Schooling in PICTURES returns!

'Cause I know you've all been dying to see. Right? Right?

Those ghosts are the pained footprints of each on my kids, filled in and decorated.

This week we covered more of the Puritans. We also went out of order and added Leif Ericson to our Book of Time. We read about him. I'm a little surprised he wasn't included in Sonlight's American history, but he was easy to include! Must not forget the vikings!!


Sweet Pea colors these, then we cut them out and write a sentence for her book to help us remember something about each person.



We're chugging along in math. We're almost 1/2 way through the book. The focus has been more on practical math then doing the workbook, though, which has slowed progress through the book but increased our enjoyment.


Here's a sample dictation from Sonlight's LA. We then go through it the next day and mark up all the parts of speech. The lengths of the dictations varies.



In science we are studying the planets. To go along with this we are building a scale model of our solar system. I'll put pictures up when we have more then itty bitty Mercury done. It's not too impressive on it's own!

The kids have been making various crafts and coloring. A lot.

Little Bird is working through a Handwriting without tears book when I am busy with her big sister.
Moose insists he has to color, too.


Sweet Pea's art is as sweet and quirky as ever.


The girls also practice piano daily. I shoot for 15-30 minutes from each of them per day.

Along with this we are doing Latin. Sweet Pea reads daily for school and pleasure. Little Bird is working through phonics. Moose is diligently babbling at us and practicing that toddler mind control that allows a nominally verbal little person to get what he wants and needs.

Things are good!

Weekly Report Week 1

And still no pics. If you are here for my unfancy photography, I apologize.

Otherwise, carry on.

We did 1/2 of Week 1 of Sonlight Core D&E.

Sweet Pea's favorite parts of the week were her readings from Om-Kas-Toe and listening to On the World's Rim.

Little Bird's favorite part of the week was coloring with mommy and reading a book about a rat.

Latin was also a high note. When we tried Prima Latina a few years ago it was too much. Now we should be able to clip through it.

All's well 'round here!

And that's a relief.

Review- more then half done!

I haven't put a review up in a few weeks, but we're still merrily chugging along.

Little Bird is getting closer and closer to doing a real school week. It's really exciting to see! She's working solidly through Get Ready for the Code A. Once she turns 4 we'll start Singapore. And possibly Cursive First.

This week Sweet Pea finished Unit 3 in math. She's now a total pro at adding and subtracting double digit numbers with regrouping, and pretty good at triple digit numbers.

For writing we are still free writing, although we did do a lesson from Maxwell's this week.

We've almost finished Sweet Pea's spelling book! She's spelling so well right now that I don't think we'll start the next level right away.

In science we did amphibians and reptiles. The girls were really interested in frogs because they see so many of them in the summer. I think it'd be neat to do one of those tadpole kids- but I don't want to have to keep the frog once it's grown, so that probably won't happen.

History- we are winding through the Greeks. Sweet Pea can locate different parts of Greece and the Persian empire on the globe with pretty good accuracy. We're also working on geography in relation to our home and country.

I've uploaded some pics of two lapbooks we made this week- Sweet Pea made a 10 Commandments one to go along with Catechism and Little Bird made one for the letter A.

Little Bird's.
Cover.


Inside.


Back.


And Sweet Pea's.
Cover.


Inside with flaps closed.


Inside with a few flaps open.


View from the back.

Weekly Reporting strikes again!

Bible

We did Joseph and his brothers. I believe that this ends Joseph. When we started Joseph we were also doing ancient Egypt in History, but we stayed with him longer then we did Egypt, so I think we're all ready to move on now!

Catechism

Sweet Pea continues to review the 10 Commandments and reciting them- usually she gets them right and is working on confidence. She is almost all the way through the Apostle's Creed and we will start really working on reciting that well.

French

We have covered the first 1/2 of Le Francais Facile now! We are going to spend the next few weeks working on vocab and pronunciation, then we will move on. I'm glad we introduced French this year- the girls really enjoy it and it provides a nice change of pace during the day since almost all of the "work" is oral and feels like play.

