Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Little E's favorite color is, was, and always will be any shade of green. This is her favorite day of the year. She was quite upset we had no green pants or skirts to wear with her lovely, green ensemble. She does have 3 green dresses, but couldn't wear those with the shirt. Please excuse the bright, green Christmas socks. If it was green she put it on this morning. C had nothing other than the old softball shirt from a team she was on 3 years ago, but green just isn't the big deal to her as it is to her younger sister. : )

And YES....E has green underwear on too!

I hope everyone else enjoys this day as much as my 6 year old. : )

How about a Week in Review?

I've had this blog almost a year, and never done a Week in Review.I see them all the time on other hs blogs; I'm just too inconsistant to do our own.

E, grade 1, actually did 5 full days of school this week. Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

In Math she worked through Lesson 52 of Saxon 1, and had a test. She also completed 4 pages in Abeka's grade 1 math. She got A+ on all of it, with the exception of side 1 of a worksheet yesterday. She wrote in colored pencil, so sloppily that I couldn't tell what she wrote. She decided she couldn't count by 10's anymore (after having been able to do so for over a year.)and counted by 5's instead. Apparently she can't even count to 10 anymore, as directions dictated she color 10 of an item, and in one picture she colored 11, and the other she colored 13. After me blowing my top she completed the other side with no problem.

E also did 4 lessons in her Language Lessons book. She completed a unit (chapter 6) in ETC 2. I believe that's 10 pages.

In Bible she finished Light Unit 102, and learning about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, (Israel), and was introduced to Joseph.

She read aloud 2 stories in her CLE Primer.

We didn't do any formal science or social studies this week for E. We did some, just not formal, out of a book, and it was a family venture, so I'll get to that in a moment.

E's most memorable moment this week was yesterday. E FINALLY HAS A FRIEND!!!!

We noticed a little girl about E's age had moved in 2 houses down from ours. We decided to let E walk down to introduce herself, but before she could, the little girl came over here. This little girl was very polite, and invited E to her house. They played together there for an hour and a half, playing dress up and enjoying a "tea" party that the girls mother set up for them. This was all on their front porch, so she was within sight of us the entire time. They then moved playtime to our house, as it was getting dark. What well behaved children! They were so quiet, so polite, and so well-behaved. The new girl moved here because her family had a house fire. C and E picked 2 books to give her, as she lost most of hers in the fire. I offered clothing (with 4 girls we have plenty), but the mother assured me between her family, and the Red Cross they were fine. The only issue was when it was time for her to go home. The little girl sat quietly playing in my girls' room, and said, "I like it here. I don't want to go home, thank you." She was fine after I assured her we loved having her, and she could come back again. : )

I have been praying for someone E's age. She loves to be with other children, but all the ones we know or have over are older than her by 4 or 5 years. E has tons of friends, but no one her own age. She's always been the little tag-along. Finally, another child just her age, who doesn't boss her around, or leave her out of "big-girl" things.

As for C's week: In math she completed 4 lessons. She is now up to Lesson 105. A+ all week!

She completed 10 pages in Easy Grammar.

She did Unit 5 in Spelling.

We completed our chapter on the Civil War, and checked out 2 more books at the library pertaining to that war.

In Science we began our unit on Weather. I never knew clouds, humidity, and winds were so technical. We did an experiment, making our own wind with heat.

In English she did several lessons. I'm not sure how many. She does 2 or 3 per day to finish the book this year, so 10-15. We are on Lesson 65, I think.

C read 4 books on her own, and we finished reading, "These Happy Golden Years" in the "Little House on the Prairie" series aloud.

C finished light unit 302 in Bible Monday, and we took the rest of the week off in that subject, other than some reading the actual Bible aloud and discussing.

For both girls: We took a drive Thursday to enjoy our lovely weather after 3 months of below freezing temps. We ended up at one of our county parks. I hadn't been there for years, and last time we went to this particular one they had nothing of interest. This time we were able to visit a replica of a pioneer homestead. We also, by chance, got a lesson in the making of maple syrup. There was no one at the park during a weekday. We noticed they had trees tapped for sap everywhere. Asking a ranger about this, he directed us to an out-of-the-way syrup making building. The ranger there was so sweet and helpful. Not only did he take a half hour to completely explain and demonstrate to the girls (and us) how it comes from the trees, and ends up in jars to pour on pancakes, he let the girls taste samples from each step. Free, unplanned field trip! And what timing...after 8 years of not bothering with this park we end up there on one of only a few days out of the year the sap runs to make syrup. We then asked another ranger if they might have any informational pamplets for us. He led us to the ranger station, and gave us a ton! The girls'favorite is a 3 page worksheet to fill in about animals native to our area.

