completely amazed at how Sovereign our Lord is when we have studied various countries and cultures around the world. Our God is truly amazing. We have been reading various living books through My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures. We have studied about missionaries around the world, praying for them daily in the servant work they do for others and the Lord. Seeing the lives of others in far away places such as Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, France and Switzerland has given Caterpillar a different perspective of his life here in the United States. We are more appreciative of the freedoms we have, as well as our luxuries. We are truly blessed. One of Caterpillar's favorite topics for each country has been their land, animals and habitats. It has been a very enriching trip around the world thus far.


Literature: Caterpillar has dug into some great books with Inside Stories. He has enjoyed reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Henry Huggins, Pippi Longstocking, James and the Giant Peach, and Sarah Plain and Tall. We are now reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle. We will be reading Heidi in the upcoming weeks as well as several others. Caterpillar has always been quite the bookworm! He has also read the entire Concord Cunningham: Scripture Sleuth Series on his own.

With each book, we have enjoyed great discussions of the characters, their choices, and whether they line up with God's design for our lives. We have also had great talks about vocabulary words, settings, plots and themes. Caterpillar is getting a good taste of what it means to reflect on what you read. We have made several notebook pages as well as a few lapbooks from our Literature studies thus far.


At the mid year mark, I can confidently say that the Lord has us exactly where He wants us. We are learning and growing along with great family fellowship and time with the Lord. It is hard to believe that Caterpillar is nine years old. I pray daily for the Lord to help me be a great disciple, wife and mother, for His Glory.