School Update

Here's a post (mostly) for the grandparents, as I am sure you are curious to know what kinds of things Jacob has learned during these past 12 weeks.

So, what is Jacob learning? Well, I think the more appropriate question might be, "What isn't Jacob learning?" He's got all the basic subjects covered, plus a few more: history, science, math, art, music, reading, English grammar, geography, Latin, Bible.

Yes, we are twelve weeks into Classical Conversations and still, I am amazed at what Jacob is learning -- things like nominative pronouns, the 1st conjugation (pluperfect tense) of the latin verb "amo", the geographic locations of Constantinople / Istanbul, the European rivers,and mountain ranges, etc... It's incredible.

Even more incredible? He still loves it...everything about it. He loves reciting his memory verses. He loves learning the songs that help him remember his history sentences. He loves going to class on Tuesdays and he loves doing his show and tell presentations. Jacob says his favorite part of school is geography and "doing the timeline." By "doing the timeline," he means reviewing his timeline cards (160 flashcards that feature important historical events and people from creation to the present). And he is very good at geography. I give him a blank map and and a dry erase marker and he names and marks the European countries, cities, features, etc... He also knows the seven continents, four oceans and can point them out on a map. He learns about a different area of the world each week.

Jacob has now memorized 11 verses of the sixth chapter of Ephesians. We're working on verse 12 now. Yesterday, he asked me to make a video of him reciting his memory verses, so I obliged. I know it looks like he is reading, but he isn't. (He can read now, but not quite at the King James level :) ) He just likes to point to the verse number as he recites each one.

Hooked on Phonics is working out great for reading. Jacob enjoys the short cartoon lessons on the DVD and he gets excited when it's time to read another one of the little purple books. He actually likes doing work in his workbook too. Right now, we're working through the Kindergarten Level Two books. He's really zooming through this. I predict we'll be in the first grade books by Christmas.

Math-U-See is also going well. We have to wait until Annabelle takes a nap to pull out the math blocks because if we didn't, those little things would...be...everywhere. Although I haven't asked him, I think Jacob's favorite part of math is building numbers with the blocks. We spent the past couple weeks concentrating on place value, so he's been happy to finally use the giant hundreds blocks to build bigger numbers.

After Bible yesterday, we moved on to science:

Today, he learned about constellations. For his science craft, he made a little dipper that glows in the dark. As soon as we arrived home from school, he grabbed his little dipper out of his backpack, ran to the bathroom, closed the door and turned out the lights to see if it worked. It did.

Jacob looks forward to his show-and-tell presentations. Each week, his teacher assigns a different topic. This week's topic? Your favorite stuffed animal. Jacob has several and I honestly wasn't sure which one he would choose. We laid them all out on his bed and it didn't take him long to choose "E". Erika made this little monkey for Jacob and gave it to him for his birthday this year. He absolutely loves it!

For the first six weeks, the fine arts segment of Classical Conversations focused on drawing. Jacob learned about the basic elements of drawing -- things like basic shapes, mirror images, upside down images, abstract art, perspective, etc... For his final project, the children each drew a bird. They had to listen carefully to instructions from the teacher and copy what she drew on the board. Jacob did really well with it.

The past six weeks, he's been learning to play the tin whistle, which also involves music theory. He can look at a piece of sheet music and tell you what most of the symbols are and what they mean. He also expanded his vocabulary to include musical terms like symphony, harmony, cacophony, discord, legato, staccato, forte, and mezzo piano. As far as actually playing the tin whistle.......well........hmmmmm......let's just say he's better at the drums. :) BUT, he enjoys it. Today, in class, after playing his own special version of Mary Had A Little Lamb, Jacob announced, "Playing the tin whistle is fun, isn't it?!" I will say, he has definitely improved over these past couple weeks. And I'll admit, I can't play the tin whistle very well either. Jacob could give me a lesson or two. :)

I feel very fortunate that Jacob loves school so much. I never have to force him to do anything. In fact, sometimes, he is the one begging me to "do school." His desire to learn makes my job much easier. I'm sure there will come a day when he's not so "into it," but for now, I am certainly enjoying his eagerness and am trying my best to take full advantage of this time with my smart, precious, four year old student.