Hannah, Grade 4, Age 9
I can't believe how much my oldest has grown in the past few months. She's quickly becoming a young lady, and at a speed I was not prepared for (is any mom ever really prepared for it?). She is such a blessing to me and our family. She has a very big heart and truly desires to serve and love the Lord. She has a very strong sense of wanting to do well in whatever she does, so school has always been fairly enjoyable for both her and me. :)
This year she'll be continuing with Rod and Staff for reading, math, and English. We've added Martha Wilson's Latin Primer and DVD's to the mix, so that will be fun (hee hee). She's continuing with Spelling Power, Veritas Cursive work (which I love because of the content - she'll be writing out the ten commandments and several catechism questions/answers this year), literature selections from several authors and sources planned (Little House books, Chronicles of Narnia series, classics etc), both for independent and family reading, Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation with Zoology 2 for the first half of the school year and Christine Miller's Study of the Ancients for the last half (including Wise Bauer's SOTW, Pak's Timeline Notebook and various other supplementary stuffage). Phew! Good thing she doesn't have to do any "homework". Hee hee!
She's continuing with her daily piano lessons. Daddy teaches those, and it is really fun for me to watch how much she and Emma both love not just practicing their pieces, but how eagerly they anticipate their weekly lesson times with him. It is a true motivator to them to excel at their music study. Daddy's and little girls have such a special bond! :)
Emma, Grade 1, Age 6
This is an exciting year for Emma. Transitioning from K to 1st is a big step up, and she's doing great so far! She's my spunky, intense, funny one. She's full of hugs and gigles and is truly a delight to all of us. She loves "doing school" and is also growing much too fast!
We're continuing with our Horizons American Language Curriculum for her phonics, reading, spelling, writing, and comprehension work. It's a thorough, excellent phonics program that has been around for quite a while. It's Alpha Omega's old "Little Patriots" series, back when Richard Fugate was the president of AO. I love it. Hannah used it and I plan to use it for Ian and any other children God may bless us with. ;)
I've added Copywork II from Memoria Press, First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise (which technically isn't necessary with her phonics work, but I really love the format of it), Rod and Staff Math 1, literature selections from Ambleside Online, piano, and independent reading from several literature sources.
Both girls are continuing through Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade, Shorter Catechism memorization, scripture memory, Bible reading, and several books like The King's Daughter, Mr. Pipes series, etc. for Bible.
I think my biggest challenge this year will be keeping my 2 year old busy while I work with my girls when needed.
I'm looking forward to a new year of blessings and challenges (the latter though, not so much ;)).
Oh..and I almost forgot. Here's the frosted brownie I made for their first day back. I almost popped a blood vessel trying to use the "Easy Squeeze" tube (a terribly misnamed product I may add) for the writing. It got thicker and harder as I went along. I almost didn't finish "School" and I'm NOT exaggerating. It was horrible. The stuff was like dried paste. I resorted to using butterfly shaped sprinkles to get the "07-08" on. BLECH. Oh well. The girls loved it and that's all that counts. ;)
Oh, and BTW, brownies with frosting do not go well together. It ruins the brownies. Ice cream and brownies, on the other hand....
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