Spring Break and Home schooling

Home school Spring Break comes by surprise!  It sneaks in while we are playing catch up and actually DO catch up.  This year has had some bumps along the way.  Moving....I thought we would take only a brief time off.  Not true.  We would do school and yet not do school.  We lost our rhythm and our routine and that tends to make things challenging.  For our little girls this is also crucial.  Since then we have had to re-evaluate and re-map things.  Since the new year we are better at handling the ups and downs of daily life as a foster family.  We now know where our books are and how to handle schedule changes.

 Bible Study with Picture This has been just down right FUN!  The kids love it and we find that we do more than we plan on! I think it may be called something else now.

We also are enjoying Mystery of  History. We are not good at getting our timeline done and I am beginning to wonder if we should have bought the figures that go along with it, but we love the History and how simply it is put!  This has been an unexpected look at how simplicity and this note taking approach really does serve well for memory!  We add additional work where needed or wanted and have fun along the way.


Horizons Math as always worked well for the younger ones and Saxon for 6th and up and continues to work well!
Newsflash.  We are switching to Teaching Textbooks.  We have done it before, but I had problems with the discs.  Customer Service ROCKS my world.  They are THE BOMB!!!  Because they work the missed problems for them....well, needless to say, even though I LOVE math, this makes my life easier!

English...Grammar....always proves to be a challenge for me.  I just never completely get happy with what we do.  I don't want to "teach to the test" and yet since I started teaching the SAT Prep class (which I LOVE) in our Co op classes, I have to wonder if that wouldn't work.  Writing is essential and that has never been a doubt in my mind.  Thank you Home2Teach (online) and IEW for helping me with writing.  Grammar....oh boy!  Easy Grammar...Rod and Staff...I do it all and that can sometimes be too much.  I also use Easy Grammar.  Pathways is a staple for reading comprehension. Wordly Wise (this is proven for the kids taking the SATs), and Word Roots are for vocabulary and because both are shorter it takes the 2 to complete a year.  Spelling is just...interesting.  I use Spelling Power sporadically and then add words they miss from other lessons.  Both of my kids that are home schooled, as well as the one who was home schooled are pretty good at spelling so I just don't push it.

Science is wonderful as always!  Apologia is spectacular and having it in Co op Classes helps to reinforce it.  Colin would breathe Science if we let him.  He reads so many Science books all the time!  Caroline enjoys it as well.  Apologia makes it fun and interesting!

I know I have left something out, but will have to return when it is not so late.  Next week, I will have to do some grading and planning for the rest of the year, but I think we are on target.  We are behind a little bit with personal reading and also on our read alouds, but we have spent lots of time with history and bible so that is not a loss!

Happy Spring Break!  I get to see my friend this week and her new (not new to her now) foster children as well as her great bio girls!  Excited to see her!

Ooh, I didn't mention Critical Thinking.  We do LOTS of it, but it is not always daily.  I will post those later!  ANYTHING and EVERYTHING from Critical Thinking is AWESOME.  You cannot go wrong with them! They are so crucial for SAT and ACT prep. They help our kids think thoroughly and outside the box.  I just got my catalog so I am logging out!