Colored Rice

In our lesson about ancient China we learned about the importance of rice to the sustainability of the communities in the Yellow River Valley.  As a fun art extension, we decided to dye and make pictures with rice.

The whole process was easy and fun with neat results.  We are saving the left over colored rice for letter tracing or future art projects.

Here are some pictures and basic directions:

--Place 1 cup of long grain white rice in a plastic bag.

--Add 1/2 tsp of vinegar

--Add a few drops of food coloring

--Seal bag

--Knead, shake, and mix the color with the rice.  Add more color if needed.

--Place on sheet of parchment paper in thin layer and let dry for 1-2 hours.

We drew basic pictures, painted glue for where we wanted color and then sprinkled the rice on much like glitter.

The end result was a fun texture piece.  This would be a great activity to talk about color, texture, 3 dimensional, and maybe throw in a little social studies and talk about ancient China's unique crop of rice!

Learning History

One of our new curriculums this year is Story of the World.  It includes a daily reading, including fictitious stories of children who lived during the respective time to tell how they ate, slept, interacted- the story of their world.  Then there are map activities, color pages, and optional explorations to help engage the students further.

Our first lesson was actually the introduction to explain how history is learned.  Through stories, written or otherwise, and from finding artifacts buried over time discovered by archeologists.  Each piece or letter helps put together the puzzle of the story of the world for its time.

A suggested activity to discover what it is like to dig up artifacts and try to figure out the story of a lost world was to create an archeological dig in the yard, all taped off just like they are 'for real'.

I decided a more simple route for our purposes.  I collected artifacts from the long lost civilization of "Barbie and Polly" and buried them in different layers in a disposable aluminum pan in corn meal and corn flour.  Wetting areas created a thick, rocky clay to dig through.  Using baby spoons, paintbrushes, and some play dough tools my girls got to work unearthing the treasures.

We had a wonderful time piecing together the story of the dolly world.  I threw in a couple of unknown elements so my kids learned that sometimes archeologists have to talk to each other and look to other resources to discover what things are.

Even if you aren't doing Story of the World, this was a great little activity to talk about history, archeology, mystery, civilization, artifacts, team work and all in a tactile way!

 And yes, even the toddler got in on the action!

Visit other great tips at the Hip Homeschool Moms Blog Hop!

3rd Grade and Kindergarten Curriculum Choices- 2nd Year Launch!

Last year was a big year.  Our transition to homeschooling from public school for our oldest (then second grade) had its ups and downs.  We switched curriculums around a few times and ended up with a year of memories and growth.

I was able to attend a Great Homeschool Convention in April which was helpful in touching and feeling different options.  So after praying, exploring, and a little trial and error, here are our curriculum choices for (at least the start) of this year!

Izzy- 3rd Grade

Math:  Christian Light Education (CLE) 300
Reading & Language Arts:  Total Language Plus (TLP) "The Courage of Sarah Noble" and "The Whipping Boy" with a Unit Study on the  American Girl Kit series in the middle since she enjoyed our Samantha and Addy series so much last year.  I also have daily language skill sheets for her to do if needed to supplement during unit studies.
Writing:  Our biggest struggle last year and we ended up with basically copy work and a few journal entry responses with our unit studies.  I'm hoping our new choice of Essentials in Writing level 3 will be a great fit for us!
Handwriting:  A Reason For Handwriting cursive.  She will get printing practice with TLP
Spelling:  All About Spelling finishing level 2 and going onto 3.  We started this program mid-year last year and have mixed feelings about it.  The phonics education has been great for her (she learned to read primarily on sight words) but the spelling has not improved as much as I would have hoped.  I've been encouraged to keep with it- so we'll at least go through level 3.
Social Studies:  Story of the World vol 1 and Abeka's Our American Heritage for grade 3.  I was intrigued by the Story of the World idea but wanted to keep going in our American studies so we will probably filter back and forth.  The Abeka will be more independent in nature and less up front for me for those busier weeks or when I'm working with little sister.
Bible:  Adventure Bible Devotional by Zonderkidz.  We are going to also focus on applying to Fruits of the Spirit to our lives as they are one of our 'school rules'.
Ancillary Program:  We are going to try a local homeschool program all day on Mondays which will give grade level experiences each week in Art, Music, Drama, Gym, Math Games, Spanish, and Science Experiments.  It will be nice to have such a variety of experiences for her to draw upon and to be in a more 'classroom' setting which she has missed.  We are hopeful this will be a great addition to our family.

