wine + apples

5/5/22

Lucas: Grade 2 Portfolio Review

Lucas had a great second grade year! He is still enrolled in a speech therapy program and progressing very well. His favorite subject is math, but he also really enjoys studying birds. Lucas read 51 books this year. We also listened to 21 audiobooks.

MATH CURRICULUM: HORIZONS MATH 2

LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM: THE GOOD & THE BEAUTIFUL LEVEL 2

HANDWRITING CURRICULUM: HANDWRITING WITHOUT TEARS

SCIENCE CURRICULUM:

BIRDS UNIT by THE GOOD & THE BEAUTIFUL

As a part of our bird unit, we were able to participate in a bird banding program in Hammock Park.

Below is a video of both Brynn & Lucas releasing birds that were documented and banded.

We also dissected owl pellets on our back porch.

HISTORY CURRICULUM: HISTORY 2 by THE GOOD & THE BEAUTIFUL

switched to THE STORY OF THE WORLD: VOLUME 3//EARLY MODERN TIMES

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:

Our annual conservation project for our homeschool was to start our own composting barrel.

Last year, we chose to put up bluebird houses in our yard. We were so fortunate to have successfully monitor 4 nests and 14 healthy bluebird fledglings. We have already had 3 nests again this year!

We still report the data on our nests to Nestwatch.org. NestWatch is a nationwide nest-monitoring program designed to track status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds. Participating in NestWatch is easy and anyone can do it.

This year, we decided to start composting our organic waste. We have composted food scraps, dryer lent, and many other things!

Our homeschool group was very lucky to have Dr. Jerry Linenger speak to us about his career as a Captain in the United States Medical Corp, as well as a former NASA astronaut. He flew on STS-64 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and STS-81 Space Shuttle Atlantis, where he remained on board the Mir space station for about 132 days. He spoke with the kids about how the astronauts used the force of gravity to navigate the space shuttles during their missions.

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Brynn: Grade 5 Portfolio Review

Brynn was very excited to begin her fifth grade year! She had a bigger workload this year, so our goal was to establish some great executive functioning tools to help keep her organized and on-task. Brynn also read 29 books this year. A lot of these books were 400+ pages! We also listened to 21 audiobooks.

MATH CURRICULUM: HORIZONS GRADE 5

LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM:

THE GOOD & THE BEAUTIFUL LEVEL 5

WRITING CURRICULUM:

IEW//STRUCTURE & STYLE//LEVEL A

Brynn completed Weeks 1-15 and will continue working through this curriculum

through the summer and fall.

SCIENCE CURRICULUM:

BIRDS UNIT by THE GOOD & THE BEAUTIFUL

As a part of our bird unit, we were able to participate in a bird banding program in Hammock Park.

Below is a video of both Brynn & Lucas releasing birds that were documented and banded.

(you may have to open videos in Youtube to watch the videos)

They also enjoyed dissecting owl pellets on our back porch.

HISTORY CURRICULUM:

History 2: Unit 3 THE GOOD & THE BEAUTIFUL

switched to THE STORY OF THE WORLD: VOLUME 3//EARLY MODERN TIMES

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:

TENNIS LESSONS

VOLLEYBALL LESSONS

Our homeschool group was very lucky to have Dr. Jerry Linenger speak to us about his career as a Captain in the United States Medical Corp, as well as a former NASA astronaut. He flew on STS-64 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and STS-81 Space Shuttle Atlantis, where he remained on board the Mir space station for about 132 days. He spoke with the kids about how the astronauts used the force of gravity (gravity-assist) to navigate the space shuttles throughout their missions.

Our annual conservation project for our homeschool was to start our own composting barrel.

Last year, we chose to put up bluebird houses in our yard. We were so fortunate to have successfully monitor 4 nests and 14 healthy bluebird fledglings. We have already had 3 nests again this year!

This year, we decided to start composting our organic waste. We have composted food scraps, dryer lent, and many other things!

FIELD TRIPS:

Cracker Country

Tampa Bay History Center

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5/1/21

Brynn: Grade 4 Portfolio Review 2020-2021

What a year it has been! Brynn completed her fourth grade year in record time. This is her third year of homeschooling and she really thrives in this environment.

Brynn has been very interested in chemistry and doing experiments this year. Her 10th birthday party was centered around her passion to understand chemical reactions. She enjoys watching Steve Spangler science.

READING LOG:

MATH CURRICULUM:

Horizons Math 4

LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM:

The Good and the Beautiful Level 4

SCIENCE CURRICULUM:

The Good and the Beautiful Science Units:

Kingdoms & Classification

Mammals

The following is a video compilation of our microscope labs.

Video 1: Onion cells

Video 2: Lake water

Video 3: Live-cultures in yogurt

We also decided to start an annual conservation project for our homeschool.

This year, we put up bluebird boxes in our yard in the hopes that we could watch a bluebird pair nest and lay eggs. We had such a wonderful experience.

We named our bluebird pair George & Mary.

They laid five eggs, which all successfully hatched and fledged the nest.

Here is a compilation of our nest progress- from nest building to the messed nest.

We started tracking the progress of our bluebird nest with this paper nesting guide, but found that we could join Nestwatch.org -- which is run by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology -- to provide information that may be valuable for their research.