CHRISTEPHI

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One of the most common questions I am asked about homeschooling is "What math do you use?"  Since the time we started using My Father's World a few years ago, we have stuck with their recommendation of Singapore Math.  Aside from one little foray into  Math Mammoth (which I also loved and highly recommend), we have not found it necessary to supplement at all. This year Miss M has been working through Singapore 3A and 3B.  She was so pleased with herself when she completed level 3A.  Of course, I was proud too! Level 3A focused on working with larger numbers (up to 10,000) and really nailing in those multiplication and division tables.  One day I sat down with a pile of flashcards to drill Miss M and since my camera was handy, I snapped a few shots of her in constant motion.  Apparently acrobatics help with math fact memorization! Level 3B moved on to some topics that really lent themselves to hands-on learning: length, weight, and capaci...

If you have a daughter between the ages of 8 and 12, you may have noticed that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find appropriate clothing for her.  My 8-year-old is most definitely still a little girl.  She is not a small adult.  I would prefer her to dress like a little girl in clothes that provide appropriate coverage and allow for the freedom of movement needed for active play.  Toward that end I spent a weekend sewing up some sweet summer play dresses for Miss M. This is the Flower Hexagon dress from Ottobre 3/2013 (pattern #16).  I made it of some beautiful vintage cotton printed with roses in size 128, but cut the length to 146 because Ottobre dresses tend to run a bit too short for my tastes.  It has hidden pockets in the side seams! The second dress I made is also from Ottobre.  This is 3/2013 #13, the Hollywood Cerise dress.  I didn't have enough of the fun paisley patchwork print to manage the whole dress, so I scr...

We started My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures about 18 months ago and though I have blogged about very little of it, we have been having a wonderful time!  I won't be able to give a rundown of everything we've done the past year and a half, but here are a few quick highlights. We made clay sun faces while in Mexico. In Brazil we studied the rain forest and made a terrarium with tropical plants. While traveling through Germany we read lots of fairy tales and ate delicious plum cake. For France we took a little picnic in the park with a baguette and some imported French cheese. I bought some unfinished wooden boxes to paint in the traditional style of rosemaling while we learned about Norway. We loved learning about Morocco and trying our hand at some leather tooling. A trip to the zoo yielded a close encounter with a bongo during our study of Zambia. For Kenya we fashioned some ...

We started our school year here on Sycamore Hill back in January.  We've been trudging along following a rough "Sabbath Schooling" schedule (that's 6 weeks on, 1 week off) and this week finally hit our 100th day of school!  The kids have been so excited counting down and wanted to have a big party to celebrate.  While that didn't quite happen (parties are fun for kids, but lots of work for mamas!), we did celebrate with a little 100 pizza! We each got to put the toppings on our numeral just how we like it.  I had a shredded zucchini and a little leftover ham on mine with extra sauce.  Miss M had light sauce and pepperoni on hers and Mister E had regular sauce with pepperoni and extra cheese on his. He thought it was funny that his "pepperonis" slid down the cheese and off the pizza during baking! After lunch we went to the park.  We were supposed to meet some friends there, but they thought it was going to rain and headed to an indoor venue inste...