Half-way point!!

This week marks the half-way point for our school year. I thought it only appropriate that I do an update at the end of our first "semester." Rob asked if I was giving exams...he suggested Ben's exam be: Read the directions. You can read them? Good, you pass!

Matthew has been so much fun to teach this year, overall. He is for sure my history/language arts child. We're studying ancient history right now and he just eats it up. I love that I can add my own tidbits in from my years of teaching history, but even I'm learning a few new things! He loves our read alouds as well. We just finsihed a series of Greek myths and he enjoyed the stories thoroughly...well, the ones that involved adventures and fighting anyway. He "let" me read the love stories, but kind of made a few faces at them. He does quite well with his story writing, although I admit the stories he comes up with outside of school are far more elaborate and interesting than the ones he is assigned. I can't wait for the day that he's confident enough with handwriting to grab a notebook and write away! He is reading chapter books this year and doing quite well with them. Math is going along nicely, although the program is getting a little too easy for him. He will start subtraction in a week or so and hopefully that will be a nice challenge.

Ben has become a joy to teach since we decided to stop the reading lesson book. That book gave us so many fits and I'm glad we just ended it. His reading is coming along just fine and he is on book 20 of a 27 book series that goes with the kindergarten level language arts. I think he's actually doing BETTER on his own. He has a good foundation from the lesson book, but he needs to move a little slower than his brother did in picking up sound blends and the like. I know he'll get all he needs from the Explode the Code books as we move along. Ben is more of my math/science kid anyway. He just loves his math! I'm so glad I started him in the Primer book this year instead of waiting for kindergarten. He's zipping through it. He started addition recently and has picked it up very quickly. He just learned skip counting by 2's and that was his first major challenge. We watched the video that accompanies the program just so he could get it from another source and he got it right away. The man who designed the math program teaches each lesson on the videos, and the fact that Ben "got it" right away from him just adds to my theory that men should teach math to boys and women to girls. But I digress....

The boys do their science lessons together and enjoy learning along side each other. I have been less than impressed with Sonlight's science cirriculum, so Rob and I have decided we will unschool science next year. We'll just get what library books we need and we have enough science experiment books on hand to hold us over for years.

Anna has started a mini-school time with Mommy since she no longer naps. We mainly just cuddle on the couch and read books while the boys are playing Wii. I checked out a collection of Madeline stories and that is her new passion right now. Even the boys enjoy them! There's just something about a fiesty red-head... :) She is also working through the cards in Ben's old Busy Bug set, a pre-math manipulative. She loves it and is doing quite well.

I really enjoy homeschooling the kids and especially this week have been struck by how much FUN they are! I can't imagine sending them away all day long and not being the one to see their discoveries in education. I also love how close they are to one another. They are such good friends! Ben and Matthew have been using various boxes and canisters from around the house to build Gotham City upstairs (which includes a Kai-Lan and Little People house). They even let their sister play, although she usually plays house with the Joker and Batman. Right now they are all downstairs building birdhouses with their daddy.