Week 6

...is almost over!  I think we will do school tomorrow (Saturday) because we are three days behind.  Next week is supposed to be our week off, but we have to make up those days, so we'll school tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday, and then have the rest of the week off.

I don't know what the deal was, but this week I have been dragging my feet getting school done.  I let the girls sleep in, we get started late, it is beautiful outside so they just want to play and I just want to let them...  I think that maybe I should re-think our yearly schedule.  More breaks in the fall and spring, and just school right through winter and summer when it is no fun going outside.

Anyway, we DID do school and it went well.  I asked the girls their opinion of each subject and they really like all of their subjects except math (just because they are learning new concepts and it is sometimes a struggle) and Savannah doesn't like english very much, for the same reason.  It is a lot of writing, which I like but she doesn't.  All well.  Our english and math programs are solid and I love them.

I am not thrilled with R&S spelling.  I think spalding/O-G method is far superior.  But the girls refuse to drop R&S spelling; they both really like it.  It is their only workbook, which is why I think they like it so much.  So yesterday and today, right after latin, we did spelling together.  I use the lists from Spell to Write and Read (the Wise Guide) and the spelling rule tunes from Phonics Road.  We spell and mark 20 words together on the white board, discuss/sing the spelling rules that apply (while dancing around the room), and then I dictate two sentences from the Wise Guide that uses some of the spelling words we just went over.  It is very effective and will definitely become part of our routine for now on.

I read aloud at night while the kids are in bed because my little ones (Caroline mainly, and Zach) are difficult to read with.  We've been reading our history books, Story of the World - Middle Ages and Our Island Story (a history of Britain) three times a week. 

The other nights I've read Charlie's Monument.  It is a very short book.  I think I have only two more chapters.  It is just a good story and the kids love it.  I bawled through the whole first chapter.  It is set in the midwest in the 1800s.  It is about a boy who is born physically handicapped.  His mother teaches him about his individual worth and how to treat others like Christ treated others.  She is killed by indians when he is a young teen.  The town gives him a job as a lookout on a hilltop to help him earn money so he can take of himself.  So he spends his entire life on this hill and realizes that when he dies, no one will remember him or know he was even there, so he begins to build a monument out of rocks, one at a time, day by day.  Then one day the bankers daughter decides to venture up to the hill to see the mysterious Charlie that she has only heard about and never met.  .... It is about REAL love.  My mom read it to me a few times when I was little and I loved it.

Week 2 of P90X is almost complete.  I really enjoy the workouts.  I enjoy getting stronger and being able to do certain exercises that I couldn't do last week. 

And I need to get more sleep.