Back to work!

Yesterday we started back to school after our Christmas break. I must say that I haven't encountered any of the attitude problems that typically prevail after any kind of break we have. There has been a little resistance here and there, but none of the stubbornness that is usual. Maybe my eldest child is maturing? One can hope.

We started back full swing in hopes of getting back into a regular school routine. The last few months have been difficult with me being sick and now that I'm feeling better, we need to make up for lost time. We're doubling up on history lessons for a few weeks in an attempt to finish up the first unit of our curriculum. I am anxious to get through it because the second unit begins our study on Ancient Egypt and I have so many fun, hands-on activities planned. I'm looking forward to it and I think the kids will really have fun.

Science is going well. We just started Day Three of creation and are learning about rocks and the rock cycle. We're going to grow rock candy and possibly some salt crystals. After that, we get to start studying about plants, sprouting a bean seed, growing a bean plant in a box showing how it will grow towards the light, and the typical "memorize the parts of a plant" stuff. It's so fun doing this with all the kids and seeing each of them gain something from it at their own level. The best part is seeing them excited about learning. They were thrilled tonight when I returned from the library with a bunch of books of the different types of rocks we talked about.

I discovered a fun new way to practice math facts. With Jacob, I use 3 dice. Each roll, he adds two dice and then multiplies the sum by the third die. He loves this game and it's great practice for his times tables. Joshua uses two dice and adds them together to practice his addition facts. Both boys are somewhat lacking in their math facts so I'm excited to have found something that they love doing.

Joshua and Leanna will both be starting new handwriting curriculum Handwriting Without Tears tomorrow. I'm hoping it lives up to its name. Leanna was excitedly looking through her new workbook today while Joshua was just glad we didn't have to start it today. But I think it will be a wonderful addition to our schedule and give them both the writing foundation that they need. I struggle with Joshua's writing ability and I'm hoping this will be the answer.

This week, Jacob started dictation. We started with a short poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. I was very impressed with how well he did and he was quick to point out that he only misspelled one word on "my very first time ever!"

Dictation is the method Charlotte Mason used to teach spelling and reinforce grammar and composition skills to her students. For a dictation exercise, give the child a copy of a selected passage and instruct the child to study the passage until he is sure of the spelling of all the words and knows of all the capitalization and punctuation. When the child is ready, dictate the passage one line or sentence at a time, saying each line or sentence only once and pausing while the child writes it. Be on the alert to catch any misspelling and correct it immediately. Start with short passages for younger children and progress to paragraphs and pages for older children. Charlotte started using dictation exercises with children around the third or fourth grades.

Jacob is in the next to last unit of his Pippi Longstocking grammer study. We're going to finish up reading the book this week and all three kids have asked about watching the movie. I'm excited about their enthusiasm. Jacob has done extremely well with the grammar study despite the fact that it may be above his grade level. I'm proud of the work that he's done on it. I do admit, I'll be glad when we're through. At that point, we're going to take things slower in grammar and focus on really solidifying parts of speech and sentence structure. In place of the study, he'll be working on a Florida scrapbook. So yes, I'm excited to get started with something new.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how well things are going. I will try and get some pictures put up of what we're working on very soon.