November 11 - January 31, 2006 Quarterly Report

Grading Key: Effort & Skills

4 - Advanced E - Excellent U - Unsatisfactory

3 - Proficient G - Good X - Not Applicable

2 - Approaching S - Satisfactory

1 - Below N - Needs to Improve

Days of Instruction: 52 (4.3 hrs/day average)

Arithmetic: The areas of math Jacob continues to study/practice are :
word problems     factors                         multiplication,division
fractions                multiples                     addition
decimals               prime factorization    subtraction
percents                prime numbers          money math
number lines         geometry                    time/clocks
fact families          times tables                real-life math experiences

Jacob has been struggling more in math this quarter due to the fact he has yet to master some basic math facts in the upper times tables, and content has increased in difficulty. He can arrive at the correct answer using fingers or manipulatives, however has yet to master memorization of some key math facts. He will continue to work on this throughout the school year and the summer as well. Grade: 2 (S)

Reading: Jacob continues to demonstrate excellence in his ability to read with accuracy, appropriate inflection and intonation, and poetic expression. He does struggle with comprehension. At times he is able to determine meaning through context, however this is an area where he may continue to struggle due to his developmental delays. Jacob excels in memorization of vocabulary and spelling assignments, uses dictionaries to complete work, reads for pleasure, and continues to express a genuine interest in seeking knowledge. Jacob has finished reading the entire series of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, totaling 1540 pages in all since the beginning of the school year. In addition, Jacob has been reading selected poems, from Robert Browning, Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling (to name a few), in addition to classic fairy tales, scriptures from the Bible, non-fiction articles in National Geographic, and other reference sources for his Ancient Civilization research project on Egypt. (completed). Grade: 3 (G)

Spelling: Jacob has completed and nearly mastered ten spelling & vocabulary lists. Jacob corrects misspelled words and rewrites assignments so that spelling is correct throughout his work. His memorization skills have helped him do well in this area. Grade: 3(G)

Writing, Grammar & Language Arts: Jacob prints and writes in cursive daily. Jacob has been developing skills such as note-taking, brainstorming, and organizing ideas. He has posted his ideas, assignments and essays on his internet homeschool webjournal. He has written letters to family members, replied to family emails, and written thank-you note cards. He continues to work on his writing abilities by studying proper grammar; parts of speech, sentence structure, and phrases. Jacob responds to literature through writing,art, and narration. Literary devices, such as symbolism, metaphors, allegories, and personifications have been focused on in our current curriculum-a unit study based on The Chronicles of Narnia. Jacob requires prompts to stay on writing tasks,assistance with organizing ideas, and motivation to write creatively. Once he is focused, he does show considerable effort. I gave him a lower grade this quarter because I want to see more effort in the neatness and technique in his handwriting. I am offering incentives for next quarter to see this improve. He required much assistance with getting his Ancient Civilization project completed. Once it came time to posting his material on the internet, he became noticeably more motivated in finishing it. Grade: 2 (S)

Health & Safety: The focus this past quarter has been on smoking prevention, resisting peer pressure, the dangers of various drugs, the importance of choosing good friends, healthy relationships, the importance of expressing feelings, snowboard & skiing safety precautions, good nutrition, importance of drinking water, dangers of household electrical appliances and used batteries. Grade: 4(E)

History: Jacob continues to study various time periods in history. Ancient history studied this past quarter hascovered: Pyramids and Pharoahs of Egypt, 10th Century King Ahab, his wife Jezebel and the death of King Jehoram. He has studied the emergence of the Anglo-American World Power, the influence of Rome in Britannia, and it Hellenistic cultural origin. Jacob has been studying important explorers and their contributions to world history as well as American history: Cartier, Champlain, LaSalle, John Smith, George Washington. Jacob reads about current events. The History Channel, PBS documentaries, and Discovery Channel have been recent favorites. He has continued study of the history of New York State as well as the leaders in local and state government. In addition, on Martin Luther King Day time was set aside to reflect on his and his widow’s important contributions to the Civil Rights movement. He has finally finished his research project on the ancient civilization of Egypt and posted it to his homeschool website. All these topics covered are done so with the use of maps/charts/social studies CD roms. Grade:2(G)

Science: For science, Jacob has learned parts of the ear, how we hear, the science of sound. He has studied the Grand Canyon and it rock formations, minerals and weathering. Natural Science topics covered have been: penguins (cycle of birth, reproduction, father’s role, logistics of egg hatching in sub-zero temperatures, mother’s migration habits, danger of predators, etc), salamander habitats, lynx reintroduction into the Rocky Mountains, Polar Bears habitats, mating habits, effects of their period of hibernation, how salt lowers the freezing point of water, tornadoes and tsunamis. Grade: 3 (G)

Art: Jacob has put forth more effort this quarter in art. He has created line drawings and computer-generated designs using Corel Draw. He also created thank-you note cards with a stamping kit recently purchased for the family. Grade: 2(S)

Music: Jacob continues to practice guitar, piano and fiddle regularly in addition to singing weekly at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He has studied the life of famous musician Beethoven. Grade: 3 (G)

Physical Education: Jacob has participated in many physical activities including swimming at the JCC, scootering (during the warm weather!), and sledding (not skiing yet, maybe next year?) Grade: 3(G)

Typing & Computer: Jacob is progressing slowly but surely at typing with proper hand positioning and appropriate speed and accuracy. His computer literacy skills are improving and he demonstrates fluency in several programs and internet research to aid in completion of schoolwork, as well for the purpose of finding information for personal interests. He continues to improve his punctuation skills with the use of various typing programs. Jacob’s abilities really shine in this area (computers and technology in general). He continues to love learning about technology and displays constant interest in seeking knowledge via [supervised] internet. I gave him a lower grade this quarter because I had
expected more in the area of proper hand positioning [for all his computer expertise]. Grade: 3 (G)

Jacob is progressing at a satisfactory level in all subject matter. He has had 4 absences from instruction this quarter due to illness/muscular discomfort. He has completed the required 225 hours of instruction.

My main concern for Jacob is the constant prompting he requires to get his work done. He also struggles more often in math now that the content is getting more difficult. He tends to dilly-dally and requires frequent reminders to stay on task.

Our homeschool curriculum for the upcoming quarter will include the use and guidance of the Prairie Primer. Initially I had thought I was running behind in our homeschool curriculum schedule. Upon re-examining the calendar, I realized that ending this Narnia unit by January 31st would actually split up a 10 month school year perfectly in half. In which case, our homeschool is perfectly on the right track, time-wise. :)