Week in Review: January 13-17

Don't you just love it when you have wonderful plans, plans certain to keep your children enthralled with their education, exciting plans you can't wait to get your hands into? I know I do. I also know that is often when life intervenes and nothing goes as planned! Our week started out rough with Mommy catching a virus. Blessedly, (I would say miraculously!) no one else in the house came down sick and we were able to get back to normal and even catch up a bit by Wednesday.



Little Hands to Heaven: Units 32-33
I've been trying to finish up this guide for what feels like forever! We finally did it and I mushed two weeks into one and we're done. Grace was very excited to finally learn the motions and poems for Y an Z. She kept saying, "Mommy! We have to learn Y and Z!!!!" for the last few weeks.

We hit a couple of milestones this week! Grace finished up the About 3 series from Rod and Staff so she'll be moving on to the ABC series next week. She also reached the half-way point in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons...Yay!!! She is now able to read some words in early reader books. Her favorite one right now is Pizza Pat. There is absolutely nothing fancy about our reading program, but it works and is very solid, especially if you are on a budget.

Grace frequently asks me to do spelling with her. While she is doing great with both writing and reading, she isn't exactly ready for spelling. She has been known to make very good attempts at sounding out words, but she is too young to do spelling like her sisters do with All About Spelling. For now she enjoys using our Cookie Sheet Challenge activities and I call it spelling. I have some other tools like this I plan to use with her and I'm sure she'll love it!

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Unit 13
Beth was very happy to have a new book from Rod and Staff in their ABC series. These books are intended for use before 1st grade, but Beth has loved them immensely. When she saw I was ordering a set for Grace she asked if there were any more she could use. When I told her there was one new one her sweet response asking if I could get it for her I absolutely agreed. She enjoys problem solving which involves cutting, coloring, and thinking.

We read Seabiscuit which she very much enjoyed because it was about a horse. Sometimes she does not care to narrate to me, but she's getting better at this. When she is agreeable she does quite well. Beth is my little story-teller complete with voices and inflection. Her problem is she would much rather read than tell me about what she read. If she's particularly resistant I will ask her to act it out with toys and then her face lights up. I believe I will be asking her to do this more often.

Beth is very, very close to finishing up her 1st grade math curriculum from Rod and Staff. Math has always been easy for her and we have yet to hit any bumps. I'm letting her proceed at her own pace and she's very much ready to move into her 2nd grade material soon.




Preparing Hearts for His Glory: Unit 8 (2nd half)

We're working our way through multiplication facts quite well. I am very pleased not only with how well she is catching on, but how quickly she is memorizing them. This seemed to be a struggle for her with addition facts and I'm not certain why except I have taken off the pressure of timed quizzes. I do plan to introduce them again later, but relieving her of this pressure has enabled her to learn without fear of mistake. Her perfectionist tendencies were one reason we started homeschooling and they are still a constant struggle to help her balance. So instead of quizzes we use Math Rider to test speed. It is fun and feels like a game rather than a test.

History is always wonderful, but even better with Zoe around! Our sweet kitty just loves hanging out with the girls during school hours. I think the fact that they are quietly engaged makes her more amiable towards them because we rarely see her when they become more rambunctious in the afternoons. I'm very pleased with Rose's written narrations and she was very proud to be able to write her very own this week about David. She articulated very well what she read and it is exciting to see the Charlotte Mason way of teaching writing blossoming for her. Sometimes I am afraid that what I read sounds great in theory, but not practicality. I love seeing how well these methods actually work!

You can see from the pictures we were away from our schoolroom for much of the week. That's what happens when someone isn't feeling well in our house. But I love the freedom of movement which we have. The girls now each have their own canvas bag with the books we will use for that week they can carry to whatever location where we will be learning.

I posted three reviews this week as I'm trying to catch up from over the holidays! In case you missed them...

Girls of American History Curriculum - Felicity

Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal Review

Six Days (a book on creation)