We Homeschool Too...

    Though one has to actually stay home for that. :P  Here's a schooling update on the younger kids.

Faith - kindergarten

    Faith starts her school days by snuggling up with me and a pile of books. We take turns reading pages from an easy reader Bible. Then I read aloud from a large volume from one of our sets (My Bookhouse, The Children's Hour, The Book of Life, fairy tale collections, etc.). After that she reads to me, usually half or all of a picture book from First Favorites or our Little Golden Book stash. Then I read a chapter from a classic to her. (We're still working through the old Winnie-the-Pooh books.)

   Next she gets her math book out and does a lesson. She's about halfway through Horizons grade 1. She hasn't been as excited about this as usual lately. I've tossed a little stealth drill practice her way, and magically the lessons are seeming like less work. Win-win. 

    She's reading well enough that we can review phonics rules as she has problems rather than daily drill. She goes back and forth between Spalding spelling practice and a Rod and Staff spelling workbook whenever she wants to. (I make no attempt to line them up.)

Grace - third grade (by age)

    Grace is having a great year. In math she's worked with long division enough that she's very comfortable with the process and really understands what she's doing. Her math book wasn't halfway done at the halfway point of our school year, so she has decided to do more than one lesson a few times a week of her own accord. Usually that amounts to doing one lesson at home and one on the bleachers at swim practice.

    Right now she reads at least one chapter daily from D'aulaire's Greek Myths, an NIV Bible, the Audubon Book of True Nature Stories or one of the older National Geographic hardback books, a volume of The Children's Hour, and a classic or literature tied to our Narnia literature. 

   I want to change gears with her writing. She is really good at fiction writing, but doesn't even know where to begin with nonfiction. I'll have her start collecting facts from one of the science books, make an outline, and write a paragraph with it.

Honor - fifth grade

    I have had so much fun with Honor this year. His math is picking up speed, and his comprehension is rock solid. He started the year moving slower than normal, and he's making up for that now. Grammar, spelling, and writing just keep plugging along.

    His daily reading stack this past week had D'aulaire's Greek Myths, an NIV or Message Bible, Cartoon Guide to Physics, Bill Nye's Big Blast of Science, and Dangerous Journey.

    Science is where he's spreading his wings and absorbing as much as possible. He took a sideways trail to complete the Cub Scout's STEM focused Nova program, and reads non-fiction science books for fun all the time. The New Way Things Work is one of his favorite books. Architecture had some material compacted, but he never missed a beat.