It feels like I've finally settled into a curriculum that fits our family and covers all the bases. The McRuffy Math and Phonics and Reading have been great - the boys look forward to their math lessons and Joel is beginning to read. With Science and History, I have been improvising each day but hope to find some time to lay out a long-range plan and get all my materials together, that way I won't have to scramble for ideas every day; although in science, whatever we learn about goes into our nature journals, whether it's animal pics cut out of a magazine or drawings with crayon.

When I started out the school year I didn't know what language arts really was and I had a few different ideas; now I've decided to scratch the term "language arts" and replace it with Penmanship, Spelling (Elijah) and Phonics/Reading (Joel). My main goal for penmanship is to teach them the correct formation for each letter, so I am zeroing in on their "problem letters", concentrating on one until they grasp it before moving to the next. We are use the whiteboard often to make giant strokes, practice letters and play "teacher" (they seem to retain it better when they have to teach it); we make crafts for the particularly tough letters and it helps them grasp how the letter is made and each day (well, beginning this week) they trace a sheet full of the letter we're working on. They trace a vocabulary word (our new one is "holy - belonging to the Lord") as well as their name (four to a page).

We made mailboxes with 3675 on them (I'll post pics later) to help them learn our address - plus it was a fun craft and it's always great to get special notes and pictures!

P.E. is definitely a work in progress now that Izaac is no longer content to sit and watch yet unable to walk yet (soon, though). We go outside and I find ways to help them use up some of their energy.

More later on how I am keeping track of finished work, books, papers, lesson plans, etc.