Liliana- Kindergarten

Lili is 4.5 but ready to start some basic Kindergarten.  She is past preschool curriculums, so I project taking 1.5 years to do K work, but will let her dictate her own pace.

Calendar: I have a homemade presentation book with laminated pages for our calendar/circle time.  Pages include counting, temperature, monthly calendar, venn diagram, tally marks, writing numerically, math problem of the day, patterns, time, place value, and money.  It works great, its portable and customizable, and was super easy to do!
Math:  Christian Light Education (CLE) 100.  Technically 1st grade books, but she was beyond their Kindergarten books, so we will start slow.  I do not expect to finish, but rather use this level for 2 full years.  We will supplement with extra practice pages as needed so she does not move too fast for her stage of development.
Reading:  I got drawn into the Horizon's program's beautiful books.  I'm not sure I love it and kind of wish I had done something different, but we'll see how it works.  I have a feeling we will fly through the first book as she already knows most of her basic phonics.  I also have some readers like BOB books and an Usborne Ted and Friends books on cd to help boost sight words.
Handwriting:  A Reason for Handwriting
Social Studies:  Story of the World with big sister as her attention span allows.  I figured out some adaptable activities to engage her while big sis is working on more intricate projects.
Bible:  Adventure Bible Devotional by Zonderkidz.  We are going to also focus on applying to Fruits of the Spirit to our lives as they are one of our 'school rules'.

My blog is shared at the not back-to-school hop over at ihomeschoolnetwork!  Head over there to see other great curriculum choices homeschool parents around the world have chosen!

"Year End" Curriculum Review

As we wrap up our "year" I'm taking a moment to give ratings to the curriculum we tried, toiled with, and loved.  Every homeschool family is different.  Each child requires different learning sets, so while something didn't work for us (or did), I'm hoping that you will put it through the filter of your child and make the best informed decision for your group.  I will give each program two ratings.

1)  An teacher perspective on ease of use, implementation, and feel of the overall curriculum
2)  How it worked for us, specifically to Izzy


WriteShop
B+    I loved the easy to follow teacher manual, minimal student materials, and guided writing portions.  The publishing crafts were crazy, but we adapted to them.  Great for the creative writer.

C-    Izzy did not do well with this program.  It was too creative for her 'black and white' personality.  She became too dependent on my help with the guided writing so she wouldn't want to write on her own.  The writing prompts were not enjoyed by either of us and required too much adaptation.

Christian Light Education Math 200 (CLE)
A-    Easy to use.  Everything flows very well.  Love the tight spiral.  Lessons can get a little long with too much review, but we adapted.  Some story problems are a little strange due to the farming/mennonite culture.  I like the way they teach math in the classic way, include plenty of real life story problems, and focus on basic facts.  The workbooks are great to be able to finish and get a fresh new one every 17 lessons!

A    We tried another math program for 2 weeks and went running back to CLE.  Izzy loves that can now do Math almost 90% on her own and is thriving in the independence of it.  She likes that she can skip problems that I cross off.  The tight spiral has built her confidence because she doesn't have time to forget anything.

CLE Reading
C   I could see how this program would work wonderfully if you started with it from the beginning as it  builds on previous skills with phonics and language.  However, the stories I find are quite boring and there are not enough basic comprehension questions.

D  Bored.  Bored her to death. We had to skip much of the workbook because of her lack of phonics education at public school.  Just wasn't worth the tears.

All About Spelling
B-   This program is very teacher friendly and easy to use.  I could see its high benefit for kinesthetic and tactile learners with the magnet pieces.  It also breaks the rules down very well- even I learned something!  It is a little overwhelming with all the pieces and cumbersome to get through, but adaptable to what your child's needs are.  I can't imagine trying to do this program with more than 2 or 3 kids- it would take forever!

B   Our goal was that this program would help Izzy build her phonics (reads above grade level but no phonics understanding at the start of the year, thus terrible at sounding out words and spelling) to help with spelling and reading.  I can say that this program has for sure met that goal and got us back on track for keeping up with new vocabulary and spelling.  However, the words I found were not high use enough for what she was using in her writing, therefore we aren't seeing the application or retention as much as we'd like.  Sticking with it at least for the remaining of level 2 and through 3 and then will reevaluate.

