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We have settled into a routine now that is working quite well for us. We both have days when we are not thrilled about doing our work, but we get through, and do better the next day.  She only has one more letter of the alphabet to go!  I am so excited.  "Q" is it and we are done.  I haven't skipped ahead to see what is coming next, I suppose just learning the "rules" of phonics and applying them.  She is doing so well at reading and I am very pleased with how the curriculum works so well.  It all comes together and I see the benefit of using a system that has obviously been tried and tested.  The math part of our program is working well for us too, but I do think I will check out some other systems to try after we are done this content.  I would like to order some activity books with logic/problem solving skill building material.  My favorite catalogues to find these are Mindware and Bright Minds.  We both will enjoy these type of activities.  We are working on learning some Thanksgiving related hymns and poetry.  We do a lot of repetition of poems/songs we have already learned.  I remember so many things from my youth that were learned by rote, that I am hoping she will have the same experience.  All those Sunday School songs, pledges, simple choruses, finger plays and Scripture passages we learned still linger in my mind with their simple but powerful messages.  I wish for my girls the same comfort in familiarity of precious truths and lessons learned.  We were able to have two play dates this week.  It was nice to see her enjoying the outdoors in a little cooler weather, and to have a "buddy" to play with. We put together a booklet about the lifecycle of a frog with expectation of our tadpoles to arrive any day.  Tori got a guitar for her birthday last week, and I have taken the opportunity to go over a few basic lessons of music.  Mommy is teaching herself to play so I am able to help her, and I now want a guitar too!!  My violin/piano training comes in handy in this department.  Today we arrived home from an errand at the same time the school bus was delivering it's charges to the neighboring homes, and I saw Victoria watch the kids jumping off the bus and with obvious relief running to their houses.  She said with a "daydreamy" voice that she would like to go to school.  I saw so much more than she, and I pray she will see it too someday, and be thankful we were able to homeschool...even if she missed the bus rides.

Posted in school

Continue to add new consonants.  Learned "V", "W", and "Y" this week.  Getting exposure to sight words (the, a).  Talked about "seat work" and how she will start working independently a little now.  Started horse lapbook.  Reading "Sophie's Tom"--about a little independent girl who wants to run her own farm someday and it's giving my little independent sprite some ideas!  We watched a Tom Sawyer movie last week and she was quite intrigued by his mischief and adventure, and pointed out that she and he were a lot alike!  I had to agree.  I am glad we don't live on the Mississippi.  We shall have to read some Mark Twain soon.  We're still waiting for our tadpole delivery.  Hope they make it (for her sake, not mine).  This week seemed to speed by.  I am trying to plan ahead again.  I feel we have a routine now, and I am enjoying our time each morning.  I want to plan some craft/art time for the next few weeks.  We have been mostly focusing on Grammar and Math.  I think she needs a little lighter content added to the mix.  She is a sport.  It must be hard to have Mommy after you about EVERYTHING all day, every day.  I love her so much...

Posted in school

For lack of any formal system of  journaling our school progress at this point, I am going to try and keep a running quick update on our progress here.  We'll see how it goes.

Grammar:  Learning new letters quickly now.  Much more progress is being made as we have school at least three, usally four times a week.  This week I introduced "F","J" and "K".  Friday is for review to solidify the new content of the week and start with something new on Monday.  She is starting to catch on to blends, and sounding out words of three letters.  I see progress quickly now.  She knows the difference b/w vowels and consonants.  We review the sounds of each letter daily, and work on recognition of each as quickly as possible. She is reading at beginning level and I am so proud of her!

Writing:  I put away the cursive content for several months as we were not making any headway.  We both would end up frustrated and I couldn't understand what I wasn't "teaching" her right.  All the reading about homeschooling I have done the past several months, I have learned one thing.  Don't rush them.  Homeschooling allows the flexibility to wait things out and try again at a different juncture.  I have seen it first hand now.  We were only learning the manuscript version of new letter for the past five or six letters.  This week I, for the fun of it, went back to cursive. Voila!  She gets it!  She is progressing so quickly now, and I am so impressed with her!  She seem to have more patience and is willing to spend more time trying to copy and write as instructed.  She even seems to enjoy it!  What a relief.  I learned a valuable lesson

Arithmetic:  She is able to count to 100 now, as well as by tens to 100.  She is getting better at recongnizing what "family" a number is (like eighty, teen, twenty etc. family).  You can see the little light going on for addition.  She knows the language (1 plus 1 equals..., one take away one...etc.)  I bought dominoes to use with her, which is what the curriculum uses for visual arithmetic.  She was doing better before I introduced her to those, so we will see where it goes from here.  I think she was figuring it out in her own way, and I showed her another method, and confused her.  I am not concerned, she will figure it out.  She can tell time on the hour.  We haven't worked with digital except she knows how to translate ?? o'clock to ??:00.  She has always been keen with spatial type problems.  (Near/far, close/closer, big/small, more/less etc)  We are now working on "first, second, third" and so on.  She was helping me in the kitchen the other day and asked, "what does "half" mean?"  Opportunities abound for math in the kitchen.  I have introduced her to "cents"/pennies and the symbols for money.  She easily handles combining 2-3 lessons of the curriculum per day for this subject.

