lazy bloggers

If blogging were a class entitled 'one more thing to add to your busy life that you will truly enjoy but eventually find you don't really have the time for due to your tendency to procrastinate and already very full schedule' we would pass with flying colors. I must admit that I am a bit embarassed that it has taken me so long to return to the blogosphere after our summer hiatus, but here we are, finally writing a new post! our school year is off to a great start this year. We have changed much of our curriculum which seems to be working very well for D. Here is a list of the resources we decided on for this year:

Math-U-See 4th grade
Learning Language Arts through Literature 5th grade
Winston Grammar Basic Level
Prima Latina
The Story of the World Vol.4 and Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
The New Way Things Work, combined with lots of building kits and experiments to explore physics

J is now a kindergartener, a moniker she wears with great pride. She continues to work on her reading and writing and is very earnest in her endeavors! I've struggled with the idea of teaching reading to a young child, having been through it once before with D. It seems that they pick it up so much faster if you wait a bit longer, say around age 8. But she wants to read so very much! So we work on it a bit each day, and as long as she is enjoying the process I'm happy to go along with her on the journey. I've been using Houghton Mifflin's Reading for Meaning and Bob Books to combine a whole language approach to reading with phonics. We use math every day in our daily lives, and I also have Saxon Kindergarten Math for the days when she would like a formal approach to learning math. She has decided to learn about animals this year so thus far we have been focusing on insects, arachnids and mammals. We are using Around the World in 80 Tales to learn geography, along with maps, puzzles and crafts for reinforcement and fun, of course.
Of course with both children our curriculum continues to be a jumping-off-place, or point of departure for learning. I let their curiosity or interest in a subject or idea be the fuel that sets us on course, and that's when learning becomes a real adventure!