School with Playdoh

Isaac was very proud of his accomplishment when he made each letter of the alphabet with his playdoh

It was so cute to watch him - he always started back at "A" when he was trying to figure out his next letter. He definately got LOTS of practice with his alphabet!

Other October Happenings

Madison had her last lesson of the year on Barney. She spent the last couple months learning how to ride English and has improved A LOT. She can't wait to start lessons again.

Homeschooling is in full swing. This year we are doing Sonlight again and her history focus for the year is World History. She read about different clothing customs and had to make some for herself (and Isaac of course). She is wearing a sari and Isaac a turban :-) She always wants to make it more realistic so she found a bowl to carry on her head :-) Yikes, that would take some work to balance that big bowl!

Hannah is fully potty trained (through the night and all - YEAH!) She has been doing great all month and I am happy to see the end of diapers!!

Isaac is anxious to learn how to read so is busy doing "school" also. He thinks life will improve greatly if he could only read :-) It will be a lot more fun, that is for sure! He is busy as ever and has lots of energy to burn - but that is nothing new :-)

2nd Grade Celebration

Madison had her end of the school year celebration a couple weeks ago (we did school through the summer) and showcased all she had accomplished this school year. She and I spent a couple days making a scrapbook to go with her presentation.

Here are the scrapbook pages for her year of Sonlight - Introduction to the World: Cultures

Madison loved science and wanted to include a couple of her favorite experiments in the scrapbook. Sonlight is a literature based curriculum so we read a lot of books. There were three different books we read for History and Geography. Madison drew a picture to go with each one that showed one of her favorite topics in the book.

The literature portion is made up of books that I read aloud to her (with questions and answers, maps and background information). There was a great variety of stories -some fiction some nonfiction, that took place in lots of different parts of the world. I love reading so it was fun for me too :-)
One of Madison's favorite books to read was Hero Tales. It was about the lives and legacies of many different missionaries This year we covered Gladys Aylward, Dwight Moody, Amy Carmichael, Mary Slessor and George Mueller. We both can't wait to keep going and learn more about various missionaries.
Here are all the books that Madison had to read aloud this year.

Madison was in Awana this year so we used that as our Bible Memorization class. She learned 53 verses this year! She can still recite many of them and will continue working on them as well as add more to it this year. She loved going to Awana and learned so much too - what a great combination. Another highlight of the year for Madison was learning cursive. She was anxiously waiting to learn it (we started it mid year). She does great and still loves it!

We invited grandpa and grandma over for dinner and she did her "presentation" later that night. We had done the scrapbook and also set up our family room with all the material she had covered. She led them (and Brock) around and explained what each station was and what she learned and liked about each subject.

Here is the table of books we read for Literature. Madison talked a lot about the various books and where they took place. She told alot about the missionaries we read about. I didn't know what she would talk about so it was cute to hear her version of things. She remembered so much about each book - especially the missionaries. It was very cute.

History and Geography, Bible and Science. She had dressed herself and Isaac up to represent one of the era's in her history book. She also wanted to do a couple science projects so had them all set up and did them (explanations and all) for everyone. She did such a good job.

All of her read alouds and her math.

Handwriting and Phonics. She did 3 books of Explode the Code but I wasn't sure where her first one went :-) She was busy showing them all her favorite handwriting pages (which included a lot) :-)

She set out and talked about some of the projects she worked on this year. If I had known we were going to do this I would have saved more of them :-)

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the night. I didn't think of pictures until it was all over and thankfully it was still set up so I could get some. Of course I didn't get pics of the most important part - Madison doing it all. Brock and I were so proud of her. She was confidant, spoke clearly and knew what she was talking about. What a fun year of school it has been. I have learned a few things also. I love Sonlight and will continue using it. I will not go through the summer again. I will keep her projects and definately do another end of the year celebration. Hopefully next year she can have a bigger audience :-)

Learning is FUN

One of Madison's favorite subjects in school is history. She loves learning how different cultures lived, seeing what they wore, reading about what they did for fun, school etc. The book we are doing has so many projects and it has been fun for all of us to take part. Today we read about the beauty patches that some Europeans wore (originally to mask scars or blemishes on the face). Madison made one for herself and Isaac - of course hers was a horse :-) It stayed on most of the day, which surprised me. This is the same book they used to transform themselves into European royalty.

Taking a break to have a treat and take their playmobil people for a swim :-)

Madison has always been very resourceful. She comes up with clever solutions for any problem she faces. It is cute to see. Today was no different. She couldn't get the plug to stay in the sink so, as you can see, she found a quick, easy solution. What a smart little cookie she is :-)

Homeschooling my CREATIVE kids!

One of the many things I love about homeschooling is the flexibility to do lots and lots of hands on projects. A book I am doing with Madison right now (and loving) is called Living Long Ago: Everyday Life Through the Ages. It has been so fun for all of us. Due to the fact that the curriculum I use is literature based, Isaac happily learns along side Madison as I read countless stories per week. If there is a project to do, they both do it. This particular book has a fun projects for each day. The section we are doing right now is about the clothes and fashion for different time periods. The favorites so far have been making an Egyptian collar, medieval pouch and a ruff. I couldn't resist taking a pictures of their project from today, making a ruff. I helped them with the ruff and then they wanted to add some clothes to "fit". I didn't realize just how decked out they would get! I will show you what I read to them (click on it to see it better) and let you see for yourself what they did from there :-) If you, like myself, have no idea what a ruff is - you will soon find out :-)

If only they lived 400-500 years ago - boy would they be cool!

Madison was so creative in getting Isaac's attire to look puffed out and authentic. She has several scarves wrapped around him, next she put her skirt over that and then a big rubber band at the top of his thighs with the skirt tucked into it.

They even took the time to see just how they should pose - from looking at the book. I am sure this "school lesson" will last with them for a long time (it definately will for me) :-)