I think we are out of our winter slump for now. Right now we are studying Early American History. Nathan just finished reading The Courage of Sarah Noble and has moved on to The Matchlock Gun. He seems to enjoy his reading and has picked up Charlotte's Web at bedtime. I told him that if he reads the entire book, I'll take him to go see the movie. Hopefully he can finish it in time before the movie leaves theaters.

For science, we are studying birds. Nathan seems to enjoy his science books quite a bit, especially The Mysteries and Marvels of Nature. It has some great pictures in it. I also bought a science book with a bunch of reproducibles to add to our learning. On Wednesday, we dissected an owl pellet. For anyone who doesn't know, that is the remains of an owl's meal. He (the owl) eats a rodent or bird whole and what his body can't digest...well...comes back up in a compact pellet. We found out that we definitely have some sort of rodent. Probably a mouse or small rat.

Math and Language Arts are moving along at a good pace. We are in our 3rd lesson of Gamma. I purchased some multiplication flashcards and extra practice book to help Nathan learn his multiplication tables. He's now writing complete words in cursive. We have been taking this slowly since he IS a boy and handwriting is not his best subject. He's doing well though.

We decided to add lapbooks to our curriculum this year. I don't have the creativity or time to make my own lapbooks, so we purchased some from Hands of a Child. They are complete books with the information and reproducibles.  Nathan chose "Predators of the Deep" and "Benjamin Franklin" as his first lapbooks.

I haven't quite figured out what to do with Katie during school. She is outgrowing her naps (unfortunately) and wants so desperately to be in the room with us. I'm going to try using the Leapfrog videos and her Leap Pad books to keep her busy. Maybe some puzzles and toys that she can only play with during school time. Any other advice?