It has been a quiet week. We have had inches of ice and snow earlier in the week, so traveling has been out of the question since Monday afternoon. I have to say that I haven't really missed it. Being "forced" to stay home instead of running into town is actually kind of nice.

Vanessa and I have been working on her Cooking Lapbook. We have not gotten as much done as I hoped, but we will work on it again today. We have about five mini-books done right now.

The chore sheet has had moderate success. It works well for Vanessa, who can read, but not so well for Vallerie, who can't read. I like having thier chores split into morning, afternoon, and evening. That part of the plan has worked well. I just need to figure out a better way to work this for Vallerie.

I have started a new reading curriculum with Vanessa. I can't tell you much about it, except that my mom took a class when I was 5 years old and this is how she taught me to read. The book I have was her workbook from the class. It is working though. Vanessa has learned how to sound out words, and is reading everything now.

We haven't gotten as much math done as I'd hoped either (do I ever ). But Vanessa and Vallerie have both worked some in their books. I may not push Vanessa to try to finish Saxon 1 this year. We may just do what we can and then move on to Saxon 2 next year. Vanessa will be ready for Saxon 2 in the fall. I will have to start counting hours this fall too, so we will be a little more faithful about actually getting things done and counted.

I may be kind of hard on myself when it comes to our schoolwork. My children are still young, and we watch very little television during the day. My opinion is that if they are not watching TV, almost anything they are doing is learning. So I may not push them to work on a workbook, or finish a lapbook when they are playing nicely. They will only be young once, and they will only have this little responsibilty once in their lives. I am not going to take that away before I have to.

Blessings,

Abby