Week 8, going great ;)

I had to have a cheesy title, sorry! :)

So far, so good... we're on week 8 of homeschooling and we're still enjoying it. DD begs to do workboxes daily (even weekends) and I have to come up with activities to keep her busy, even when she should just be playing!

We've completed lesson 41 in "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" and she's doing very, very well. She has read through SEVERAL of her phonics readers (including the 3 books of 4 stories each that our library had...we're returning the last book tomorrow!) and is trying to read everything. I have to keep introducing new concepts and rules to her so she can have a more fluent reading capability, but she is retaining a TON of the information! I was shocked at how much she learned from playing on starfall.com the other day in regards to the silent E! It's amazing how excited and willing to learn she is!

I am a day away from being 36 weeks pregnant and the sluggish, achy, tired, blahness is starting to creep in and I'm having to pretty much force myself to fill up DD's workbox each night and to seem excited during the day when she's doing the work. :) It isn't always easy, but somehow we are getting by (despite my grumpiness in the morning and fatigue in the afternoons!) and chugging along.

I've pondered how we're going to take breaks this schoolyear.... I've always imagined that we'll school year-round, but I cannot imagine going without taking some breaks. Obviously we'll take some time off when the new baby arrives, but I'm trying to decide how we can incorporate that somehow into a schedule of sorts. I'm afraid if we just "go with the flow", it'll be difficult to get right back into routine and that DD will be going crazy (and driving me crazy!) wanting to do her workbox.... I particularly do not want to slow down too much in her reading instruction. I'm thinking that we might take anywhere from 1-3 weeks off of a full school load once the baby arrives (assuming things are fairly settled down by then...if not, we can take more as needed!), but throw in at least 2-3 reading lessons and 1-2 Explode the Code worksheets within each "off" week just to keep things fresh and give DD something to do because I know she'll be asking!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to give an update on where we are and what we are up to! I'm very much enjoying the school year so far and am LOVING watching my daughter absorb all of this information and just run with it! I just wish I had a fraction of the energy to keep up! haha

Week 7 and things are going well!

The last 6 weeks were great! Toward the end of last week, I was just sure that DD was tired of "doing school", but this week she has had a new surge of energy with it!

I have been supplementing DD's math with various worksheets and books to bump it up academically, and she has been having fun with it! This week, we're learning about pennies and nickels. I think we'll slowly go over different monetary values over the next couple of weeks to give her a strong foundation for when we formally begin addition and subtraction. This will give her another "real world" application for those skills when the time comes and I think she'll enjoy that.

I am due in about 5 weeks with baby3, so I am trying to stay steady and consistent and plan on either taking a week or two completely off OR (and this is more likely), taking it easy and taking 2-3 weeks to complete a single week's worth of lessons. I really don't want DH to take over the reading lessons or the Explode the Code as DD and I have a system (and he has no clue lol), but surely he could help her with reading the books, doing the coloring and worksheets, and "assigning" computer time. ;)

Well, I have to get going! We're working on our 3rd workbag....which includes a few computer games. Talk to you all later!

Curriculum Cleanout WINNERS!

I'll be contacting you personally, but I thought I'd make a quick post :) Sorry for the delay!!!


For the Abeka 5 materials, the winner (chosen by random.org) is:
comment #2: "Winning Readings"

For the resource books, the winner (also chosen by random.org) is:
comment #4: "Laura"

I'll be emailing you both shortly! :)
Thanks everyone for entering and stopping by!!!

Curriculum Clean-Out :)

I'm participating in this Curriculum Clean-out twice! :)
My second give away is for some A Beka items: Reading 5 Answer Key (code on the back is 69248001), Grade 5 Parent Guide to Curriculum and Record Keeping (code on back is 67636001) and Language Arts 5 Curriculum Teacher Guide (code on back is 44113).

(click to see the whole picture)


US only please! Shipping is on me. I'll pick a winner August 16th and PLEASE leave an email so I can get in touch with you if you win! Good luck! :)

Curriculum Clean-Out :)

I'm participating in the curriculum cleanout event that's going on from now until August 15th as posted here:
My first giveaway will be for 2 reference books about homeschooling.... "Home-Schooling All the Way through High School" by Renee Mason and "Successful Homeschooling" by Richard Fugate.

US participants only, please - shipping is on me for the winner! I will pick a winner on the 16th of August. PLEASE leave an email so I can notify you if you are the winner!
(click to see the whole picture)

DD learned to READ! :)

This week has been CRAZY busy with various activities, so technically DD has 2 more activities to finish off the week (We do 9 activities per day as you have seen from our system)....but after that, we're DONE with week 5! :) It was a fun week for many reasons...the biggest of which being that SHE LEARNED TO READ!!! WOOHOO!!!

We have been doing lessons from "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington. The fist 26 lessons are strictly learning the sounds of each of the letters. After that, they gradually introduce reading concepts, starting with 2 letter words beginning with the short a sound and then moving on the CVC words with the short vowel sound the following lesson. Well by golly, my daughter can READ!

DD figured out HOW to do the CVC words (We have only gone through lesson 31!!! This was in FIVE days of instruction on this stuff!) and has taken it upon herself to read other words with other vowels in them even though her lessons haven't gotten her that far yet. We are LOVING it!

I had a few phonics readers already, but I got the BOB Books from the library and she has been having a TOTAL blast. This particular series from the library is a set of 3 books and each has a CD to go with it. I'm ignoring the CDs because I don't like how they are set up to have the kid read "with" it and it confused and frustrated her when we did it once after she'd completed the first book.

She has read all of the first book (it has 4 of the standard BOB Books in that volume) and half of the second one (so 2 of the standard BOB Books) already and is trying to read any and everything we come across! It's pretty awesome to watch!!

Once we get to lesson 41, we'll start getting into two-consonant blends and that will REALLY open up a world of books for her! Diagraphs as well - although the instruction on that starts about the time I might be having baby3, so we may have to just go with what she's already learned and review lessons for a while until I have regained some composure to move on to the harder stuff. :) I think my DH would help, but I'd really rather be the one to teach so as to keep the continuity and flow.

Anyway, I just had to share!

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone hoping to teach their child to read quickly and painlessly! I usually write out the words that I'll be teaching her on index cards so that they are larger and easier to read left to right than in the book. This seems to help and then you can also use the cards later in the day to reinforce the learning and do some review work if you want. :)

Have a great week!

Our System!

Alright, I figured it was time to talk about my school system that I use with DD. :) We are on week 5 right now and have already tweaked things to make life easier and school even more fun for DD! :)

First, I was looking at the workbox system and decided that it was just too much for us....However, I thought that having a visual guide to let DD see what she has completed and what she has left to do was a GREAT idea! I also love that she has a set number of activities to complete each day. It's worked well for us!

Click on pics to see the full version :0


This is her work chart.
As she completes activities, she just marks them off. :)


A day's worth of activities! This is one "workbox" full of 9 activities for the next day. The activities range from a post it telling me to play Simon Says with her.... to some Get Set for the Code worksheets....to reading a book and drawing a picture about it. :)


Our shelves of supplies! Supplies, phonics books, flashcards, etc. The white box is her "to do" box and the green one is her "done" box. The workbooks to the side are "for fun" in case she decides she wants to do more activities.... which she actually does!


That's all for now! Thanks for visiting. :)



(If I win an awesome prize, my choices would be *in order*: Homeschool Boutique shirts for the family, or a CurrClick GC, or the Rainbow Resource GC! Awesome prizes! If you haven't joined in the fun, there is still time! This contest runs until August 31!)