Homeschool Update

This is a little glimpse of what most of our homeschool days look like lately.  We all feel the need to have a change of scenery this time of year.  The school room in the basement is rather cold, and we would all much rather snuggle up in front of the fireplace for our studies.  But I LOVE that all the homeschool "stuff" has it's own little home in the basement.


The girls, the dogs, and even mom enjoy our learning times snuggled under blankets and in front of fires, sipping something warm.


We read through the book Emily's Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary.   My Emily (Boo) adored that book - she tried to dress just like Emily in the book, which was set around the 1940's I believe - which is the reason for the "old-fashioned" dress (as Boo called it) and her pigtail braids.


Boo has found a great interest lately in measuring things.   She loves, loves these Inchimals from Timberdoodle.  One day she found something the same size as every one of her Inchimals (meaning she found something measuring one inch, all the way up to 12 inches).


She discovered Bailey's tail was 10 inches long.  Bailey was super thrilled with that piece of information.


Boo finished up her first Explode the Code (phonics) workbook, and has started on the next book.  She would much rather do phonics/reading than math! (Yes, she genetically inherited that gene from me!)


We have done some interesting art (more like craft) projects lately.  We filled a shoebox with lots of different acrylic paints along with some marbles.  After some crazy-shakey-shakey dancing with the box, they loved discovering what the box looked like inside!






We learned what colors make up other colors.   Using washable markers on paper towels and spraying it with water makes all the colors "bleed" - you can see the different colors seeping out of the drawings, very fun!




We are progressing nicely through our history studies, learning about Knights and Samurais and The Age of the Crusades. We really enjoyed learning about the English Code of Chivalry!   Next week we will be making our very own Coat of Arms!!




I think a key component for Banana to fully grasp the concept of fractions have been these Fraction Circles.  They even get picked up OFTEN just to be played with.


Miss Boo has been spelling up a storm! The reading is really starting to click with her lately, and I'm seeing some huge progress.  She loves to make words and she is always asking me how to spell something.


She had that timeless moment in childhood when she learned the difference between spelling "but" and "butt".  What is with that?  Her fascination with "potty talk" seems to have hit her much earlier than the other girls.


I have learned that January is always a difficult month for homeschooling.... that time of year when we have to start sorting out plans in our head for the next school year, yet this year seems to drag on kind of slowly.  There are lots of "ifs" right now around here concerning next year.  Please be in our prayer for me as we try and discern where the Lord is leading us for school plans for next year.




And you can also pray that Banana can get through math this year without one of us losing our sanity!!!  :)

I'll leave you with a story written by Boo.  I gave her the first sentence as a story starter, but she completely came up with the rest all by herself!

Once upon a time, I took my favorite stuffed anmials outside for a tea party.  It started raining.  I took my stuffed animals back inside for the tea party. I dropped one outside when I was running in , but I didn't notice.  While I was running, I noticed the mail cart pulled by a horse coming down the street, Meredith Road.  The mail lady said "Is this your stuffed animal?".  I said "Oh, yes, it is!".  Just then, the horse reared and it took off and got unhooked from the cart and ran into the woods.  The mail lady said, "Oh no! My horse has run away, can you please help me find it?" I answered, "Sure, hold on".  So then I quickly picked some apples from the tree for the horse.  I said "There are thorns all over the place in these woods!". We ran through the thorns anyway.  We found the horse under an apple tree with another horse.  We ran towards her and scared the other horse away.  But then, we couldn't find our way back.  Then a barn person came along and grabbed the horse she was with.  The barn person helped us find our way back.  We hooked the horse back up to the mail cart and they went back to work.  It finally stopped raining, so I ate the apples I had picked for the horse.  Then, I grew up and got my own horse, and we visited the mail lady every Saturday."

The End

Written By Boo, Age 5