A sad note

Mr. Bug, our lethocerus americanus, has passed away. He's eaten his last fish.
On the positive, we'll now send him on for a 4H project. And I'm contemplating what the next science pet should be. I'm leaning towards a translucent hybrid frog kit like this one. I'm not really interested in ant farms, and we don't want an actual pet at this time.

On another note, I still find myself waffling about math. Currently, we're using a combination of Miquon and Singapore Earlybird 2A. I also have Earlybird 2B. I've liked the Earlybird and I'm very impressed with Miquon, but I somehow feel that this all isn't concrete and drill oriented enough. Also, Sweet Pea is speeding through the Singapore. When she finished the books that we have I'd like to stick with the Miquon and maybe try something else. Maybe. Maybe?
I'm looking at A beka and Saxon. Saxon seems like it'd be too slow moving and I've read complaints that it leaves kids behind level. A beka gets really good reviews for the early years, but what would we move to after that?
For whatever reason, the choice of math curricula haunts me more then any other subject. I know it's slighty silly (or incredibly) but I really feel like no matter what I use I'll wish we've used something else.

Mail!

We had to come home quicker then we expected, but we were rewarded by having packages waiting for us.
What I now have for fall:
First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Vol. 1
Spelling Workout A
The Complete Writer Level 1
Memoria Press Cursive Copybook
Hooked on Phonics 1st grade
Miquon orange book
Singapore Earlybird 2A and 2B
Story of the World Volume 1 (and the Activity guide)
Prima Latina
and Catechism stuff from CPH.
I'm really excited. I think I've mapped it out in a feasible order from fall, and I know that we'll tweak it once we begin.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
First Spelling First Spelling First
Language Language Language
Lessons Lessons Lessons

Miquon Singapore Miquon Singapore Spelling

Complete Complete Complete Complete
Writer Writer Writer Writer

History History Science

Latin Latin Latin Latin Latin

Phonics Phonics Phonics Phonics Phonics

I don't have any times written in because I'd like to do each lesson until it's finished, not until the timer beeps. Most of the lessons are short and I've tried to alternate writing and oral exercises.

Observations about long distance driving with young children after this trip:
-I'm glad that we DON'T have a DVD player
-I actually ran out of verses of Old MacDonald's farm- there's only so many animals with sounds that I can think of
-Minnesota is a LONG state
-Living rurally has altered the way I see city drivers
-"I Spy" gets old fast
-Having the oldest read to the youngest in the car- sweetest sounds ever. Too cute.


We drove from about 11:30 AM until 10:30 PM with two short bathroom and gas breaks and a supper stop. It was long and tiring, but the kids did really well. It was neat to listen to Sweet Pea telling Little Bird stories. Sweet Pea has made up her own world called Strawberry Land with a fairy kitten family. The family all share the same name- Meow Meow and all seem to be pink with wings. And sometimes they change colors. There's a funny song to go with all this, as well. She's quirky and cute and all ours. <3

Field trip!

Right after church tomorrow we are leaving for a field trip. We're headed all the way down to Chicago, IL. On the way we'll drive southeast to Duluth, through Eau Claire, then Madison, and finally to Illinios. There's no easy direct path from our part of northern MN to Illinois!
Hopefully Sweet Pea and Little Bird will have a good time and not get too wild in the car. And hopefully we get some good pictures and see some good sights.
Be back Thursday!

We're in a slight academic holding pattern at the moment. We have relatives from Texas staying here so we've been focusing on catching up. Sweet Pea does a little handwriting and her reading, but I'm not having her do much else.

In the evenings, though, I've begun planning for fall. I have the first 4 chapters of Story of the World, Vol. 1 planned and I've picked the things from the activity guide that I think will fit best. I've also begun my science planning for next year. I picked the 20 animals for the first part of the year- so far I think we're going to study tigers, elephants, zebras, hippopotamii, wolves, bears, gorillas, lemurs, armadillos, walruses, whales, eagles, owls, penguins, komodo dragons, frogs and toads, seahorses, sharks, worms, and spiders. I've also started looking at resources for the next unit- the human body study. And I'm reasonably set that we'll use Rod and Staff's grade 2 science as the base for the botany study.
Copywork requires little to no advance planning- I'm using Memoria Press's cursive copybook and they planned it out. Same with Prima Latina. We'll start with the suggested schedule and tweak it from there. Math I'll do the way we did it last year. I still haven't received the First Language Lessons or the Complete Writer, so I don't have a good grasp on that yet.

Sick day

For mama, not the kids.
Because I was too sick to take them to church we did some cleaning and homeschooling.
Sweet Pea did more handwriting- review on letters a, d, c, o, t, n, f, e, and l. We also did some counting on the abacus- practicing from 1-100 and then counting by 10s.
Once she's secure on that we'll start counting by 5s and then 2s.

Nature Study

Today we spent a lot of time outside, playing and weeding the garden. It's still not hot out and we can't put all our plants out- it still frosts at night. But we do have some early shoots up. I overturned some of the paving blocks to get at weeds and we found a while world. A whole ant world, that it. They had hundreds of tiny white, wiggly eggs nestled into a divit and when the block was removed ants began pouring up to move the eggs to safety.
Fortunately for them, we came in peace. Sweet Pea and Little Bird were each enthralled- they lay on their bellies in the dirt watching the ants work quickly and efficiently.
I originally thought that Charlotte Mason style outdoor time would drive me nuts, but both kids love it. Sweet Pea is really getting interested in laying in the grass, face pressed close to the ground, to watch what all the insects are doing. Little Bird is much more into running around and chasing bunnies and seeing birds.
We can't do this all year long- it's so cold here for so long. But we'll enjoy the time outside that we have.
Speaking of natural wonders, Mr. Bug is still alive and hunting. I cleaned out his tank and we need to buy him more fish. I need to get a new picture of him- he's grown! He's also getting fiestier as the weather gets warmer.