Friday, February 17, 2012

Weekly Wrapup- Happy Valentines!!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In our life... This week was a very good one, although a long one. For some reason this week seems to have creeped by. Maybe it is because we are going somewhere fun tomorrow that both Boo Bear and I are looking forward to. My sweet little guy gave me a rose bush for Valentines. This way I can keep roses all year. :-) I am very excited about that. Tomorrow we are going to the local basset hound rescue group's big fundraiser. We have a hound dog and so this is like hound dog heaven for me. :) Can't wait!!!

In our homeschool... We met with our homeschool group on Tuesday for a Valentine's party and exchange. It was a great time and we are looking forward to the next time.
I have to share about the progress we have made. I gave Boo Bear the math evaluation for the Horizon curriculum just to make sure where we are. He did VERY well and I was so excited for him. Not only is he ready for 1st Grade math but it helps to encourage me that we did it! This year looking back has been full of ups and downs and tears and questions on whether or not I was doing any good. Thank you Lord for these moments and the encouragement of a support community like I have found!!!
We took a couple trips to the library and had some fun in theater this week.

What's working/not working for us... Praise the Lord we finally found a reading program that seems to have hit the jackpot with Boo Bear!! A couple weeks ago I saw a special code on one of the homeschool groups for a reading program called Reading Eggs. I thought why not! He loves to play games so let's see. Thank you for sharing that!!! It has worked wonders and he is having a blast. I am so thankful he loves it and he is already showing progress.

Questions/thoughts I have... I am planning for next year's curriculum. I have decided on Horizon's math for 1st grade but history and science are still up in the air. Did you start these subjects then or did you wait? I am not waiting on Science because he absolutely loves that type of thing. History I want to bring in because he is such a sponge and while he WANTS to learn I want to teach all we can. Story of the World has been highly recommended. What do you think or what would you suggest for history and science? 

What I'm cooking... I tried a new recipe last night and it was a big success. It was so simple and easy and tasted sooo good! It was BBQ chicken Calzones and everyone loved them. You can find the recipe here.

A video, quote to share... My pastor posted this on FB this week and it really stood out to me...

"If God was small enough for you to completely understand him, he wouldn't be big enough for you to completely trust him." (R.Warren)
 

6 comments:

  1. I used story of the world for history vol 1 the workbook is a must for young ages. As for science I just flow my kids lead since we love science and do lots and hands on and nature study stuff.

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  2. SOTW is nice because with the activity guide, you do what you want. We don't do very many of the projects, but we do the coloring pages and maps as well as review questions. Other families do the projects, but not the paper work. That said, I don't know if I like the narrative/story type style. I haven't decided what we're doing next year yet.

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  3. Glad you found something for reading that works. We are enjoying Reading Eggs at the moment too.

    We use Sonlight for history and bible, which we LOVE. But you have to have some one who loves to be read to and you have to be prepared to read a lot. For science we've used Sonlight's and Apologia. I think Apologia is our favorite. I just love the conversational style of the books.

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  4. GREAT QJUOTE! And so applicable.

    I live in a state where those 'extra' classes are required. We currently do Apologia, but for 1st grade I did BJU Science. It is short and simple, but colorful and informative. It does come from a creation standpoint. You can add depth if he wants it by using the workbooks and notebooks.

    I did Heritage Studies at that stage, but we use Tapestry of Grace now. It just depends on how you both feel about history and how deeply you want to study it.

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  5. Thank you all for your suggestions and taking time to comment! I appreciate it and will definitely investigate some of these ideas!

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  6. I love the quote!

    We are doing SOTW this year. I got it from the library first and I liked it. So I bought the book and the activity guide. My girls LOVE LOVE LOVE SOTW. It is the first subject they ask to do every day. Writing isn't a battle because their writing revolves around history and I don't do a separate writing time. The activity guide offers non-fiction and fiction book recommendations to go along with each section. I go through and request what I can from our library. We do the maps and coloring pages and so far a couple projects. Our big one was the chicken mummy; my girls loved it.

    Science we're not using a curriculum. We feel that exploring topics the girls are interested in is enough since they are interested in science. SO far we've delved into animals and the human body mostly through reading library books. We've done various experiments we find online and talk about what _____ happened.

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