Projects

 Katie and Noah went to spend some Christmas money this past weekend after our very long Babies R Us outing.  Noah chose a building set...the one above.

Katie picked a cooking set for her American Girl doll.

Here's Katie with some of the baked goodies.

 I wanted to share these pics of the project that Noah built with his kit.

 It's a toolbox.

The kit uses heavy duty foam and sturdy plastic nails and screws, tools, etc.

 He measured, sawed, hammered, and built this toolbox pretty much completely on his own! I was so proud.

 I highly recommend this brand of toy building kits.  It was fun for him and he was so proud!

School Update

 Time for a school update!  

As of next week, we will be finished with our third nine weeks of study for 2010/2011!

I just finished writing out the lesson plans for the final semester.  We are on schedule to finish the week before Easter, right on time!!!! Ruby is expected to arrive less than a month after.  Could it be any more perfect?!

In other exciting school news....

Today I was able to order all the curriculum for next year! As soon as it arrives I can start getting that first nine weeks planned out so we won't delay.  I will have my hands very full this summer, so having everything ready and planned will be a huge help!

I was able to get *every single thing* on my school wish list today! YAY!

 We will be diving into some good history/geography this year with Sonlight History/Geography 1.

This is an introduction to World History.  We will use a timeline and figures along with the studies and will cover things like ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, Europe, Africa, India, and China.

I had put off really  getting deep into a History curriculum until this coming year on purpose.

I wanted to get the basics of reading/writing down well first.  Sonlight subjects are very heavy as well, so waiting until Noah was more able to listen and pay attention was important.

 Sticking with Math-U-See!

Still totally loving this math program!

Katie is moving on this 9 weeks actually...up to Gamma and the beginning of multiplication.

Gamma is a very heavy year content wise, so I plan on taking plenty of time to master each thing.  It will probably take this next 9 weeks of introduction plus the entire third grade year to get through this one.

Noah will still be working through Beta, which he just began. They are both doing so great with math and I give all credit to this program..it is awesome.

 We ordered the Picture Smart Bible program to use also.  We will most likely use this as an evening devotional learning time as a family.  We've gotten kind of boring with our evening devotion time, so hoping this will mix it up and we will certainly learn a ton!  Check out THIS LINK to see more about it.  Basically you go through the books of the Bible by drawing a master picture that includes basic elements from that book of the Bible...symbols, main verses, etc.  Drawing helps you remember what you learned.  It looks like so much fun.  This was a bonus *wish list* item that I had wanted to get last year, but we finally are able to get it!

 Last year we used the birds, magnets, astronomy units from this science company.  This year we are getting "microscopic explorations, insects, and light" units.  I actually love the science classes offered at the Education Play Station where Katie is now taking Zoology, and Noah is taking a combo science class.  Hopefully they can continue taking classes there, but these units will fill in the gaps of time in between and/or if we aren't able to continue those classes for some reason.

Staying with Abeka for Reading, Language Arts (writing), and Spelling.

Reading/Language is starting to take less time one on one with me, so that's where we get to add in the rich history program.

I can't believe we are going to have a THIRD grader this coming school year!

OH and a very neat thing happened today while I was ordering curriculum.

The teacher's manuals for Abeka are really expensive on their website, and used ones can usually be found in abundance.  It's just sometimes a needle in a haystack to find a current edition.  I have compromised in the past and just had to adjust the schedule in a previous edition to fit the current workbooks.

Well...after ordering from Abeka today I went in search of the Language 3 curriculum on the used websites.

None to be found.

So I put out a "wanted" email on the used Abeka curriculum yahoo group.

FOUR minutes later, someone replied to me!  A brand new edition at an extremely reasonable price!

Ask and you shall receive right?!

I was so happy to have that search over and done.  I really didn't want anything left on my plate to get for next year...searching and looking the rest of the year. YAY!

Well, that pretty much covers it!

I love shopping for school supplies!