Bible/Geography/Science:  I found a great lesson plan for this combination of subjects from Simply Charlotte Mason ( http://simplycharlottemason.com/home/ ) called 106 Days of Creation.  It takes us through each day of Creation and teaches in depth the subject matter for that day.  So far we have put together a "Creation Handbook" and decorated it; did an overview of the seven days and she drew a picture for each day; learned about different types of light; have done several "experiments" with shadows (my favorite was we put a short dowel into a small clay flowerpot turned upside down, and then marked the shadow on the pot at hour intervals, like a sundial).  We also read a great book to introduce her to the concept of evolution.  I highly recommend this book to get little minds thinking, without weighing them down with too much detail and theology.  That will come with time, but when presented in the way this book does, you don't have to say anything.  You see the wheels turning!!  I was truly grateful for their recommendation of this book. (I'll link it here for anyone interested:  Yellow and Pink, Steig)

Literature:  We recently finished Charlottes Web, and have started Little House in the Big Woods, as well as another "chapter" book with not many pictures.  She does very well sitting and listening.  I love reading to her, and I see Angelina out of the corner of my eye watching us and listening too.  So sweet!!!  I have been trying to add "living books" to our collection this summer.  While teaching myself as much as I could about Charlotte Mason the past year, I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the books I already had for the girls are those her methods would favor.  I found a reference that I now use to find other works that fit in with the no twaddle rule.  It is Books Children Love and I have used it as a reference for books that I usually find second hand (Amazon or Alibris) for very low cost.

Copywork:  I "fit" it in appropriately with the subjects we are working on each day.

Nature Journals:  We have put together and decorated our journal, making it "her own", and she loves that book.  She proudly shows Daddy our new entries and narrates to him what we learned.  Today, for instance, she asked me if we could learn about squirrels since they were outside our patio door all morning eating the seeds I threw out the other day.  Seldom do I have to suggest we add an entry.  She has asked to study most of the subjects so far.  I received a discount for a unit study/lapbook template from In the Hands of a Child and so ordered one about horses.  It may be a little detailed for Victoria now, but I will adjust it slightly to her level.  She is so fascinated with horses right now, so I want to take advantage of this learning opportunity.  We also heard via email the other day that the tadpoles we ordered a few months ago, should be shipped soon.  We have a habitat to watch them grow that we got at the Discovery Store.  (more info here)    Victoria has been watching the mail since she put the stamp on the envelope to request our specimens,  and I think it is going to be a lot of fun watching her excitement when they arrive.  I must say, I am not sure how I am going to like knowing there is a frog growing in our schoolroom, and wondering when little hands will forget to close the lid...

Art:  I have not found a curriculum I am set on yet so we are just working on simple projects for now.  We are though,  more fomally learning about famous artists. She now knows, and could probably recognize works by, Mary Cassatt.  I found a few books that introduce young eyes to great works of art while telling stories as well.  She just loves them and we are both enjoying our education of mostly the French Impressionist artists.  I thought is was sweet to watch her painting one day, and point out that she was using brush strokes as Vincent VanGogh!  We also are privileged to be friends with a very talented artist in South Carolina and she is an inspiration to Victoria.  After a recent visit with her, Victoria came away inspired to draw/paint several pictures... "just like a real artist like Carrie, right Mommy?!"  (Thanks Carrie for sharing).  I am still pondering which program I would like to use.  There are several that look promising.

Other:  With all our moving and travelling the past year, she is getting familiar with geography.  She is pretty sure of Florida, South Carolina and Maine.  She knows where Canada is on the map as well and is able to indicate the general area of the Provinces where most of our family live.  We have been working on continents and compass directions this week too.  She confuses terminology sometimes, for instance, while travelling recently from Pensacola to Charleston, she would ask "what world are we in now Mommy?"  meaning what state.  So cute, but poor little thing.  Lately, Mommy doesn't even know what "world" we are in either! 

That is pretty well where we are at.  I try and use every day experiences to teach as much as possible.  While we talk she stops me often and asks  "what does that mean?".  I resist the temptation to use very simple language to avoid being interrupted often with her wanting to know the dictionary definition of those words she doesn't recognize.  It is surprising how many times Jeff and I look at each other at a loss to "explain" common words!  She patiently waits and looks at both of us until we laughingly stumble through a quick definition.

I am so enjoying this journey of homeschooling thus far.  I feel Victoria is a little sponge and she makes my "job" easy.  I love watching her grow and mature as we learn together.  She really is my best little friend these days.  I love my girls and look forward teaching them as long as I am able.