Hello Spring

Just before the rinks closed for the season 

we squeezed in a sunny afternoon of skating with friends. 

One is a sweet new friend just adopted from the Ukraine. 

I even got out there and had enough stability to take a few pictures!

Our Homeschool : 3rd Grade : 2012/2013

Today we began week 25 of this school year. That's not too late to post what we're doing around here, is it?

Following up on a post earlier this month highlighting Hannah's 5th grade curriculum, here's what Will has been busy doing in 3rd. Oh, how I love 3rd grade! Nine is such a great age.


Will : 3rd Grade

Bible
Daily family Bible reading and discussion that follows along with the scripture texts for the Sunday sermons

Memory Work (together with Hannah and Peter)

• Scripture Memory
• Heidelberg Catechism - selected questions
• Veritas Press History Timeline

Math

• Saxon Math 5/4
• Life of Fred - Farming (A chapter each Friday for fun... and it is fun!)

English/Writing

• First Language Lessons, Level 3
• Writing With Ease by Susan Wise Bauer.
• Poetry memorization and copywork. Will loves this and is always excited to pour over poetry books to find the next one to memorize. Right now he's almost ready to recite The Children's Hour by Longfellow.
• Penmanship - Cursive
• And lots of reading, narration, and discussion.

Latin
Visual Latin
Will has been doing a little Latin with Hannah, but it's been more of an exposure year for him.

Spelling
Spelling Workout D

Vocabulary
Wordly Wise 3

We all do History, Geography, Science, Art, Music, and PE together. Those subjects can be found here:
Our Homeschool : 5th Grade : 2012/2013

Our Chore Chart

Finally, we found something that works.

I pulled this together last summer desperate for a system that was easy for to kids to use and simple for me to maintain. Day-of-the-week-chores that seem never seem to line up with real life were just not working. When Hannah is supposed to clean the guest bath on Fridays and we have people over for dinner on Thursday... or Tuesday... or both... well, that just doesn't work. And sometimes the dishwasher needs to be emptied and sometimes it doesn't. You know what I mean. 

What I love about this system is that right before I go to bed I can assign chores that need to be completed the next morning. And there is piano practice up there, too. I'm afraid that seems a little like a chore to them some days. When the kids complete their chore they just move the clothespin to the other side. Oh, and if I think of a new chore I don't have to redo the whole thing - I just add a new clothespin. The chores that aren't assigned for that day hang out on the bottom. 

Peter's chores (he's 7) are more specific. They all have to make their beds in the morning, but Peter sometimes needs to be prompted. He often carries around his clothespins as reminders until he completes all his chores. It's easy to get distracted with all the loud piano playing going on. 

I used a thin wooden board I found in the basement, painted it, duct taped a ribbon to the back, and attached it to the top of the basement door with thumb tacks. Simple as that. Finally, chore chart success! 

Winter's End

Eager for spring, though pretty disappointed that the big "Snowquester" was a weather bust, we are plodding along through muddy March celebrating every early daffodil we find. 

Here's just a little bit of life found on my camera...

"Please stop working and play with me."
Homeschooling with a puppy has been more of a challenge than I expected. 

But he is so sweet, and so loved. And SO patient with these two.

An engagement brunch for Regis and Lydia. These are the few that stayed to the very end...
and got to take home the leftovers... yum. We will make our first trip ever to Kansas City for the big event in May. The bride and groom are the tall, beaming ones in the center. 

This toy is always in someone's hands. 

Our current read-alouds. Really I just wanted a picture of that darling Robin Hood cover. I would buy that book just for the cover. The inside is pretty great, too.

This cutie lost his front tooth on his birthday and I failed to get a picture until recently.
That big tooth beat me to the toothless photo op.

  

Our Homeschool : 5th Grade : 2012/2013

Usually, I post our plans for the school year in July or August while I am spinning excitedly about all things new and fresh, and spending my late summer days pouring over the books arriving daily in mail.

This year it's March. I'm not really sure what happened.

But as I begin to think ahead to next year, I wanted to make sure to record what we did this year. So, here's what Hannah has been working on. I'll post Will and Peter's curricula choices separately.


Hannah : 5th Grade

Bible/Theology

• The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study: A Survey of the Bible by Starr Meade. A very good study! Hannah will complete Volume One this year; there are four volumes to take her through the whole Bible in middle school.
• Daily family Bible reading and discussion that follows along with the scripture texts for the Sunday sermons

Memory Work (together with Will and Peter)

• Scripture Memory
• Heidelberg Catechism - selected questions
• Veritas Press History Timeline

Math

• Saxon Math 7/6
• Life of Fred - Fractions (A chapter each Friday to mix things up - she loves it!) 