Spelling

Sweet Pea has finished lesson 18 now. Lesson 18 was a big review lesson and we have covered a lot of the different vowel combinations as well as starting and ending sounds. I think that Sweet Pea's confidence as a speller has really improved since the beginning of the year.

Math

We have done the first three units of Singapore Primary Mathematics 1B. This means Sweet Pea can now do subtraction problems like 43-25 or addition like 34+57, ect. Next unit is multiplication- wish us luck!

Writing

Maxwell's Primary Lessons is going well. Sweet Pea working on combining sentences using commas and making lists last week. We also did a lot of "free writing" where I asked her to write a certain number of sentences about a general topic (ie Harry Potter) and then we talked about ways to improve the sentences.

Grammar

We did 3 lessons from Rod and Staff English orally for grammar practice this week.

History

We revisited ancient Greece this week. Sweet Pea was very excited to finally cover the Odyssey and learn about the time period Homer lived in. Sweet Pea was especially enthused about the Cyclops coloring page from the Story of the World activity pages.

Science

We finished birds and began fish. This summer the girls fished a lot and remembered the physical parts of fish remarkably well. Thanks, Grandpa, for cleaning all those fish for them to see!

Family Fun

We visited a lot of friends this week and had even more over to the house. We finished up the Halloween house (yummy) and played a lot of games. As I write this the snow is coming down and if there is enough we may make the first snow man of the season.

Field trip week

Last week we drove down to Omaha, Nebraska, to meet my parents. They live in Texas, so it's more of a central place to meet.

It also gives us a chance to take the kids to do a lot of things that normally we don't have a chance to do.

We went to the Mallory Kountze Planetarium and saw a show about stars and the universe. We went as a private group during the day, so it was $40. However, this allowed the kids to ask as many questions as they wanted without us worrying about keeping them quiet. They also have quite a few neat displays that the kids really liked.

We also went to Pioneer Trail Orchard and Pumpkin Patch. This is actually across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I can not say enough good things about this place- the people who run it are sweet, accommodating, and you can really tell that they are running this because they love it and they love kids. They have been operating the pumpkin patch for sixteen years. Highlights for my kids were a hay ride (sans hay which was actually excellent since multiple members of our party have allergies), picking out their very own pumpkins (very reasonably priced), going through a corn maze, a "haunted" barn that is extremely age appropriate (they also have a more intense one for the older and braver crowd), and the playground. They also sell refreshments and have some small rides. It's a short drive from central Omaha and really worth the trip if you are looking for fun, seasonal activities that feature fall and Halloween.

The kids were also pleased to go to the Henry Doorly Zoo again. This was a favorite from last year, as well. I like the combination of indoor and outdoor exhibits. I was also really impressed with the Skyfari- at $4 a person it is a really long ride that takes you all the way across the park and back. I do wish that the zoo had coupons and more eating choices, but otherwise it's a great time.

Little Bird was under the weather, so she went to the doctor with grandma, little Moose, and myself while Sweet Pea went to the Omaha Children's Museum with her grandpa and father. The doctor was nice, but I think that Sweet Pea got the better end of that deal. She was a little less impressed with the museum and I heard that some of the exhibits were not working properly.

A high point of the trip for me was visiting Adoremus Bookstore. This is a Catholic bookstore with a large homeschool book selection and a nice staff that features at least one homeschooling mother. I was pleased to pick up the next level of Singapore math (although it is US Ed. not Standards, so we'll see how we like it) as well as the Explode the Code primers for Little Bird. Sweet Pea is pleased about the new math as well as her new coloring books.

This was a great trip and gave us some neat opportunities. I think it was a week well spent.

This upcoming week we will be studying Martin Luther and the Reformation all week in preparation for Reformation Day.

Weekly report, sick week

Mostly the mother, not the kids.

Language Arts

Sweet Pea

We have done the first 6 lessons of Maxwell's Primary Language Lessons and Composition. So far we have covered: copywork (daily), picture study (daily), and grammar (daily). This program feels very similar to me to Classical Writing from the scope and sequence and samples that I have seen. It's about 10-15 sentences per lesson. Every lesson also has an oral component to be done with the parent or teacher at the beginning- this is where the concepts and grammar are introduced.

