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Progress Report - January 1, 2021
1-Overview
This is Mortaza's first progress report after we started homeschooling his first grade in fall 2020. Due to the pandemic, the school year stared in the second half of September. Since we believed learning through online classes was very ineffective for Mortaza, we decided to homeschool him. 
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Although the formal homeschooling started after the start of the school year, we had worked with him (in a milder fashion) throughout the summer too. His math and science knowledge seems to be beyond what is expected of a first grader. So, during our study hours, we mostly focused on English language arts, some social studies, and art (mostly drawing). Below are more details about Mortaza's progress in each subject.
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2-English Language Arts
Regarding the language arts, we mostly followed the topics in his practice books. We also asked Mortaza to read (with some help from us) the story books mentioned in the "Books We Studied" section of this website. 
  • Reading: Mortaza can read at least 60% of the words in his story or practice books independently. Depending on the text, it can be as much as 90% or 95%. He can read all the frequency words. 
  • Reading Comprehension: He completely understands what he reads and can answer questions about what has been read.
  • Writing: Mortaza can write the answers in his practice books without difficulty.
  • Spelling: He can spell only very simple words.  
  • Language Concepts: Mortaza has been introduced to the following concepts:
    • synonym and antonym words
    • Rhyming words
    • Long and short sounds of vowels 
    • Contracted form of words
    • Homophones
    • Word syllables
    • Sorting words alphabetically
    • Beginning, middle, and end of a story
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3-Social Studies
  • Time: Mortaza learned how to tell time using a digital or analog clock.
  • Currency: He know different types of coins and how to count different amount of money.
  • Thanksgiving Day: We reviewed the history and traditions of Thanksgiving Day.
  • Geography: Mortaza is familiar with the map of the word and different continents and the location of Massachusetts in the US map.
  • Mailing a letter: Mortaza learned how to write a letter to a relative and how to mail it
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4-Mathematics and Geometry
  • Addition: Mortaza can do two by three digit addition in his mind
  • Subtraction: The same as addition, but it is more challenging for him
  • Multiplication: He can do single digit multiplications and most one digit by two digit multiplications. Again he does it in his mind
  • Squares: Mortaza can calculate the squares of numbers smaller than 16 very easily. He uses his own algorithm to do it. Please see the "Mathematics --> The missing Block" section of this website.
  • Division: He can divide two or three digit numbers by one digit numbers in his mind if they are dividable. 
  • Equations: He can solve very simple equations or systems of equations.
  • Prime Numbers and Prime Factors: Mortaza understands what prime numbers are and can find the prime factors of not very large numbers.
  • Fraction and Decimal Numbers: He understands the meaning of fraction and and decimal numbers and perform very simple operations on them.
  • Polygon: Mortaza can draw polygons using a compass and a protractor.
  • Pythagorean Theorem: Mortaza understands the Pythagorean Theorem.
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5-Science
Learning about science seems to be Mortaza's greatest passion. He shows great interest in all fields of science and particularly in Chemistry. He spends long hours watching science videos, spend time with his periodic table poster, or play with his science related games on his tablets. He enthusiastically asks us to listen to his explanation of what he has recently learnt or use them to make imaginary stories for himself which he plays them while walking and running around the house. The diversity of what he has learnt is such that I cannot possibly report them here. As an indication of what he watches and how much he has grasped, please see the "Videos Watched" and "Activities and Stories." Here are just two anecdotes out of what we have been observing on an almost daily basis.
  • Once I took him to hiking in a nearby woods. At some point I told him we had to turn "right". To make sure he understood, I continued, "your right-hand is the one that you use to write." Then he went into a long explanation of how the genes that we inherited from our parents made us a righthanded or lefthanded person.
  • Another time, considering his great interest in chemistry, I decided to teach him about chemical reaction equations and how to balance them. Not being particularly good at chemistry, I went online and found a good example: the interaction between hydrogen and nitrogen. Then, I asked him if he knew what happened when these two elements interact. I expected to hear that he didn't know and then I could triumphally explain it to him. To my surprise, he told me, in the blink of an eye, that three molecules of Nitrogen combined with one molecule of Hydrogen to make two molecules of Ammonia. 
6-Arts and Crafts
Mortaza shows great interest in arts and crafts as long as they are science or math related. Samples of his drawing and crafts. However, he shows little interest when it comes to art in general. We therefore, make drawing general subjects part of his required study times. I posted some of these drawings here.
7-Direction for Moving Forward
Here are two observations that set our path for future schooling:
  1. Mortaza possesses an unbalanced set of skills and knowledge in different subjects. That is, his math and science level is way more advanced than his art and English language arts. His understanding of social studies seems to be at a mid-level. To create a more balanced set of skills, we therefore keep emphasizing on art (mostly drawing) and English language arts. 
  2. Mortaza does not receive the majority of his science education from formal channels, 
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hence his knowledge in this subject (although more advanced than his age) is all over the place and does not follow a well-designed pattern. Moreover, there might be some contradictions or misunderstandings in his learnings from the science videos he watches. To help him in this regard, we will continue our efforts to monitor the science videos he watches and guide him to the right directions when necessary. 
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