Back again...

It has been such a long time since I have been able to get to writing anything here. I really miss blogging! There have been so many things happening in my life this summer, but I am finally starting to feel settled in and ready to get back into things.

I will not write about the lifestyle changes that we have experienced in detail, because they don't have anything to do with what I write about here. I am looking forward to writing more about our adventures with Ambleside Online and Charlotte Mason's educational theories and I am also planning to again do weekly wrap-up posts. I really miss looking back at them as the school year progresses. There is so much I forget!

We have moved into the mountains and our nature study and outside adventures will reflect that. We have already been on several hikes and longer drives, and come back with many exciting 'specimens', including a new pet lizard and a fossilized insect!

We now have one of every class of vertebrate, except for bird. We have an amphibian (Sammy the salamander), a reptile (CJ the Lizard, named by CJ after himself), mammals (Kennel the cat and Tiger the dog, named by Bop) and 4 fish, thankfully not named by anyone. Hopefully we will soon fill in the missing bird slot with chickens. We also have several invertebrates; about 45 pet cockroaches, and a little shrimp named Joch.

To anyone that is still here to read this, thank you!  And I will be back soon.... This time, I promise.  :)

Weekly Wrap Up- I think we can…

Getting back into routine has been very hard with this new baby.  It has been almost 4 years since I had a new baby, and the other kiddos were only 2 and 3 then, so there was no real school going on. 

Now I have one in kindergarten and one in 2nd grade, and add that all up with a new house, and routine can quickly fly out the window!  This was our third week back at our full schedule, and it went pretty good.  We saved Friday for our ‘fun’ school this week, and that really helped.

Bop is not quite halfway through her Ambleside readings, so I decided to do two weeks in one until we are finished.  I feel like the scheduled books are good enough that I don’t want her to miss them, and she has had no trouble with the extra work.  In fact she seems to enjoy it.

They are both still working through Funnix for their phonics program.  Bop is nearly done so I printed off the very thick reader for Funnix 2, and that was a strong motivator.  She really wants to finish it up and move on now!  She can pretty much read anything if she tries, but she isn’t very confident yet so we will just keep going at her pace. CJ is progressing slowly, but I know that one of these days it will all click for him. 

 

 

Bop is taking a break from Math U See to work on her addition drills.  When she is finished with all her drills she is going to win an as-yet-undecided prize.  CJ is moving very quickly through his kindergarten math and will be ready for the next book before I get it ordered. 

We have been having so much fun living down the street from a park, we visit nearly everyday.  This has really added a new dimension to our day that we all look forward to.

Blowing Dandelions

 

Nature Journal

 

She knows she’s cute… 

 

Art and a helicopter.  I am pretty sure the helicopter taught him the most, he designed it himself.

 

 

Love love love this one.  So sweet.

 

 

The End

Couldn’t resist.  :)

What not ‘Doing School’ Looks Like…

Ok, I admit it.  We haven’t done much ‘school’ this year.  We have moved twice, had a new little baby, and spent a lot of time enjoying life.  So there are a lot of empty pages in our workbooks, quite a few un-read books, and several half-finished lapbooks. 

We haven’t done much ‘school’. 

But we have done a lot of learning.  This is what not ‘doing school’ looks like in our family. 

Science

The Aquarium…

 

Exploring outside…

Viewing wildlife…

 

And of course, human growth and development. 

 

 

Social Studies

Wreath-placing ceremony…

 

Extracurricular Activities…

Playing in the snow…

 

Dance lessons….

Drama…

 

 

And most important of all…

plenty of time to read! 

 

Time4Learning

Since we just moved and had a new baby, I have been working on doing a lot of school on the computer.  I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.