Both girls also accomplished some art. E painted several pictures, and both girls made their own purse out of nothing other than 2 bandanas and some scissors. I have intended to post pictures since they made these last Sunday, but peruse through my blog and see how I am about actually posting pictures. E also cut and pasted a beautiful picture of a wetland habitat...which I, again, did not photograph yet, although I can see it hanging on my wall right now. : )

There's our week. It was a fairly average one, with the exception of the field trip, and E's new friend. I hope yours was just as great!

: )

Decision for 5th grade Social Studies

I have been in a quandry over social studies for C next year. I ordered Abeka's Old World History/Geography. I have all the components for it sitting on the bookshelf. I wanted to look something up, so referred to this text. Nothing was in the book at all about this country. (Afghanistan) Puzzled, I randomly selected other middle eastern, and SW Asian countries in the index. Many were not mentioned, and of the ones that were, the mention was only a tiny blurb, lumping such-and-such a country in with other countries in that region.

I don't care whether you are Christian, Jewish, or secular; I haven't heard of one person that disagrees where civilization began, and it began in the middle eastern regions, and spread to northern Africa, and SW Asia. Out of curiousity I checked out all the maps in the book's atlas. Believe it or not I found at least 3 countries missing on these maps. Right smack-dab in the middle of one map was a big, green space, unlabeled...again...Afghanistan. I wonder if this changed after 9-11-01? Even so, I would think that would make this country even more important to learn about, as opposed to pretending it doesn't exist.

This---in a reputable private and homeschooling curriculum---a company among the tops in hundreds of companies producing schoolbooks! In a book specializing in a continent by continent study comparing Ancient History to Modern history of same regions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that region pretty important both in the past, and currently?

I've read several fictional and nonfiction books that take place in this area. I have a fondness for biographies and "documentary-type" books. I feel, especially with the current world climate, that the middle east, and the SW Asian countries are important to learn about, and educate our children about.

I don't want to bad-mouth this company (as if this blog has so many readers I wcould single-handedly shut it down), but I just feel, after spending $100 on their History alone, that they don't do justice to the time period and areas this text was supposed to cover. (Just so anyone reading this knows...Abeka has the greatest science texts ever. Amazing, meaty, and very accurate.) But their history is another story. I spent much of this year supplementing American History. I realize you can't cover in detail every, single aspect of history in one elementary book, but I felt they could have added much more to the text this year, too. We didn't start U.S. History/Geography until a month after our school year began, and here it is March, and we are almost finished with it. This is WITH all my add-ons of assigned reading, read-alouds, and additional research online, and we still have the book almost finished in a total of less than 6 months. I had to add on extra reading, or my daughter wouldn't have much of an idea about U.S. History. She would have a very basic sketch, but nothing in-depth.

So...considering all of the above, I opted to find something else for 5th grade social studies. Check in at a later time to find out my solution. (Gotcha on the edge of your seats, now, haven't I?)

: )

Six year old Quote:

While reading to me the other evening E said, "I like learning. The more I learn, the more I know. And the more I know, the more I can learn." : )

Update on Past Month/Brief Reviews of New Curriculum

I suppose I'll start with school updates first, since this is a blog about homeschooling.

C is doing well still. We are on Lesson 100 of 120 in Math. This is currently her worst subject...worst meaning that she has been getting more B's than A's. Her tests are 20 questions, so it only takes 2 missed problems to get a B, and 3 wrong to get a C. So this past week we spent on review....mostly of multiplying 2-3 digit numbers by other 2-3 digit numbers. She knows how to do the steps, but she makes the same mistake every single time. As she multiplies the "tens" place, she continuously adds the numbers she "carried" when multiplying the "ones" place. She knows she does this...yet still keeps doing it.

We finally returned to English a month ago. She is now working through Queens Language Lessons and Easy Grammar grade 5. We do 1-2 pages/day in the EG, and the title says it all. It is easy. This program teaches prepostitions before anything else. Once you learn prepostions, you can cross out half a sentence; thus, making it much simpler to identify the other parts of speech. She loves it. I love it. This book is over 300 pages long, so we will continue working 1-2 pages/day through 5th grade. The Queens LL (for the elementary child 2) is perfect for finishing up 4th grade. Each lesson is roughly 1/3-1/2 a page long, and can easily be done in 5 minutes. C usually does anywhere from 2-5 lessons/day, 4 days/week. We got this book a month ago, and she is somewhere in the 50's for her lessons. (out of 180)It is very simple. I would not use it as a stand-alone LA curriculum, but as a supplement it is perfect. Queens LL has a nice variety of LA concepts, from grammar to poetry and writing. The lessons are short enough to not discourage a LA challenged child, but complete enough to give a thorough review of all topics she needs to be familiar with before moving on to her main LA course for 5th grade.

