Wrapping Up Week Two

As we wrap up our second week of this new school year, two things are absolutely certain; Little G still loves his math, and Reezle can't seem to get enough Spanish! She chatters her newly-learned words at every opportunity, and she seems to have a really good understanding and comprehension of the material.  Some words we are currently working on include: planta/plant, cara/face, hoja/leaf, formas/shapes, círculo/circle, triángulo/triangle, cuadrado/square, maleza/weeds, hermano y hermana/brother and sister, nosotros/we, ¿Por qué?/why, jugar/play, jardin/garden, ve/see.  Again, not a complete list, but ones we are becoming more familiar with in addition to the previous words.


 Despite being good at math, it remains Reezle's least favorite subject. Getting through the lessons can feel like I'm dragging her through the entire way. I wish she would realize that attitude is everything. Well, 98%, anyway. She makes it more difficult than it needs to be by creating her own distractions, those being her mood and behavior. I have no idea where she gets this trait from. At all. Ahem.

 

On the bright side, Reezle is an absolute delight to work with in every other subject. She's a smiling, interested, and enthusiastic learner, and that makes my part a lot more enjoyable. She also eagerly helps her brother when he runs into any issues, though honestly, this is very rare. Perhaps that is part of the allure! When she was in a traditional public school, she had many opportunities to help her classmates and really enjoyed being able to do so. Interestingly, she seems to be at such a similar academic place with her brother that they probably require each other's help about equally as often. I love it that they ask each other questions, and both enjoy helping the other figure something out.

We're going to do some work this weekend, in hopes of being able to escape to the larger "classroom" of the world sometime this coming week for a field trip.  The nice weather is calling, and fall is in the air.

Happy Friday!

Little G: Fall Benchmark Assessment

Little G just had his fall benchmark assessment.

He is 6 years old and in 1st grade (but taking 2nd grade curriculum, soon to be 3rd grade math). I asked if he could be assessed for reading fluency, which they typically do not assess as part of the fall benchmark for 1st graders. His teacher (all K12 students are assigned teachers through their state's school) was super about it and had the assessment up and ready in less than 5 minutes. She's great.


Little G read 115 words per minute. For perspective, Little G reads within average WCPM expectations for 4-6th graders in fall. Crazy. It's a little scary having a 6 year-old who is smarter than you, trust me on this. Ha!

For our next assessment, Mrs. C. has asked Little G to have a book to share with her. He is currently running back and forth from his room with various books, asking, "Mom? Do you think she would like this book? What about this book? Do you think she wants to hear about anatomy? What about cats?" He has two months to decide, hopefully that will be enough time. Heh.

Our Tuesday

Day 6 of the new school year, and 6 year-old Little G has completed 23% of 2nd grade math. He keeps me busy. The great thing about this is that getting to the math portion of his studies is an incentive to get through the less desirable portions of his day. And speaking of less desirable...


The changes to the curriculum aren't, in my opinion, positive ones. I'm as stunned as anyone could be that I have anything less than glowing to say about K12, but this splitting of the language arts into multiple categories is confusing, time-consuming, and annoying. It makes it appear like a lot more work when it really isn't. It doesn't streamline anything; the new format is kind of like a jar of marbles being dropped on a hard floor - it's all over the place and it's an effort to go looking for everything.

They also took a very my-kid-friendly version of language arts (i.e. lots of books and lessons about comprehension) and replaced it with a bunch of rote memory tasks, far fewer books, and these lessons where my speech-impaired son has to record himself reading passages. Even with the mic turned all the way up, and my little guy practically yelling, the recordings still need to be redone five times because they are deemed "too quiet" by the system. After language arts today, Little G was exhausted and didn't want to speak at all. He also decided to forego his typical reading time, which he usually does while Reezle is doing the portions of her lessons which require me to be present. I don't like this trajectory. At this rate, his love of reading and language arts is going to be kaput by the end of the month.

On a more positive note, Reezle loves Spanish. This language course seems to be to her what math is to Little G; I can get her to complete just about any school task without complaint as long as she gets to do extra Spanish. Win! A few of our current words are:

so/bear, rata/rat, tigre/tiger, amigos/friends, uno/one, dos/two, hueco/hole, pelota/ball, zapatos/shoes, ropa/clothing, sucia/dirty, jardin/garden, con/with (con mis amigos - with my friends), roca/rock.


