Week in Review: May 25-29

We had a great week! Our week began with a field trip to a Science Center which gave us a great start. I'm planning on more field trips this summer and will blog about them all!

Lessons went really well and we had some fun almost every afternoon at the pool!

And when we weren't playing, here is what we were learning...

Grace: Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 15

Rod and Staff is the best for thinking skill type workbooks. I've used them with all three of my girls and all three have loved them. Grace  is in the G book. She began with these when she was 4 and we have just moved through them steadily. She has gotten to the point where she will read the directions ahead to herself, so I have to watch her and make sure she is doing it correctly! She sometimes has trouble identifying some of the pictures as the words intended for activities such as rhyming. It's been a neat way to introduce her to some things we don't have around our house as well as synonyms. 

My little girl isn't so little anymore! Look at her being all grown up and working on 1st grade word problems for math! I am not one to rush my children in their academic abilities, but neither am I one to hold them back. My little smarty pants was begging for more math so I tried out 1st grade an I'm so glad I did. She is learning at her own pace and just moving right along so smooth like a hot knife through butter. 

She's seeming rather bored with our Abeka readers. Maybe bored isn't the right word, but Grace is definitely not being challenged. I believe we will be starting with the Emerging Readers from Heart of Dakota. We may skip the Bible which comes first because she has read this over and over both with our family devotions and during her afternoon quite time. 

Beth: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 26

Do you remember how much I said my girls loved their Rod and Staff ABC books? Well Beth is finished up one this week. I intended her to only use them through 1st grade but when Beth figured out there was a new one, she begged me to buy it! She spent some time finishing up her last workbook this week. I find it really sweet that she loves them so much. 

Math is always easy for Beth, but she has recently begun making hasty mistakes. What I mean by that is she knows what to do, but does not take the time to carefully make sure she isn't making errors. I'm working to correct this with her by making her redo the problems she misses. We'll see how quickly she moves past it. 

History! We have moved on to the Civil War. One of our next field trips will focus on this time during history, especially slavery. Beth is more familiar with slavery because of our previous field trips and listening to the discussions I've had with Rose over the last couple of years. This week we looked at the states which sided with the Confederacy as well as some of the things which led to the war. 

Rose: Creation to Christ Unit 9

We are very much enjoying Write With the Best. I've seen some threads recently that some do not like it. I have not come across anything I dislike yet as we are about to finis up unit 2 this coming week. I also am looking at it from an English teacher's perspective. I love how classic writing is analyzed and then used as a model for her own writing. She still has some editing to do, but I will share her completed piece next week.  

Math is flowing along swimmingly! We started long division like it was an afternoon spring breeze. That's right, believe it or not, my Rose said to me, "Wow Mommy! This is pretty easy!" How sweet and beautiful those words were to me after the many struggles we have had. I cannot attribute this to anything except prayer, patience, and finding a math program (through prayer and patience!) that really works for us. 

One of the reasons I don't have as many pictures of Rose this week is that my little studious worker got up early two days and began doing her schoolwork while I was getting ready for the day. Having a checklist and giving my girls access to it has allowed them to be independent which is great. 

And now for my favorite photo of the week...

This is pretty normal study habits around our house. Beth especially loves reading outside on our front porch. Grace has also been begging me to read her history alone most days. How beautiful is this? Here are my girls studying together independently. Our one room schoolhouse is just beautiful.