Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I have updated our blog. This year, Elizabeth is in 5th grade, Katie is in 3rd grade and Michael is in 1st grade. We finished our last year to teach kindergarten last year, which was kind of bittersweet. And I can't believe we have a fifth grader! We are still using and loving Five in a Row as our core curriculum, although Elizabeth has moved on to Beyond Five in a Row, which is similar, but based on chapter books and more advanced. Katie & Michael are going through Five in a Row together now. This is a second go-round on some of these books for Katie, but she was several years younger the last time we did them, so she definitely has a different degree of understanding now.
For other curriculum, both girls are now using Teaching Textbooks for math, although I think I need to give Katie a break to work on cementing her multiplication tables before moving on to division. Michael is in Horizons Math One.
For handwriting, they are all on various levels of Handwriting without Tears. Michael can write all his upper and lowercase letters, but we are now working on neatness. To to different readiness levels, both girls are learning cursive together, and I think Elizabeth is doing a much better job now than when we tried it earlier with her. She just needed that little bit of time to grow up.
I made a checksheet for each of the kids that I am going to try to print out every day. There is a list for each subject or chore or whatever I want on the list. These are in the first column. Then the next five columns are for Monday through Friday, and it is all in the form of a chart. I put a little checkmark by the things I want them to do that day, and if I don't want them to do it that day, I color the block in black. Then each day of the week has a color. Monday is red, Tuesday is orange, Wednesday is yellow, Thursday is green and Friday is blue. For each item/subject/chore they do, they color in the appropriate block for that day of the week in the appropriate color. I have found over the past few years that I am very visual, so it helps me to be able to see how much we are actually getting done (or not getting done) every day.
For language arts (besides what is in Five in a Row), Elizabeth is doing a Writing Skills workbook and Queen's Language Lessons for the Elementary Child. Katie is doing a capitalization & punctuation workbook as well as Queen's Language Lessons for the Very Young, and Michael is doing Queen's Language Lessons for Little Ones. Katie & Michael are also both working through Explode the Code (for Michael, to help reinforce the phonics lessons he's getting through Reading Made Easy, and for Katie, to help with basic spelling skills). Elizabeth finally finished all of the Explode the Code series last year, and has moved on to doing Spelling Power on a more regular basis this year. We tried Spelling Power last year, but didn't get to it that often and decided to just wait till she finished Explode the Code. She spells fairly well anyway.
We have other fun things that we haven't done much yet this year, but hope to, and they include Pearables Home Economics as well as Artistic Pursuits.
Among other stuff we hope to get to soon (after we finish sorting/cleaning through the gigantic mess that is supposed to be their bedroom) is working on our fall garden. We have many many overgrown weeds that need to be cleared out first. I'm sure no one else ever has this problem! ;)
As far as other extracurricular areas go, we are still busy at church. We are getting ready to start our third year of our church's Awana program, where Matt is the Sparks director. Katie is moving up to T & T this year! Elizabeth acolytes (lights candles) for morning worship about once a month or so, and we are trying to convince Katie to overcome her shyness so she can also acolyte, but haven't had any luck yet, and we definitely don't want to push her.
Elizabeth is starting piano lessons with Ms. Betty this year, and had her first lesson last week. She's really looking forward to that. Katie will be taking dance lessons for the first time this year, from Leisha's. She's my girly-girl, so I definitely think she will love it (once she overcomes her shyness, and maybe this will help her with that). And Matt (our resident Eagle Scout) is excited that Michael is finally old enough to begin his scouting journey this year.
It's already shaping up to be an exciting, yet busy, year! We are looking forward to it!
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