This isn't a complete list, it's just what I recall off the top of my head. I've been practicing them repeatedly with the kiddos, in addition to some various words they already know, and trying to build from there. I really like how the course is set up, from what we've done thus far.

Like the English language arts courses, Reezle also has recordable portions. She likes them, though, and they are neither challenging nor the lengthy passages G is required to read aloud. And on that note, it is time to get back at it.

Happy homeschooling!

Heading Into Week Two

We spent the weekend working ahead on some of our school subjects and getting familiarized with Reezle's Spanish course. I had been waiting on her teacher to explain how to log in to the course, but I hadn't heard back. As it turns out, simply logging in using Reezle's user info did the trick. She completed the first 3 units, and the course looks great! Little G is even following along.

Reezle spent a good amount of time enjoying some books and her favorite Poptropica computer game, while Little G worked on Math almost non-stop from the moment he woke up each day until he went to bed. It is rare to see the little guy without his math workbook. He encountered a bit of frustration when doing math problems which required him to borrow more than once, especially when zeros were involved. He is an extreme perfectionist and has absolutely no patience for his own mistakes. It took me a bit of time to convince him that it is a perfectly acceptable part of learning to make mistakes, and that these can even help us to learn better. He wasn't having it at first, but he eventually calmed down and accepted it. He did a retake on his assessment, and scored 100% the second time. He was fine after that, of course.

We also did some writing, vocabulary, analogies, and spelling, but typing out all of our spelling words for each unit - especially at the rate at which my kids are currently burning through them - is tedious and probably not enjoyable to read anyhow. Suffice it to say they are tackling some pretty challenging words and doing an exceptional job. I'm very proud of both of them.

Much like last year, we are continuing our hoopdance practice and doing mostly that and running for our physical education. We did a lot of it over the past week. I incorporate nutrition and information about how physical activity benefits the body into our PE curriculum. It seems there is a huge overlap between our health and PE material, so I kind of wing it with how much individual time we're giving to each. We probably do a lot more physical activity than I log for PE, all of it educational, but I was actually told to stop logging it last year due to the amount of hours. Heh. Better a bit more than needed than not enough, in my opinion.

On the agenda for tomorrow is Study Island, in addition to our typical studies. They changed the format and wow, what a positive change. Little G has his first Aimsweb assessment of the year later this week, and we're also planning a family field trip in the very near future. I love getting back into a routine again!

Perfect Little Spellers

This morning and afternoon, Little G worked on some more spelling. He seems to really be enjoying it this year, which I attribute to the difference in presentation with the curriculum change. Well, that and the fact that he earns warm and fuzzies for getting them correct! We have some pretty sweet trades in the trade bucket right now, so he has some good incentive.

On his first try, he spelled all of the words correctly, including the challenge words, without even a moment of hesitation. I went ahead and had him take the Checkpoints for Units 2 and 3, and he got 100% on both.

Unit 2 spelling words:

then, mush, when, rush, such, much, them, dash, shut, check, neck, tuck, luck, chap, peck, sham, duck, puck, chum, hush, what, said

Challenge words:

sandwich, checkers, sharpen

Unit 3 spelling words:

hand, gift, bump, pond, soft, bent, milk, belt, tent, fond, pond, land, pump, lift, silk, jump, hunt, find, felt, loft, send, says, front

Challenge words:

defend, adrift, shrimp

Little man is feeling pretty stoked, having finished three units of spelling before school even started officially. I'm very proud of him. Since we are working with consonant blends, I first asked him if he remembered what a vowel is. "Yes, it's A, E, I, O, and U." I was impressed, and asked if he knew, then, what a consonant was. "Yes, anything that's not a vowel." Daddy asked if he knew which consonant was sometimes a vowel, and Little G immediately answered, "Yes, Y."

Miss Reezle also completed a unit of spelling! I was surprised how quickly she mastered her spelling list, since she didn't seem very into it today.

Spelling words:

next, until, happen, sudden, rabbit, magnet, ticket, pocket, finish, publish, public, contest, himself, problem, establish, fantastic, may, have, say, hard, *difficult, *exact, *children

She also scored 100% on her spelling test! I can only assume that their avid reading is the reason they do so well in language arts. Grade 3, Unit 1 of spelling is complete! Warm & fuzzies for all!

Congratulations to Our Girl

Miss Reezle had her end of year Aimsweb assessment yesterday afternoon. For reading fluency, the goal for the end of second grade is 90 words per minute. Reezle's reading fluency was already 142 words per minute at the beginning of the year, went to 158 words per minute at mid-year, and is now at 179 words per minute. For perspective, most adults read at about 175-180 words per minute. She is 8!

