i'm pleased to announce that we're DONE with school this year.

it's a sunny afternoon in early april, and my two kindergartners are happily playing together. they're done with "school," even though we didn't technically finish the entire curriculum.

phonics and reading: we've been breezing through the phonics and writing lessons in a few days' time, with both rowan and sawyer reading at the same level. we also continue to supplement with the Bob Books - both boys take turns reading a book a day from each of the three levels we have outloud.

math: rowan has already adding and subtracting numbers - even double digits. we haven't done one math lesson, but with the questions that he asks on a daily basis about numbers, he's gathered and deduced enough to figure it out himself. sawyer isn't as interested at this point. i'm sure he'll pick up when we start "official" math curriculum - which will probably be in the fall.

science: we are watching five pupae "painted lady" butterflies begin the chrysallis stage in a glass container and we'll be putting the "cocoons" into a butterfly environment when they've spun. i'm excited to see this take place. we'll release any butterfly that submerges and hope to see them work their magic in our flower beds. 
we're also waiting on ants to arrive in the mail at which point we'll add them to an artificial ant hill that we have to study how an ant builds tunnels and "works hard to live."
in addition to these, we'll be getting new honeybees in the mail in two weeks and each of the boys will be able to observe the hives up close in their child-size bee suit.
kenny is also planning on starting a BIG bug collection this summer - the old fashioned "pin and cardboard" kind.
science is so fun during the warm, sunny days of spring and summer!

bible: i can't believe how easily memorization comes at this stage in rowan and sawyer's learning. it's proof that the trivium makes the most sense in learning (at least to me). we memorize a new verse every other week. we read a lot of bible stories to the boys in their bible storybooks. i hope to begin reading from actual scripture and incorporating drawing and more artwork into their bible learning.

art: sawyer and adam are the biggest advocates of drawing, coloring and painting. rowan is happy to sit and do whatever the other two ask, but he doesn't ask to do it. he's much more interested in looking at pictures and through books (or being read to). we might take a saturday morning art class in the fall at a local art center.

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all in all, this was a really fun year of homeschooling. for all of us! i doubt that we'll finish this early every year! especially when i add another level of learning (adam) to the official curriculum-learning. we'll probably do some year-end field trips before it gets too hot: the zoo (wild animals) and a local sheep farm (farm animals).

kenny and i are gearing up for the state homeschool convention at the beginning of next month. we're scanning web sites of curriculums that we're interested in for next year. we had a great experience at the christian classical education conference in february, and we're excited to begin incorporating what we've learned.

rowan and sawyer have techinically finished kindergarten and will begin first grade level lessons in the fall - depending on the curriculum we choose. i am happy not to start anything with adam yet - he's happy enough to sit with us and learn simple alphabet lessons, draw faces and sing our phonics songs.