Language Arts Decisions and Reviews.

It seems that if you are a homeschooler, this time of year is mainly focused on curriculum decisions, planning, organizing, and hunting for reviews for new products. It's my favorite time of the school year!!Of course, we are using mainly Angelicum Academy for our homeschool. But after having tried out their language arts curriculum for the past 3 years...I just don't like it!!

(Photo from Habits of a Happy Home blog)

Shurley English was not only torture for me to teach, but Marco totally hated it. So we ditched it and switched to Rod and Staff English. It's rigorous and boring, but I actually like that it's straightforward to teach. Marco doesn't like it, but he doesn't hate it either. I like that there's tons of review, which is important for him. Isabella used it this past year and she flew through their 2nd grade book. She loved it! But she's just that kind of student. I plan on using First Language Lessons for Anthony's 1st grade and then jumping into Rod and Staff for him too.

Well, that's grammar. But how did our year go with using Angelicum's recommendation of Hooked on Phonics for phonics instruction? I totally dislike the program, but the kids loved it. In the end, we're ditching this too. The program might get your kids reading, but it completely lacks phonics instructions. There is no explanation of phonics rules and I felt it was more like teaching word families. So in the future, when your child comes across a more difficult word, he won't be able to apply any phonics rules to learn to read it because none were ever taught!! Come on!! Even I remember learning things like "When 2 vowels go a walkin', the first one does the talkin'." HOP consists of watching a video, repeating the words they say, and then reading the same words in the workbook. Not my idea of a solid phonics foundation.

Anyways...we're switching to Saxon Phonics this year (click for a Cathy Duffy review). After reading review after review, I made up my mind and have received Saxon Phonics 1 for Anthony. It looks fabulous!!! It's completely scripted like their Saxon math program, and I love that! It has lots of review, explains all the rules, teaches coding, and comes with manipulatives. We are starting this next week!! I'm even tempted to do Saxon Phonics 2 with Isabella. She completed HOP 2, but I feel that she needs a better grasp of phonics rules.

And although Saxon Phonics covers spelling, we are still continuing with All About Spelling. It really is a great program and Anthony is doing well with it. Marco and Isabella are also moving along and enjoy the program. By the time the kids are done with Saxon and AAS, they are going to have such a great grasp of phonics and spelling!

Did I cover writing?? Well, after much consideration and back-and-forth, I took the plunge and bought the Institute for Excellence in Writing program. The IEW program always looked pretty awesome, but the price always seemed a little steep. But after hearing Andrew Pudewa speak at the homeschool conference, I was completely convinced! I bought the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style set, as well as two of their themed-based writing books: All Things Fun and Fascinating and Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales. To top it off, I'm also starting poetry memorization using IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.

Is that all for language arts? I think so. The wonderful thing about homeschooling is finding what works for you and your children. I am completely thankful, however, that there are programs out there that lay out a plan. Most of the thinking is done for you and you know that you won't be missing on any core subjects.

Get Ready For Some Books! Angelicum Sale.

If you are planning on enrolling with Angelicum Academy or just purchasing their lesson plans books...now is the time to do it! They have their summer sale going on until July 5th.

We decided not to enroll this year and will just be purchasing all the lesson plans that we need for the kids. Perhaps when Marco is older and we feel it more necessary to have grading services and support, we'll enroll him again.

For now, I'm getting all our lesson plans in order, our books ordered, and new school materials organized. It's something that I'm sure will take a while to accomplish.

On Vacation.

It's been a great time bonding with the new baby lately! She is 4 weeks old now and it seems like she's been with us forever! Recently, I've been on vacation (as is obvious by my lack of posts). I first spent some time by myself (but with Evangeline) travelling with friends to the annual IHM Conference in Virginia. It was a great time, although I wasn't too thrilled with the vendor accommodations. It was hard getting around to see all the wonderful Catholic curricula. But I did come away with some gems and have been busy ordering and organizing our books every chance I get, since I've been back.

Soon after I arrived home after a long conference weekend, our best friends came to town for a week. We had a blast! Day trips to museums, parks, and playgrounds were all the kids needed to get away from our usual day to day routines. We also spent some of the week at the Great Wolfe Lodge (highly recommended!!) and camping in our backyard by the fire. We were sad to see our friends go, but are looking forward to our next vacation with them!!