And it's not just her ability to read the material that quickly, she truly does understand what she is reading. Now, I love reading, but I am a very slow reader. Reezle appears to have my husband's ability to devour large chunks of text in very little time, with complete understanding of the material being read. It is not uncommon for either of them to finish a lengthy book in one sitting. I'm so pleased that she has this gift!

Reezle also did a math assessment. She scored perfect on the math at mid-year, so there was really nowhere to go since she was already at the ceiling. The problems were a bit more difficult this time around, and I was concerned when she shrugged and opted to do the test in her head without so much as scrap paper, but she scored perfect again. For a kid who isn't a huge fan of math, that's impressive.

Her K12 teacher and I discussed the coming year in depth, and we both agreed that picking up a language is a great idea. Reezle will be taking Spanish. We also discussed what happens if she chews right through the third grade curriculum, considering her progress thus far. Unless something changes, I stand by my decision to keep her at grade level so she does not become overwhelmed or frustrated. She has an incredible amount of interests outside of or in addition to the curriculum, and being able to master things quickly has provided her with many opportunities to really dig into what she loves. She's been reading biographies about interesting historical figures, watching many documentaries on various topics from history to science to sociology, and taking her interest in birdwatching and identification to the next level. I know I have mentioned this before, but her interest in birds has developed into something our whole family enjoys. We all delight in being able to identify a bird by their song.

We are so proud of Reezle for all she has accomplished this year. K12's curriculum is challenging and very rich, and independent learning requires self-discipline and commitment. Reezle has risen to the challenge in every way, surprising me at every turn. I could not be happier for her, and I know she feels a tremendous sense of accomplishment for all she as achieved.

Congratulations are in order, Miss Reezle! We love you and are so proud of you! And now, a special dinner of her favorite food, and a celebratory cake we will bake and decorate together!

Japeniesee

He's already tutoring his older sister in math and spelling. Should I be surprised he is trying to teach himself Japanese? I mean, of course he'd do this.

[Disclaimer: I have no clue what those characters mean.]

Learning and Language

Teaching my son is ridiculously easy most of the time. He loves to learn, absorbs information like a little sponge, and is advanced enough in his math and language arts skills to help his sister when she gets stuck on something. Only rarely do we encounter any difficulties, and when we do it is always in language arts.

Little G's challenges in language arts are not due to the fact that the material is beyond him, or that he has any difficulty with comprehension; he is a year ahead of his peers. The challenge we face is directly related to his communication disorder. Our sticking points have been with getting him to understand when a sentence is a command, a question, an exclamation, or a telling sentence. More recently, he has difficulty with the positions of letters in certain spelling words. Based on these two challenges, I have realized that (a) my son does not rely on the sound of a person's voice for his information, but instead interprets what he hears as-is using logical cues, and (b) the way his brain processes the sounds he hears when a word is spoken to him (dictation for spelling words) sometimes results in him having the correct letters but putting them in the incorrect order. Since his earliest expressions of spoken language came out flipped in an almost identical manner, this is not a surprise at all.

Visually, Little G does great with spelling words. If it is something he has read in the past, he can spell it almost without fail. Similarly, if he is skilled at sounding out words - not in the phonics sense, but the actual correct spellings based on the rules of English and grammar he is familiar with from experience. Because of his speech disorder and his inability to make the thoughts in his brain form coherent speech on demand, especially when he is experiencing negative emotions (sadness, frustration), I spent a great deal of time teaching him sign language and handwriting so he had other communication options. We have been working on non-speech communication since we was 2 years old, and he has picked up an incredible amount in the past 4 years. He's gifted, no doubt, but I think his need to communicate helped.

We haven't seen his speech therapist in about a year, but she was absolutely wonderful. Her understanding of the various things which can affect speech acquisition and language went, in my opinion, far above and beyond what would be expected of any therapist. It was clear that her work was not simply a paycheck, but something she was called to do in life. Several times since our school year began, I have wished I could ask her questions about these language aspects of G's learning. I hesitated, knowing how much she already has on her plate, especially since my son is no longer part of that center. But finally this afternoon I thought, what the heck, why not? The worst she could do is refuse to talk to me, though I didn't think she would. So I waited until the end of the day, when I knew there would be no more appointments, and I called. She was just as kind and helpful as ever, and gave me a few great ideas to try with Little G. I will be starting them tomorrow. I got everything together after the kids went to bed tonight and I'm looking forward to finding out how this works (I will explain in a later post). She told me I could give her a call again if I had other questions, and I thanked her sincerely.

