School Starts

Last week marked the official start to our 3rd year of home school.  Kylie began 2nd grade and Ava began 1st.  Juliet continues to work on letters, play with manipulatives, or relish in having the play room to herself for a few hours a day.  Our first week went really well and I feel very organized this year.  I'm still able to squeeze in 3 mornings a week at the gym.  All three girls have gymnastics Monday nights, Ava starts soccer practice this week, and Kylie has piano Wednesday afternoons too.  I've joined 2 more home school groups to have access to activities and meet other families.  Don't we sound so unsocialized?  Can't you picture me in my long denim skirt and my girls super quiet and weird....yeah, I didn't think so.  Sorry, I had to throw that in there because I still get asked "how do you socialize your kids"...mind you this is mostly from people who don't really know my kids.  You know, those loud, friendly, chatty little girls that tag along with me everywhere!

 Their "red book" and "purple book" curriculum-Writing/Language Arts and Grammar.

 Mystery of History.  I think I'm going to learn just as much as them-I'm not a history fan!

This is the time line we will be doing for their history curriculum.

 Astronomy.  We started this last year but it was a bit too much, so we're going to finish it up in the next few months.  

 Ava's reading comprehension and extra fun writing activities.

Doing some reading comprehension work.  She has done amazing!!!  I don't read the story or the questions to her.  She does it all!

We are also doing math, bible lessons and Kylie does extra free writing.  Since starting the new curriculum for writing (the "purple book" above) she's done a lot better with her own writing.  We had some writing struggles last year and I didn't know how to deal with it.  My friend let me borrow a book about this certain curriculum and I would have thought it was written for us and our struggles, so I bought the products that went along with it.  I had Kylie doing the 1st grade work in only 3 months this summer to catch up.  Now we are on track and I'm happy with the results!

 And I had to throw a picture in of Jonathan flying.  He left for a TDY last week and we went to watch the jets take off from base.  He could see us from the runway and the girls screamed their faces off when daddy "waved" to us and rocked his wings back and forth.