Forty Days of School Left

We have forty days of required school left this year. Last week, I was thinking about where we are compared to where I wanted to be. I guess it would have been helpful if I had written down my goals for the school year. What is a first grader supposed to accomplish by the end of the year? What was MY first grader supposed to accomplish? What was I supposed to teach her? Next year, I will definitely start the year with a list of objectives so that I can evaluate where I am going. How did I miss that this year?

Thinking back, my biggest priorities were to get her to an independent reading level, to hit a couple of milestones in math, and to improve her handwriting.

Reading

• Read independently - I think we have exceeded expectations already. She is reading chapter books of 80 - 120 pages, reading daily, and reading for information as well as enjoyment.

Math

• Knows number facts up to 18. She works them out in strange ways, but gets the correct answer. She has also admitted that it is probably important to know the facts. I think we need to work more on these for speed.
• Can add 4 digit numbers on paper and 2 digit numbers mentally. She can add 3 digit numbers mentally. We haven't worked with 4 digit numbers yet.
  
• Add with regrouping - Today we did a challenging word problem that required her to add 25, 9, 17 and 36. She added them in her head and got the right answer. We haven't gotten to regrouping chapters yet.
  
• Subtract with borrowing - She can do these some days and can't other days. We haven't reached that chapter in the book yet, so I hope that this improves once we actually cover it in BJU.
• Can tell time in five-minute intervals. She can tell time to the half hour. We are working on the five-minute intervals.
  
• Knows fractions 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 and can add them. She does this with cooking often.

Handwriting
Her handwriting has improved. She still needs to write more so that she can write without suffering from "tired hand" before she has completed what she wanted to write.

Spelling and grammar are the next two subjects to come into our little homeschool. CC wants to write more but is hindered by her spelling (and her slow writing). I have also decided that I want to get a month or two into grammar before we start Latin. I think the Latin will be a good reinforcement to help put the grammar in context.

I want to gradually move toward more daily writing. I think that I let her do many things orally instead of written just because it is easier, but in the the long term, this is a bad policy.