It was so nice that someone who owed us nothing at this point still cared enough to offer a few minutes of her time and some helpful suggestions. I've become used to the type of people who wash their hands and don't offer so much as a backwards glance the moment their necessary involvement is done.

In other Little G academic news, he knocked out about a full unit's worth of math in the past two days, and my Kindergartner is now just about where first graders (who started this course material in August) are, despite beginning 5-6 weeks after them. I am super proud of him!

My little Reezle girl has been up to some very cool things recently as well, and I will be sharing soon.

No Subject Left Behind

No Child Left Behind. It sounds great when you just hear the words, doesn't it? But what does it really mean and how does it translate into real education? Simply put, it may mean a whole lot of subjects left behind instead.

Math and language arts (reading/writing) are the core areas where schools are evaluated based on student performance. This is great if you consider how much these areas mean to effective learning and functioning in this world. However, it's not so great once you realize that schools are losing sight of equally important areas such as history, science, and the arts. While some would argue that these areas are not on level with math and language arts, I completely disagree.

First of all, there is a saying that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. I was appalled not long ago at how many people my age and younger don't even know who Adolph Hitler was, or much of anything about World War II and the mass genocide of the Jewish people in concentration camps. Far fewer are aware of our own country's post-Pearl Harbor internment camps which the Japanese-American citizens of our country were forced into, many after agreeing to renounce their American citizenship because they were bullied into doing so. If we do not know our history, and world history, we are doomed to repeat it. That is a frightening thought. But beyond simply repeating past atrocities and costly mistakes, there is also the insight that comes from comparing similar past events to current situations and making more informed decisions based on what happened previously; this insight is lost when we do not know our history!

It is not just political leaders and big decision-makers who need to know history, but the people voting for their leaders, laws, and government. People rely much too heavily already on others to make decisions for them, and a frightening number of people are just plain apathetic about politics. As a country, we do not appreciate the power we have to vote and make a change; and considering how far we have come to have such right and privileges, this is truly a shame. If our forefathers could have seen the ambivalent mess we have become, they would likely have either thrown their hands in the air and said, "Why bother!?" or done everything they could to instill within each new generation the importance of knowing history and being a part of their own instead of passively sitting by and consenting to whatever others chose for them. I choose the latter for my own children; in some ways I believe history is even more important than mastery of math or language arts. Our country was founded on the hope of having a choice and the freedom to govern ourselves. We have become a country that largely lets others govern us. It may not be kinds and queens anymore, but it's more corrupt than ever.

Science is important as well, for reasons too numerable to list. Science helps us understand how our world works and how we interact within it, in addition to providing us with an understanding of the most fundamental facts about ourselves and our bodies, from nutrition to exercise to our overall health picture. But it goes much deeper. Without science, history, and all of the subjects we used to learn in school, we become sheep. Plain and simple.

The cursive writing debate is one that seems to be drawing attention from just about everyone. Because the focus of education is the "core" math and language arts courses, cursive is being dropped from many curricula around the country because it is not something the schools are evaluated by. This is not in the interest of our children at all, but rather the interest of the ratings of the schools and their respective districts. Good penmanship may not be as critical as it was 20 years ago since technology has become paramount in producing finished academic works, but there are benefits (as this ABC article points out) which are being overlooked for the sake of schools looking better on paper. I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't care less what schools look like on paper; I have always wanted my children to have a full and excellent education which will prepare them for the future - whatever that means.

People seem to be completely unaware of the fact that our current way of life is neither natural nor sustainable. We have achieved great things in this world, things which are incredible to even consider. Most people, however, stick a plug into an outlet or place a call from their cell phone and take it completely for granted. I'm not saying we should all return to the times before electricity, computers and cell phones. I rather enjoy these luxuries and I believe most people do. What I am saying is that we should all be prepared to live off the grid like our forefathers did, should the need ever arise. This is not some doomsday prediction, but rather something we should give some consideration to; what kind of mess would our society be if we had to live as they did 100 years ago? 200 years ago? It's fascinating but also sad how far we have come from that. Also, we should value the wealth of knowledge we have to learn from, realize that many of our ideas are not new but tried and tested, and act accordingly. In 200 years, your school's academic performance rating won't mean a thing to this world; your child's knowledge and potential to change the world, however, will mean a great deal.

