Summer time is here!

What a wonderful school year it's been! Avery found his groove, I managed to keep us all alive and well, the baby is now on the prowl and we have a couple of months to relax and refresh our minds and spirits for next school year. Here is a very abbreviated summary of this past school year.

Greatest challenges:

• Keeping the three year old from climbing onto the school table while teaching Avery his lessons.

• Nursing a baby while teaching Avery lessons while keeping Emile from climbing onto the table.
• Having Avery maintain focus if I leave the room (even for a second)

Greatest rewards:

• Avery loving to write letters, notes and stories especially with elaborate illustrations of monsters and battle droids.
• Emile asking me what each part of the body's real scientific name is (i.e. clavicle, sternum, humerus). Seriously!
• Watching the boys study together the wonders in nature, that makes it worth it all right there!

This past year I went through a slew of material to see what would work and would wouldn't work. Here are a few of our favorites:

• A little journal writing idea book purchased from our local educational store.
• Writing Strands
• First language lessons by Susan Weiss Bauer
• History of the world by Susan Weiss Bauer
• R.E.A.L. Science
• School Zone Big first grade workbook
• Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
• Sketch books and Field guides
• Movable alphabet
• Homemade toddler activities-oatmeal, beans, cotton balls, scissors glue & construction paper, playdough!

spring breaks

We have been taking many little breaks over the last couple of weeks. With this beautiful spring weather to enjoy and so many birthday's to celebrate, we decided to continue our schooling into the summer. We are about to finish the First grade portion of our grammar book, and have covered all of the basic concepts in first grade math. So we will take a break from those subjects over the summer. History and science are his favorite subjects and will give his hungry little mind something to chew on this summer when it is too hot and mosquito invested to play in the back yard. We plan on returning to the UL literacy program this summer to help with reading fluency and also creative writing. It's such a great program and I hope that this year something will click and he will begin to LOVE reading for himself! As much as I love to read aloud to him I want him to have the tools to find information for himself, and not struggle.

I am so proud of all of the hard work he has done this year! With very little complaints and way too many distractions from his little brothers to overlook, he has exceeded my expectations and has been a wonderful example for his younger brother. Hopefully next year Emile will be ready to do the same and he can show little bit how it's done.

busy boys

My day was mostly spent in this kitchen. Baking, cooking, cleaning, crafting then cleaning again.

The boys made blueberry muffins this morning and this afternoon Emile helped make cheese straws. Tonight Avery snapped snap beans and entertained the baby while I made dinner. It feels so good to be productive as a family. Today, so I wouldn't feel like the little red hen, I made it a point to constantly direct the kids energy by giving them chores and other productive activities instead of letting them just play all day. They were so much more present, I felt like we were on the same wave length.

Just a few of our lessons today:

For science we finished his animal kingdom folder/book that he decorated and will fill with his lab sheets. In math we're counting money and learning the ones, tens and hundreds place. Grammar we reviewed parts of speech and diagramed sentences.

I found this great web site for spelling that Avery loves.

http://www.spellingcity.com/

Check out this great idea. I'm loving her idea of workboxes.
http://homegrownmom.com/workboxes/workboxes/512

***NEWS UPDATE***
Avery is reading his first chapter book all by himself- Frog and Toad together. We are all so excited!!!




If you are interested in seeing what "level" your child reads check this out.
If you are in Louisiana and want to see what kids around the state are learning at your childs grade level look here.

I only look at these things twice a year. Once at the begining to see what direction we should take, then later in the year to see how far we've come and what we have accomplished. If there are things we missed or maybe are slacking on I save that for the spring/summer season to focus on those areas alone. So far so good!

Busy Busy

Today was an absolutely great day! We were very busy, very inquisitive and very happy! No one lost their temper today which is not normal for us at all.

First part of the day was spent doing our school work. In math we are practicing number bonds, grammar we are still acting out our action poems, history we are learning about the Israelites and for a writing exercise Avery wrote poem about Fall, which we will probably share tomorrow along with his finished illustration to go along with it.

After we got that all out of the way we went down town to the Library, ate sushi for lunch in the park and took a very long walk around the pond checking out all of the ducks. It was Emile's first time to the park to see the ducks! I couldn't believe I have not taken my child to see the ducks in his two years of life, I felt like a terrible mother. He absolutely loved every moment of it. He kept asking me to show him the Mr. and Mrs. Mallard- from the book Make Way for Ducklings which we read this morning. So, such a full day and it is not over yet. Art this afternoon then soccer practice this evening. We are all going to sleep so good tonight, (right after the french toast I'm making for dinner...yum!)

We are loving our new schedule lately. Wake up, eat, read, eat, read some more, eat some more. Avery is especially grateful to my extremely slow state of being these days. Audio books have become my greatest ally. We've been listening to storyteller Jim Weiss who is absolutely wonderful!! Greek myths, Shakespeare for children, American tall tales, and a favorite around here- Rip Van Winkle, complete with Rip's rap!

We have still been doing our "school" work, it's just in disguise.

We are finished the first book in the first grade math curriculum, after his review we'll take the test to see if he retained all of the concepts, if so he can move on to the second workbook that will last the rest of this year. Still not too sure if I like this math curriculum. It's either too easy or worded too weird so that even I don't understand what they want him to do. If anyone who reads this has any great math curriculum ideas please feel free to share!

Also taking a break from the human body unit this week to do science experiments. Avery's request of course. Right now we are oxidizing pennies, soaking paper towels in vinegar and recording the reaction. Interesting how the side that is not touching the vinegar turns green but the underside that is sitting in the vinegar remains the same color. The book doesn't tell me why this happens so I have to do my homework now.

My camera is still out of commission, but hopefully will be back in working order to add some pictures to these boring blog post.

For the love of writing

One of my goals when I took on homeschooling was to make Avery a proficient writer and hopefully instill a love of this form of expression, avoiding pressure to "do it right". I think I found the perfect writing curriculum to help me with my goal. Here are just a few of the Writing Principles they list at the beginning of the book by Dave Marks- I just about fell in love!

• "Every person needs to learn to express ideas and feelings in writing."
  
• "There is no right way to write anything!"
  
• "The ability to write is not an expression of a body of knowledge that can be learned like a list of vocabulary words."
  
• "Writing teachers and their students both learn in any effective writing situation."

How liberating is that!? I am so excited to start writing with Avery. He is such a bright boy with so many wild ideas floating around in his head, and writing is such a huge endeavor. To be able to put your thoughts on paper has got to be one of the hardest things to learn, and teaching it even harder. With this book I feel a little more at ease guiding him through the process.

Happy Writing!!