I was hoping to do a post about how our family survived another Hyperemesis Gravidum first trimester and kept the house and the homeschooling moving. I haven't gotten to that yet (the fully surviving OR the post) but some of it is relevant to our exams so I'll briefly touch on it here.
These are somewhat shorted exams that normally because I ended up cutting a lot of subjects for the past 7-8 weeks, or basically since before Thanksgiving (We started this term mid-October). Some things I didn't even attempt to put in the exams (piano, french, solfa) because it didn't seem fair. Other things I was pretty sure she could still do like the folk and hymns and poems we learned in October/November but sang along with her to get her going at first.
I could also clearly see how relying on audiobooks for history especially, doesn't work very well. I also didn't do nearly the scaffolding in those lessons that I normally do - a quick review about where we left off the week before, a run down of the names, etc. I listened to the audiobooks with her and paused frequently so her daily narrations were fine but the long term retention was difficult. If you compare these exams to the sample AO exams for this term, you'll see that I substituted more general questions after she struggled and gave me a blank look when I asked about the battle of Agincourt (And I had a blank look right there with her!). She did remember the princes in the tower but she didn't really like that story at all and I could tell was reluctant to go back and rehash it. So we moved on. It's really important to me at this age to keep exams positive. She even told me the first day of exams that they are her favorite part of the year, even more than breaks! I did add a few questions both the give her some history as we went along so they didn't seem too sparse for her. And long term, whether my second grader remembers any specific battle in English history is not at all a big deal but we'll be going back to my reading and scaffolding with her for history as soon as we can!
Also interesting is how well she has grown into the NKJV version of the bible. Yes, we use the NKJV not the KJV but she still struggled with it initially. Two years later and her bible answers are great! And not surprisingly, its one of the longer books that I didn't switch to an audiobook when I got sick.
Now, to the exams, which as always, have been shared with her permission.
Bible
Tell me about Joseph’s childhood?
So Jacob had sons and he
like Joseph best. And his other brothers were jealous. And then Jacob gave
Joseph a rainbow coat and this made his other brothers even more jealous. And
he had a dream and the stars bowed to him in his dream and his brothers grew
more and more jealous. And his other brothers wanted to kill him but one of the
brothers said “No, just throw him in the pit” because he wanted to save him
later on. And then they saw a caravan instead and they said “let’s sell Joseph
to this caravan.”
How did Joseph make himself known to his
brethren in Egypt? Tell the whole story.
There was a famine for
the seven years and Joseph’s brothers came to get food in Egypt and they came
to Joseph and asked for food and he gave it to them and he said I won’t give you
more food until I see your younger brother Benjamin and so they went back to
their father and said “he wants to see Benjamin” but the father said “he’s the
youngest and I’m afraid he will get into trouble” but they said “but he won’t
give us more food until we bring Benjamin to him.” So he said “fine, you can
take Benjamin but make sure nothing happens to him” and so they went to Joseph
and he gave them food and they went home but he asked one of his servants to
put a cup into Benjamin’s bag and then one of his servants followed him, because
that’s what Joseph told them to do. He has said “Follow them and then say "Why did you steal
the cup?” and so the servant followed them until he caught up and said “why did
you steal the silver cup?” and he said “I didn’t steal it” and then “but why is
it in there?” One of the brothers offered to stay in in prison for Benjamin.
And that’s all I can remember….pause. And he told his brothers that he was
Joseph.
Tell about one of the events from right before
Jesus' death.
So Jesus was with his
disciples and he said “You keep watch with me while I go pray” but when he came
back, they were asleep. And he did it a second time but they were asleep and he
did it a third time but they were asleep and he said “Are you still asleep? I
said watch with me!” and then Judas was leading some soldiers to Jesus and
Judas said “The one I kiss, you shall arrest” and so he went up and kisses
Jesus and the guards tried to take Jesus but Peter cut off one of the guard’s
ear and Jesus healed it again. That’s all.