We are also still using Rod and Staff's English 2, only we are now doing the lessons orally. I really like the amount of grammar in this, and we already have it, so we'll complete it orally and then switch to something else next year for just grammar.

Sweet Pea has done 14 lessons in her spelling program. She continues to be a good speller and is good and visualizing words in her head and being able to put that accurately on paper.

She is currently rereading Mary Pope Osbourne's retelling of the Odyssey for her personal, fun reading. We are reading Charlotte's Wed out loud together- Little Bird and baby Moose also listen to this to varying degrees.

Little Bird

Little Bird knows all of her capital letters! Well, usually. She's now working on her lower case ones and letter sounds. We are also working on dot to dots, coloring, properly holding a pencil, and enunciating the sounds she still struggles with- namely f, th, and v.

Math
Sweet Pea

We did the review of numbers 0-20, addition and subtraction, this week. Next is shapes and measuring and money- so more review. That's good, though- when we move on to the next book it's a big jump in skills!

Little Bird

Little Bird can count to 20 (both in English and French) and can now recognize the numbers 1-5.

History
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We finished Egypt, meandered through the Israelites , and then dissected the Phoenicians. I think that Sweet Pea liked the chapter on the Phoenicians the best, but she liked the Israelite crafts better. I highly suggest the Activity Guide for anyone doing SOTW!

Science
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

Review on mammals. I think that they've retained a pretty good amount about what makes mammals unique and how to identify them.

French
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We did Lesson 9 this week. We are not doing any of the writing anymore, we are just working on vocab and usage, as well as listening for accent. The girls watched some movies in French and listened to some children's songs in French.

Bible
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

This week was Jacob's Ladder. Sweet Pea has a little bit of catch up to do- she still needs to draw a picture for this week as well as last week.

Catechism
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We are now working on the Apostle's Creed. Sweet Pea knows all 10 of the commandments, in order, and can easily recite them. She can say the Creed if someone else is saying it with her, but we are working on having her do it solo.

Poetry
Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea has been practicing reciting, "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod." I'm going to have her read it and say it more this next week, then she can illustrate a picture of it and we'll add it to her binder.

Family Fun

Our fun this week was kind of lame since I was sick. We made Jello in funny shapes and baked brownies. We got stickers and made sticker pages and colored them. Both girls spent time working on puzzles, and helped little Moose perfect the art of getting into a sitting position.

Fall Break

We spent this last week on fall break. It was wonderful! We began the week at a conference for my husband and spent time with friends. The girls had a wonderful time playing and I had a good time, as well.

We've spent our time coloring, crafting, cooking, and taking walks to enjoy the outside before the weather really gets chilly.

Next week we are back to our regular schedule.

Weekly report, week 6

In which I realize that this blog has few entries as on late save these weekly reports. I need to post more- there's lots I'm thinking of and that I want to say- I just need the time to say it!

We had a lot of interruptions and chaos this week. We will be wrapping things up this weekend. Fortunately, the interruptions were of the fun and social variety, so it was time well spent.

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea and I are spending some time reviewing how to make uppercase letters. We're also making great progress through Rod and Staff English. We do one lesson a day, so we work through 5 lessons in a week and it takes about 5 weeks to do each unit. We are over 1/2 way through Unit 2 and there are only 6 units, so we are doing great! I have Writing Strands level 2 that we will be starting soon and at that point we may switch to doing Rod and Staff orally for the grammar instead of using it for grammar and writing. We'll see!

Spelling is currently going well. Sweet Pea floored me this week by telling me that she LIKES spelling because it helps her write her stories. I'm glad she sees a good reason for it!

Little Bird

Little Bird is still working on her ABCs. It's something that she does with both mommy and now daddy- it's something fun and special that they can do together without any prep work. She also continues to hone her fine motor skills with copious amounts of coloring, cutting, pasting, and playing with play-doh. This week I let her spend a lot of time cutting paper into tiny pieces, gluing them back together, then coloring the mess. She can now recognize all the uppercase letters and most of the lower- go Little Bird!