Learning is important, and not just the subjects someone deems more important than others and evaluates schools by. Knowledge is power.

New Materials

These are Little G's first grade materials. My 5 year-old first grader is pretty stoked.

There is also new Math materials, not pictured here since it was a lot more of the same items we had for Kindergarten and I've already put them away. We do have Math+ Green now, and apparently the color change is pretty exciting stuff. There will be plenty of pictures soon.

The weather remains unseasonably warm and beautiful for October. My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday, and the warmth and sunshine reminded me of the weather when we got married in 2001. I've got all of the windows open and we're taking advantage of these beautiful days before the dreaded snow starts to fly. Outdoor hooping for the win!

Spain and First Grade Curriculum

Our quote of the day is brought to you by Reezle: "Sticky is my furry sister. She picked me to be her non-furry sister." Indeed she did.

This morning started off with some unexpected excitement; the OLS had Little G's 1st grade Phonics and Language Arts! The good news? He was super excited and we worked on Phonics today. The not so good news? They don't have 1st grade Math in there yet, nor is it listed in our orders. Of course, that is the one he wants the most, so I bought him a math workbook to hold him over until the OLS updates his curriculum.

In other academic news, we are currently studying Europe in K History. Today's focus was on Spain and I had G color Spain on his Europe map while we talked about it. I found a couple of beautiful time lapse videos on YouTube, which had both of my children saying they want to go to Spain.

They also did some Art, which I will share sometime this weekend. R chose her favorite illustration from a book she recently read, Clara and The Bookwagon, and it turned out amazing! Little G colored Spain's flag and his suitcase for our European adventures.

Over the weekend, I plan to spend some time working with G on his handwriting. His capital letters are great, but his lower case letters could use some refining. I also want to get him writing more sentences, which I'm sure can be easily accomplished just by encouraging him to write descriptive sentences about the things he loves. Like cats. And Math.

I am ready for the weekend. I'm sort of emotionally drained for non-school reasons, and I just want a day or two where I don't have to think about much of anything but snuggling up with my kids and maybe watching some movies, playing a little Monopoly, and getting lost in a good book. The chilly, windy, rainy, 55-degree weather almost begs for chili to be made, so I will probably be adding that to my to-do list as well.

Grade 2 Assessments

Below are the results from R's Grade 2 assessments in reading and math:


That little blue dot at the top of the charts, well above the "Above Average" line, is where R scored. The recommendation on both is, "Consider need for individualized instruction." I did consider that need, and thus we are homeschooling.

Her confidence after seeing her accomplishments in print has soared, and we knocked out quite a few lessons in Math yesterday. She is really looking forward to the Grade 3 Math curriculum.

Little G's assessment is on Monday, and I expect similar results. He is more than halfway through his Math workbook and has 27 of 36 units of Phonics completed, just 15 days into the school year. He keeps saying, "I want to learn stuff." Hopefully when the grade 1 curriculum materials arrive, he will. He's already coveting his big sister's Math workbook.

This year ought to prove interesting! Any doubts or concerns I had are pretty much gone at this point, and we have some fun activities coming up on our Fall calendar. They are happy and thriving, and I couldn't ask for more.

Materials, Supplementing, and Skully

While I certainly cannot complain about the materials provided by K12 for our curriculum...

...it is kinda fun to substitute our own. Like fruity, rainbow-colored Cheerios for Math, or our large collection of Trio building blocks in place of the base-10 counting blocks.

Homeschool and the K12 curriculum are giving my children something that I didn't really experience much of until college - an overlap between even the most unlikely subject material. Take Language Arts and PE, for example.

Sure, it's really about following directions (I think), but Little G's assignment had both of my little students standing sideways, hopping on one foot, acting like sleeping pelicans, and generally being wild and crazy little monkeys for a good half hour. We even played Simon Says, though I can't recall if it was this day or another.

Take note of the "skully" shirt. You'll be seeing a lot of it. Though we've owned it for approximately two weeks, it's been washed about five times already. Every load of laundry I bring through the house is invariably followed with, "Mama? Did you wash my skully?" Today I replied, "No, little dude. You're wearing it."

Day Four

I found a way this afternoon to allow G to take first grade assessments in Study Island, so we did two of them. On reading standards for literature, the goal is 70% for students in grade 1. G's scores were as follows:

(a) Asking and answering questions: 90.9% (Ad) Advanced
(b) Retelling stories: 83.3% (Ac) Accelerated

So basically, he is accelerated to advanced...for a first grader. On his 4th day of Kindergarten. He amazes me. G welcomed the challenge and earned a warm and fuzzy for his efforts.

