VALENTINE CAROLING

This past weekend the Pioneer Girls got together to sing some "love songs" to seniors at two different nursing homes.  We were only able to make it to one, due to other plans, but it was a nice time.

The kids all made pictures or cards to hand out and we had a whole program.

There was even a puppet show after the singing where the Gospel was shared with the residents.

I didn't get any pictures of that though.

We had a pretty full house, and even though I'm sure some of them couldn't hear all that well--others sang along with some of the songs.

The songs included "Amazing Grace," "This is the Day," "Awesome God" and many more.

PIONEER GIRLS

This is our second year in Pioneer Girls at a local church.

We meet twice a month and do Bible Study and projects etc.

It is basically like a Christian Girl Scouts.

The girls love going.

They have a time for games, a time for Scripture memorization, singing and a lesson.

A time is also set apart for the moms to meet briefly for prayer and a short conversation or devotion.

This year the ongoing project is an apron and they write each verse or a paraphrase of it on their apron.

They will then get to take it home at the end of the season and hopefully have it forever.

This year is extra nice because they started up a Boy's group at the same time and in the same church!

They memorize the same scripture and do projects related to it as well as have game time and such.

It is a whole family outing!

It has also been nice getting to know some more people in the community--a lot of them also homeschoolers!

They have a big (first time) event coming up this month..so you'll have to be kept in suspense for pictures of that.

 :)

LANGUAGE ARTS

I've said in the past that I would share some of our curriculum choices and somehow, I never really get around to it.  Well, I have a few minutes tonight.

Writer's in Residence is a new curriculum by Debra Bell, put out by Apologia.

It is a bit pricey, but when I looked at the sample pages prior to purchasing, I really liked it.

We are moving slowly through this--we could do it daily, but I just can't fit it in.

So, we will be continuing this next school year as well.

I am using it with my 2nd, 4th and 5th graders and I wouldn't go any younger personally.

From what I see, it could work with students up into high school.  It focuses on not only the writing process but also grammar and critical thinking.

My picture is off of amazon.  Sorry for the blurriness.  I would recommend checking it out.

In addition, we also use this:

Language Lessons for Today put out by My Father's World is great.

Short, concise lessons with a variety of poetry, narration, copywork, memorization, grammar and so forth.  We used the previous book in the series last school year.

A new thing we introduced this year is Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization by Andrew Pudewa

I was given this book and we may not be using it in the "intended" way, but we are definitely memorizing poetry!  Boogie and Bubba (ages 6 and 4) both can recite several poems and their authors!  This was not my intention, but they picked it up along with the other kids and completely surprised me when they started saying the poems too!  Win!

The other things I include under the broad term "language arts" are typing, spelling, cursive, journaling and manners.  Oh, and our read-alouds and what the kids choose to silent read.

I don't normally assign silent reading books--I let them choose.  

That may change in the future though.

None of the subjects mentioned above have a formal curriculum.

MJ finished his spelling workbook and is currently using gradespelling.com.

The girls are still working on a spelling workbook that includes puzzles and word games etc.

That is about it.

Any questions?

What do you use for your Language Arts?

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? CAN I BELIEVE IT?!!

Currently, we have no one in diapers!  Wait, let me repeat that.  We have NO ONE IN DIAPERS!

We have been dabbling at potty training for a couple of months, but nothing serious as in timers and such.  Well, last week while SICK I might add, Sonny decided that it was time.  He was running a fever and had diarrhea and there were next to no accidents.  I still had him in diapers because I mean, diarrhea!  Well, after two days of not a single accident--yesterday we put on underpants.

I decided to brave it and we even wore them in the car and out.  To top it all off, 

he fell asleep on the way home in the car, did not wake up and so I put him to bed--in underpants.

Woohoo!  

No issues. 

 This boy is confident and definitely knows when he needs to go and when he doesn't.  

I will say though, I am a bit nervous about co-op next week!

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Anyone else eat their cereal this way?

I didn't think so.

Hmm..always something to keep us busy and things interesting.

LITERATURE

We read quite a bit.

In case you didn't know that. ;p

I don't firmly plan out what we are going to read aloud every year, because I find that we always end of going off on tangents and I am okay with that.  Not to say I don't have a loose idea of what I would like to cover, but if we don't get to it--not a big deal.  

I thought I would share with you some of the literature that we have been reading this year.

The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson

These were recommended to me by a friend and we LOVED them!

The first two we read aloud and the second two we listened to the audio version. This is a fantasy/adventure story with a lot of Christian themes running throughout.

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

The book is quite a bit different from the movie.

I said we would watch the movie after we finished the book, but for some reason we haven't yet.

It is on my to-do list.

My Weird School Fast Facts Geography by Dan Gutman

Fun and quick reading.  There were some laugh out loud moments.

From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

We Dine with Cannibals by C. Alexander London

Very far-fetched, action packed, silly but definitely of some historical value

The Samurai's Tale by Erik C. Haugaard

We actually didn't finish this one.  It is a bit on the longer side and we were moving on from Japan and instead we took a vote and decided to move to the next book.  Historical Fiction.

My America:  Our Strange New Land

Part of the My America Series.  Historical Fiction written in diary/letter style

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

We have another week or two and this one will be finished.  This one, though I had it on my list, was requested.

Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, MacBeth in the Shakespeare Can Be Fun! Series

Those are all the "major" read-alouds so far this year.  I have hundreds (no lie) of picture books, short stories, and what not we could add, and I don't record all the audio books that we listen to--I probably should!

Oh, we have been listening to some of the Harry Potter books as well.

I know that some people have very strong feelings on them one way or another--especially as Christians.  However, I would encourage you to read them for yourself prior to making judgement.  Some of the later books are definitely too mature for younger readers, but I find value in the literature and there are some really great lessons in the story not to mention that it is pretty well written and engaging.  It also opens the door to discuss some of the things we do NOT agree with and why.  My oldest three love the ones we have read or listened to so far.

I could go on a bit more about that, but I will spare you.

What have you been reading?