Math
Sweet Pea

We had a small math breakthrough this week! Always exciting. Sweet Pea can now easily add a single digit number to a double digit number. Next we will work on adding two double digit numbers. I especially like the focus on mental math and regrouping numbers to a base 10 unit (12+5=10+2+5=17).


We also spent some quality time with flashcards to review math facts for sums 0-20. Other fun activities included spending time skip counting by 2s and 3s.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

This week we finished ancient China. We had fun reading about silkworms and how farmers in China could grow rice while the farmers in Mesopotamia could not. Sweet Pea remembered the Nile delta and it's floods when we were talking about the Yellow River and it's flood patterns. It was also fun to introduce the idea of a dynasty and familial rule lasting for that long.

Science

This week we talked about mammals who live in the water. We talked about generalities, then looked up some specific species. We looked up the baleen whale- and Sweet Pea exclaimed, "That's like the whale on Nemo!" Good to see that there are real world applications for science. ;)

We times ourselves holding our breath and we were worse at it then any of the ocean dwelling mammals. Good thing we don't need to rely on holding our breath for survival!

French

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

This week was a heavy vocabulary and usage review week. We went over all previously introduced terms and practiced integrating them throughout the day. We did lessons 1-5 again and next week we will move on to lesson 6.

Bible

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

This week was the Flood. I think it's one of the best known and most artistically done Bible stories., but in reality it's a really dark story. Think about it- everyone save 8 people and the animals on board the ark lost to water? Kind of strange that images of the cute, fluffy ark are so commonly found on nursery items and children's toys. The lesson went well, though, and we're moving on.

Catechism
Sweet Pea

I was all set to move on to the next section of the Catechism this week. I was! I had all my sheets together and everything! Then I decided to stop and review here, too. See a theme? Sweet Pea knows all 10 Commandments, but is still cementing their order. Once that's firm we will move on.

Family Fun

This week we saw quite a few friends. We also spent family time playing board games and the girls had some quality time together with stickers. They made this masterpiece together.



Just for fun I'm including my lesson plan form for the past 6 weeks. I am changing how I do it next quarter because this looks really cramped.


I hope everyone else had a great week- I know we did!

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We have worked through lesson 10 (the first review) of Unit 2 in Rod and Staff English. We are still working on nouns and locating them in sentences. Sweet Pea is getting good practice in classifying them and pulling them out of sentences.

Little Bird

Little Bird is still working on her ABCs. She also continues to hone her fine motor skills with copious amounts of coloring, cutting, pasting, and playing with play-doh.

Math
Sweet Pea

We are now well into section 6 of Primary Mathematics! This means we are working on numbers 11-20. Sweet Pea is also getting good practice solving for X and has had a lot of story problems to work through lately. I think that we will start Challenging Word Problems (I got a complete set when they were being phased out) soon.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We reviewed history from the beginning of time-ancient China. Currently we are not doing most of the fun projects in the activity guide. We just aren't making it quite that far. We are doing the mapping and coloring pages.

Science

This week we did primates. I think most kids loves primates- they are so common when you think of mammals. Doing the animal kingdom this year was a great choice!

French

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We did Lesson 5 of Le Francais Facile. We also reviewed colors, shapes, greetings, numbers, and size words. We also got a new CD of French children's songs to play when the girls are coloring or playing. I picked one with a France French accent since our main program has a decidedly Quebec sound to it.

Bible

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We covered the children of Adam and Eve. I've always found this to be a sad story. The kids seemed to enjoy it, though, and we'll keep moving on.

Catechism
Sweet Pea

We've done the 10 Commandments now. We'll review and move on! Yay!

Family Fun

We visited my inlaws' lake house. The kids played in the woods, colored, explored, and had adventures. We adults grilled and hung out. A good time was had by all!

Weekly Report, Week 4

We had a great week this week!

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We are progressing well through R&S English. Today we did the first review lesson (lesson 5) in Unit 2. Sweet Pea is doing well with finding nouns and deciding what type of noun is what. We also worked on proper punctuation for list making this week.

