We started back to homeschool this week! We didn’t start until the middle of the week because…while we had organized and gone through stuff in the rest of our apartment…we’d put off organizing the homeschool room. So we started the week by organizing it and briefly had everything organized…and then got a bunch of books donated to us (they’re my weakness) so once again I have stacks of books with no home yet. We got cookies from a local cookie shop for our first full day (mainly because the u-pick peaches were sold out when we got there) and we did some assessments to know where we stand at the beginning of the year. Ari still remembers all her reading rules and most of her spelling rules and we’re learning countries of the world this year and her baseline is 7 countries. Cas knew everything on his preschool assessment except his address and phone number so…mostly…we’ll just have fun and build confidence. Both kiddos are back in their swim lessons at water sprites and loving it. Cas is starting on his rainbow ribbon and doing great and Ari is working on her silver ribbon.
The basic rundown of curriculum we’re using this year: Exploring Countries and Cultures by My Father’s World is Ari’s core and God’s Little Explorers is Cas’s core. And then we have all the extras. All About Reading Pre for Cas, Level 4 for Ari. All About Spelling 3 for Ari. The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting level 4 for Ari and pre for Cas. Typing Agent for both to start learning typing skills. I love math so we have all the math. Math-It for learning math facts, Mathematical Reasoning at their individual levels for daily math. Mathessori for hands on math for Cas and Beast Academy for math enrichment for Ari. We also have Kiwi and Koala Crates and Ivy Kids for hands on fun. We’re using Let’s Make Art for Kids for art class and watching PBS Salsa for Spanish class.
What are you all doing for your school year? Trying any new curriculum?
Hi! Love hearing what you are up too! I am following your lead on the PBS Salsa! Are you doing anything with it, or just watching it? So far the kids are loving the TGTB handwriting this year. C loves Rod and Staff spelling and US history through MFW. And everyone loves our hands on science (currently about Air).
Great to hear from you! Mostly just watching Salsa. We watch each episode 3 times in a row (not the same day…sometimes not even the same week) before moving on to the next one so by the third time I have them chime in on words they know. Each episode also has a like 2 minute episode that says what the key vocab is. Otherwise, Caleb & I both know Spanish so we’ll also try to use words they know around them every so often. Do you feel like Rod and Staff spelling works? Like, translates into her regular writing? Ari spells fine for spelling class and dictation…but seems to forget her spelling rules when spelling for fun. Maybe it just takes time 🙂
Tha is for the feedback:) I intended to reply before…re the spelling program, so far, I feel like it’s pretty intuitive for C and that she generally does well. I do notice more misspelling when she is writing apart from assigned work.
Returning to Paradise 
Happy homeschooling!
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Enjoy reading your blog. Much more interesting than our pastor’s
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Hi! Love hearing what you are up too! I am following your lead on the PBS Salsa! Are you doing anything with it, or just watching it? So far the kids are loving the TGTB handwriting this year. C loves Rod and Staff spelling and US history through MFW. And everyone loves our hands on science (currently about Air).
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Great to hear from you! Mostly just watching Salsa. We watch each episode 3 times in a row (not the same day…sometimes not even the same week) before moving on to the next one so by the third time I have them chime in on words they know. Each episode also has a like 2 minute episode that says what the key vocab is. Otherwise, Caleb & I both know Spanish so we’ll also try to use words they know around them every so often. Do you feel like Rod and Staff spelling works? Like, translates into her regular writing? Ari spells fine for spelling class and dictation…but seems to forget her spelling rules when spelling for fun. Maybe it just takes time 🙂
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Tha is for the feedback:) I intended to reply before…re the spelling program, so far, I feel like it’s pretty intuitive for C and that she generally does well. I do notice more misspelling when she is writing apart from assigned work.
LikeLiked by 1 person