Homeschooling one is hard. Homeschooling two is harder! I've had to learn to let go of my dreams of well educated children AND a clean house! My house is a mess much of the week, but my kids are learning!
Katie is reading real literature this year. We're looking at having her actually start reading The Magicians Nephew by C. S. Lewis or House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. She loves literature, so it wont be hard to get into it. For math she's doing multiplication. She just learned to multiply by 10's and 100's (ie 80 x 2 = 160 or 900 x 3 = 2700)! She is a grammar wiz! I'm learning new things right before teaching it and she just gets it right away! Her favorite part is when we do Mad Libs on Fridays!!
Eli is working on reading and writing his letters. He's reading short vowel words and enjoying the short books he gets to read at least a couple times a week! Hooked On Phonics is working for him!! He is a math dude though. He can add and subtract numbers up to 5. He just flies through his work!
Together they are doing history and science. For history, we are doing Story of the World volume 2. It covers world history from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance. It covers lots of Asian history that I have never heard before! They both love the story format and to answer comprehension questions at the end of the lesson. They compete to answer better then each other in complete sentences! Its fun.
For science we are doing the Apologia Human Body! Right now they are learning about cells and how they divide to cover so many different aspects of our body. This weekend we are even making an edible model of a cell (jello and candies)! They love working in their journals and talking about all the things God thought of to make us so awesome!
We are in a Co-op once a week with several friends. They are doing science (rocks and minerals) and art (various mediums like oil painting, water colors, sculpture and eventually drama taught by mom!!) They have been making many quality friendships there and I have as well. God truly blessed us when we moved to Scotts Valley last year. He gave us such a great group of homeschooling friends!
I think what I love most about homeschooling is seeing my kids play. These kids wake up in the morning anxious to talk to each other and play with each other. They spend so much time together and they love it. They really are each others best friends. I love their laughter and joy!
So that's our new school year. I promise to try to be better at blogging this year! I might even let Katie post something?!