Little Bird

Little Bird is still working on her ABCs. She is also now starting to do some "pre-writing" stuff. I don't think she'll be ready to make letters for some time yet, but it's fun to see her learning!

Math
Sweet Pea

We finished section 5 in Primary Math, so we've done the positioning stuff. We may start the next section a little later then I'd planned because I'm taking a small break from the book to make sure that all math facts 0-10 and doubles 0-20 are firm in her mind.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

This week was Ancient India. This lesson was particularly interesting for my girls because they know a sweet little girl who is from India.

Science

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea research bats and wrote a report about them. I am seeing that the First Animals Encyclopedia we have is not enough for what we need and I'm looking for something with large pictures but more information.

French

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We did Lesson 4 of Le Francais Facile. We also reviewed colors, shapes, greetings, numbers, and size words. We also got a new CD of French children's songs to play when the girls are coloring or playing. I picked one with a France French accent since our main program has a decidedly Quebec sound to it.

Bible

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We covered the promised savior this week. Little Bird was relieved to add this in- she was a little upset at where it ended last week!

Catechism
Sweet Pea

We have covered through the 9th Commandment now. I think we'll finished the sheets for the commandments this week and then we'll review and move on.

Family Fun

I'll post pictures tomorrow, but this evening I let the girls spread out on the kitchen floor with water colors and paint pictures. They were really excited- we haven't gotten to do as much messy art since the baby has gotten mobile. This was a great treat for them!

Weekly Report, Week 3

Wow, is it REALLY week three already? How does time go so quickly?

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We finished unit 1 of our English program. 1/6 of the way through! We worked a lot on sentence order, proper sentence beginning, and ending.

We have also finished 4 lessons of spelling now.

I think overall we're making great LA progress!

Little Bird

Little Bird is still working on her ABCs. This is one of her favorite parts of "doing school."

Math
Sweet Pea

We finished another section in Primary Mathematics. We have also finished 2/3 of Math Mammoth Addition 1 now! Math is going really well, and is something Sweet Pea looks forward to everyday.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

Together we talked about the Assyrians this week.

Science

Sweet Pea

We talked about animal classification, focusing on the differences between invertebrates and vertebrates. We talked about the 5 animal kingdoms, and where commonly thought of animals fit in.

French

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We did Lesson 3 of Le Francais Facile. We also reviewed colors, shapes, greetings, numbers, and size words.

Bible
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We covered the first sin this week. We also talked a lot about Heaven, forgiveness, and death.

Catechism
Sweet Pea

We have covered through the 6th Commandment now. I'm glad we are doing this daily and incorporating the Catechism into our daily life on a regular, intentional basis.

Weekly Report, Week 2

Week Two had two unplanned no-to- minimal school days, so that hurt our progress a little. We'll finish the rest of the work tomorrow afternoon. Fortunately, the school time we missed was missed for fun reasons, not anything bad.

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We didn't do any Language Arts last week, so this was the first of the school year. We did writing, grammar, and spelling. Sweet Pea is a visual learner, and she spells words by picturing them in her mind (her description). This seems to be working pretty well for her, but we're doing a systematic spelling program, anyway. This is a short and sweet part of our day and takes less then 5 minutes, three times a week. The plan was to do writing and grammar 5 times this week, but we only accomplished 4. We will do that final lesson tomorrow afternoon.

My overall feelings in this area for the week are very good. Sweet Pea is very capable of the current workload while still being appropriately challenged.

Little Bird

Little Bird was happy this week to get her own ABC draw erase cards. I also am having her go through pages when we are reading and find the letters she knows.

Math
Sweet Pea

We did four complete days of math instruction so far this week- day 5 will be tomorrow afternoon. This means that we did work from both of our programs. Sweet Pea did Primary Mathematics workbook pages 49-52, covering addition and subtraction, and worked through pages of addition and subtraction from Math Mammoth, as well. We continue to work on cementing math facts, as well as increasing ease in playing with numbers.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

Together we talked about Hammurabi and written laws, and how they impact society. We built a ziggurat from Duplos. We may or may not cover some material on the Assyrians tomorrow- we'll try but it's a lower priority then some of the other catch up work.