Progeny Press
C  Not memorable.  Not growth inducing.  Way about grade level mentioned.  Adaptable and there are some good bones there.  PP has a great selections of books to choose from.

D  Ineffective at meeting our reading goals.  It did not provide enough meat in return for investment of time in our day.  Needed something more encompassing of language arts as a whole.  Did not fit us well.  Did not like the font or layout of the booklet.

Abeka- Social Studies and Science
A-  (on both counts).  We utilized just the student books as general readers for some of our science and social studies.  They were a great asset.  It was nice to allow Izzy to practice "reading to learn" with these readers.  While we did supplement and these subjects were not as core to our year as the other subjects, these books fit the bill nicely.  They give a nice little taste for each subject.  They also helped wet the appetite to learn more about different matters.

Lapbooks
A-  We used lap books to help us study Bangladesh (in preparation for a missions trip), 1904 (as we read through the Samantha series from American Girl), Addy (to add to throughout the book series).  We also did mini versions for penguins and rainbows.  We enjoyed the hands on and review aspect.  They were a lot of fun to put together.  Though, some aspects took a long time and my daughter focused more on filling each line or paper in a template rather than just expressing what she was learning.

Self Written Samantha Reading and Language Arts
I just wanted to mention that after trying CLE and Abeka for reading, we ended up tying together language arts, writing, and reading through the Samantha book series by American girl.  We focused on dictation, copy work, vocabulary, adjectives, adverbs, similes, comprehension, and forming predictions or opinions.  This worked very well for us and I believe helped give a reason for learning and spawned a desire to write which was needed.  It was more 'fun'.  It became the highlight of our day, but was very teacher intensive, especially since I had to write everything ahead of time.  Hoping that next year's choice of Total Language Plus will bring us similar results without so much time on my part.

Distractions, Motivation, & Changes

I've heard many homeschooling parents want to quit at some point in November and February.  While I did not have those feelings this fall- I have feelings of failure, discouragement, and apathy in full force the past couple of weeks.  Whether the never ending snow storms and arctic temperatures, rounds of stomach flu and colds, or never ending transitions of childhood development have anything to do with it, I am not sure.  What I do know is that I have allowed distractions and the lack of motivation to deter my desire for the "why" of homeschooling to become less important than the "how's".

We have undergone many curriculum changes over the course of 6 weeks.  I began writing our own reading/writing curriculum based on the Samantha series from American girl which has been much better than any other reading we've done and has replaced the 'bust' of a program in WriteShop.  We began All About Spelling in early January and are doing quite well with it.  Izzy seems to be better at transferring spelling knowledge to her writing and her phonics understanding and ability to 'sound words out' has dramatically improved.  We are wrapping up CLE math 205 light unit and will be working through Horizons for awhile for a change of pace.  We started cursive handwriting.

In all of this curriculum change, our schedule has been uprooted and required changes that I'm still trying to catch up with.  Lucy, 14 months, has transitioned to 1 nap a day and is quite the explorer and destroyer when awake.  Therefore, most of our teacher intensive activities have to happen between 12:30 and 3:00 pm.  This is Izzy's least favorite time to do school.  I currently work for my husband 2 afternoons a week, so this has forced school to happen in the mornings while juggling a four year old and a very busy toddler.  At the point of exhaustion and exasperation I fight to just get the 'basics' done which has led to very little in the fun department (like art, experiments, etc).  And, embarrassingly, this has led to Bible being put not he back burner.  I wanted Bible lessons to be our priority- but the girls love doing crafts to go along with each lesson and I just don't know how to fit it all in.  Liliana has had to turn to the iPad to do learning games with her as I desperately seek time to teach Izzy new concepts.

All of these distractions and changes have caused Izzy's motivation (and my own I think) to slip, stating for the first time since we started this journey that she wants to return to public school.

My confidence is gone.  My enthusiasm dwindling.  And my intention for intentional influence on the lives of my girls seems to have evaporated.  But, I am not giving up.  With God's help we will work through this bump in the road and figure out what is best for our family, for the time being.  Every season of life will change the look of how we do school- I just need to keep the "why" as the filter for each decision.

I am hoping that verbalizing these frustrations and desires will help me set goals anew and finish the year strong.  Couple that with fresh new curriculum and perhaps our motivations will change and distractions minimized.

Some days look like this....

While others play out like this.