All the kids together for a picture!

Hanging at the Great Wolfe Lodge.

The wave pool was awesome!

Our backyard campsite.

Evangeline!

So I've been missing again, but this time I have the best reason ever....our baby girl, Evangeline, was born on the 18th of May!! My biggest baby, she weighed just over 9 pounds!! Sweet little baby; we've been busy cuddling, feeding, loving her, and trying to get some sleep in between.

She is lovely and all the kids constantly hover around her, wanting to hold her and kiss her. She is our littlest angel. My biggest adjustment has been trying to keep the younger kids from loving her too roughly, as our little Jimmy gets so over-excited with the baby that he wants to hug her and never let go.

And even with her being so new and all, it feels like she's always been a part of our family...she fits right in! We have taken the last two weeks off, spending time with grandparents and just being a big family. It's been great! But now, we must return to the daily routines that make up our little domestic church. Chores, school lessons, and our daily routines.

Evangeline...our newest addition!

Marian Artist Trading Card Swap 2011.

I read about this last year and was bummed that I had missed the whole thing. So this year, I've been keeping an eye out for it. It's the Marian Artist Trading Card Swap 2011! Head over to Pondered in My Heart to get all the details.

I have never done this before, but thought it would be so much fun for the kids to participate. You can also read more about it at Jessica's blog, Shower of Roses.

I'll have to keep everyone posted on how it goes for us.

Catching Up on Past Events.

April was a pretty busy month. There was our end of year program for our awesome homeschool co-op, Marco had his birthday, and we celebrated Easter. In an attempt to keep up family and friends with our April happenings, here is a brief recap of what we were up to. Get ready for pictures!!

End of Year Program for our Holy Family Homeschool Enrichment Co-op.

Thanks to the volunteer efforts of all our co-op moms, our end of year program was a huge success. This is a time when all our co-op students get to showcase and present what they have learned all semester. There's food, drinks, a performance by our bell choir and lots of fun!

Isabella with her gal pals.

Three lovely ladies smiling for the camera!

Christian performing with his preschool class.

Anthony with his Blue Knights class. They were all knighted and got to show off some of their handy crafts!

Marco reading about his saint for his saints class.

Father Tri gave a wonderful opening talk and prayer.

Marco Turns 9 Years Old!

It was a great day in early April as Marco turned 9 years old!! I don't know how time has slipped by us so fast, but we are so blessed to have this guy in our family. It was a low-key birthday with just the family, and Marco didn't care in the least.

My "little guy" is beaming!

A rare picture with me in it!!

Ready for his present.

I'm not sure he liked his new IPod Shuffle.

And that Pokemon game? Lame.

Easter!

Of course, it was just us for Easter. I can't remember the last time we had family come in for the holiday and we've grown accustomed to having it be a laid-back family day. This year was not too different, but I must say that the kids said it was the "best day ever." Why? Not exactly sure, but I'm sure the Holy Spirit was with us! And as the kids have gotten older, holidays just seem more fun, too!!

On our way to Mass.

Hubby with the kids. I love my boys and my baby-girl Isabella!

In our home, no one gets Easter baskets until after we come home from Mass. It just works for us and give everyone time to enjoy the moment without having to rush the kids to get ready to go to church.

After baskets are done, we usually eat lunch and then have a craft and activity set for the kids to do. Here, Anthony is making Easter egg holders.

Marco is working on a Lego creation.

After crafts, we fly kites!

We play outside!

We fill our cascarones and get them ready.

So much fun!

After our Easter egg hunt, we cracked cascarones over each others heads. So much fun!

So that concludes some of my catching up with tons of pictures. Hopefully I didn't get carried away! I hope that everyone's April month was just as fun!

First Holy Communion.

This past Sunday, Isabella received our Holy Lord for the first time!! It was a wonderful day to celebrate and she was happier than ever! Not only that, but she got to mark this special day with two of her good friends as well.

To celebrate the special occasion, my friends and I decided to host a little party at my home. It was a great success with both grown-ups and kids having a wonderful time!!