Writing/Penmanship
Copy
Psalm 8
Okay, this just made me laugh. Lucy was very excited to begin transitioning to cursive italics. She's finishing up Book C of Getty-Dubay, which means at this point she knows the italic versions of the lower case letters and maybe 1/4-1/3 of the transitions. I didn't learn italics and I do okay writing things for her to copy but half and half is hard so I just had her copy it all in the basic (print) italic version. I could tell she felt like this was way beneath her. She still did her best effort though.
History
Tell me what you know about the discovering of American
or the naming of America?
Well, I’ll do naming
America, that’s easier. And there was a man named Amerigo and he met Columbus
and they were friends and he didn’t go on voyages with Columbus but he went on
voyages on the sea and he found South America. And so there was a man who said “Why
shouldn’t we name this land, this big place Amerigo found, Amerigo or America?”
And lots of people were jealous and thought it should be named Columbia or something
because of Columbus but the big continent was called South American after all because
it was the southern part but on maps they still just drew little islands up North
where Columbus had went but then later some people said they should name the upper
part North American because the other part was South America.
Tell me everything you remember the War of the
Roses.
The War of the Roses was
called the war of the roses because part of England wanted to be king and
another part of England wanted to be king and all the white roses people picked
white roses and all the red rose people picked red roses. And it went back and
forth, and the duke died and his son took over, and sometimes the white rose team one and sometimes the red rose team one. And I can't remember how it ended.
What do you know about The Hundred Years War?
Joan of Arc was a girl
in France and England was taking over France and then she saw these visions and
the visions told her that she should go and help in the army and help save
France and she did it and her brothers helped her because England was ruling
most of France and she had to get through it to get to where the king was and then take him up to the city that England had and crown him king. And then at the end the
England captured Joan of Arc and burned her but France began winning. And it
was the longest war in history.
Tales
Tell how Christian and Hopeful came through the
waters at last.
They were in the river
of death and they were afraid because they thought they were going to drown and
never see the celestial city. But they were able to climb up again.
Jonah adds: And they were naked now! (He really latched on to the idea that the left their mortal garments in the river and didn't receive their new heavenly robes until after they reached the castle and handed their scrolls to be given to the king. He's was only listening it while playing nearby but he brought up that fact several times. Boys!)
Tell your favorite story from Robin Hood.
Robin Hood and Little
John and Will Scarlet and Arthur a Bland; they met a man carrying a sack of wheat
and Robin Hood said “Let me look in your bag to make sure there is no gold or
silver in there” and the man said “All right, I’ll let you see but there won’t
be anything in there” and everyone was leaning over the bag to see but the man instead of showing them the grain, he threw it in their faces. And
he kept throwing more. And they tried to get it out of their eyes and nose and
mouth but he kept throwing it. And then he said “I tricked you! I tricked you!
You thought I was going to show you gold and silver but I threw it in your face”
and Robin Hood called three times with his horn and then they fought the man
and then the man joined his band.It was so funny. Isn't that so funny!
Can you tell me about one of the parables of
nature we read?
So, there was a crab and
a starfish and the sea was calm and the tide had washed them up and there was
seaweed lying everywhere. And then two people walked up and they said, “This
seaweed is useless, this death is useless, all this stuff is just useless” and
then they went away again. And the crab said, this seaweed is not useless, it
is important and do you want me to tell you why it is important? Because it
helps me live, I could not live without the seaweed. And the starfish said “That’s
not all, it helps me too” and then some other sea creatures that had been
washed up said “Me too! They help us too.They help all of us.”
Draw a scene from MacBeth or Comedy of Errors.
This is from Comedy of Errors showing the wrong twin eating dinner with his (brother's) wife while the real husband is grumpily left outside.
Geography
Tell me about the changes in the ships in
Seabird
First it was a whaling
ship was roundish. Then the book changed to be about a clipper ship and a
clipper ship was pointed at the front. And they both ran on sails. Then they
invented a ship that ran on coal. But they didn’t like it because it was too
much smoke. And then they had a ship that was run by oil and that was easier.
