Our first half day of school was a few days after we moved into our new house, and our first full day of school was on August 10th. It is a new stage to have all three children officially students together. Songbird is in the upper rotation at Masters Academy on Mondays (3rd-6th graders), while Bro and Raindrop are in the lower rotation (K4-2nd graders). It's been fun to see Raindrop get excited about her day and have the same teachers as Bro. She is definitely starting to feel like one of the older kids.
The other days of the week we continue on with our Charlotte Mason inspired Ambleside Online curriculum. It is much more of a reading list than a true curriculum, but I always get so excited about the books we will be reading together. We just started Holling's Pagoo - which tells of ocean life through the adventures of a two-fisted Hermit Crab. We are also reading MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin. For history we are beginning with the Reformation, and I got pretty teary-eyed when we read about Martin Luther from Trial and Triumph the other day. No one is perfect, and I know he had his issues, but his passion for getting God's word into the hands of everyone in their own language is inspiring.
Songbird has decided over the Summer that reading is her favorite subject (after years of struggle), and she often finishes her read alouds in the same day she begins them. I love all the facts and pieces of information she picks out of this and that book. She is a story girl, and we always knew that reading would catch on in her in such a way at some point. She stills complains about writing, though her passion for creating stories is contagious, and I think she will be a beautiful writer one day.
We also started a new genre of story last week - the American Tall Tale. We read the story of Paul Bunyan, and though I found the constant exaggerations tedious, the kids loved it. They even asked the next day if we could read another "Tall Tale." We'll also be adding longer biographies into our schedule this year - including Marco Polo and Da Vinci.
Bro is a math and science boy and loves to figure out how things work. Since I don't know a lot about how things work, I hope he has ample opportunity to grow these skills via his Grandfathers :) He also loves being in nature and discovering new types of caterpillars and butterflies.
Raindrop is excelling in coloring inside the lines - something neither of the other two could do until they were much older. She begged to have her own math and handwriting books, and will often ask when it's her turn to "do school." Her sister has been helping oversee her math lessons, and reading a story or two to her everyday, while Bro helps her with her alphabet. I love seeing them take on this responsibility, and she loves the attention.
It's always a challenge to figure out how to organize our time best, and how to handle having different grades and workloads all at once. This is especially a burden for the oldest child who always has the most work to do. But every year homeschooling has become more of a rhythm, and I am truly enjoying the gentle pace of life.
