CHRISTEPHI

It's not the worst snowstorm I've ever seen, but anytime there's snow on top of ice it gets awfully dicey out there.  But it is awfully beautiful watching the snow blow around from the warmth of the indoors. At one point I couldn't stay in any longer, so I grabbed my camera and went for a little trek around the house. The snow is delightful even when the weather is frightful!   This is the house across the street from us. It's what I look at out our front windows day after day. Today it is frosted and lovely!

We started our week with a bit of disciplinary action.  Do your kids do incomprehensible things such as wiping boogers on the wall?  I think having had to scrub them off, Little Guy has learned his lesson and won't be doing it again.  I hope! We continued with Level E in Spelling Power.  Miss M seems to grasp spelling concepts very quickly and constantly surprises me with the words she can spell. In history we learned about the Pilgrims and how Squanto taught them to plant corn and fish without hooks.  We read about how the Pilgrims built their homes and covered their windows with oiled parchment in the absence of glass. We made some oiled paper by rubbing olive oil into regular printer paper with a paper towel.  Little Guy enjoyed joining in on this activity.  We held up oiled paper and regular paper to the window to see which lets through more light. Oiled paper on the left, Regular paper on the right. We also tested the oil...

For our second week of second grade, we added in math, foreign language, and some read-alouds to our lessons.  This gradual start to the school year has been so nice!  It allows to get our feet wet with our new schedule and become familiar with our books without jumping straight into deep water! Making a chart with paper circles. Singapore Math 1B. After completing Calvert First Grade Math, Miss M was ready to jump into Singapore Math 1B.  The first few lessons are a simple review of some things she already knows, but I've looked ahead and she is going to be introduced to new material pretty soon. Reading charts workbook page. Singapore Math 1B. She was a little disappointed by the lessons so far: "Mo-om, I already know how to do this!" But I'm confident this is the right level for her. So far she wanted to do more math each day, but I had to stop her so we could accomplish the rest of our lessons in a timely manner.  (Sorry, child, but Mama just can...

Homeschooling Miss M has been quite the adventure. We started with pre-K and she outgrew it quicker than we completed it!  She learned to read when she was four, so I didn't see any point in doing a kindergarten curriculum.  We went straight into first grade.  She outgrew that too, but we were so near the end that I decided we'd press on and finish it anyway.  Finally the day arrived for us to begin a new year of school.  I know, I know, it's weird to start a school year in February, but hey, we homeschool!  Plus, if I start now and school on through the summer (which I plan to do), then we can take off November and December when we get busy with birthdays and holidays! I made posters to greet the kids on the first day. As I mentioned before , we're using Adventures in U.S. History by My Father's World to which I added the the recommended language arts, Singapore Math, and Rosetta Stone Tagalog. They picked out their "best clothes" to wear...

Snow day! And by a happy coincidence, Hubby has the day off! So he got to play in the snow with the rest of us. December Photo Project