Weekly Review: October 22-26

Before I get to the review I have some exciting news! I have another great giveaway! Do you find your children miss the fun and games found in a traditional physical education program? On Monday I will be posting a review and giveaway of the curriculum Family Time Fitness. My girls have been having a BLAST with this program. I have to be honest and tell you I didn't really see the need or realize how much my girls would enjoy having a more formal fitness education. Click here to find out more!

This week  we learned about the parting of the Red Sea, the birth of Jesus, John Audubon and more about Benjamin Franklin. One of the great things about using three different curriculum guides for my girls is we experience so much more. We do all of our schooling together so even though at any given moment the girls are working on various assignments, they are still absorbing so much of what their sisters are learning! We also completed our art once again! (Yay me!) The link for that post is at the bottom of the page.

Little Hands to Heaven: Unit 8

Grace remembered so very much about Moses from last week! This really pleased me because she just recently turned three and I know her ability to retain information is still growing. Every time we read more about Moses she would say, "That's the baby in the basket!" 

With this preschool program I find my sweet Grace learning things I know I would neglect without it! One of those is simple preschool math concepts. She can already count to 15 (or 20 on a good day) and recognizes her numbers up to 10, but something I hadn't though to teach her yet was the the concept of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. She brought in her collection of cars (You may notice we use these a lot during our learning time!) She loved moving Lightening McQueen into first place. What a fun little game to learn this concept!

She also wanted to work on math this week like her big sisters, so we pulled out a math workbook our neighbor gave her for her birthday. Since it was money and time I wasn't really sure what she would do with it. I gave her a variety of coins and she enjoyed matching them to the page. It's great to see how even small things capture Grace's attention and help her learn at the same time! 

Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 11

Beth's reading has blossomed so much! She's moved on to the 1st grade curriculum already and often asks to read her history aloud rather than just listening to it. She is a natural reader and retains any new concepts she learns very well. She was especially interested in reading this week's history since it was about Jesus' birth. 

This week we also learned the months of the year in order. She remembers them all for the most part, but we'll be reviewing those again next week. 

We have finally reached a math concept I actually had to teach my smart little girl...counting by 10's! She had the right idea, but we practiced a lot so she could get comfortable. We also started learning about money and used dimes to count by 10's. She really liked this! 

I'm expecting the 1st grade level of Rod and Staff in the mail this week. I'm looking forward to this because Beth really loves math, but always wants to do more. With Rod and Staff she'll get the more she's craving without learning too many concepts too quickly.

Bigger Hearts for His Glory: Unit 10 

Rose is now reading all of her history and science on her own. The passages are meant to be read aloud, but she enjoys reading on her own rather than having to wait for me to finish with her sisters. Since she is reading 5th grade level books for fun, I don't see anything wrong with this. She also tends to comprehend better when she reads the selections herself.

She will soon finish up the second grade Abeka readers we have. I am pleased with the progress in reading comprehension. My plans are to move her to more formal literature studies after this. I also have a variety of second grade literature books given to me by a retired teacher. She is really looking forward to this change!

We have been studying Benjamin Franklin for both history and science and this week moved on to learning about John Audubon as well. I'm very excited about this study. I have a good friend who has an original Audubon painting in her home. I didn't know this until I mentioned a few months ago that we would be studying him as part of our science this year. She became very excited and told me to make sure to come over at the end of the unit so my girls could see the painting. I'm really looking forward to this!

Rose is definitely spoiling me with her independence. I will have to remember that my daughters coming up may not be quite so ready to do as much work on their own at this age! She is thoroughly enjoying looking words up in her dictionary, writing the sentences, and drawing pictures. It took some time for her to learn how to look up words in the dictionary, but this week she didn't need to ask for help at all. 

Here is a link to the promised art projects!  I hope your week was as smooth as ours. I'm so grateful for our established routine. This is what keeps us all on task and sane throughout the week! The girls are so used to things now that if I get busy cleaning up in the kitchen after breakfast they will start working on school without me even in the room. For us, routine is what gives us freedom. We have the structure and get done in a timely way so the afternoons are more free to do other things. I wasn't sure how running three guides would go, and the first few weeks weren't so easy, but I'm so glad I stuck with it.