I have been trying to squeeze some free time out of my day-to-day thingsthatneedtobedone, but obviously blogging hasn't been high on my list. I do miss it so I'm going to make some effort in the future. :)
Instead of trying to do multiple posts to catch up I'm going to review what we did for school in January in one post. During our Christmas break I talked with my kids about each subject and we discussed what was working, what wasn't, and what ideas they had for improving. They came up with some really good ideas, we simplified in several areas, and we have been mostly happy with our new plans.
Devotional
We continue to work on learning new songs and memorizing scriptures. We started reading the New Testament using Penny Gardner's Storied Scriptures. They are familiar with Christ's life so they are starting to fit events into a "bigger picture" view. I'm also surprised at how much my younger girls (2 & 4) know about the ministry of Jesus Christ. We also read from The Book of Virtues, chapter 2 on Compassion. We started reading from this in October with the plan to focus on each virtue/chapter per month, but took a break for the holidays - in November we focued on Gratitude with a fabulous resource from Donnna Young, in December we did a daily Christmas devotional using a binder given to my family years ago, and in January we were back to The Book of Virtues. I am incredibly tempted to purchase Donna Young's February Devotional. Hmm.
Math
We continue to work through Math-U-See, but we are playing more addition and subtraction games to improve their ability to recall math facts.
Literature
We are reading a new poetry anthology that is lots of fun - Sing a Song of Popcorn. I think I picked it up at a yard sale or thrift store. We were reading Minn of the Mississippi for Geography, but its harder to map than some of the other Holling books so we've moved it to Literature so we can finish it. We are into Christiana's journey in Pilgrim's Progress and the kids still love it - this week we read about Great Heart killing the giant Maul, what's not to enjoy about that? I am reading the Kirsten American Girls book with N for her Liberty Girl's club, and A is reading The Sowers book about David Livingston for his Knights of Freedom club. Free reading - A has taken an interest in Greek Mythology and read the D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, as well as reading other modern books like The Sisters Grimm series. N has been listening to Magic Treehouse books, The Fairies Collections, and A Little Princess again.
History
We are still learning about the American Revolution. I'm reading them the Landmark book, The American Revolution. Its been easier for them to understand after watching the Liberty Kids tv series. We have also been watching some related videos - the first few episodes of the Story of US by the History Channel, and some others online like these and these.
Geography
I found the National Geographic book above at a discount store and we decided to use it as our spine book to learn about and map the journey's of famous explorers. We started with the Norsemen - we read the details in the main book, and also read Lief the Lucky by the D'Aulaires and another short book we have about their travels. Next I think we are going to learn about the Silk Route in Asia. We also make sure we pull out our maps with other subjects as well, such as the journey of Kirsten's family from Sweden to Minnesota in the American Girl books.
Science - Astronomy
We are still reading Exploring Creation with Astronomy and using the journals for narrating, but we aren't doing the worksheet pages or notebooking projects. We are trying to do science projects on saturday since Dad is around the help with the project or fielding little kids, so we are more likely to DO the projects. One of the changes the kids wanted for this subject was to learn more about the constellations and do more stargazing . I made everyone a "Constellation Journal" where we use star stickers to make the constellation and then we read the story about the constellation. This is how my son became so interested in Greek myths. We haven't done much stargazing yet - evening time has so many things going on - but I do want to do it during winter/spring when it is dark earlier.
Nature Study
We have been doing the nature challenges at Handbook of Nature Study, but I haven't blogged about them. Maybe I'll catch up sometime soon?!? N's latest pictures for a winter tree study are above. For our nature tales we have been reading a book called The Seven Sleepers all about animal hibernation. It includes the usual animals you think about hibernating like chipmunks, squirells, and bears, but also has information about earthworms, reptiles, amphibians, bats, butterflies and more.
Artist Study & Composer Sudy
We started a new artist - Edgar Degas - and we are enjoying him. Well, most of us - my son isn't so interested in all the ballet pictures and stories, but he's learned to humor all us girls :). We are still listening to Sergei Prokofiev - next month we will be attending a Utah Symphony Lollipop version of Peter & the Wolf.
Extracurricular
As I mentioned, the kids are still doing their book clubs - Liberty Girls & Knights of Freedom. They are also attending art class again this semester and studying Van Gogh. We've already focused on him in our homeschool, but they enjoy learning more about his work and doing art projects. We are going to be attending some "Lost Art" classes this month hosted by a homeschool mom who lives on a working homestead - candlemaking, all about fiber (wool), and cheese making.
A has been working on Cub Scout stuff - he recently earned his Religious Knot and Bear Award. Now he is working on the World Conservation Award as something to do because he has about 5 months before he moves into Webelos. Theyare both working on their Faith in God, a program for boys and girls in our church. A and N just finished a Learn to Play Hockey class at the Olympic Oval and really enjoyed it. We plan on having them do the next class as well.
Preschool
My 2 & 4 year old girls are demanding more "school" time of their own. So we spend 30 minutes to an hour doing stuff together - we read books, sing and act out songs, play games like duck-duck-goose, count manipulatives and toys, go on shape or color hunts, and so on. They love it. I have also started doing some printing readiness with my 4 year old - while the 2 year old naps, O sits next to me working on her own "school" while I work with the older 2 kids. I'm starting to think about phonics/reading, but we are aren't in a hurry.
Family Cleaning
Also new to our schedule is housework! A few days a week we focus on one room in the house and do some deep cleaning - vacuuming, mopping, windows, baseboards, dusting. It helps me out and means every room in the house gets some extra attention at least once a month. Even O & J like having their own damp rag to wipe stuff with. Adults in training :)
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