Homeschool Update

I can hardly believe that we are almost finished with another semester of school.  Zora is doing well in her second grade curriculum.  I must say, however, that this has been the most challenging year for me teaching her.  We seem to clash a lot, so I'm just praying for the patience I need to make it through this year.  Despite the struggle, she seems to enjoy the things we are learning this year.  She continues to love her History & Geography and studying ancient cultures.  Right now we are studying Ancient Greece and she loves all the Greek Mythology we've read.  It's also interesting to her to connect some of the historical people with lessons she's already learned from the Bible (ex: King Darius).  In science we have completed our unit on living & nonliving and have moved on to earth science.  Right now we are studying different types of soil and their properties.  Although math is still not her favorite subject, I have seen lot of improvement in her math skills this year.  She's becoming a pro at addition & subtraction even with carrying & borrowing!  She's really excited that we've begun multiplication.  She actually thinks it is fun :-)  That makes this math mommy happy!

Lily is improving by leaps and bounds right before my eyes this year.  Her favorite subject is math!  She can't wait to get her math worksheet each day and pull out the number line and abacus to add & subtract.  Her handwriting is also very nice for a four-year-old.  We've been working hard on writing the letters correctly and putting sounds together.  She used to dread trying to read words to me, but now she attacks it with zest!  Reading is not her favorite subject, but she is learning!  She has one book each week that she has to read to me each day.  At the beginning of the week it is sometimes a struggle to get through the book, but by the end of the week she reads with confidence!  Here is a video of her book this week:

Isn't that great?  I just love our reading curriculum!  It is the same one I used with Zora.  If you are wondering what we use it is a combination of 3 things... A Reason for Handwriting, Explode The Code Series, and Fun Tales.

Besides our book learning, we've been enjoying fun times with friends as well.  We had another nature exploration day at the lake with some friends...

eating lunch on the deck

 playing with a crayfish (or crawdad)

 a nice walk through the woods

We also went to our local Air & Space Museum with some friends.  Here is the tour guide teaching the girls what to do to "fly" the plane.

 Zora concentrates on flying the plane

 Lily concentrates too!

 The girls enjoyed looking at all the planes there!

 Lily then got to role play her dream job! She has been telling me for a couple of months now that she wants to work in some sort of aviation field.  Either an astronaut, pilot, or at a launch control center.  The tour guide chose her to be the launch commander.  She was beside herself with excitement.  Chole (left) was the Captain, Zora (right) was the Co-captain, and Lily (middle) was the Launcher.  She was so proud to push the red button and launch the spaceship!

 Here is the spaceship going up!

 Zora as an astronaut

 Lily as an astronaut

 Even I joined in on the fun and got to experience driving a spacechair.  It was harder than you'd think!  The controls were super-sensitive!

 After we looked at the airplanes and spaceships we had some fun learning about weather.

Girls in the tornado tube

 Zora & Lily giving the news

 Zora forecasting the weather

 It seems a flood is headed our way!!!

We have just 2 short weeks left until Christmas break!!!! 

Hooray