School Is IN!!!

We've been back into our normal school routine now for three weeks. I can still hardly believe that this is our 4th year of homeschooling. And not one year has been anything like the previous. Every year we find new and exciting things to work with, and every year we develop a new schedule that fits into our lives for that moment! Alas, the beauty of homeschooling! :-)

Lily is using the Sonlight program I used with Zora when she was four. She loves doing schoolwork! She is doing so great and I'm so proud of her! She is working very hard on her penmanship. She feels so big doing school work like her big sissy! Our biggest goal this year is learning to read. She can already read small words, but she doesn't really have the DESIRE to want to do more. We're working on that! Hopefully before the year is over she'll be reading with no hesitation.

Zora is doing great as well. We are continuing with our much loved programs that we've used before in phonics/reading, handwriting, math, and history. But this year we are trying a new science program. That is still that only subject that I have yet to find one that I "love" and want to stick with for the long haul. Who knows, maybe I never will and we'll continue to try everything out there! As always, she continues to amaze me in her reading ability. Reading is definitely her strength. She also loves history. It is by far her favorite subject. She BEGS for it! Math is still her least favorite subject (which is so sad for this former-public-school-math-teacher-mommy), but she is greatly improving not only in her mathematic abilities, but also in her attitude toward it. Who knew that she would LOVE doing flashcards??? She actually enjoys doing them and I can tell a major improvement in her work.

We also had a fun meeting with our C.U.E. (formerly T.I.E) group.

We made totes out of chips bags and duct tape...

Zora's is zebra print

and Lily's is flames!

... and we also made a butterfly to send to Mexico. It is a project in which a group of students from the US creates a butterfly to mail to Mexico, and then in the spring the students from Mexico will send us one back. The project is neat because it teaches the students in both countries about the migration of butterflies, and it also helps them to be aware of other people in the world. Kind of like a modern-day pen pal! How fun is that?

We have also started up with gymnastics again.

This year we are trying out the homeschool class which is on Wednesday mornings. So far it is awesome! The gymnasium is much less crowded and it makes our evenings free to spend with Daddy when he gets home from work! And, the girls can be in class at the same time which is a big PLUS for me because I don't have to sit through two hours of class - just one :-)