Merit badges

I got a great idea from a homeschooling friend. She was looking for a way for her son to see evidence of the progress he'd made and what he'd learned, but she didn't want to use grades. The solution came to her from an email list -- merit badges! I loved this idea, and immediately made it our own.

I've worked up a number of badges, some of which Nugget has already earned and some of which she's in progress on.


Some are based on curriculum we're using, like levels of Hooked on Phonics, Handwriting Without Tears, RightStart, and Ready2Read. The SeaWorld camp one is for her camp experience this past summer.

The "Dolphin Tale" one she'll earn when we work through the curriculum from Homeschool Movie Club and we see the movie.

The others are my own creations:

Calendar:

• Recite days of the week in order.
• Recite months of the year in order.
• Recite seasons in order.
• Know today's date, including year.
• Know what day is tomorrow and what day was yesterday.
• Know the months of major holidays or celebrations (New Year's, Valentine's, her birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas).

Aesop's Fables:

• Read and do coloring sheets for all fables.
• Summarize the story and moral of 5 fables.

Trees:

• Know the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees.
• Identify major tree parts.
• On a walk, identify 5 neighborhood trees (magnolia, palm, pine, oak, orange).

Nugget is quite taken with this idea, especially after seeing her (Eagle Scout) daddy's badge sash. Unfortunately, I have no way of making woven patches; instead, I'm just printing them on cardstock and hanging them in her homeschool corner in the dining room.

We'll see how this goes!