End of September

Even though we kept up a couple of things going during the summer, September was our first month back on a full school schedule. I think this is the first year out of the five we've been homeschooling that I don't feel like I need to mess with anything at this point.

I have made peace with our math program, despite the lack of a useful teacher manual. James is learning well with Horizons and he isn't complaining about it either. Seeing that we start out the morning with math and it sets the tone for the rest of our school day, this is huge. I am seeing the big difference adding drill makes. I won't wait so long to get started with Sean. It makes the rest of the work much easier if there is an automatic recollection of the basic facts.

I purchased a science textbook with the intention of using it as the core of our science program and we have yet to pick it up. James has been doing a lot of narrating from library books and I do have plans to tie the textbook in, but it will probably not be the main part of our program until we hit physical science in the second half of the year. We are working on animal classification right now and the text only has a couple of pages. I wanted to go much deeper than that.

He will be finishing the first section of his geography book this week and we will be moving onto learning the US states. Since we are focusing on US history this year, I think it is a good time for him to memorize the states and capitals. We are about to start colonial times in his history spine. I just requested Making Thirteen Colonies by Joy Hakim from the library. James really likes the writing style of this series. Independently, he just finished reading Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad and began A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla.

I really like Writing Tales though I think we should have started this last year. He is not going to complain about an easy subject so we are going to keep at it. ;-) We are still plugging along through First Language Lessons 3. I am not actually sure if the 4th book has come out yet and I am glad we aren't waiting on it. I would be very frustrated. I love Simply Spelling. I thought he would complain about all of the copywork, but he doesn't mind it at all. It is quick, painless, and he is actually learning something. He is also doing well with his italic program, but I continually have to remind him to use his neat handwriting on all of his subjects, He can write very well when he takes the time, but if he rushes, it is practically illegible. For his non-history related reading, he is laughing his way through Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling and at night he is listening to The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman on cd.

Last but certainly not least, we really like the Latin for Children program. We used the Memoria Press program last year and hated it. LfC is great thanks to the cd's and dvd's. I load the audio lessons onto his Ipod and have him practice with the flashcards on the 10 min ride to and from Taekwondo. He is picking it up quickly and I love the way they break down the grammar. It is very clear and easy to understand.