today's schooling

Well, today, Gracyn got up and dressed and took initiative to complete her individual work. She worked very diligently and I was so proud. Here is what she accomplished on her own:
poetry memorization
spelling, completing the lesson with 100% accuracy (advanced level spelling with the phonetic zoo)
Math practice sheet (I'd planned to do the next lesson with her and move on, but we'll do that tomorrow)
Read another chapter in Pride and Prejudice (highschool level reading)
Two pages in her Pride and Prejudice companion book--reading and vocabulary work (hs level)
I had some "together" things planned, but she worked so hard and did such an impressive job, I let her have free time instead.

Braeden played GI Joes while the above activities took place. So, he and I did our reading practice and spelling links together, then math and a science/language arts combo lesson. Then we took Kaegan to the school for his time with Susie and we worked on our animal classifications game that we are making together.

Kaegan had an amazingly interactive time with Ms. Susie at school and then we did a little bal-A-vis-X. Soccer and karate were after school. whew!

We got a lot done and had a nice, productive day.

life science

Here is a life science lesson.... Braeden is learning about animal classifications and what attributes animals have within those classifications. This past week, we talked about fish and reptiles. Here, he dissects a fish by the river after our fishing excursion. It was very interesting, and I think he'll remember it since he got to cut it open himself with his new pocket knife. We unfolded the gills, identified the heart, backbone, stomach, liver, and central nervous system.

Picture This Bible! Love it! This is the book of

Acts. I have lots more pictures to upload, so check back!

virtual art tour for you and your kids...

check this out!
http://www.nga.gov/kids/kids.htm
I found this and other virtual tours on the focus on the family website.

assorted goodies

This is a weekend mother/daughter or father/son retreat to talk about important matters concerning purity. Gracyn and I are very excited to be in the process of planning our retreat together! You can find it from Focus on the Family. We have some friends who did it with their daughter. They loved it.

Here is our new, exciting book full of spelling games. We will be using it with our wordwall, but it would be fun for any spelling program.

Gracyn just finished this historical fiction book and really liked it. It is from the time of ancient Greece.

This is the side of our fridge. We have reinstated "Bible Breakfast" at our house. At the breakfast table, we learn about the entire Bible, beginning with the old testament with Our Spiritual Heritage (see an earlier post for the link) and then we draw as we learn from the book of Acts using Picture This Bible (also a link in the earlier post). The top poster is "Our 24 Family Ways" which we have enjoyed a couple of times through and continue to discuss. The purple and white are where we are in Our Spiritual Heritage.

Here is a zoomed in shot as an example. You can see that it divides the Bible into parts and then divides the parts into parts. There are so many sets of cards that make more and more divisions that we could take this as deep as we want and make it last as long as we want.

This is Our 24 Family Ways poster. It comes with a devotional from Whole Heart Ministries. We have loved it! (coloring books too!)

wordwall graduate!

Here is Braeden standing next to his "Word Wall" as he graduates to the next level of words to read, spell, and use. We took these words off of the wall and added new, more advanced words. He was very proud of himself. He is quite a good speller!

We have enjoyed the "Working with Words" books by The Four Blocks.

mornings are fun!

We have gotten into a new routine in the mornings. At the breakfast table, I used to do these fun devotionals with my children when they were little. Then, Kaegan just couldn't handle the sensory input any longer, and I tried lots of approaches without success, and then stopped. Now that he is older and more aware, less over stimulated...I'm trying again. I'm really excited about it. He is also into it. We are doing "Our Spiritual Heritage" and "Picture This Bible." Kaegan stays for what he can handle at the moment and is often in and out, but he gets what he gets out of it, and we are all having fun.
http://www.ourspiritualheritage.com/
http://www.bibledraw.com/