Simple Homeschool

Simple Mom (a daily must read for me) launched Simple Living Media this week. Simple Living Media is now a family of five blogs, all with one purpose — to help people live simply. Each represents a unique topic related to simple living.

The Simple Websites:
Simple Homeschool
Simple Mom
Simple Organic
Simple Bites
Simple Kids

I am particularly excited about Simple Homeschool - and they are having a fantastic launch week giveaway right now. Go, and enter to win!

Snowbound

Enjoying a weekend stuck at home with my favorite people...


:: games by the heater


:: oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies

:: chicken cheddar chowder on the stove


:: snow forts, shoveling, sledding


:: hot chocolate by the fire


:: books, books, books...

:: Katy and the Big Snow... read so many times, he knows it by heart

And Again

We woke to this Narnia-like scene.
Much more is expected to fall this weekend.

I love snow. I do. It's lovely.

I just think it's about time to visit my parents in Florida.

Winter White : 1000 Gifts

Feeling His grace, my list of good gifts continues...

0273
Two godly, young people saying I do.

0274
A glowing bride.

0275
Swirling snow on their wedding day.

0276
Holding hands.

0277
A lunch date with Hannah.

0278
The piano teacher's cookie jar.

0279
Bright sun on clean, white snow.

0280
Coffee shop conversation.

0281
Buttermilk scones.

0282
Sunday sledding.

0283
Delighted screams on the way down.

0284
Family dinners.

0285
Belly laughs.

0286
Clean plates.

0287
The Psalms.

0288
Protection.

0289
Mercy.

0290
His cleansing blood.

0291
My scarlet sins white as snow.


The list goes on...

Mid-Year Homeschool Report

We are a little past the halfway mark! A good time for me to evaluate how things are going. Truly, I am always doing this in my mind, but it's good for me to get it down on paper/screen.

Way back in July I laid out all our plans for the year... now to see how we're really doing....

Hannah, 7-8 years : 2nd grade

Math:
Saxon 3 continues to work for us. I know many don't like the colorless pages, the hand holding teacher notes, the endless timed drills ("drill and kill" is one name I have heard), but Hannah and I don't mind a bit. I find she really benefits from all the built-in review. I do feel it doesn't include as much mental math as compared to Singapore, so I add a bit of that for fun. :)

Language Arts:
First Language Lessons - second half of book (supplementing with Evan-Moor's Grammar and Punctuation 2, Write a Super Sentence, Paragraph Writing). I really like FLL and the Evan-Moor worksheets have been a nice complement.

Explode the Code - She has finished Book 6 and is well into Book 7.

Spelling: I decided not to use Spelling Wisdom before school started and switched to All About Spelling. I had heard so many good things about AAS, and a friend let me borrow it, so we gave it a try. We used it for the first half of the year, but neither of us liked it. Hannah was bored to tears (and it required me to do the lessons with her). I imagine it would be a wonderful program for a struggling speller, but Hannah is not that. We usually glossed over it and had Spelling Bees using words from Explode the Code. I ended up going back to Spelling Workout C and we are both happier. Next year, I will use Spelling Wisdom.

Poetry Memorization (pulling mainly from The Harp and Laurel Wreath and other lovely books of poetry from the library): Hannah loves poetry. It is a joy for her to decide on the next poem to memorize.

Writing: Hannah is always writing... poems, stories, filling up diaries. We have not started a writing program, but I have been looking at the Institute for Excellence in Writing/Pudewa which many of my friends use. I think we will wait until next year.

Handwriting - Cursive: A Reason for Handwriting C. I really like the way this program divides up the lessons for a week. Her cursive is beautiful.

Reading: I have been lazy about keeping a book list of all that she reads. She is constantly reading. I really should compile a list of her favorites.


Will, 5-6 years : Kindergarten

Math: Horizons K. Math is his thing. We are moving quickly through this.

Reading: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, Explode the Code - Books 1 & 2, Evan Moor's Phonics Skills. We are moving along... perhaps a bit more slowly than I had hoped. He reads well during his lessons, but will rarely pick up an early reader and read independently. He is just not eager to labor through a book when one could be read to him. I am hopeful... it does seem it is all beginning to click.