C also began BJU Spelling 5 a month ago. This is in lieu of her Wordly Wise 3000vocabulary she finished earlier in the year. She couldn't bear the thought of doing more WW, and I couldn't bear the thought of her possibly missing out on some sort of spelling/vocab. We both like the BJU Spelling. The words are not at all difiicult for her...she's a "natural" speller. The exercises in the book are fun for her, and incorporate the Bible. BJU Spelling 5 also has a weekly "journal writing" assignement, which she readily writes each week. Apparently when you have to write on an assigned topic for spelling it is easier than doing the same thing for LA. : )

We have not done much History or Science the past 2 weeks. We have only 2 1/2 chapters left in Abeka's 5th grade science. I could not reccommend any better science text. C and I both will miss it, and have learned TONS! (Yes, I learned tons, too...even though both times through college I centered in science related fields.)It is tempting to start in on our brand new series of Apologia science books....Zoology 1,2,and 3 (at C's request.), but so far I'm being good and keeping them on the shelf for when we finish the current science. Ok...I read the entire first book in the series, and bought all the materials for the experiments....but I put it back. : )We have also been doing an independant Anatomy study. Kind of unintentional, but she is interested right now, and I told her any Human Anatomy she learns will help her out in her future vet career with Animal Anatomy.

As for History, we are up to the Civil War. We read a biography on Harriet Tubman (fascinating woman). We read the first section of the chapter in her text. That's about it for the month. We are far ahead in history, too, so no worries about falling behind. And if you count the "Little House on the Prairie" series, we've done lots more. We finished 2 books, and are almost done with another. We only have 2 more books left in the series. They are historical, and cover the expansion of the U.S. So they fit right in with our history this year. She also read 2 other books on Pioneers and the U.S expansion: "Trouble for Lucy" and "Sarah, Plain and Tall."

That covers our main subjects for 4th grade. Now for first...

E continues to whiz through math. I switched her to Abeka's grade 1 Arithmetic. She adores this. So do I. But we couldn't completely give up Saxon 1, either. She enjoys that, too, although the tedium and repetitiveness is enough to drive me insane. So...since she technically shouldn't be in first grade until next August....we do them both. We alternate days, or some days we work in both texts. I took a loooooong break with the Saxon (for my own sanity), and we recently began again. I am not one of these mothers who wants to continually brag about how advanced her child is, and am in no hurry to push E ahead a grade or two. If I push her ahead NOW, she will finish school and go off to college even sooner. Nope....not thinking about that. : )We continue along a few days a week, and plan to finish first grade roughly around the time she would finish in public school. (14 months from now).

E is reading well. Her current favorites are the "Biscuit" books, "Amelia Bedelia", and the "Frog and Toad" books. I can't stand the Frog and Toad books, but she likes them, and she's reading, so I'll grin and bear it till this, too, shall pass.

E also is loving writing. She does so in dozens of notes to family members and pictures with stories. A page or two in a Phonics book will bring her to tears, but she can write a page long note with no trouble. Her current thing is notes to Mommy while Mommy is on the phone. Examples of this include: "Mommy, C turned the channel on TV and I was not done watching a show." or..."Mommy, Can I have a marshmello {sic}? I love you. Love, E" or...."Mommy, Daddy let the dogs out. Can I let them back in?" : ) I guess it's better than interupting my phone call... Usually these notes are accompanied by a detailed drawing illustrating what she wants. Such as a stick figure and a giant marshmallow. Or 8 dogs surrounding a stick figure and a house.

Both girls' favorite subject is, by far, Bible. I bought the rest of the CLE light units (mini-worktexts)for them, and they love them. If it were up to E should would do an entire light unit each day. In addition to their Bible curriculum, I have been trying to include C in some of my own Bible readings. Nothing major...just when I run across an interesting story, later in the day C and I re-read it together. I'm pretty new to this Bible reading, so I will probably screw it up somehow. Well, not new to it...I grew up going to church, but I didn't pay attention or truly GET the Bible until the past few years. Since we haven't found a church here I'm satisfied with I'm on my own.

On my own I am up to 2Kings. I would probably be several chapters into it right now if I weren't sitting here writing a blog entry that's already 10 pages long....

I hope this posts. Some message just popped up saying. "Cannot connect with Blogger. Post may fail." That's always good to see after spending half an hour typing. Please excuse any typos....with that message I'd better just click "publish post", instead of proofreading. : )