New Beginnings Began a Little Late

I'm super excited to announce that we have actually done some formal learning.  It's been a while and the kids are a little distracted from all the lack of structure, but after Monday and today, I feel like our homeschool structure will come easily. 

 

Curly Girly and I finished level one of All About Reading and we are now moving forward to level two.  She was so excited to put those last few stickers on her progress sheet and put them into her notebook.  She also got a Certificate of Completion.

 

Math-U-See is also going well.  The very first lesson talks about place value.  CG loves using the manipulatives.  We have single green "units", blue "tens," and red "hundreds".  The instructor from the CD makes her laugh.  He talks about how the "teen" numbers are super tricky.  So to help remember how to "see" it, we will call them, "onety-one, onety two, onety three, etc."  So when I help her count, I remind her that the "ty" means "ten."  I think after a week or so, we'll get it down.  So far, it's been really nice to put aside only 10-20 minutes just for math.  After today's lesson she finally said the magic words, "Math is fun!!!"  Hallelujah!!!

 

As a family we chose to read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  It's a personal favorite and I've been impressed that Curly Girly is really good at knowing what is going on in the story.  We've reached the part where Wilbur finds out the farmer's plans to butcher him (it's a cruel world) and Charlotte then says that she will find a way to save him if she can.  This is a wonderful book, and I'm so glad that we are reading it together as a family.

Ferdinand will be finishing his last week of preschool this week.  Little Treasures has been a blessing this year and I've been very impressed with his teachers.  His speech has greatly improved and he has made some great friends that I hope will be able to come play one of these days.  There is a small program tonight so I will be sure to post pictures.  Stay tuned for those!

The Best Thing About Homeschool Is...

Homeschooling has its perks.  I love being able to see my children's progress.  Curly Girly's eyes glow with anticipation as we learn new concepts.  She reads from the scriptures every night and she's at the point where we don't hardly need to help her anymore.  I owe the credit to All About Reading.  If you need a supplement or full out curriculum, check it out at https://www.allaboutlearningpress.com

Another thing I love is that you can get them started at any age.  The Sprite has recently showed interest in coloring, like her big sister.  I showed her how to hold a pencil while coloring and while she isn't doing it the best in the picture below, she's now holding it like an adult.  She's 2!  I see another artist in the making.

I'm not sure if we'll continue to do notebooking or not in this fashion.  I love the idea of the 3-ringed binder with tabs separating the different subjects we cover.  I think it will be fun for Curly Girly and Ferdinand to see their work that they've done throughout the year.

With a newborn baby, I've really tried to implement lessons on how important parenting is.  Babies take lots of time and I hope that as they grow older, they will know how important a calling it is to be fathers and mothers.  I'm not perfect, and I'm pretty sure my children know that, but the absolute best thing about homeschooling is that we get to learn and grow together.  I love learning from my kids.  The best lessons to be learned are from the mouths of babes.