January 2, 2010

Happy Birthday Rachel!!

My big girl turned 9 years old today

:)

Things have been busy here.  We went on with school as usual today, but didn't get as much done as I had hoped..

:( teacher fell asleep!! 

From now on I've alerted Rachel that she is going to have to take responsibility for her own schooling.  So if I should happen to fall asleep, the day must go on!!

Gracie finally recieved her books as well. I have her on the Spectrum series.  I purchased the math (Spectrum) from a seller on Amazon.com....and wouldn't you know??? Still haven't received it!!  Guess the $1, or $2 was too good to be true.. Still hoping it arrives though:) 

Gracie has:

Math, Reading, (along with Abeka Readers, she received 'Tiptoes' in the mail also), writing,phonics, sight words, and spelling.  The Language Arts doesn't start till grade 2, geography and vocabulary till grade 3.  I don't bother with history till around grade 3 or 4 either (proficient readers).

Rachel has been doing pretty good, but with my 'classical' side;)  Well, lets just say the history reader she is using (Story of America)

This 'technically' is a grade 4 book, it was the only one I had however and didn't want to go and spend more money if we were going to read this one anyways.  It's fairly easy to read and she has no problem understanding it. 

Anyways, it is just 'one grade...But when she got to the 'Viking' chapter (around 2, maybe chapter 3), I threw in this book that came highly reccommended through Veritas Press...

It's a fun book that tells the history in a cartoon-like fashion.  Rahcel seems to enjoy it.  Anyways, I checked out a bunch of books from the library and came upon this one.  It not only covers Greenland, but also the 'Viking history' as well.  So I told her to read this after she gets done with the Vikiing book.

We've also been reading fun books about Columbus and his life.

Then when she is done, these books also came in.  (Will probably have to 'recheck' them out;)

Pocahontas by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire.

All their books are excellent!

An Incredible Journey, My Life with the Indians: the true story of Mary Jemison

Anyways, it's looking like this may be their only history text for quite a while!!;) 

That is not a bad thing, though.  I'm just using the history text as a guide.  Rachel is enjoying all the little changes, reading fun stories.  With so many books, I am trying to keep track of them all here so when Gracie is ready I can just refer to this list:)

Happy Homeschooling!!