After a long Christmas break, I can say that we successfully completed school this past week. I was sticking to my guns on getting back in our routine and hitting the books. I find that when we are home during the day, things run much smoother and we stay on track. It's when we run an errand or go on an outing that throws me for a loop. While I would like to get out and about more with other homeschoolers, sometimes {most times} it is more efficient if we stay at home. And I'm hoping this will get a little easier as Finn gets older.
In the mornings Jase will get dressed for the day, in normal clothes, but for some reason he always ends up changing into this outfit. And I mean it's nearly everyday. I'm not sure what it is, but something strikes a chord and makes him go upstairs and get into costume!! This week I finally asked him why he changes into this outfit everyday {not discouraging him, just curious} and he told me "it's because we're always learning about history!"
I am really enjoying the curriculum {Heart of Dakota} we are using this year. {Thanks Rach for introducing it to us!} Everyday is planned out very nice and neat for you and best of all it is biblically based, which was a necessity for us. And Jase is right, we do learn about history everyday and we both love it. I was not a history lover going through school, but I have a new found appreciation for it and happy to teach it to my children. In addition to Heart of Dakota, we do a few other things like a United States unit study that studies the states one by one...this was his request. He really enjoys geography. And he knows all of the state capitals too...quiz him next time you see him, he will enjoy that! :) Late this past fall I purchased a Spanish curriculum that teaches Spanish through songs; however, it has not made it in our routine as frequent as I was hoping for. Jase really likes the songs though. I need to implement it more. And we do additional phonics work with Explode the Code. I really love this curriculum, definitely helped with teaching Jase how to read. I would highly recommend it; we use it everyday. And I have started Allyson on it as well.
Here are two clips from some things we studied this week. Maine- did you know that 90% of it is covered by forests!! And they have some 2,000 islands off the coast. I bet it is beautiful there! The picture on the right is Heart of Dakota. This week we finished up a little study about 2 two pilgrim boys from the late 1600s that were kidnapped by Indians and taken to their camp to basically be slaves. After staying with the Indians for so long, they begin to understand the language and learned that Indians were going to take the boys to Canada, along with some furs, and sell them as slaves. These boys were 12 and 8 years old. They devised a plan and long story short, they escaped and ended up making it back to their settlement after several days of running from the Indians. It was a nail biter and Jase never wanted me to stop reading. Needless to say, we finished that story a little ahead of schedule!
And here is a throwback for you. I found this while picking up the schoolroom on Friday. I had the kids pose for me so I could compare the picture. Ally was just months old in this picture. I had just returned back to work {teaching} and Alisha was home with my kiddos until Christmas. Jase was going to a little school, so Alisha would stay home with Ally. Well one day Alisha called or texted me that Jase had school pictures. He was not dressed in school picture attire at all! I had originally wanted to take Ally up there and take their pictures together in their Christmas outfits. Queue Aunt Alisha in the scene! She is such a help, always has been. There she was scrambling around my house, looking for these matching outfits and she was racing the clock since pictures were at a certain time. I don't think she could ever find Ally's shoes, but she did a great job. LOL!
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