School order: 1 – 3:30 pm
- Literature and Creative Writing – Jen and Josh at kitchen table (15-20 mins)
- Mom reads to Ally and Math
- Ally does quiet time after this until I am finished with Jen and Josh
- Math U See w/ Jen and Josh
- Scaredy Cat with Jen and Josh
- Jen and Josh read to mommy; listen while the other reads
- Scaredy Cat with Ally
- Jen and Josh read quietly
- Handwriting at kitchen table - everyone
- read alouds – Narrations; one child per day
Mornings and Fridays will be spent reading aloud, working on notebooks/lapbooks, and doing art or music for the day.
This has also worked very well. I am a little frustrated with something but I am just kind of waiting on the Lord to show me a way. I love notebooking. I introduced my children to the idea last week. All three of them borrowed a 3 ring binder from me. They decorated a cover page for their notebooks and for the past several nights they have "notebooked" anything that came to their mind. Right now they are just drawing pictures of anything that suits their fancy. It's been fun to watch. But I would love to be able to notebook some of our lessons. Like right now we are reading through a biography of Eric Liddell. Wouldn't it be great to notebook about China where he was a missionary? Or maybe the Olympic games? How about Scotland?
OR
We recently had the opportunity to go to my mom's house to observe two Killdeers in her garden that were sitting on a nest of 4 eggs. It was so fun to watch the daddy bird fly a ways from the nest and then suddenly act like he had a broken wing. Unfortunately we missed the baby birds. They hatched last Friday and were gone by Sunday evening. We did a notebook page on the killdeer and we were hoping to return for the babies. I wish we had more time for things like this.
I keep having to remind myself that I have tons of time. My children are still young. And if they latch onto the notebooking I don't think I will have to force them to sit down and do this. But I feel very strongly that they need to master the 3Rs before we can move on to more history and science and really have a lot of fun with it. We are also working on making the study of art and/or music on Friday afternoon a fun time. It's during Friday that I have set aside time for notebooking. But right now we're just having fun looking at art work, doing an art lesson, and having Tea Time. On other days we're listening to Vivaldi or learning about different musical instruments listening to "Peter and the Wolf."
I supposed things aren't going so bad after all. Sure, there are things I wish I could do. But in the end, we're exactly where God has us. I am no longer worried about making the grade or living up to someone else's standards. I have relaxed and I am having a blast. It's about time.
One last thing to mention. I have always wanted to name our homeschool. I couldn't tell you why, I just have. I finally thoughr of a very appropriate name. . . .Grace Academy. hehehe!!!! Oh, and Underdog has officially named the "otters" as our mascot. I love otters. They are so fun and playful. I think that is perfect for our family. And, for those that know Underdog, he leads the pack in fun. :)
