Writing and math

We're still here, chugging along. Enjoying the hot weather. ;) By hot of course I mean tepid, but that's beside the point.

I've just started Sweet Pea on Math Mammoth's Subtraction 1. I'm really a fan of Math Mammoth and the way you can buy it- by topic or level or both. It's a hit.


We've worked almost all the way through the Addition 1 and we are working on subtraction in Singapore now, so I thought the time was right. It's going well!
We're also doing a little bit of gentle drill on math facts 0-10. Sweet Pea knows them, we're just working on increasing speed now that the concepts are firm.


Rod and Staff English continues to be a good choice. We're doing all of the exercises on paper. I know that a lot of people end up doing portions of it orally, but I like the actual pencil on paper practice that this is giving Sweet Pea.

That being said, I don't know if this will be our long term Language Arts solution or not. I'm constantly tweaking Language Arts- for some reason it's easier for me to just let math be and stick with what we are using but I'm constantly reading and researching about LA. We'll see!

Literary Work in Progress

Sweet Pea's current interest is in creating "books". I'm excited to see this because she wasn't writing very much recently. Some of her spelling is a little creative and her plot has a few holes, but I'm pretty impressed.
The title of her book is, "Silly and Willy".


The next part reads, "Silly went to Willy's hous(e) to see what he was doing today. it was a vare (very) nise (nice)...


...out. The son (sun) was shine-ing brite. Thehes (this's) garden.


Willy came and ran into silly's house.


And that's what she got so far.

Book review

Of the Odyssey, by Mary Pope Osborne. We picked up both books for Sweet Pea. We got the two volume set instead of the six.

I'm really impressed! It's not for the faint of heart, the cannibal giant is left in, for example.
The illustrations are nice, the words are well chosen and easy to read without being condescending.
Sweet Pea has been devouring it. It's a great addition to the study of the Ancient World.

May I humbly suggest something?

If you are following a specific homeschool pedagogy- please take the time to reread the philosophy periodically. Refresh yourself, re-evaluate your progress and game plan, and make sure that everything still fits for the reasons and time you are in.
I'm currently rereading the Well Trained Mind and even though I'm very familiar with the suggestions and material I always notice something new and good.
"Until a student reads without difficulty, he can't absorb the grammar of history, literature, or science; until a student writes with ease, he can't express his growing mastery of this material." This is one of my favorite quotes from the Well Trained Mind (I have the 2009 version, and this is from the opening of the Grammar Stage Language Arts section). It perfectly explains what I am looking for, and the book tells me how to get there.

It's nice to remember that, and see that we're on the right track.

9, 10, begin again

I've brought back out my earliest phonics stuff- my Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten set- to begin working with Little Bird on her letters. It's really exciting to be beginning the process again, especially since I've now done it once before. I can't think of many things we've done for school so far that have been more rewarding then helping Sweet Pea learn to read.
I can't wait for Little Bird to begin mastering this, as well!

French

We are slowly working through Hooked on French- then we will begin Le Francais Facile Junior.
Our speed would be pretty quick if I was just working with Sweet Pea, but I've decided for vocab to go at Little Bird's pace as well so she can join in.
So far the kids know hello/goodbye, numbers 0-10, and how to say how old they are.

I'm debating picking up the Ultimate Lapbook Handbook- anyone have it and have opinions?