From Moses to Jericho in Crafts

The past couple of weeks we have been studying the Israelites slavery in Egypt, the birth of Moses, the Exodus, desert wanderings, and finally conquering Jericho as part of our survey of bible stories through the school year.  It has been a fun couple of weeks with neat crafts and activities I'd thought I'd share.  I referenced any sources for original ideas, otherwise they were ones I came up with on my own.

Birth of Moses- paper basket weaving with nylon babies (this was my inspiration)

For the birth of Moses we learned how to weave construction paper together.  Then we stapled up the sides to form a basket.  Then, I cut of the last few inches of an old knee high, stuffed it with cotton balls, tied one rubber band about an inch below the top to create a head, and then one at the bottom to close, and then drew on a face.  The girls have been playing with their baskets and moses' for a long time now!  I would recommend this craft for ages 7+.

The 10 Plagues- paper plate illustration (Inspiration from an artists palate)

To illustrate the 10 plagues I found inspiration from someone who used an artists' palate.  I figured a paper plate would work just as well, and in fact give them more room to color on.  We took one of the larger white paper plates and I pre-drew the lines to divide the plate into 10 equal pieces.  I also wrote on the back what each one was for my youngest.  Then, after each plague in the story we drew it.  This took us two days.  Some are easier than others to illustrate, but it was more fun for them than putting together the mini-books.  With some extra help this is great for ages 4+

Crossing the Red Sea- blowing paint
I loved learning how to blow thin or water color paint to make neat designs as part of my 'art for teachers' class in college.  So I thought I could apply the same concept to the red sea drawings.  I thinned blue paint ahead of time.  We used heavy white card stock.  The girls pre drew the walking path in the middle.  Then I place a few drops of paint on one side and they blew it around towards the edge.  Then they turned their papers, I placed more paint on the other side of the path and they blew it towards that way.  It was a lot of fun and Lili liked getting in on the action.  They would make great backgrounds if you were using finger puppets to help tell the story.  With help this could be an ages 2+ activity.


The 10 Commandments- Tracing hands
I had the idea of tracing each girl's hands and writing the 10 commandments out on each finger in an abbreviated form.  Like the 10 plagues, I split it into 2 lessons.  Overall, this was a great way to help review each commandment, but they girls didn't have as much fun with it.  They were more interested in wanting to decorate their hands and fingernails on paper.  It would be best for older elementary students.


God's presence in the desert- textile art
This was one of our favorite activities that was super easy and used things we already had on hand.  Our lesson was on God showing his faithfulness in the desert by showing his presence through cloud and fire pillars and by providing the needs of the Israelites through manna and water from a rock.  The girls divided their papers and used cotton balls for the cloud, crumpled tissue paper for the pillar of fire, small brown beads for manna, and then we just drew a rock- but I would have found something different to do that next time.  The girls loved using the different textiles of art and it has been a great reminder for us of God's faithfulness.


Jericho- Edible wall snack
I had a revelation as I was preparing for this lesson.  I remembered making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and frosting.  I thought- why not make a Jericho wall, knock it down, and then get to eat it!  Each girl got two graham crackers split in two so four squares all together.  We then spread frosting the edges to 'glue' together the corners and make a wall.  We added a peanut butter cup for a gate and chocolate candies as windows.  Our dum-dum Joshua then marched around the wall as directed by the story and we trumpted with our voices.  It was a delicious activity and I like that it didn't require a paper project to hang on display in the school room (we are a little crowded at the moment!)  Any ages will love this activity!

Head over to the Hip Homeschool Mom blogroll hop to see other great ideas (plus you'll see my cuties in the post as we were a highlighted activity from last week about our book character dress up day!)

Weekly Wrap Up: New Adventures and Back to Basics

 It has been a wonderful week of sunshine, outdoor play, and lessons at home.  I have been blessed by the fact that Izzy has not said anything about missing school, wishing she were there instead, or really even talked about public school.  In fact, in our prayer time, one of her praises was that she got to be home for school.  It has been so wonderful to walk her through simple problem solvings of life.  Helping her process situations and unknowns and providing opportunities for independence has been good for her maturity.  I feel like I know her so much better than I did 3 months ago!

Here is a quick glimpse into our week! 

