The girls simply love school and I have been excited to start them up on their K program! They already know all their letters and sounds, thank you to the Leap Frog Letter Factory video, ABC Go Fish, and Boggle Jr. games, and so this week the girls nailed the letter S. Yesterday was so nice! Since Brian is done with the OT part of MFW 1st grade we did not have a Bible reading from my teacher's manual. We did devotion time with Look and Point Bible, then read the Genesis account of the creation of the sun and light and from there read a two page layout of a Magic School Bus book on the solar system highlighting the sun. The girls then painted sun's with yellow and orange paint and a variety of paint brushes and I added a purple bingo bottle for them to make sun spots (the darker parts of the sun that are a slightly lower temp). They totally understood it all and had great fun. Next was their S page of cutting and gluing S's to the appropriate sections of a workbook page. It was one of those homeschool moments to remember for when the days are not quite so effortless. Somebody remind me of this if I get to posting about harder times in the future!

Brian has gotten stumped with our Singapore math program. Place value is still elusive to him and as he begins to add bigger numbers he is making more mistakes and not sure how to fix them. My Singapore Teacher's Text does not tell me how to teach him, just shows pictures that we talk through. Thus when us talking it through does not click I am at a loss. We are now investigating Math-U-See and my local rep was really helpful.

With great relief and a lot of trust in the Lord I ordered the next years (and some of this year's) supplies! After having my couch filled with the Rainbow Resource guide (which by the way is bigger than our local phone book!) and a variety of other catalogs, lists and lists of what I think I need vs. what I truly know I need, etc. So yesterday I stayed within my regular $500 budget for the year by ordering MFW Adventures (2nd grade) for Brian to start in January, resources from Rainbow Resource which includes a few birthday and Christmas presents of Jim Weiss story telling CD's (we have none but hear he is wonderful so ordered Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, OT Stories and American Tales) and $50 worth of HWT for all three kids. Brian's MUS will put me over budget, but that is just a one time purchase on the manipulatives so that softens the sticker shock. I am not sure what everyone else expects to spend on their children's education, but comparing our homeschool budget to a private school yearly cost, I think we are doing great! In looking ahead it seems $500 ought to cover most years, especially through elementary school. I was surprised how relieved I felt after getting everything purchased and I feel peace about our curriculum choices. Now I just need to offer the kids up daily in prayer so that our days run as smoothly as possible and they enjoy schooling!