This Week at the Hacienda

Spring is bustin' out all over! And so are the littles. I could hardly keep them inside. Every time I turned my back I would find them sitting on the rock wall. Hiding in a bush, in the fort or woods. According to Charlotte Mason you are supposed to send them outside as much as possible at this age - so I did. They used LOTS of imagination and in general were happy to be alive. Now for a book work wrap up.

Grace can just about read anything and everything now. She reads every sign, label, etc. She even read a Little Bear story independently to Joshua on Thursday. We are working on counting money, and place values in up to 3 digit numbers. I made her some flash cards for the facts from one of her ABEKA worksheets. We began subtraction. She can count from 0 -100 by 2's. Grace continues to "make" things out of cups, boxes, paper, tape, etc on a daily basis. She created a surprise box for us all earlier in the week with special gifts for us to choose from. I got a really nicely colored camera and a note. She and Camille entered Veritas Press' coloring contest. I will try and post pics of their artwork later.

Camille's new Switched on Schoolhouse curriculum arrived and she spent every free moment this week doing it. This may change our lives. I ordered this Language Arts curriculum as a trial balloon for next fall. If we continue to like it, we are going to be very switched on next fall. She also picked up Pilgrim's Progress to read for fun and enjoyed comparing the ABEKA illustrations to Milton's. In math she learned about carrying and estimating.

Joshua and I switched from the "Blend Book" to ABEKA's Handbook for Reading. He felt very gown up. We stuck to short vowels for this week. He surprised me with his new found ability to "skip count." He can count the odd numers to 19. He says he learned it from his Batman game. He so wants to do everything Grace does. He is trying to do addition facts.

Ryan is still floundering due to his inability to keep up with things. Math is slow go when you lose the solution book! Proceeded with reading and written narrations as scheduled.

All in all we had a very good week. We just kind of went with the flow. Kept the schedule in our peripheral vision and kept our eyes open for opportuniities to learn nwe words and concepts. I LOVED it. Might be food for thought.

A few Fridays Behind

Skipped a few weeks here, but we have been working hard. Josh and Grace are making great strides in reading. Grace spent a precious morning reading her Beginner's Bible to Josh outside on our first warm spring like day. She feels so grown up reading it to him, and he is listening HARD. Josh has mastered the long vowels and is really trying to keep up with his 15 month older sister. Last week at the hair salon he ticked Grace off by reading a few words on bottles before she did. He is a really good guesser. She is actually following the phonics rules and it takes a moment longer to decipher rather than guess. Grace has moved up to Abeka 1st grade math and is taking it all in stride. Joshua is ready for the K5 book. I think I need to place an order! Grace has spent the entire week so far making animals out of plastic cups. It is a very involoved process using strips of paper that have been colored painstakingly. We have about 8 so far with more promised by the artist. She actually allowed Josh to color one strip!

Camille has increased in speed on her math speed drills. The addition and subtraction facts facts are finally sticking. She is able to do a few sets of multiplication facts as well. I am thinking of ordering a Switched on Schoolhouse math unit to see how she does and to see if we like that curriculum. I am leaning in the direction of a computer based program for Ryan for next year.

We took an afternoon trip to a nearby small town to check it out. It was our impromptu "adventure". We went to Slocomb, AL, locally famous for it's tomatoes and a country-style buffet restaurant. The kids enjoyed the local flavor of the restaurant but got the biggest kick out of walking around the town. We went in a few shops and drove around to see the sights. We learned about tin ceilings. They had not noticed one before.

Everyone but Camille skipped coop this week as we were waiting for a delivery man.

Goals for next week....

Josh - find a real book that he can read.
Grace - move into harder math concepts, drill basic facts.
Ryan - will have a math week to catch up on what he has been ignoring.
Camille - prove that she has her add/sub facts down so we can move on, spelling review, and produce an excellent writing sample.

Me- patient and submissive heart, lose 2 pounds, exercise 5 days.