Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

School has been going really smoothly lately.  I have gotten a nice schedule going and it's easy for all 3 of us.  This week they have been finishing up the lessons on Jacob in the Bible and then we are finishing what they started with Joseph while we were camping.  I was going to keep reading through the Bible, but my children are having trouble being obedient lately and my husband and I have decided that maybe it's time we do a character study on obedience.  So I will be planning that one tonight to start our study after Joseph.  I don't want to get into Moses yet because that is a long story in itself. 

Math and Phonics have been going very well for both of the kids.  Kyle struggles with the letters and sounds, but he is not even supposed to be in Kindergarten yet so I'm not worried about it.  We'll just keep working until he gets it and we'll still be ahead.  I am going to find some additional phonics lessons we can do besides following the boring A Beka manual.

Reading has been really fun lately with the kids.  They are starting to get into the stories more and Kyle most of the time doesn't want me to stop!  Amanda is reading so well on her own now, it just happened like that *.  (that is a snap, lol)  When it's reading time for Kyle he picks out a book from his library pile and brings it to me.  They are usually quite long books and he wants me to read it all.  I've had to cut the really long ones down to about 10 pages at a time.  But he brings it back the next day and continues until we finish it.  I love it and will encourage reading! 

We are reading Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary right now.  She is my favorite author for kids.  They love this series so far and want to buy the 3rd book.  I can't wait to introduce them to Ramona, Beezus and Henry Higgins!!  Those were my favorite books as a kid.  The chapters in this book are pretty long and take about 20 min or so to read one chapter, but Kyle doesn't want me to stop.  Amanda is ready for me to though.  That's ok. 

In our Science lessons this week we covered all types of animals.  A Beka Science 2 doesn't get really deep into the lessons, so I was able to combine quite a few of the lessons to get them done faster.  We have one more lesson to cover tomorrow about owls, then we will start our bird study on Monday.

During our bird study and our obedience study, I will put together a different copywork folder for the kids that go along with our lessons.  They actually really enjoy doing the copywork pages and I like to have them go along with what we are learning or the month that it is.  There are 14 lessons planned for our bird study, and we'll do more if they need to finish their lapbooks for that.

I am also starting to plan our plant/flower/garden study.  I am going to spend a week on plants, a week on flowers and a week or 2 on gardens.  They are going to have some little place to plant a few seeds and take care of a tiny little garden of their own.  I am not finding any lapbook stuff that I like for this unit, besides one that costs $19.99.  I don't know if I will be able to get that one or not.  If not, I will maybe do a notebook style project with some scrapbooking supplies.

All of this planning keeps me busy but it's one of my favorite part of homeschooling!