In Bible, we began the story of Moses.  We weaved baskets out of construction paper (inspired by this site) and then made babies out of a baby sock, cotton balls, and rubber bands.  The girls have been playing with them all week.  Lili has declared hers is a girl, so I guess we still have some remediation lessons ahead!  We moved onto the burning bush and then did the 10 plagues.  I was inspired by this craft (KidsBibleDebJackson used artist palettes to depict each plague) but instead of circles I divided wedges into our paper plate so they had more room to draw.  I also then wrote on the back of each plate what the plague was.  Our verse has been Psalm 24:1 so we are focusing the stories on the idea that God desires to rescue his children because they belong to him- and that includes us!

This week in writing with our awesome WriteShop Primary we did a imaginative narrative on outer space with a focus on using a spelling dictionary.  I used the opportunity to read books and watch a couple shows on outer space and imaginative trips there.  Izzy enjoyed the cross study so I think units will someday be in our future.  She published her writing by placing it into a cardboard tube rocket.  I have also instituted more free write or prompt writing time.  She needs more practice beyond the guided writing of just putting her thoughts on paper.  No more than 5-7 sentences and 15 minutes, but its enough to keep her skills up beyond the skill or topic of the lesson in WriteShop.

In math we started CLE 200 officially and completed light unit 1.  Izzy has enjoyed it so far and did very well on the review lessons.  Today (Friday) we did our first lesson in light unit 2 and she did ok.  We will need more time for math than in past weeks since there is more material to get through.  One way I have found to make it easier (for the spiraled content) is do some of the problems myself and she has to check my work. I sometimes get them wrong :)  Little does she realize she is still doing the problems when she 'grades' my answers.

Our "back to basics" was the focus of reading this week.  We finished our first light unit in CLE reading 200 and overall I'm just not convinced its the direction we need this year.  Izzy needed more focus on reading comprehension- pulling out main idea, supporting details, the 5 W's, etc of what she reads and be able to concisely express them.  So we have been working through pages in this book by Carson-Dellosa and other free resources I've found online.  It is helping, but we still have a long way to go.  Suggestions?

Art was fun- our last color lesson for awhile as I will work back and talk about lines.  We did page 44 in How to Teach Art to Children.  We talked about warm and cool colors.  We found pictures in magazines to make collages.  It was fun to get out of our paint rut.

Lastly, our new adventure of the week was lapbooking!  Izzy is traveling with her dad and some other family to a children's home we support in Bangladesh in November.  So, together we looked at books from the library about Bangladesh to learn some of the culture and features.  The books do paint a rosier picture of Bangladesh than what is actually true, but the idea is there.  The pictures also began to expose her to things she will see while there.  We loved doing this together and I cannot wait to do more.  Not sure if I did it right, but it worked for us.  I used some of the free templates from HomeschoolShare.com that focused on countries.  Feel free to share any resources or suggestions you have about lapbooking!

I've joined in the weekly wrap up linky at weird, unsocialized homeschoolers!

Weekly Wrap Up: Getting into a Groove

We have (almost) completed our third week of homeschooling.  This week's theme was finding our groove.  It was about trying to establish a 'new normal' in our routine, fitting in our fall activities, and focusing on intentional influencing of the hearts and minds of our girls.  Here are a few things we experienced this week:

Our first writing lessons with WriteShop Primary!  This was the curriculum I was most excited about, partly because I was not pleased with the writing pedagogy in public school.  We have done the first 3 lessons (out of 8) and Izzy has done very well.  Her attitude towards writing has already improved.  It requires a lot of hands on from me through guided writing, but I see a boost in her confidence so it is worth it!

Math was focused on reviewing time and learning money.  New common core standards do not introduce money until 3rd grade so this was new for her beyond earning quarters for chores.  We worked on adding money together.  A time and money workbook was a great find from goodwill and dollar store play money were awesome tools to keep learning fun.  We have a few more 'catch up' things to learn (fractions and standard measurement) before we start CLE Math 200.  Common core put her behind the  grade for most curriculums.

Reading was a bust. Really struggling to like our CLE reading.  The stories are ok, and I do appreciate the life lessons. However, the phonic studies are over the top in depth and the story review questions lack application.  Having to fill a lot of my own, which is requiring more time on my part (hard with a 3 year old and 9 month old underfoot).  I have a progeny press book I will be pulling out when we finish this light unit (want to give the CLE a fair shot at the start).  Any other good reading curriculums out there that focus heavily on comprehension?

In Bible explored Noah's ark and Abraham this week making button rainbows as our craft.  We are learning what it means to trust God (memory verse Proverbs 3:4).  Loving all the online resources for color pages and activity sheets for various bible story.  Just google the story and there's a plethora for all ages.

