Some Tot School pics

I've been horrible about keeping up with the blog but we've been having a great time in Tot School the past few weeks!!

Brother is 39 months old. I'm linking up with Carisa's Tot School Gathering Place

Hammering has been a favorite!!! Here Brother is hammering golf tees into those floral arrangement block things. (Very technical name!!) He did this for a good 45 minutes one evening. 

Brother and Grace play well together, for the most part. Putting a puzzle together in a *cooperative* way isn't always easy, but they got it this time!!!! I was so proud of them!!!

Brother loves letters!!! This is a magnetic set that he likes to play with....on the couch!!! He likes to match the uppercase and lowercase letters together.

Core A Week 2

We had a great week this week!!!

We are reading through Genesis which is a good review for Booger since that is what we have been studying in Bible Study Fellowship this year. She has been excited about knowing what the stories are and being able to connect some dots there.

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." Acts 16:31
This was her verse this week and she did an excellent job writing it everyday and memorizing it!!!

Our history has focused on Ancient Egypt which she as gobbled up!! Mummies are her favorite thing from this study - which honestly surprised me!!! We started a lapbook (pictures next week!). She was surprised to see that again - I think she thought lapbooks were only for FIAR. I was so happy to be able to bring them out again!

The Boxcar Children has been an absolute favorite! We finished it early - way early! - because she just couldn't stop with one chapter! She HAD to keep going!!!! I LOVE that she is allowing herself to get so engrossed in the story!!!



She is FLYING through All About Spelling! I think this is possibly her favorite part of the day, too!

Math U See has been a highlight this week, as well. She enjoys the manipulatives and colors that it brings to her day. 

Next week we are looking forward to starting Ancient Greece and more!

HEARTwork!!!!!

We are on Week 3 of our curriculum this week and each week there is a new Bible Memory Verse. I am using these as Booger's handwriting for a few reasons:

1) It gets her practicing her writing, obviously
2) But more importantly, the more she writes Scripture, the more it will be ingrained in her head and heart.

Today I introduced Colossians 3:20 to her:
"Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."

So she is writing away, doing her normal handwriting practice, when all of a sudden I hear, "Mama!!!!!!!"

"Yes?" I say.

"Mama!!! I'm doing my memory verse!!!"

"I see that! And you are doing it very well!! Your letters are very neat!"

"No!!! I'm DOING my memory verse!!! I'm OBEYING you!!!"

(Quite surprised at the connection she's made) "Yes you are!!!!"

"And you know what else? This verse says I have to obey you in EVERYTHING!"

"Yep! It sure does!"

"Mama, that means even when I don't want to! Even when I don't feel like it, right?!"

(Again, floored at the connection made) "That's right! Even when you don't want to obey, you still need to...."

"....because that makes God's heart happy!"



People, this is HUGE! My 5 year old, who has a bit of an attitude, is making connections completely on her own here! I prayed this morning in my quiet time (yes! Morning quiet time for me!!!) that the Lord would work on her attitude and heart. And this is what I saw this morning!!!! Glory be to God!!!!

Core A Week 1

Last week was our first week with Sonlight, Core A. And it was such a fantastic week!! Not only do I feel more accomplished and productive, Booger does too! She is doing SO well with her workboxes and is learning how to stay on task. Not always easy for a 5 year old!!!

This was our Box Day! They were both SO EXCITED to see all these books all over the living room! I allowed Booger to read all she wanted that day, but then after that, all the books were put up until they came out in the curriculum. She spent probably a good 3 hours just reading. It was so fantastic to see!!!!

I did figure out the first week that we are not following the Language Arts portion this year. Booger is just beyond it and it bored her. So I got All About Spelling for her and she loves it! She's on Level 1, which really is easy for her, but I wanted a good foundation. 

The Instructor's Guide (IG) that Sonlight provides is a HUGE blessing. It's so easy to follow, easy to read, and all record-keeping can be done right in it! You can see I added the month and year to the top of this week and put in each actual date for the days we worked. As we move along, I check off each activity we've done. This provides me with a record of what we've done and when and is easy to access since it's a weekly layout. Seriously, it's PERFECT!

This is BY FAR my favorite aspect of using Sonlight right now. The Read-Alouds!!!! We are reading The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner right now and we both are loving it!! The story is great but more than that, we are cuddling up on the couch under mama's special blanket and just reading. Can you get any better than that?!

We also do Bible, Geography, History, Spelling, Math (which is another post all on its own), and Calendar each day. It looks like a lot but it takes us about 2 hours to get through everything. Unless Booger is not staying on task...at which point it takes longer. But she's learning!

New start with new curriculum

So FIAR - while I love it - just wasn't working for us. Well, for me. This past (almost) year of homeschooling has shown me that I desperately need structure in lesson plans. FIAR just didn't give that to me. I need someone/thing to tell me what to do when. Booger needs workboxes. She thrives on them and again, FIAR just wasn't cutting it for us.

So I switched.

Sonlight is AMAZING. I've actually been looking at them for about 9 months but didn't have the money to buy the whole curriculum for this year. About 2 weeks ago I got so fed up and frustrated that I just did it. I bought the whole thing and you know what? It was the smartest thing I could have done!!! When I first began researching homeschool stuff, I had a lot of people tell me "oh, you need to stay away from boxed curriculum. You won't like being "boxed in"...." I just want to say that I wish I had started with Sonlight.

Booger is doing Core A, Science (4-day), Math U See (not Sonlight), All About Spelling (not Sonlight) and part of Sonlight's Language Arts Grade 1. And we are both thriving. It's amazing what a curriculum that works does  for you!!

Please hear me - I'm not saying FIAR doesn't work. We both loved it!!! And I still plan on using it to some degree. But it wasn't a good fit for us as our main curriculum. And this is why homeschooling is such a blessing - we can tweak and change and fix as we grow!!!

So from now on, posts will be from a Sonlight point of view. And I couldn't be more excited!!!!