Alice's Exams :: Year 1, Term 1

If we were "behind" with Royal's school schedule, we are really behind with Alice's! She has a fall birthday, so after a few weeks of being 6 and allowing me time to finish up Year 2 with Royal, we jumped into Year 3 with him and Year 1 with her around mid-November. I noticed fairly early on that she would not be as ready to sit still and pay full attention for longer chunks of time like Royal was at her age. This forced me to slow down a bit on what I was hoping to accomplish each week. I had to remind myself that checking off items on the list was so much less important than catering to my daughter's educational level and needs. Thus, our exam weeks (and consequently our Years) are now "off." But... onward we march and plod along! Education is a journey, not a list or a formula, right? It is living and breathing, and so we must learn to live and breath at the same rate as each unique child does. This is definitely a long-distance run, not a sprint, so I've got to learn to find the right pace, and when the time is right...turn on a little kick! :-)

So after reviewing the suggested questions for the Term 1 Exam over on the Ambleside website, I have made appropriate adjustments and come up with the following:

Oh, and the subjects Royal and Alice do together are identical for him and for her (Bible, although a bit simpler and condensed for Alice; #3 on the Geography section; Spanish; Picture Study; Recitation; Singing; Handicrafts; Composer Study; Art and Read Alouds).

Bible
1. What do you know about Moses' babyhood and early life?
2. Tell about something from Jesus' childhood.

Penmanship
Copy "The little red hen"

Tales
1. Tell a fairy tale you remember from The Blue Fairy Book.
2. Tell how the leopard got his spots or about Moses the Kitten.

History
1. Tell about how Caligula conquered Britain.
2. Tell about what the Britons were like before the Romans came or about St. Alban.
3. Tell the story of William Tell.

Geography
1. Tell what the shape of Italy looks like; then show where it is on the globe.
2. Find Lake Superior on the map. What does it remind you of?
3. Draw the shape of the earth and show where the hot countries are and where the cold ones are.

Natural History & General Science
1. Describe the mistletoe or the Inca Dove from memory and tell everything you know about it.
2. Talk about one of the birds we have read about in the Burgess Bird Book.
3. Tell me everything you know about the hen bit we find in our yard.

Reading Skill
(read a short passage from Treadwell & Free's Primer: The Little Red Hen)

Art
1. Color in the primary and secondary colors on the color wheel.
2. Draw Wanda the Worm winding through the grass, coming straight towards you.

Wanda's body should actually taper away from head to
tail to show the correct perspective.

I had to coach her along here to help her remember a bit.
Basically the top half of the circle she knew.
The bottom half I tried helping her reason out.

Biography
Talk about something Benjamin Franklin did during his life.

Arithmatic
1. 8+2
2. 9+5
3. 7-3
4. 13-8
5. Write the numbers: nine, two, eleven, sixteen
6. What is missing? 10, ___, ___, 13, ___, ___, ___, 17, ___, 19, ___
7. Fill in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th to show order
8. Write the missing numbers (number bonds)

Spanish
1. Sing Noche de Paz
2. Sing the abecedario up until the letter we have learned.
3. Answer:
    ¿Qué día es hoy?
    ¿Cuál es la fecha?
    ¿Qué tiempo hace?
4. La ropa:
    *Using the bears family puzzle, talk about what your bear takes off/puts on in the morning and at night. ¿Cómo estás?
    *¿Qué llevas tú? (Talk about what you are wearing today)

Picture Study
1. Describe your favorite picture you studied of this terms' artist, Fra Angelico.
2. Do a quick sketch of it.

Noli me tangere

Recitation
1. James 1:2-12
2. Choose a poem to recite:
    A Good Play, by R.L. Stevenson
    Ferry Me Across the Water, by Christina Rossetti
    Little Boy Found, by William Blake

Singing
1. Sing The Yellow Rose of Texas
2. Sing Joy to the World

Handicrafts
1. Give one of your handicrafts to someone else
2. Do your best floor and table duty cleanings.

Composer Study
Talk about the sounds of Hildegard von Bingen and why you liked her compositions or not.
Tell a little about her.

Read Alouds
Which was your favorite book, On the Banks of Plum Creek or Alice in Wonderland? Why?
Draw a scene from either of these books and tell me about it.

This is one of the Ingalls' horses with Spot, the cow

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Keeping in mind the introduction to this post, I can say that Alice did quite well; however, I found myself getting frustrated at times with her lack of memory on certain questions. Some she simply did not answer.

Another interesting point I noticed is that although she really enjoys singing and will stand up with her brother to recite, when she had to do it alone with me, she was embarrassed to perform by herself! Perhaps next time I will just have them both do their shared exam questions together.