It's actually been a week and a half - but who's counting? I have very limited time to try and get these posts done, but I use it as part of my record keeping so it must be done! It also doubles as a scrapbook so win-win!! Maybe Tuesday during piano lesson time will be the best? Boo is very fortunate to have a wonderful piano teacher come to our home for her piano lessons (we don't have to leave the house - YES PLEASE!!) She is LOVING piano. She began at the beginning of summer and is excelling and loving it - neither of her big sisters loved piano so this is quite exciting here!
Boo and I both love photography - actually all my girls do which makes momma happy :) So while we are homeschooling we often just come up with fun ideas for a picture. So we pile books on the floor, throw an apple on top - put on her cute shoes and snap away. Then we go right back to math - haha! Have I mentioned that I love homeschooling?
We started out the year with a pretty intense Bible program but started feeling the drudgery of that subject looming. Drawing from my past experience with homeschooling - I quickly put that one aside and dug up another one I had on stand by and it was the perfect fit. Sometimes studying the bible in depth is just what you need, and sometimes a lighter more life-applicable curriculum is what your heart and soul need. So for now we are studying "A Virtuous Girl". When I picked it up at the homeschool convention I remember thinking to myself - "I don't need this, I already have a Bible program". HA! God always knows better than we do. Maybe when we get deeper into our year the other Bible program will be just what we need.
We always start our day reading a page from this devotional - Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing. It's just perfect to get our hearts in the right place to begin our day, and something to think about throughout our time together.
After our Bible time we move on to Shurley English. We start out reviewing our chants and jingles to memorize parts of speech, kinds of sentences, and more. Then we move on to classifying sentences - which she is really amazing at! There is usually a fun activity like listing as many nouns as you can see in the kitchen in three minutes.
After English we move on to math which takes a large portion of our morning. I have to admit that I really am loving Saxon math - even though it's not what I would have chosen. But knowing Boo will transition back into our classical school, I want to keep her on the same program. She is learning so much while constantly reviewing math concepts from prior lessons.
She is still completely in love with the Veritas Press Self-Paced History . They are just about to release a Bible program next month so maybe that is just what we need!
This is the first book in Boo's entire life that she does NOT like. I don't think there has ever been a book that she didn't look forward to reading until this one. I tried reading it to her and I could tell she still zoned out. So dad tried reading a few chapters one evening and she seemed slightly more interested. I think we will put this one on the back burner for a while. She is still learning the facts about this part of history through her computer program anyway.
On some days during memory period time we sing Geography songs - one day last week we sang several songs about all the countries in Africa that she has memorized from years past. Putting together a puzzle of Africa while singing makes it even more fun! I tried to help her but she said that if I look at the picture on the box then its cheating. So I let her do it by herself from memory - this kid amazes me every day. We love our Geopuzzles!!
We are moving right along with our Institute for Excellence in Writing Program. She has learned how to do key word outlines and then write a paragraph based on that.
Sticker dress ups for her history class is always fun!
In the afternoons she moves on to more independent work - her vocabulary, spelling, critical thinking, piano practice, etc. That gives me time to get my photography work done. I'm surprisingly able to keep up with housework as she works throughout the day.
Our literature unit this week has been Fairy Tales. She has compared and contrasted the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson. One of the stories this week was The Frog Prince.
"If you want your children to be intelligent - read them fairy tales." - Einstein
So we combined literature and art class and made our own frog prince based on geometric shapes! (why not throw in some math as well?)
Is that not the cutest frog you have ever seen? I could ALMOST kiss it! :)
Our Latin lessons are coming right along as well - I'm learning alongside her. I think we have finally figured out a rhythm to our days and seem to be getting so much more accomplished than I thought we would. I don't want to push her too hard so I'm letting her take the lead just a bit and I'm learning when enough is enough!! She would go and go all day long if I let her.
Tonight begins her dance class - she has been dancing since she was two years old but has taken off the last two years. I'm thrilled that she is (somewhat hesitantly) willing to try again. She is a natural and we told her that she has to do at least ONE extracurricular outside of the house - since piano lessons at home doesn't count!!
We are off to a good homeschooling start!
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