Week 17 In Review

We eased back into school the week of New Years.  I didn't do any official lesson plans.  We just picked up where we'd left off with our math curriculum.  Charlotte asks to do her own math quite often these days.  Here, she is coloring a worksheet we never did from early in the school year.  Then, I realized that I had a Saxon phonics program that I wasn't using, so now I grab worksheets from the pad that came with it.  They look the same except they have a letter and pictures... which I think are more interesting anyway.

We are working on a new routine so I can get more work done in between school breaks.  Once we are done with math, I give Caroline a break while I fold laundry.  The girls love to cuddle and watch a show in my bedroom.

Caroline is really excelling with reading.  She completed her first Tinkerbell novel last year, "Rani and the Mermaid Lagoon" and is now working on a new one.   She's actually started all three, but her main progress is in "Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue."  We bought the movie with Christmas money, but are saving it for her to finish the book.  She's very excited to reach the middle point of the book which has all the pictures from the movie on purple pages.  (She made it to that before January was over.)

We spent some time reviewing our color spelling words from before Christmas (I think our rainbow on the bulletin board was a fun way to practice and also talk about rotating paper when we write.)  I also started giving a more official spelling test on Friday instead of making a fill in the blank on a review worksheet at weeks end.

The girls got jumbo coloring books from some friends of ours and spent some time coloring.

I'm starting a journal (again) with Caroline.  This time, I'm talking about an idea with her, then I write out a sentence about it, correcting any grammar from how she phrased it.  Then, she copies it and illustrates.  It follows some of the theory behind what we'll do next year in our Writing with Ease curriculum.  It also encourages her to do original artwork, which I feel I've been lacking in giving her opportunities to do so.

Of course, Charlotte wanted a journal too, so she's using some older write and draw tablets from my earlier journal attempts.  I just write a word that goes along with Caroline's topic and give her a picture to color on top.

Another part of our new routine is being more intentional in having the girls unload the dishwasher.  Since I put all their dishes in the bottom of the pantry a while back, and knowing I won't be bending that direction in the near future, I have better motivation now.  Charlotte does the silverware and I unload everything but the kid dishes for Caroline to finish.