I thought it might be a good idea to post about what we use this year in our homeschool.

The main portion of our homeschool curriculum is Sonlight-core plus K. It is a wonderful program which uses real books, not dry textbooks, to teach each subject. Take a look at their web page ( www.sonlight.com ) to see more about the program.

Because Dei started this year reading independently, she is doing the Language Arts 1 program and readers. Gab, who announced that "scientists don't read about it...we do it " started the year with the Language Arts K. About 1/4 of the way through, she announced that she was now ready to read, and picked up her sister's reader...and read it! So, we skipped ahead and started doing the Language Arts K readers and she is loving it. By the beginning of February, she should be in the Language Arts 1 readers and program. She is ever so motivated to read. She says it will make her a better scientist if she can read better! Smart little girl.

Right now we are on week 12 in the Sonlight core plus (Gab is on week 32/33 of Language Arts K). This means our read aloud is "The Family Under the Bridge" and we are studding fish in science and homes in Social studies.

The girls are moving quite quickly through Saxon 1 and are enjoying every moment of it. We add Miquin math orange and red books as well so that they are able to see the relationships they are learning on their own.

We also add in Montessori methods and materials as we go about our day. They actually go over and pick work to do when they have down time and even choose to "play" with that some days instead of their toys! They are so motivated right now!

In Bible, we are just starting Ruth. We will be going through the
entire bible this school year. We use "Egermeyer's Study Bible for Kids" as a read aloud and jumping off point for our discussions. And "Bible Stories To Color and Do" as a way to reinforce the lessons and a way to keep little hands busy while I read.

That is our basic curriculum. We do go off on tangentsnaturally. If the girls happen to see something that captures their interest, we weave it in or sometimes drop everything in leu of their interests. For example, we did 2 or 3 weeks of peach everything and bug everything thanks to the book "James and the Giant Peach". It was wonderful and I feel the girls (and I) learned so much from each day of activities.

That's one of the wonderful things about homeschooling...the ability not only to design the curriculum and method to meet the learner where they are, but also the ability to go off on wonderful exciting tangents as we wish! The world is our classroom and everything and every moment can be
something from which to learn.