One Month Under Our Belts

I'm sure some of you have just started you school this week.  We're already in week five!  And I have to say how pleased I am with our progress so far.  Our curriculum is:

Bible:  We start every morning with Kay Arthur's Discover 4 Yourself series.  I think what really caught Schnickelfritz's interest was the idea it was okay to draw and color in your Bible.  But he absorbs the information like a sponge.  One of today's questions was what month and day did the flood begin.  I hadn't even flipped to the chapter and verse when he rattled off the answer.  I love that he loves this program.

Math:  It's been Math-U-See from the beginning.  We'll be wrapping up Epsilon in a few weeks and starting Zeta and he's not even 10 yet.  Math is by far his favorite and easiest subject.

Worldview:  We've gone back to the first book in Apologia's series with Who Is God.  Disorganized little ol' me misplaced the notebooking journal for a while.  I was making my own copywork pages  and answering the questions in the book.  I finally found the journal under a pile of straws I was saving for science co-op so we're back on track.  This is really meaty stuff  but it uses a lot of stories and analogies that a kid can relate to.

History:  Schnickelfritz picked the Middle Ages for this year.    We're using Mystery of History Vol. 2 and I purchased the lapbook supplement.  We making mini books for each lesson rather than the note cards.  I'm also excited to try Homeschool in the Woods new Project Passport on the Middle Ages.  Rather than focus on individuals like MOH, it's going to give us a better overview of the period--how people dressed and ate and worked.

Language Arts:  We're still using All About Spelling--a product we reviewed three years ago.  I found a cheap copy of Easy Grammar at a consignment store so we're learning about verbs, nouns, and punctuation.  In the past I felt sorry for how hard Fritz struggled with his writing and I was too tired to fight with him, but this year I'm practicing tough love.  He has to write something every day--it may be spelling's phrases & sentences, writing in his Who Is God journal, or working on his Astronomy merit badge. 

Science: We're revisiting Apologia's Astronomy this fall to complete the Royal Ranger's Astronomy and Space Exploration  merit badges.  We'll swing through Swimming Creatures in the spring.

Critical Thinking:  Fritz loves logic and thinking puzzles--it's more like a game.  We use Reading Detective, Balance Benders, and Building Thinking Skills.

Outside Activities:  These are just starting to get into gear and I'm so glad it's not occurring just as we start school.  We had our first 4-H meeting last night, Royal Rangers and Karate begin this month.  We're also trying a new co-op where Fritz will take Mapping the World by Heart , Prairie Primer, and the Science of Disney Imagineering class that I'll be teaching.


On a totally different track,  I saw my first persimmons on the ground yesterday as I walked the dog.  From now on we'll have to carry a bucket to harvest those little orange gems.  They're about two weeks ahead of schedule, but the raspberries and blackberries were a month early.  I guess the drought slowed things down a little.  Despite the lack of rain, the trees are filled with the plumpest persimmons I've every seen.