Logic
Mind Benders books A1, A2, A3, A4
Hannah really enjoyed these daily puzzles and has already finished them all. Next year, we will begin a more formal study of logic.

English/Writing

• Rod and Staff English 5 "Following the Plan"
  I settled on this mostly based on the recommendation of The Well-Trained Mind. It has been fine. If only there was a First Language Lessons Level 5!
• Writing With Skill, Level 1 by Susan Wise Bauer. Very pleased with this rigorous program!
• The Creative Writer: Level 1, Five Finger Exercises by Boris Fishman. We are just about to take a short break from Writing With Skill to focus on the this program.
• And lots of reading, narration, and discussion.

Latin
Visual Latin
This has been a big hit! Video lessons taught by homeschooling dad Dwane Thomas with corresponding worksheets.

Spelling
Spelling Workout F.

Vocabulary
Wordly Wise 6

History (with Will and Peter)

• Story of the World: The Middle Ages
• With Activity Book, map work, and corresponding historical literature. I often turn to All Through the Ages to find wonderful living books for Hannah.
• We are hoping to spend the last weeks of the school year building a timeline in our school room.

Geography

• In addition to the maps we study with history, Hannah loves to challenge herself with online geography games. Tonight at dinner I mentioned that a friend was traveling in Mali and asked her to tell us exactly where it was. She rattled off all the surrounding countries and drew an a quick outline of Mali's shape with her finger. Love that website. 
• Oh, and because she can't get enough she also works through a supplemental workbook.

Science (with Will and Peter)
We have skipped around a bit this year. My kids like to approach science in units... so do I.

• The first several weeks we spent enjoying Exploring Creation's Human Anatomy and Physiology - primarily the skeletal and muscular systems. 
• Late fall was spent learning all about pastured farm animals at Rocklands Farm. 
• January, February, and March we are doing a physics unit (using Real Science 4 Kids) with another homeschool family. 
• April and May might take us back to the farm... or back to anatomy... still working on those details.

Art
Our house is filled with art supplies and my children are always working on something creative, but this year it has been less directed by me. They will often sketch and create while I read to them. Every couple of weeks we will do a project together. Art Projects for Kids and Deep Space Sparkle are my favorite sites for inspiration. We all crave more time for art in our days... this year it's been hard... I hope it's just a season.

Music
We continue to enjoy learning about the history of music and reading books about composers' lives (we love the Zeezok books). I had planned on using Bright Idea's Press Composer Studies this year, but decided to wait until next year. Hannah and Will both have weekly piano lessons, and Hannah sings in our church choir.

PE
For fun, the kids are all taking a weekly homeschool tennis class with a bunch of friends. We call it PE. : )

Winter Retreat : 1000 Gifts

The kids and I just spent a week with my parents is sunny Florida. Reaching the Beltway in the sleet and darkness of Friday rush hour, we looked back and named a few favorite gifts from our winter retreat.

So, we add again to our list of endless gifts...

1286
Spring flowers in February. (Hannah)

1287
Warm days spent outside.

1288
Volunteering with Mema at school. (Hannah)

1289
Playing baseball with Grandpa. (Will)

1290
Quiet, lazy days... for us anyway... my parents would not likely call these days quiet.

1291
Big family dinners.

1292
Ice cream cones. Every night.

1293
A night out with Angie. And coffee with Amie.

1294
Soccer with Samuel and David. (Will and Peter)

1295
Sarah Mae. (Hannah)

1296
Cousins.

1297
Legoland!

All of us marveled at this mini DC made of Legos!

1298
Mema and Grandpa's Wii (we don't have one so it is a big treat!) (Will and Peter)

1299
Grandpa's Smoked Chicken BBQ.

1300
No traffic and no puppy accidents on the 12 hour car ride!  (All of us... especially Mom!)

1301
Books on CD.

1302
Coming back home. Dad waiting with homemade pizza.

1303
Last basketball games. Season ending pizza parties.

 I love this. "Mom, did you see how tall that boy was?"

1304
And back to normal Monday mornings.

February Quiet

We are still here.

I've not forgotten about this space. There have been so many days I have wanted to write about homeschooling, share our list of endless gifts, maybe scribble out what has been going on in our home and hearts. But it's the time; I found I had little of it to spend here. Life has been full... and sometimes a blog that shares bits of our life needs to pause and just let life happen.

A little Valentine love from our home to yours....