Acquara Independent School

Age 6, First Grade

Aaron, 1st Grade Year

Highlights:

• Aaron is essentially a reader. He can read almost any children’s book you give him, stumbling on a word here and there. He has turned from basically where Naim is now (Cat in a hat kind of stuff) to being able to read almost anything. He needs to improve speed and vocabulary, of course, but he basically turned literate this year.
• I give Amy and math playground an awful lot of credit for his math skills. He does fine in our math, but he advanced a lot into different areas with her. He can skip count 2, 5, 10, 100, etc. He understands place value. He understands all four operations and has a basic working memory of addition facts. He understands basic fractions and data graphing, etc.
• His handwriting continues to be highly legible and neat. He has very few letter reversals.
• His science knowledge is probably in the junior highish level. He is incredibly motivated and interested in science. I give Dwight a lot of credit here. He has almost been entirely unschooled in science and it is his best subject out of pretty much doing well in every area (except PE).
• His drawing and constructing skills continue to improve and it is a highly motivating area for him. He is constantly building more elaborate things. He can follow instructions and build his own projects with very little help. He is good with color and perspective in art.
• He still does not enjoy physical activity. He does not run much and is not interested in sports. But I have seen improvements in coordination and endurance.
• He is still a highly enthusiastic free-spirit. His enthusiasm for life and his ability to live in the moment is infectious. It does get him in trouble when he sometimes can’t see beyond set backs and gets overly emotional about them. But he is still a kid that you just have to throw out there and he will love to learn about anything he finds.
• He is not a joiner, still, but he has improved at being able to participate in group classes. Most notably at Village Home. He is comfortable there, but still struggles sometimes in one-off camps and classes.
• He is a very social kid who instantly finds friends wherever he goes.

Classes:

• VH-Math Playground
• VH-Bookworms
• VH-Junior Lego Building Club
• VH-Discoverers
• VH-Measure for Treasure
• UU 1-2 Grade Religious Education (Winter, Spring)
• Art Cubby (only went 2x, kind of a bust)
• Trackers Earth “Secret Agent Camp”
• Oregon Zoo Giraffe Camp

Curriculum:

• HOP-Kindergarten Level 2
• HOP-First Grade Level 1
• Calvert Math Kindergarten
• Calvert Math First Grade
• Calvert Kindergarten-Reading (Fall)
• Sylvan K: Word Games, Sight Words
• Word Time
• Handwriting Without Tears Letters and Numbers for Me