And we begin again!

First week of a new school term is now safely behind us!

Bible and copywork go hand in hand!

For Isaiah, he officially began Kindergarten. Definitely not a lot of structured learning, keeping it relaxed and fun. Most days he wants to "do school" though, so we get at least a few minutes to "officially" work on things!

Isaiah learned the sight word: the and did a lot of work matching upper and lower case letters and numbers. We also started working on a BOB Books

Faith is continually trekking on. She is my struggling student. We've never had her officially tested or "labeled", but she does have some learning disabilities. Most of the time, she is able to work through them, but there are times where tears are present during our frustration. God has been teaching me a lot about patience and grace and I am SO thankful for that! I want to be Faith's biggest cheerleader and her biggest supporter! I want to push her just enough, but at the same time I want to be gentle and protective. She's off to a good start to our new term, though. She enjoys reading Amelia Bedelia books and I am very content to let her LOVE them! Since reading is such a struggle for her, we do take even these Level 2 books slow. Even now that her vocabulary and recognition of words is greater than it was even during the summer it can take us 15 minutes to read just a few pages. But you know what? I'm okay with that. Slow and steady wins the race. It's about the end result, not how we got there! I'm just thrilled that she's actually recognizing new words!!!

Reading should be fun and Faith (3rd grade) really enjoys reading Amelia Bedelia!

She began Switched-On Schoolhouse for Math which is a computer based program. There is an option for her to highlight a selected text and have the computer read to her, but I enjoy being involved in the lessons so I read the text to her myself. She read the questions herself, though, and while she was able to do much of the 3rd grade (YES!) lesson herself, I was nearby to aide when needed or to help clarify.

 

We spent this first week playing catch up with our Mystery of History lesson. We sometimes get behind on our notecards or our Wall of Fame. I figured NOW would be a great time to get caught up. We do enjoy our lessons. They are short and simple, but packed FULL of goodies! The girls really enjoy doing our version of the Wall of Fame. Below you can see some of their drawings. 

The gold cross next to Abraham and Isaac represent their part in the lineage of Christ.

Daddy & Faith working on the Ark of the Covenant and The Tabernacle drawing!

 

 I LOVE the fact that MoH is deeply rooted in the Bible.

 

For Science we are on the downhill slide to finishing our first Apologia book, Expoloring Creation: Astronomy. It has led to many discussions about our solar system. Daddy has been teaching Science this week freeing me up to work with Isaiah. We do Science two days a week.

 

 

Of course, what is happening in Science sometimes is more interesting than Kindergarten work!

 

However, thanks to Pinterest I have found many Kindergarten ideas.

 

 

 Aspen is happy to be able to work on SOS Math, too. Utilizing the "speak" option and headphones helps her to not be distracted with other teachings going on, but just like with Faith I can be sitting right next to her. She is able to work independently throughout 99% of the lesson freeing me up to work with the others.

 

 

Switched-On Schoolhouse has been a huge blessing to us! Mistic is now working on SOS for English and Math while the other two girls are only doing Math this year. We don't do formal English until about 4th grade, so they will add SOS English then. I feel involved in the lessons- a huge plus- but it's also something that they are able to work on independently. There are "Tiny Tutors" which are mini videos, games to review vocabulary, the "speak" option, and the answers are almost always right in front of them. For instance, there might be a fill in the blank question, but the students only need to click on the blank for the available options to appear. After finding the one that fits, they leave it and move on to the next problem. Or perhaps there are 4-5 multiple choices, or something that should be put in order. It's very user friendly and a good fit for everyone of age (it's 3rd grade and above!).

 

 

For handwriting practice, Mistic (4th grade) has been copying different character quality from The Duggar's Website. She writes the quality, the definition, and the Bible verse.

So- Math and English on the computer.
Science, History, Health, and Handwriting together.

 

A little lotion and glitter proved to be a fun lesson about GERMS and how they spread!

Looking forward to a great 2013 school year!

How's your school year going?