In art last week we did primary color paintings, and today we learned about secondary colors using food coloring and water.  I'm enjoying the easy lessons in How to Teach Art to Children.  Simple, quick, age appropriate, and I can pick activities that suit my kids best for now.

Lucy has done her own learning by figuring out the art of emptying a drawer and climbing the stairs.  At 8.5 months, I'll consider her gifted and talented for now :)

With a great week under our belt- we are off on a surprise 'field trip' to enjoy open gym at our local gymnastics company- For the Kidz.  Meeting some homeschool cousins and jumping around for 2 hours sounds like a recipe for fun!

My favorite school item of the week- The Whiteboard!  Picked up this large beauty at ReStore for Habitat for Humanity for $35.  It has been priceless for math review, guided writing, and letter practice for Liliana.

First Time Homeschooler- 2nd Grade

With our first year of homeschooling fast approaching, I have finally decided on the curriculum we are going to use this year.  I'm hoping these materials will be great tools in helping us be successful in our transition from public school to homeschool, but know that it may require more trial and error to find what works for us.

Izzy just turned 7 and is going into 2nd grade.  She has been at public school for kindergarten and 1st grade.  Her school was a very good one but in a few areas I'm finding her 'behind' for many homeschool curriculums.  She was taught to read with whole word approach so she has very little phonetical understanding.  Her math was 'reformed math' based on common core standards.  Her writing skills were not mastery based so she has become overwhelmed with all the detail of creative writing (ideas, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, powerful words, etc).  However, she is reading fluently at a 3rd grade level.  That being said, here is what we are starting with for the coming school year.

Math-  We will be doing 2-3 weeks of review and basic introduction to concepts such as money identification and counting, fractions, standard measurement, and reading a clock to the 5 minute intervals with online resources and the alternative tests from Christian Light Math 100.  After that we will be working through Christian Light Education Math 200 with a more comprehensive 'calendar' time to review numbers, tally marks, fractions, weather, graphs, etc.  This will also allow Liliana (age 3.5) to interact with us.  I have created my own calendar pages for this.

Reading-  I will be working a combination of Christian Light Education's 2nd Grade Reading and Progeny Press- A New Coat For Anna.  I want to build her comprehension skills with living books that are slightly lower in reading level but also begin to build some of the phonetical skills she had missed earlier.  I hope the pairing on an alternating schedule will work well.  If we like Progeny Press I will chose another book after we complete this one.

Writing- I think I'm the most excited about this curriculum, so I hope I'm not disappointed!  We will be using WriteShop Primary B.  My goal is to take steps back with Izzy's writing, focusing on one area at a time to hopefully get her to enjoy writing again.  Our public school homework writing assignments were filled with tears on both of our parts.  We will also be reading more living books and having real life experiences that will give her more to find inspiration from instead of topics such as bullying she kept getting in 1st grade.

Science and Social Studies- I will not be emphasizing these subjects the first couple of months as we make our transition into homeschooling, but when we can, will will use Abeka's basic science and social study readers Enjoying God's World and Our America.  Once we gain traction and confidence, I hope to do more of a unit study or lapbook approach with these subjects.

Bible- I desire to involve all of our kids in the same Bible curriculum at some point.  Right now their ages are 7, 3, and 7 months so for now we are just going to be highlighting stories through the bible and putting them on a timeline.  I will be using Jesus Storybook Bible and online resources for inspiration for crafts and activities.  This subject will be relaxed, but important to the environment of our homeschool.  I will also be using Have You Filled a Bucket Today? as part of our character education and home management.  I want to build encouragement in my kids and the importance of 'building each other up'.

Handwriting- I want to build Izzy's consistency and confidence in her handwriting in order to help with fluidity in her writing assignments.  I'm going to use A Reason For Handwriting B.  I feel it will give her adequate practice without bogging her down with too many dictations or copywork at this stage.

Art- My girls love crafts and projects but I want to build a foundation in art appreciation and understanding.  So, we will be going through this book to start with.  I hope it will be fun and low key.

We will also be doing ballet or tap and the occasional open gym at the local gymnastics company.  Let me know if you found success (or problems) with any of my choices.  Each child is a unique person made by God and will learn and find success in different ways.  I just hope this is a good starting point.

*I'm participating in the blog hop at www.ihomeschoolnetwork.com*