Aiden starts first grade

Aiden started school on August 17th and loves it! We have enrolled him in an independent study charter school and his teacher comes over to our house every few weeks to check his work and monitor progress. It seems to be working pretty well so far. Aiden loves his teacher and enjoys showing off his reading skills to her. She seems happy with his progress so far and thinks our curriculum is great. I LOVE the curriculum too; wished I could have learned all of this neat stuff when I was in first grade! For Language Arts we are reading Aesop's Fables, Parables from Nature, a poem a day (from A Child's Garden of Verses right now, AA Milne and others later this year), Just So Stories, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, and others later in the year. We also have a chapter book that we read each night (the original Peter Pan right now). For history/geography we are studying Paddle to the Sea, An Island Story, Fifty Famous Stories, Viking Tales, Ingri D'Aulaire books for American history (Ben Franklin, George Washington, etc). For science we read James Herriot's stories, Burgess bird and animal books, and do mostly field work studying nature with the Handbook of Nature Study as our guide. We just took a field trip to the Natural History Museum in PG where they got to see all of the birds they have seen in the field up close and ID them for sure which was so nice... We will be making many trips over there this year. At the moment I am trying to get my hands on a good dissecting scope to really study all the bugs and critters the boys collect. For phonics I am attempting to teach Aiden the Spalding method which includes his handwriting work. Next month he will start copying poems, sentences, and verses from great literature for practice in writing. For math, he is using Right Start math which is very hands on (lots of manipulatives and games). We have been learning Spanish phrases and singing Spanish songs for language for now. With the baby we are also learning a lot of sign language which has been fun for all. Once he has a good handle on reading and writing (later this year or next year) he will start Latin instruction. For art we have been using Drawing With Children which has been a great guide. Aiden is using the skills in there as he works on his painting for the fair next month. Aiden is also learning about the life and work of a few artists this term from the 1400s which has been interesting for us both. I found a site to download and print 8 x 10 prints for his art notebook for free. They look great and are useful for studying. For music, he has started piano lessons and he loves them! He is pounding away at Mary Had a Little Lamb as I type this. We are also learning a few classical composers this term, although I have not organized this study very well yet into our schedule. For Bible we simply are reading through the KJ Bible bit by bit and discussing. For handicrafts he is learning to thread yarn through plastic canvas to make ornaments. As for life skills, he is learning to set the table, fold laundry, vacuum, load the dishwasher, feed his animals, etc. He actually keeps really busy and when he is not inside, he loves to play outside with Liam building roads and dams using bricks, rocks, pipes, and the garden hose. They come in completely covered with mud. Oh, to be a kid again, right!?