We seem to be falling into a routine now, which I love! I know home schooling should be about going with the wind, and mostly it is that way for us, but lately it's been pretty routine and I am happy about that. I find we get a lot more accomplished and we are happier when we know what to expect. I use to let a lot of things go if it was too difficult, but I decided I needed to be more strict and patient as well. It's been successful. Every now and then I'll surprise Woodruff Hall students with an art project or a field trip if they've been good during the week.
W struggles with the parts of speech. We just finished the second year of grammar and while he did very well at memorizing lists of prepositions and linking verbs, he struggles with recognizing these words in stories. We've been stuck on the last "test" where he has to recognize the parts of speech in a story about "The Donkey and the Salt". I'm not sure if I need to do the whole second year grammar over again or not. It seems like it should come easier to him and I gave him a copy of the glossary of terms to look at over and over again, and it's still hard for him. For now we are just going over that story together as I encourage him to remember.
E is starting to have more interest in reading and loves Starfall.com. We play the games out of her phonics games now and then. I made a reading chart for her where she gets one sticker for every word she reads by herself. After 30 stickers she will get a prize. She has, so far, read the word "cat" by herself without help. She will turn 4 in April and I will push it harder then, but for now I am just following her lead.
Dad has been able to be home in evenings now and takes W to do his candy business when the public school gets out.
We all love reading time. I sit with the kids all around me and read the Little House series to them. These are great books only if you want your child to hear lessons about hard work, the reward of hard work, the consequences to naughty behavior, how to be polite, kind, generous and supportive to community. We also get to learn a lot about various things such as how they slaughtered pigs and used every single part of it for their livelihoods, like making candles. I love the waste-not of that generation. I just can't stand throwing out food, that's my least favorite.
