There's 51 days of summer vacationand school comes along just to end it;
So the annual problem for our generation
is finding a good way to spend it!
I've mentioned before that I've been homeschooling our oldest son, Blake, in 3rd grade U.S. History this year. Blake attends an international school here in Porto Alegre, but they don't teach US history as a subject this early. Sonlight's two year US history curriculum was recommended to us by our regional educational consultant. We did the history curriculum, the readers and the read-alouds.
WE HAVE HAD THE BEST TIME! Blake finished the 3rd grade curriculum yesterday. We had started September 1st on a ten-day training trip we took as a family. Basically, he worked on Saturdays and holidays (we're in summer break now, remember) for 2-3 hours each day and we finished up just in time for the end of summer break!
We both learned a LOT of US history and some really good American values (that I never realized were American until I moved overseas) like productivity, independence and determination. I also think it really improved his reading comprehension skills, as he had to be ready to face my questioning at the end of each reading session!
It was also a great way to keep him stimulated though the summer break.
We had a party with toasts, homemade ice cream (chocolate peanut butter ice cream and grape juice DON'T go well together, by the way), a new episode of Phineas and Ferb from ITunes, our giving him 7 free hours of video game time, and hamburger and french fries for supper.
"It's like my birthday or something," he said.
2 comments:
We've used Sonlight for years, but I became disenchanted with their Language Arts and we didn't end up getting the American History this year. If it really that good maybe I should reconsider.
M~,
All I can say is that we've really, really enjoyed it.
It has made me homesick to read so very much about the great USA.
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