Our Day!

Today was our first official full day after summer break. It always seems like the day is gone and there's still more to do! It was nice to have a schedule to follow (well it's sort of a schedule, more like a list, but nevertheless, it helps me see what we've completed and what's still left for the day!) Of course, schedules are subject to change :-)

We began MOH and started the Creation book activity (once I figured out how to put it together!) We still have a some lessons from the yellow LLATL book, so we are going to try and complete those before starting in the orange. Copy work went well, (we used Intermediate Language Lessons today (handwriting has improved so much!) Typing and cursive lessons were met with resistance, but she does pretty well with both, once we can get past all the efforts to avoid them! (an extra chore was awarded for this unpleasantness!) We did share reading today and I am delighed with the progress dd has made and the skills she's retained! She remembers everything we've done and learned with Wilson and that my friends - is amazing!! Decoding has improved by leaps and bounds, but we still have to work on eliminating the guessing habits. We did a lesson in McCall Crabbs today, dd scored at 5.2 grade level - yeah! (I generally take the average from 10 lessons to get a more accurate overall grade level though) We also started poem 4 of Poetry Memorization since we had done the first 3 over the last few weeks. We began reading from "Everyday Graces" - a neat book! Classical music/composer today was Edvard Grieg. (this is from the Masterpiece Collection - a wonderful set!)

My little one is preschooling this year, so today I wrote the letter "a" on the board to model it for her and she kept saying "do it again", "do it again", so I obliged. She copied it almost perfectly!! Big sis read her a book for naptime "Ruby and the Bubbles" and she fell fast asleep. It was so sweet!

Our Curriculum 2006-2007

Copywork/Dictation - Intermediate Language Lessons, The Harp & Laurel Wreath, Ambleside Copywork

Bible - Egermeier's Bible Stories, Calvary Chapel

Math - Saxon 5/4, Mathematical Reasoning through Verbal Analysis

Language, Reading Dev. & Spelling - Wilson Reading, LLATL, Megawords, Spelling Plus, Reading Detective & will be finishing up Rewards

History - MOH I, Trail Guide to World Geography, All through the Ages (for supplemental reading selections)

Writing/Literature - IEW Student Writing Intensive A, Teaching the Classics, Ambleside Online (adapted to fit our needs)

Science - Considering God's Creation, Science Detective

Poetry Memorization - IEW's Poetry Memorization

Typing - Mavis Beacon Deluxe

Critical Thinking - Building Thinking Skills

Music - The Masterpiece Collection (classical), Wee Sing CD's (Bible, Fun n' Folk, American/Patriotic), Hymn's for A Kid's Heart, etc.

Art - EM's How to Teach Art, Mona Brookes Drawing with Children

Nature Studies - The Handbook of Nature Study, Usbourne's The Natural World

We have a few other resources that we'll pull from and utilize to support our studies, but that's about the core of it.

For my youngest dd, we'll be doing a mesh of AO Year 0 and SL PreK, sprinkled with lots of reading!

Playing In The Rain

When was the last time you played in the rain? For me, it had been quite a while. It's easy to get so busy with our grown-up responsibilities that we forget to enjoy the simple pleasures of life, isn't it? Well, we had a breakthrough. . .in a moment of spontaneity, I took the girls outside to play in the rain the other day. They danced with the umbrella, splashed in puddles and we filled a float up with water, pretending it was a boat :-) Such fun!!

There's something so refreshing and simple about being outside running free when the rain is coming down! The water dripped from their heads and their smiles were bright as the morning sun.