What we have done so far!

I have neglected this blog!  Not on purpose. Life has just been busy. The last time I posted it was about Unschooling. I would like to update you on that!

Since we have started school we have moved to the DFW area.  We are now living with my parents. I do not have as much control over when the TV is on or off anymore and because we are sharing a living space our day looks a lot different than what I had first hoped. The good news? We have adjusted well!

Our day starts with the kids playing outside, or legos, or some other fun playtime.  At this time I wake up!  The good thing about having grandparents in the house is that I can sleep in a bit! I wake up, check email, facebook and blogs. We start school about 9 am.

We always start with Bible (Sonlight). The kids and I enjoy memorizing Scripture, praying and talking about the story or lesson.  This Sonlight curriculum has a lot of read-alouds! So I have incorporated drawing or painting of the Bible lesson into our morning while I read the, sometimes endless, pages.

Then we go on to History, Geography (sonlight), and then science.  We started the year with Apologia but I quickly realized that this was not a good fit for our family.  So we are switching (as of January) to unit studies. We just read a fun story "Owls in the Family" and the kids wanted to learn more about owls so we are working on a lapbook about owls.

Then it is time for individual work. Ellie is still very dependent on me for most of her work. So Jackson usually starts with math. I only help when it is a new concept or if he is confused. This leaves me time to work with Ellie.  She is really not getting math.  I noticed recently that she is relying on me to tell her the answers. So we have started over.  We are taking it very slowly. Today was the first day I saw the light bulb turn on.  She is starting to understand the concept of adding.  We will most likely do Kindergarten math again later in the semester. For now we are sticking with some little books that are meant to reinforce addition and other basic concepts.

I also like to take this time to help Charlotte. She only gives me about 10 minutes max!  She loves to play Sound-o Bingo, which is bingo with only letters and their sounds.  She also loves playing cards. Ellie joins in too.

Ellie reads to me and works on other LA and is usually done well before lunch. Then she is off to play with her sister!

Jackson and I work on ELA together and then he is working on an additional geography program that is based on the US.

That is it!  Oh, we have just started Health too.  Like just started today! So I don't know how that will go yet,

The unschooling has not really happened like I wanted but I feel a lot less pressure this year than I have in years past. We have had a lot of big life changes since October including: a move, Troy out of work for 2 months, 2 deaths, and me having to be the full time caregiver for my father. I have learned to let a lot of things go. My kids are benefiting from that.

All-in-all, it has been a good year!