4th Grade Reading Log 2017-1

My youngest has just started 4th grade!  I'll be keeping a log of books she reads this year.  Those marked * are require for school.  The rest are books she reads on her own.

1.  Pedro's Journal (Pam Conrad)*

Change

So, I haven't posted very much in the past few years, but we're still here!  I keep up with the kids' reading lists on this blog, but that's about it.  Just to update any my readers (if you're still there), we are still in transition.  After 11 1/2 years of living in England, we moved back to the US.  Currently, we are living with my mother and waiting to move to another state.  I just finished another year of homeschooling and working on planning for the next.  My kids are going into 4th, 8th, and 11th!  I am really hoping that we'll be moved before school starts, but we'll see.

Change isn't always easy, and we've had some changes in the past few years with my dad's death and moving country.  The kids are adapting pretty well, but we're all anxious to have a home of our own in the region we believe God is sending us to.  Once we get settled, things will hopefully feel easier than they have been.  I'm praying for a homeschool room, and the kids are hoping for rooms of their own.  Though leaving England was hard, we are excited about new beginnings.  It's just this transition period that seems difficult, but we'll make it!

Speaking of change, I'm working on changing the look of my blog.  Photobucket's new policy pretty much ruined my blog header and other images.  I'm not going to pay $5.99 a month to fix it, so I'm starting over with the design.  I'd had the same design for nearly 8 years, so I guess it was due a change anyway.  I removed a lot of stuff, updated some things, and changed my background.  I don't have a fancy header anymore (I designed the old one myself, but it got removed), but I'm okay with that. Blogger has changed so much since I began in 2009, and there are a lot more options now.  So, please bear with me as I discover all the new things Blogger has to offer and as I create a look and design I'm happy with.

Once we're settled in a home of our own, I'm hoping to blog more.  I'm brimming with ideas; I just haven't had time to blog about them.  I'd like to update all my geography units, and I'd like to clean up my toddler posts (even though my last toddler is nearly 10 now).  I know there are loads of broken links, so I'd like to fix those.  I also want to focus in on children's literature with a series of blog posts; I am, after all, a hopeless book addict.  I haven't had time to count my children's books since moving, but I know I have well over a thousand!  That's what I have in mind for starters....but, it will all have to wait.  I hate waiting, but that's life!

Blessings!
Debbie

Our 2016-17 Curriculum

Because of our big country-to-country, across-the-Atlantic move last summer, I never did get around to posting our curriculum for this school year!  To make this quick and easy, I'm going to briefly list what each child is using on this one post.

3rd Grade

1.  Bible:  Wisdom With the Millers (book and activity book)--studying the book of Proverbs
2.  Reading:  Doors to Discovery
3.  Seatwork:  Spectrum Test Practice, Grade 3
4.  Math:  Primary Mathematics 3 (Singapore)
5.  Storytime:  We're doing lapbooks along with each of the following books (I stopped lapbooks after grade 3 because they were too much work; however, each of the kids has wanted to do them, so I'm back to lapbooks again!):

• Abraham Lincoln (Anne Colver)
• Stone Fox (John Reynolds Gardiner)
• Door in the Wall (Marguerite de Angeli)
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
• Key to the Treasure (Peggy Parish)
• Horse Heroes: True Stories of Amazing Horses (Kate Petty)
• Mr. Popper's Penguins (Richard Atwater)
• Justin Morgan Had a Horse (Marguerite Henry)
• The Apple and the Arrow (Conrad Buff)

6.  Language:  Language Lessons for the Elementary Child, Volumes 1 and 2 (we're finishing Volume 1 from last year)

7.  Spelling:  All About Spelling, Level 3

8.  Science:  Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space (unfortunately for my sanity, we do lapbooks for each science unit, too!  At least this is my last year doing lapbooks.)

9.  History:  The Story of the World, Volume 2: The Middle Ages (we use the CDs, the activity book, and other supplements)

10.  Geography:  I make my own geography units.  This year, we are studying the following countries:

• United Kingdom (sad that we moved from the UK just before starting this one)
• Saudi Arabia
• France
• Norway
• New Zealand
• Australia
• Netherlands
• Japan
• Russia
• Spain
• Mexico
• Germany

11.  Extracurricular:  We do these as we have time:

• Art
• Spanish--Teach Them Spanish 1
• Music--Singing Made Easy and piano
• P.E.--Right now, we're making use of our small town's basketball and tennis courts
• Health--Heath, Safety & Manners 3 (A Beka)

7th Grade

1.  History:  British History (I made my own course using a number of books--click link to view)
2.  Reading:  She's reading the following books and doing book reports on them:

• George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans (Benge)
• Swiss Holiday (Yates)
• The Bronze Bow (Speare)
• Watership Down (Adamas)
• The Windy Hill (Meigs)
• The Hound of the Baskersville (Doyle)
• Tales of the Greek Heroes (Green)
• Full Steam Ahead: The Race to Build a Transcontinental Railroad (Blumberg)
• Stories of Don Quixote Written Anew for Children (Baldwin)
• Old Yeller (Gipson)

3.  Math:  Teaching Textbooks 7

4.  Bible:  Explorers Bible Study Quest: Faith at Work

5.  Science:  Interactive Science: Earth Science

6.  Language:  Easy Grammar 6 and Easy Grammar Plus (finishing last year's first)

7.  Spelling:  All About Spelling, Level 7

8.  Extracurricular:  P.E., Typing (Typing Instructor), Ancient Music and Ancient Art (Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool), and guitar (instruction from her grandma)

10th Grade

*Coming Soon*

3rd Grade Reading Log

Here is the reading log for my youngest!  She has no specific required reading for school.  She is reading out of textbooks only, and I am reading aloud to her from chapter books.  Therefore, these are books she is reading on her own this year--unrelated to school.

1. Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (Enid Blyton)
2. More Wishing-Chair Stories (Enid Blyton)
3. Samantha Learns a Lesson: A School Story (Susan S. Adler)
4. The Boxcar Children: The Black Widow Spider Mystery (Gertrude Chandler Warner)
5. Sarah, Plain and Tall (Patricia MacLachlan)
6. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Eleanor Coerr)*
7. Haunted House (Peggy Parish)
8. The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Singing Ghost (Gertrude Chandler Warner)
9. Felicity Learns a Lesson: A School Story (Valerie Tripp)
10. Skylark (Patricia MacLachlan)
11. The Tower in Ho-Ho Wood and Other Stories (Enid Blyton)
12. The Enchanted Wood (Enid Blyton)
13. The Magic Faraway Tree (Enid Blyton)
14. Caleb's Story (Patricia MacLachlan)
15. The Firebird (Retold by Mairi Mackinnon)
16. The Folk of the Faraway Tree (Enid Blyton)
17. The Boxcar Children (Gertrude Chandler Warner)
18. Ivan and the Informer (Myrna Grant)*
19. The Boxcar Children: Mountain Top Mystery (Gertrude Chandler Warner)
20. The Caravan Family (Enid Blyton)
21. Hannah's Helping Hands (Jean Van Leeuwen)
22. The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island (Gertrude Chandler Warner)