Week Three

A little late for this week and not even one picture to show for it! I noticed my camera in a basket in the dining room tonight--I guess I put it there to remind me to take pictures. heh. Whoops. I think I ended up hiding it from myself!

This was a challenging week. Mostly just with time management. We got a late start almost everyday which really puts a rush on things. I'm still having a hard time switching full-on into "homeschool mindset". I volunteered to find a curriculum for our church's Sunday school and so I spent most of my free time researching that all week. I ended up having a hard time switching gears.

Hannah continued to thrive in her new math. Best money ever spent! She told me she loves that her lessons go so fast--she says she sits down and does a few problems and before she realizes it she's gone through all the problems and she's done! Not at all the story we heard last year!!

Grace's big break through was discovering that reading can be fun. She has been gaining confidence as she reads through her Bob books and I love to see her sitting down to read with enthusiasm. We still have a long way to go but at least she isn't dreading this time.

History was exciting this week! We started studying the Pilgrims, beginning with William Brewster's family. This is particularly fun for our family because we have the paperwork that shows how we descend from William Brewster. After we read our history lesson the first day I showed them the family tree that I had made up. I helped them trace themselves up the tree to William Brewster. They were so excited that the person that they had just read about in history was their ancestor! Talk about living history!

 Our new science curriculum is going well. I'm really glad that we bought this. When we started it the first week I wondered if we would find it to be too much reading but it really has settled into a great balance. And it is a good, interesting curriculum. I love Heart of Dakota but the science in the early guides is just so here and there...one day we are studying blubber, the next oceans, then light, and it goes up and down. They try too hard to connect it to the history story we are studying. I'd prefer it if they were two different subjects. Sometimes the attempt to make everything connect just weakens it. So the Sassafras Zoology has been filling in the gaps without being overly time consuming.

We are now heading into week four...will be a busy one!