My dear artistic little girl wrote a few sentences about herself to accompany her self portrait for an assignment due tomorrow.


For a bit of Language Arts supplementation and our little post-break reading and relaxation ritual, I bought both of my children a book to help them with issues they struggle with. Little G has a temper, and R sometimes struggles with the concept of sharing. Today, they each read their new book to me, and afterward I read the books to both of them.



In the background is our furry friend, Sticky. I think she enjoyed our reading this morning and afternoon, too.

And finally, for History (or was it Social Studies?) yesterday and today, my little R (or was it G?) had this echo song about the continents. We're all having fun with it together, like most other subjects.

I thought we could put it together with music and add the tambourine to keep a beat. I plan to add our recorder and keyboard to our music lessons, and maybe pick up a little drum set for fun.

Oh, did I mention I love homeschooling my children? Because I do. And they love it, too. And I have to admit it is a lot of fun to hear the school bus drive right by our home, sans squeaky brakes, and know that we've been done with our lessons for 2 hours already and that there is no required homework ahead of us - just some great, quality family time.

Groovy

We're finding a groove.

I am more grateful now than ever about finishing up my last few college credits via correspondence courses. It gave me an idea of what a partially web-based school curriculum would be like, taught me time management in terms of independent learning, and gave me the confidence to do teach my children using a method which can be very personally rewarding for students. I loved independent learning, and it appears that my children are feeling the same way.

Today we experienced our first Elluminate sessions with each of their virtual academy teachers. This is where students and/or parents/learning coaches have virtual conferences and assemblies via an online sort of Skype-like interface. It was a fun, highly interactive, and very informative experience for us. The children even had a chance to doodle on a white board, a program similar to Paint, with their classmates. It seemed a bit overwhelming at first, but it was actually very user-friendly and fun to use.

We are becoming comfortable with our scheduling very quickly and beginning to settle into a routine that works for us. It's not nearly as scary as it feels just starting out, and I am already identifying places where we can supplement some of the things I was hoping to fit in. Study Island (mentioned in my previous post) is something we enjoy doing pretty much any time of the day, since both R and G like to test their knowledge. The most difficult part for me so far is letting R answer her own questions on the assessments even when I know she's wrong. That is part of the learning process, and her skills need to be evaluated for what they are. I write down any areas where she seems to have hesitation, and come up with a fun way to help her understand it better. The main issue for her seems to be with reading all possible answers before making a selection, and following instructions, not the actual material. She is still Accelerated or Advanced across the board, so I'm not concerned. Similarly, Little G has scored Advanced in all of his assessments, never getting below 100% on any of them thus far.

This Kindergarten Phonics, though...ugh. It's frustrating the heck out of G - not because he doesn't know it, but because he's bored to tears. It's like asking a 9 year-old to do sight word flash cards. He was (no joke here) helping R study for her first grade spelling tests and instructing her on the proper way to pluralize words when he was in preschool last year because he had already mastered what she was learning. I will never forget hearing R mutter something in frustration at her desk as G said, very animated with hands going and all, "You have to drop the Y and add an I-E-S, sissy." I wrote a quick note to his teacher and asked if we could at least change his Study Island Reading items to first grade. She's awesome about getting back to us quickly, so I should know something as soon as tomorrow.

Since the Kindergarten Phonics is what it is, I am having G join in R's Phonics and Language Arts lessons. I even print extra worksheets for him so he can actually do the work, too. And I supplement a lot in this area. In addition to the curriculum, they both have at least an hour of independent reading each day. We also make time to take turns reading aloud to each other after we break for lunch. It is a relaxing way to get their minds back into thinking mode.

Daddy is also helping to supplement their curriculum. In the evenings and on the weekends, he is often doing math flashcards with them (addition, subtraction, and multiplication) or playing skill games like chess, checkers, or memory. I love this, because it is a great way for them to spend special time with Daddy while also learning. This is not anything new, but now that we have specific things to study, he discusses a lot of what they are learning.

We're all looking forward to getting started tomorrow. R has already asked me if I have printed out our lesson plans for the day yet. I have. We talked a little about what we have planned for the day, and she was literally jumping with joy about Science because we will be going around measuring things. And, for Music, stuffed animals will be participating. How cool is that!?

Very cool, indeed.