Another great week of homeschooling has come and gone!

Soccer Boy spent his time this week learning about rocks, raccoons and ropes.  Letter "Rr" has made an appearance this week.  He is moving right along with his sight words and now we are starting some very simple addition.  We have been counting and counting like crazy!  We also painted our "Rock" quilt piece and our "Zebra" piece that we forgot to paint last week.  Only 6 left until I begin work on his "Kindergarten Quilt".  The very last thing we do each day of school is curl up on the couch and read a book.  I let him pick out most of the books and each day he always wants to read a Berenstain Bears book.  I grew up reading these cherished books and now they are a favorite with him around here too.  We have purchased many of them and they continue to delight him even though we have read each of them several times.  It is so nice to find books that children find enjoyable, but at the same time are Christian focused.

Artsy girl spent her week learning about Samuel Morse and the Telegraph.  She even wrote her name is Morse Code.

 She also learned about the states of Florida and Texas.  I really enjoy the Road Trip USA printables to go along with our study of American History.  She loves coloring and decorating the pages.

We also have made a board with all the state animals and state birds which we classify using the Animals of the USA printables.  This is a great way to learn how to classify the animals and review along the way.  We try to remember which animals go with which state...very challenging!

Next week she will be learning all about the California Gold Rush and Soccer Boy will be on to letter "Jj".

Spring is in the air!

I am so excited to see the daffodils peeking up from under the leaves!  As a very busy homeschooling family, we are not at all thrilled about spending day after day inside hiding from the cold.  But Spring is in the air and we are so very anxious.  We have been slowly taking the bikes, sidewalk chalk, scooters and kites from their hiding places in the garage and savoring every bit of warm, sunny weather.

This is also the time of year when I order our new curriculum for the next school year. We are staying with My Father's World.  We are especially enjoying this curriculum...so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!  We will be using the new My Father's World First Grade with Soccer Boy and Exploring Countries and Cultures with Artsy Girl.  We are continuing with Teaching Textbooks 4 for Math, Language Lessons for Language Arts and BJU Press Homeschool Spelling 4.  We also add in World' Greatest Artists 2 throughout the year for our art studies.  I am contemplating adding a foreign language.  I am currently scouring message boards looking at reviews of various foreign language products.  As far as I can tell, no supplementing is necessary with the First Grade curriculum...easy peasy!

Since we homeschool year round, we officially end our year at the end of May.  We take June off and start back in July.  By July it is soooo very hot here, so air conditioning is a must!  We usually spend the mornings in our pool, have lunch, and then do school in the hot afternoons. Then, it's back outside after dinner for more fun.  Year round homeschooling allows us the opportunity to enjoy each and every beautiful season that God gives us.  We take a week off every 5-6 weeks (this really helps keep moral up and helps with my sanity:) and then we take December and June off.  We may tweak it here or there, so we are very flexible should things come up.

Take a few moments today to thank God for his abundance of blessings, for tomorrow just like the brief appearance of the daffodils...they may be gone!