What are the four seasons? How do we get them?
So the earth spins which
makes the days and then in summer the northern hemisphere turns towards the sun
and in the winter it turns towards away and what it spins it makes the day
because when the part where you live faces the sun it is day time and then it
gradually turns around so the part where you live faces away from the sun and
its nighttime. (Lots of hand motions to accompany this J
X Map Drill – Oceans and
Continents – 100% She even realized I’d left off two continents. Oops! I mean,
uhm, trick question, you passed! She loves these map quizzes but hand writing them means I always make mistakes. Although in my defense, these silly map projections keep leaving off Antartica.
The map she worked on over the last term and a half while reading Seabird
The quiz version
Natural History and
General Science
We finished up mammals for our main term theme, drawing a dead coyote the neighbors just happened to shoot the week we studied coyotes and wolves. We also visited a wolf center to see some that were still alive. Then when we learned about bears we visited the new bear exhibit at the zoo on one of the perfect fall afternoons where miraculously no one else is there. And we had a really neat week where Jonah and Lucy kept finding galls every afternoon. I think they found 3 different kinds in all. I had actually been very discouraged over our lack of nature study lately but this part of the exams was quite encouraging.
Describe from memory something you drew in your
Nature Notebook.
I drew a coyote. I saw a
dead coyote and it was tannish gray fur, about as big as a dog, cause coyotes
are really like dogs. And its teeth were long.
This was really from memory because I couldn’t
find her nature notebook and I normally at least list of the things she drew
for her to pick from. I did find it later and including some other pictures
below. When she saw it, she looked through and changed her mind about what she
wanted to talk about so she did a second narration but this time using her notebook
to help her (she wouldn’t have remembered the dates on her own!)
The galls! When I saw
the red one, I was like “ahh, what is that” and I thought it was a ball. So I
brought it inside and we looked at it on November 21st. And it was
like, kinda pink with red dots. It was smooth and it was touching the midrib
although it wasn’t all the way on it. And the leaf it was on was a dead leaf on
the ground and it was stuck on the leaf. It was a wasp gall.
And there was another
type of gall that we found on November 19th and we drew it on the 21st.
It was furry and orangish brown and it was on another dead leaf. I found a
couple of them.
So, what is a gall?
So, a wasp or some other insects lay their eggs
on leaves then the tree or the leaf makes the gall around it.
Name some big and little cat cousins or some of
Buster Bear's cousins.
Buster Bear and his cousins– Polar Bear, Grizzly Bear,
Black Bear, Brown Bear
Can you tell me about another animal we learned
about this fall. You can look at your chart to remember if you need to.
Our north american mammal "tree"
Oh, deer! So when white
tailed deer are babies they have spots but as they get older, their spots fade
away. And their tail is white on the underside and the rest of their body
except their tummy is brownish. And they are good at swimming. And the dad’s
have antlers that are like horn except horns are hollow and antlers are not.
White tailed deer have antlers.
Reading Skill
x Father
or friend should select a passage for student to read aloud
Picture Study
Describe your favorite picture from this term's
picture study.
The
artist is Peter Paul Rubens (or as Jonah calls him "disciple disciple somebody") and it’s a little village with a path and people
and horses are walking on the path and there are some houses on the side and
you can see a long way in the picture and you can see a bit of wood and the sky
is kind of cloudy and that’s all.
Sounds about right to me. It's called Summer: Peasants going to Market
Recitation
Father should choose a poem: Mice by Rose Fyleman.
It had been a while since we had reviewed this, one of only two poems learned this term, but it was a big favorite so I was pretty sure she'd still know it.
Singing
Sing
your favorite folksong and hymn from this term. Both were from October (not a surprise there) but she did remember them both which is awesome!
X A Nice Field of a
Turnips
X Marching to Zion
Handicrafts
x Show
some work in handicrafts from this term to someone outside your family.
We gave out some embroidered felt ornaments she designed and made herself. My getting sick means a few family members might be getting theirs next Christmas though
