Excellence in Education

So this year has been completed. Grades have been turned in and lesson plans have been closed. To finalize the end of the year our church honors all students with a B or better average. Tater was honored for her achievements this year. She was 1of 34 students who were honored. She was also 1of 5 who had straight A's all year. My daughter has done excellent this year. I am very proud of her. So we attended the banquet and watched her be honored for her hard work. See the pride in her face. She has worked hard to earn her reward. I love the fact that she can now see the worth of delayed gratification. As you work for something you may not be honored right away, but the reward will come. The reward will be worth all that you worked for. In addition I always try to teach Tater that anything worth having is worth working for. Here's a tangible example of that.

Our first grade year in review

So this is the end. The end of our Kindergarten/ First Grade year. Why two grades...because technically Tater is in Kindergarten but she does first grade work. So we say Kindergarten but we also say First Grade.
This has been a busy year.  We have been on several field trips, had an additional new student, and a new service dog added to our school.
We have also had an amazing journey traveling through school.
In English class we have learned about nouns and verbs. We have learned the basics of sentence structure. We've mastered reading and simple C-V-C spelling words. We've worked on learning how to write in our journal and how to space our words. Tater has managed to begin letter formation a bit better than at the beginning of the year.
In math, we have worked on addition and subtraction. We've worked on skip counting by 5's, 10's and 25's. We have counted to 100 several times and we have mastered telling time to the hour and half hour. We can associate coins with their respective monetary value.
In science we have hit each of the areas of science...physical, physics, life, biological, and earth science. We have cooked food, made and played with play dough. We have collected leaves, made a collage of thongs found in fall. We have studied animals and went to the Knoxville Zoo. We just completed our lesson on forces such as push and pull forces. We have tracked the weather during calendar time. We have studied plants and Tater learned what all living things need to survive. Tater also learned how to classify all objects into living and non living objects.
Social studies had us learning about community helpers. How they help our community. What service do they provide for us. We visited the fire department, the post office, we also studied about America. We learned about our flag and our basic Constitutional rights. Tater studied famous Americans who changed America and we also studied a few of our great presidents.  Towards the end of the year we took an adventure traveling across the United States. We hit most of the United States from East Coast to West Coast. 

This year we have had an extensive educational journey. We have had a roller coaster of things that we have learned. But that doesn't begin to cover the things that we have learned emotionally, spiritually, in a familial way.

The things that we have learned in those areas include learning how to care for others. How to care for ourselves. We  have learned how to play fairly, how we can achieve anything as a team. We have learned to put God first and to seek Him in all that we do. We have learned how to cherish each other. Tater has learned how to become a nurse to me to help with my diabetes. She has learned how to help her brother and lookout for her brother. She has learned how to lookout for the needs of others and if possible help serve those needs. My family has become a close, loving, God oriented family. We have become close knit, praying, serving, and a humble family. 

I am proud of what we have accomplished this year. I am proud of our educational pursuits as well as our Spiritual pursuits. I am proud of us. I am also realizing that we have a long long way to go. But with God's grace we will get their. 

So thanks for coming along on the adventure of First Grade. We will be resting until our Second Grade year. 

Until we meet again...

The last week of School

This is our last week of school. The very last week. We are now moving to summer school. Summer school is simply school but very abbreviated. We do language arts and math. Yep that's it. Its a break from all of the work we normally take on. So happy and excited for summer school.

Now as you can see this week we worked on math. Both addition and subtraction. We also worked on the -ug word family. We worked hard reading these words and had fun reading books about these words. In science we learned about push/pull.

This has been a nice ending to a beautiful ending to our year.

Week 32

We have been busy this week. We have learned about teeth and how to care for our teeth. For example we learned that children have 20 primary teeth and adults have 32 permanent teeth. Very cool facts. We also studied foods that would harm or protect our teeth.
In math we began working on subtraction. As evidenced by the counting blocks you see. We worked hard on learning about take always. More learning to come in the upcoming year.
In social studies, we are still taking our traveling adventure. This week we saw the Great Plain states, the Mississippi River, and the blue grass of Kentucky.
In reading Tater took her Reading Comprehension test. Out of a possible 102 points Tater received 85. She has mastered first grade reading. I am so proud of her. She has worked so hard on reading this year. We are still going to complete reading, but we will be reading books for the remainder of this year. A treat for Tater and I. Plus this will help in her summer reading program.
We are getting ready to wind down our school year and start our summer school. We have about 2 weeks left of school. We are progressing through.  Hoping to finish by the end of June.

A new student

So this week we have a new student. He's not really new but he is new to school. As you can see from the pictures below he's as happy as a little bug, hence his name Jr Bug. He is now an official member of The Vine Academy. So welcome Jr Bug. Welcome to learning and growing and worshipping Christ, The Vine Academy way.

The faith of a child

So today in Bible studies we are learning about the disciples and how they had a hard time accepting that Jesus is the Son of God. So I asked Tater if she had a hard time believing in God and Jesus. This was her answer..."No I believe in God because I pray to Him every night and He blesses me every day."
Lord for the faith of a child.
I am thankful that God gives me constant reminders of His Grace by allowing Tater to minister to my heart. Father always keep me believing on you like a child does. Unadulterated and fully believing in You.

Reading Mastery Accomplished for 1st grade

I just scored Tater's reading/phonics Assessment test...out of 102 possible points She received 85. Mastery is 86 and above. She is so close to mastery of the 1st grade reading level. I am so proud of her. Mastery in reading is accomplished. And she's only 5. I am blessed beyond measure at the amazing gift that God has graced me with.
So reading for the remainder of this year we are going to be focused on her math, science, social studies, Bible, and language arts. 
I can't believe that she has accomplished so much. She is moving right along. Better than I could've ever imagined. She is on track for second grade while her age is yet so young. I am truly proud of her.