I am still pleasantly surprised at how school has been going for us. And home/family life in general. I believe several things have been coming together lately as a result of a whole lot of prayer over the past year or two. It’s good. I’ll write more about that some other time.

Some specifics this week:

Both girls are enjoying science using Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. We’re doing notebooking along with it. Currently, Lindsey says this is her favorite thing and we’re all learning quite a lot! We watched “Finding Nemo” last weekend, and Lindsey identified the ocean zones as the fish in the movie swam down, and correctly named the angler fish as she pointed out that his “lure” is bioluminescent. {grin} As I type this post, Kathryn is doing a crossword puzzle of vocabulary words from this week’s lesson.

We didn’t do a nature study this week, but it’s been rainy, and I’ve had another cold. There’s always next week!

For current events, Kathryn reads “News Current” magazine from God’s World News. She also uses a bit of logic in the riddles they always include. I’m having Lindsey read several news stories on CNN Student News each day, and then write a “This Week in History” sort of report at the end of the week. She didn’t quite understand what I wanted her to do at first, but I think she gets it now that I’ve explained it as if she’s writing something to put in a time capsule to let people in the future know what happened in the world this week.

I am excited to report that Lindsey does not currently hate math! This has always been her most difficult, most hated subject. When we took her out of the hybrid academy, we had plans to have her work with a tutor to do math. In the interest of time, money, and giving Lindsey a chance to do it herself, we decided to give it a try without the tutor. At the beginning of the school year, before we tried the hybrid academy, I had already purchased Switched-On Schoolhouse Algebra 1. So we set up a spare laptop with the program and decided to give it a shot. The verdict: Lindsey likes it!

In our quest to reduce grocery expenses, we’ve cut down on chips and things, but Lindsey loves hot Cheetos. I am not above bribery to give her a little extra motivation, so this week, when she’s done with her math lesson, she rewards herself with Cheetos! Whatever works! 😉

Clearly, we’re only one week into this, and we need a bit longer to make a final verdict, but math was not painful this week, and that is the first time I have ever been able to say that with Lindsey. I’ll keep updating on how it goes, but I’ve heard, “I get it!” and “I scored an A!” from Lindsey every day this week. And that is HUGE!

Watching “Felicity” (surprisingly enjoyable American Girls movie) went along with both the girls’ early American history studies. We’ve backed off of lapbook and notebooking activities in our history studies for the moment because we just don’t seem to have enough time in the day. But I have plans to finish these up during the summer so we don’t forget everything we’ve learned this year. Lindsey will also do a couple of math lessons per week through the summer so she can get caught up.

There are always things we do each week that I don’t put in the weekly wrap-up, but these posts would be way too long if I included everything! I do love these wrap-up posts to refer back to, to realize we really do accomplish things even on the weeks it seems like we didn’t get much done, and they are great for remembering exactly when we did what.

Jamie

Wife, mom, J-ma. Introvert who enjoys good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand – unless it’s lost yet again in the microwave. Read more »