Well, I just thought I'd get around to posting today as I've wanted to for awhile now. I like having this blog as a record of what we do as a family if nothing else. I'd like to make Friday's a blogging day as our school work load is considerably shorter on Friday's (our main curriculum only goes 4 days a week). So it's Friday and here I am.
We had a nice summer, spent a lot of time with extended family. Always love that. Had some fun with church family as well. Abby was baptised in September, that was a big day for our family. We also had a vacation to Florida. We spent a few days at Vero Beach. Joshua HATED the ocean. He would scream at the top of his lungs if you let the water touch him! He loved the pool though and didn't mind playing in the sand as long as it was a bit back from the water! Noah and Abby loved it all. I love watching them gain their independence in these situations. They could've stayed at the beach for days!!
We also did a stop in Disney World. Everyone had a great time. Joshua and I took it at a slower pace, with rests at the hotel and a few half days. Overall it was a nice family vacation, but I was ready to be home!!!
Now we've settled in to a nice routine with our schooling. Our "core" curriculum is Preparing Hearts for Him by Heart of Dakota. I love it. I have tried so many different curriculums and thought I might have to just make up my own, but I'm so glad I've found this one. I think the Lord sent it to me!! Our schedule looks like this:
AM:
Bible Study/Memorization
Math
Spelling
English
Read Aloud (this doesn't go with our curriculum, I just pick a book I want to read)
Kid's Quiet Reading (a chapter in the book I chose for them)
PM:
Poetry (this year we're doing the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson, we read them, talk about them, etc.)
History Reading (a selection from a "living" book)
Storytime (another selection that expounds on the theme we're currently studying in history, sometimes from the Bible)
History Study (currently we're going through a Draw and Write book where the kids learn to draw something from the history lesson, like wooly mammoths, or they copy in cursive paragraphs from the book, but after this book it's more of independent reading through chapter books. Noah also has another book that he reads as well, as he's older and needs more in depth information)
History Project (every week, we work on a small project that goes along with the theme, so far we've made shields with a coat of arms, painted a rainbow while going over warm and cool colors and made cave drawings of bulls and mammoths)
History Activity (this rotates daily between research (researching something to do with the weekly topic, i.e. coats of arms), vocabulary work, geography (using maps, globes and atlases to learn or review geography) and timeline (adding to a timeline we're making on the back of our pantry door!).
Science (the science lessons are meant to be done more independently so as to prepare them to further work independently as they grow older, so they have a reading selection to do everyday and then they either, do an activity such as a drawing a picture and copying a selection that describes it, or narrate to me what they've read, or answer a few questions in their notebooks, or on Thursdays they do a simple experiment to explain what they've learned. I love how the lessons tie into the history lessons as well. As now we're learning about the Ice Age and times after the Flood, so in science they're learning about the tundra ecosystem. Love that!)
That's pretty much it. The morning schedule takes about 2 hours, the afternoon takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I love how thorough it is and feel like nothing is left out. This schedule is only Monday - Thursday. The curriculum is written as a 4 day. So on Friday's we do spelling tests and finish up anything we haven't done. Like today we're doing an extra Bible study so we'll be more on course to hit a Christmas study in December and we're doing a chapter in our read aloud as we didn't get to it yesterday. But if the kids are at a point in math or english where it's time for a test, we'll go ahead and do that on Friday as well, so we can start Monday fresh. This also leaves time for field trips, family projects (where real life learning happens!!) or errand running (you know for some "socialization"). It's working really well and I love it!
So I think in my side bar, I'll try to keep an updated list of the books we're reading, in case anyone wonders and I'll try every Friday to update with a new post. We'll see!!
Well I"m off to pay bills and we're working on a project in Noah's room today, so we need to get started on that. Oh and of course, Friday is when we reach another week in our pregnancy so today we're 28 weeks!! That means it's the start of the third trimester!! I can't believe it!! Can't wait to meet our new little girl!!!
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