Amen!

If I ever question what I am doing in homeschooling my children, all I need do is read THIS to remind myself why I chose this course.

A GREAT find!!!

I am SO excited!  I just found an AWESOME English/Grammar curriculum.  You know what?  It was FREE, and it's LDS based!!!  Now, tell me that's not the find of the century! 
While browsing on one of my favorite homeschool sites (here) I noticed in her "Year 3," (or basically 3rd grade) she had her own english curriculum.  I have NOT enjoyed our current curriculum as it is SO BORING!  I contaced the owner and was directed to her yahoo group where I could download ALL 4 levels of her curriculum for free!!!! 
This curriculum is the best.  It covers:
Copy work/Handwriting in almost every lesson
Memorization of poems, scriptures, and quotes
Gramma lessons
Note Taking
and Public speaking.
I started it with Audrey last week and I loved the very first lesson.  The quote from the first lesson is
"I am; I can; I ought; I will."  Charlotte Mason.  This has become my new phrase for Audrey. 
I'm happy with this curriculum so far, although Audrey is not too happy with how much more intense it is than our previous curriculum. 

One of the perks of homeschooling

First off, let me say this:  I tried and tried to figure out how to rotate the pictures on blogger but failed miserably.  Therefore I am sorry for the sideways photos. 

Now, to the point of this post:  Observe the footwear worn in these pictures.

Back to School

Today started us back to school after a month long break in December.  It was a good day, but did not go completely as planned. 
1) We started our new calendar notebooks (from here).  I am very excited about them since we are SO bad at doing calendar activities!  I added a telling time page, a money page, and a name tracing page since we're really bad about getting those in too.  They went over really well and the kids were excited for them.  I forgot to get my play money last week though, so we didn't do the money page and it took us longer than expected due to it being the first day using them and having to fill out the calendar for January. 
2)  The neighborhood kids don't go back to school until tomorrow so I let Audrey off the hook a little bit.  She had to do Math, Reading, Handwriting, and Spelling but I didn't make her do Piano, Typing, or Faith in God. 
3) Trent was VERY excited to get back to doing school.  It was fun to watch how happy he was to do his school again. 
4) Taking a month break from addition helped Marissa a lot.  She did much better today on her activity than she had done on ANY assignment from November!  Just a little time works wonders.
5) I am VERY glad I didn't start up my music students today and decided to wait until NEXT week.  It's been a good but hectic day as the kids and I get back into the swing of routine. 

It's going to be a good last half of the year.