Science

Sweet Pea

We talked about animal classification, focusing on the differences between invertebrates and vertebrates. We talked about the 5 animal kingdoms, and where commonly thought of animals fit in.

French

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We did Lesson 2 of Le Francais Facile. We also reviewed colors, shapes, greetings, numbers, and size words.

Bible
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

We covered the first home/ garden of Eden this week. This was a good week to cover this since we brought the rest of the potatoes out of our garden.

Catechism
Sweet Pea

We have covered through the 5th Commandment now. I'm glad we are doing this daily and incorporating the Catechism into our daily life on a regular, intentional basis.

Family Fun/ Field Trip

We had friends over multiple times this week- something that the children always enjoy. We also went to visit my in-laws at their lake home 2 hours to the south of us, so the girls got the chance to swim, attend another fair, and play in the woods.

Weekly Report, Week 1

I can't believe week one is already finished! It went really well, and really quickly. There were some minor speed bumps, but it was a great opening to our year.We did not do all of the subjects that I plan for the year- I wanted to go into this week with an easier schedule to let every one adjust. We did Bible, Catechism, French, History, Science and Math. Next week we are adding in Writing, Spelling, and Art. (OK, I know that I do not need to capitalize the subjects- it makes me feel special, OK? OK?)

Language Arts
Sweet Pea

We didn't do any official language arts. Sweet Pea just recently finished the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (OPG), so we reviewed a few of those lessons and read out loud. We went to the library and Sweet Pea picked out some books for afternoon reading time. Sweet Pea's reading stamina and comprehension have really made some incredible leaps in the last few months.

Little Bird

Little Bird is doing really well learning her ABCs. We are doing them on a dry erase board still. She knows a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,m,o,p,q,s,u,w, and z. We're almost there! Next we'll work on sounds, then we'll start OPG with her.

Math
Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea is my only one studying math right now. We restarted Math Mammoth Addition 1. Next week we'll jump into Singapore again, but this was a great refresher.

History

Sweet Pea and Little Bird

History is a combo subject. I don't expect any output from Little Bird, but she listens right along with us. We did Ch. 6 of Story of the World 1: The Ancients (SOTW). Sweet Pea was really impressed with the opportunity to make a comic book (graphic novel?) of Joseph. This is going much better then last year- it seemed to be a little much last fall but is perfect now.

Science

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea is my only current science student, as well. We worked on a Rod and Staff science lesson about farm animals. It makes me laugh a little- we are pretty rural, but we are definitely not on a farm here, so the emphasis on farm life isn't a perfect fit for us. I think beginning next week we're going to change to a study of the animal world.

French
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

This is another group subject around these parts. We started Le Francais Facile. I like it. Her accent is French Canadian, and I'm pretty sure it's also a Quebecois accent, at that. Doesn't really bother me. There isn't ONE proper French accent, and if we ever plan a trip to a French speaking area we'll worry about accent then.
Initial reaction is that I'm pleased with it. I think it introduces a good amount of vocabulary, it's quick to do, and it appeals equally well to my 6 year old as it does my 3 year old. That's a winner for us right now!

Bible
Sweet Pea and Little Bird

Another group activity 'round these parts! Seeing a common theme? This went really well. We did creation (Genesis 1) all week. The girls enjoyed reading the many and varied accounts we read and they liked filling out their workbooks.

Yesterday they both summarized the week for a book I'll make for each of them. I'm including Sweet Pea's and I'll just tell you Little Bird's since I wrote it for her. :) Little Bird said, "When God made the world He made animals." They both drew pictures to go with it today.

Catechism
Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea worked through the Intro to the 10 Commandments, the 1st Commandment, and 1/2 the 2nd Commandment.

Family Fun/ Field Trip

Tonight we went as a family to the county fair. The kids had a really great time on the rides and we ate a bunch of fair food. It was a great close to the week. Sweet Pea made a picture of a roller coaster to commemorate the fair.