School is Great!

It's been a while since I blogged, but we've been busy with school and fun!! We are officially almost done with week 2 of school. So far I'm amazed at how our schedule is working out PERFECT so far! Does that ever happen?? Well, this is a first for me. Of course, I'm sure that as we get deeper into the school year things might change, so I'm remaining open-minded and flexible.

I personally am loving our Angelicum materials, as well as our other hand-selected curriculum. Everything is flowing wonderfully, the kids are doing well with all our materials, and school is exciting even for me! Here is a run down of what we are doing and some neat new things we are incorporating into our school year.

Religion: Before our school lessons officially begin for the day, we pray the rosary and recite some prayers chosen from our prayer wheel. Our prayer intention jar is also a big hit and they have been adding new prayer intentions every few days. To keep things fresh, I have also been alternating reading short saint stories after our prayers. We are working our way through "Once Upon a Time Saints" and the stories are perfect! Interesting for kids and short! Of course, this morning time doesn't comprise of our religion curricula, Faith & Life and the Baltimore Catechism. Faith and Life is still in the afternoon and lunch has become a learning time for us as we have been doing the Catechism questions together while I prepare lunch.

Language Arts: This year we are doing language arts mostly on our own. I decided to keep on our path as opposed to using Angelicum's suggestion of Shurley English, and so far I'm glad I'm doing what works for the kids. Rod & Staff English is such a solid program that I wanted to continue using it after Marco did so well with it last year. We are keeping Angelicum's recommendation of Hooked on Phonics and handwriting with Zaner Bloser, but I'm also adding Writing With Ease and All About Spelling.

Math: Saxon has been our math curriculum from the beginning and we are not straying from this choice! One of the reasons that we chose this program in the beginning was Angelicum's recommendation, as well as the recommendation from hundreds of other homeschoolers who have found it to be effective. Personally, I love it. It's thorough and has plenty of review!

Latin: Prima Latina for Isabella is going well so far. Marco has moved up into Latina Christiana and he is also responding well to it (aka...he's not complaining about it!). I've begun quizzing the kids on their vocabulary during lunch and it's become a fun game between them.

History: We haven't begun history yet, as I wanted to ease into our schedules the first couple of weeks. But I am looking so forward to using History Odyssey once again. My kids love "A Child's History of the World" as well as "Story of the World" and I'm glad that this program uses them both! But we are also using Angelicum's history lessons. Egypt studies are once a week and I'm anticipating a fun time!

Science: I am not planning on beginning science until our co-op starts in September. Although Angelicum's science plans are wonderful...I fully appreciate and love the science we do through co-op. It's a huge help to me as well. The kids read at home and then they do the labs at co-op!

Some neat new things I'm using this year!

• Personal DVD player. Using Hooked on Phonics requires the use of a DVD player. Instead of having the kids use the computer or the TV, I broke out our personal DVD player. It's great and it prevents the kids from taking up the computer or having to leave the school room to use the TV. I also use it to play videos for Christian to keep him entertained from time to time.
  
  
  
• Dividers. I found these nifty dividers at our local school supply store. I saw them and instantly knew they would work great for us! I don't take them out for every subject...only for those that require concentration. In our case that's phonics for the younger kids and writing for the older kids.
  
  
  

I'm so happy that we are off to such a good start this year! We have already done some fun stuff along with school, too. A trip to the museum one week and owl pellet dissections another week! I'm trying to keep things interesting and fun...but that's another entry for another day!!