Handwriting:
A Reason for Handwriting K - He just finished this book. Now we are just doing simple copywork, knowing that one short phrase beautifully written is better than a whole page of sloppy letters.


Peter, 3-4 years

We are enjoying puzzles and books, while learning letters and numbers. He is almost always with us during Music, Art, History, and Science.


Everyone:

Bible:
Leading Little Ones to God, The Child's Story Bible, The Jesus Storybook Bible, Scripture Memory. I am currently setting up our scripture memory box following Simply Charlotte Mason's system (very excited about this). We will finish Leading Little Ones to God (which we have enjoyed) very soon, and will then move on to the Shorter Catechism/Children's Catechism to guide our devotions. Hannah has her own daily Bible reading time using the Children's ESV Bible.

Latin:
I had planned on beginning Latin this year using Song School Latin. But Hannah had the opportunity a few months ago to join a weekly, homeschool Latin class taught by a homeschool mom who used to be a high school Latin teacher (Perfect!). There are six kids in the group that meets at a friend's house. Hannah LOVES it. Hannah missed the first year of this group, but is catching up quite well using Minimus Secundus for the text. She is reviewing the vocabulary she missed last year through online flash cards and games. It helps that dad knows Latin. :)

History:
Early American History, A Literature Approach (Beautiful Feet Books). We LOVE this! All of us. We often read much more than the lesson requires. The books have all been wonderful. I'm very happy with this choice.

Geography:
States and Capitals using My Father's World state sheets/cards. I decided to wait for next year to use A Child's Geography, Explore His Earth next year. We are slowly reading Hillyer's A Child's Geography of the World. Hannah loves online geography games.

Science/Nature Study:
We are following The Well-Trained Mind's suggestions for 2nd grade Science using the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Our World, the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Space, and piles of library books. We have also been thoroughly enjoying our study of birds using the Burgess Bird Book and Peterson's field guides. State birds and flowers are also included on MFW state sheets/cards which has worked well. We use the library heavily for our science lessons. We haven't done nearly as many experiments as I had hoped, but I knew that would be the first thing to go. We are anxious for the weather to allow for more hikes and outdoor nature study.

Overall, I've been pleased with our choices. It's been a good first half.

A Winter Weekend : 1000 Gifts

Looking back over a weekend full of gifts, my list continues...

0259
A Friday field trip to the Kennedy Center.

0260
A Friday night of friends, chili, and Apples to Apples.

0261
Sunny Saturdays.

0262
An afternoon walk with Peter "through the forest."

0263
Listening to our echoes in tunnels.

0264
Sitting on a big rock.

0265
Watching the water.

0266
Finding a "fishing pole"/stick. And carrying it all the way home.

0267
Finishing a good book with my girl.

0268
Saturday girls' night at the movies. A beautiful love story.

0269
Our church.

0270
The children's choir leading morning worship.

0271
A lazy, rainy, Sunday afternoon.

0272
Ending our Sunday at evening worship.

Painting-Cutting-Sewing

Just a few things we've been working on this past week...

Hannah wanted to hang something by her new desk in the school room. So, I gave her an "assignment"... draw-then-paint something in the house, fill the space, go off the page on at least one side, and use only 2 colors. I love what she created!

Will...
We replaced the nativity scene painting hanging in the kitchen with this Valentine decoration. I gave Will a few valentine-colored chalk pastels and told him to fill his paper with color, blending one color into the next. We hairsprayed the paper to keep the chalk dust from going everywhere. Then we cut hearts from the paper (much like the letters we did last week) and glued them to black card stock.


And I made this for Peter....

I am finally learning how to use my sewing machine. For years I was completely intimidated by the thing. The only one who had ever used my sewing machine was my mom. I'd seen these pencil/crayon rolls a few places and thought... I need to learn how to make those. Skip To My Lou has a helpful tutorial for a simple felt roll. My mom helped me create a pattern and get comfortable with my machine last time she was here (aren't moms great?). A whole new world of projects is open to me now! I've made a few for gifts. And before Peter's, I made pencil "rolls" for Hannah and Will. They use them all the time. Perfect to throw in a bag with a sketch book.