Yes, I am adding several entries today, but it's a perfect day for blogging. Nice and rainy and I'm mostly caught up with everything I need to do. Mostly....

We have completed 4 weeks of school already. Wow! Time flies! When you're having fun? I'm not sure that it's all been fun, but overall it has been.

Here's the review of Z's 7th grade material:

Rod and Staff Bible is excellent! He has studied Creation and the Flood so far. It's not just the typical stories though. He has to do a lot of searching of the scriptures to find the answers. And it uses the King James Version which seems rare nowadays. He has also had to use a Bible dictionary sometimes. He and I both really like it. It is so in depth but not too much for his age. He started a new unit of the Patriarchs on Thursday. He has to fill in timelines and genealogy charts and is learning so much!

Abeka math is good as always. This year is a review of all the main concepts he has ever learned so he can go on to pre-algebra next year. His first unit was reviewing least common multiple, greatest common factors and prime numbers. Not fun! Now he is doing fractions. A little better.

We are trying CLE for Language Arts this year. I love that it includes grammar, creative writing, penmanship and spelling all in one. There are 10 booklets of 15 lessons each to complete in the school year. We have finished one and just started the second one. The first one didn't have any creative writing, but this one teaches outlining which we haven't really covered before. The lessons are long but I like it really well. He even has to diagram sentences and is doing well! He made a 95 on his first test!

We are using Sonlight for history and reading. It is totally different than what we are used to but I really like it. I think the jury is still out on Z's opinion. At least I haven't heard any complaining. I read to him from our history source. This changes weekly or sometimes daily. We finished the true story of William Wilberforce this week. Z maps any locations that are pertinent to our history lesson on a wipe-off markable map. Depending on the lesson, there are questions to answer orally or worksheets to do. There are also the nicest timeline figures to color with colored pencils and mount on a timeline. I'm still trying to figure out the best type of timeline to use. There is also a reader that Z does on his own each day. Usually a chapter or two per day. This will correlate to the time period or subject we are learning about. He is reading about Harriet Tubman right now. She helped free many slaves after becoming free herself. William Wilberforce was a member of parliament in Britian who spent his whole life trying to abolish the slave trade. That is how these two books are chosen at the same time. There is also a read-aloud that I read each day. We are finishing up a book called Moccasin Trail. It doesn't relate to slavery, but it does take place during the time of settlers going west on the wagon trains. This year will all be American history. I would like to continue with this company but it's really too early to decide now.

For science, he is still doing Abeka. It is very colorful and the most interesting science we have found. We are learning about plants, and specifically all the flower families there are. Z really likes this.

He is also using a computer program called Typing Instructor. He does 10 minutes per day. He complained at first that his fingers couldn't move right. He can tell now they are getting much stronger. It is a really fun program because if the student meets their goal, they get to go into the "arcade" and play games are a reward.

I have also added in 7th grade Social Studies from ACE. This is a career study and as the student progresses, they fill in interests they have, skills they have and then find out what they might be interested in doing when they are an adult. He only does 2 pages a day, 3 days a week in this. It is pretty enjoyable.

He is still playing snare drum (for the third year) in a homeschool band. He also started the xylophone/bells this year. He really enjoys that--more than the drum I think. K says she wants to play them when she's old enough.

I'm going to start a separate post about the other's school.