The Sacred Sprouts Schoolhouse

Before I forget, I wanted to get down some more books that I’ve had Zander read this year. Since I’m unsure what direction I want to go with his readers for next year, I figure I better keep track. One, I want to keep track of his reading level, which is way higher than I’d thought. And two, I don’t want to accidentally hand him a repeat and then not have a back-up.

So in addition to the books listed previously, he’s also been handed:

• Aesop’s Fables by Anna Millbourne
• Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
• The Land of The Dead AND The One-Eyed Giant by Mary Pope Osborne
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton
• The Search For Delicious by Natalie Babbit
• The Magic School Bus, The Search For The Missing Bones
• Geronimo Stilton, The Kingdom of Fantasy
• Louis Braille by Margaret Davidson
• One Of The Third Grade Thonkers by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Owls In The Family by Farley Mowat
• Jack Plank Tells Tales by Natalie Babbit
• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
• White Bird by Clyde Robert Bulla
• The White Elephant by Sid Fleischman
• Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary

We finally clicked on something with him. He’s read every book I’ve handed him without complaint, but a vast majority of them he would say “it’s not my favorite” when I asked what he thought at the end. He had asked me to read The Borrowers after he decided he didn’t care for The Littles. The Borrowers was not at all what he expected, and he said he wouldn’t read it again, and also wasn’t interested in seeing the new movie out.

The two Mary Pope Osborne books are adaptations of pieces of The Odyssey. Zander really enjoyed reading about Greek Myths, and sort of enjoyed these books, but as with anything else by this author, they really were fluff and twaddle, and he asked me not to get the remaining four from the series. I still have an eye out for more books from this genre though- I keep eyeing The Black Ships Before Troy (or something like that) and wondering if it would be too much.

Then I picked up The Search For Delicious from the libary and read it myself. I thought it was great, but definitely more difficult than anything he’d read before, and I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t lose interest. Well, not having anything else on hand, I handed it to him and he LOVED it. Loved it completely!

So now he’s reading Louis Braille this week, which is actually one of Abigail’s readers this year, and he’s already told me how awesome this book is. This week when we head to the library I’ll be taking along some book lists I’ve printed off with the reading level much more difficult than what I’ve been getting. I hope we can keep the hot streak going, because I think he’s finally reading for enjoyment, and not just because I tell him he has to read.

If I’ve mentioned it a dozen times since we’ve started homeschooling, I’ll mention it again.  I just love how homeschooling enables us to be flexible.  I love how something can come up and we can decide to just do a piece of school for that day, or how a busy week can be coming up, so we decide to simply focus on the four R’s and call it good.  Or like Thanksgiving week, we’d planned to do a three day school week, but illness for both Zander and I made it just two days that week.  Which actually worked in our favor then, because last week was Nutcracker week, so we were able to adjust again, and between the two short weeks we managed a full weeks worth of work, plus a little bit extra.

Now we’re working hard this week and next as both kids have come to an excellent point within their cores to take a little break for Christmas.  Abigail is wrapping up a study of China and Mongolia, and Zander will be wrapping up a study of Egypt. That will make a clean break, so when we come back in January we’re starting with something fresh and exciting for both of them.

I’d originally planned on taking most of the month of December off of school.  But then we started our school year later than I’d wanted, and we also really don’t have anything else to do, so we’ll be schooling this week and next, and then it’s two weeks off… and maybe an extra day or two.  We’ll see on that.

Another way that we’ve been flexible is with changing up the curriculum.  If you’ll remember, I was going back and forth on what to do for Zander for spelling this year.  I don’t really think he needs it, as he’s a natural speller.  But, he could use help with his handwriting, and since I can’t really ask him to do a second handwriting project every day, doing a spelling lesson is fitting the bill perfectly.  But about a month ago, Zander came to me and told me that he thought his spelling was way too easy and he was bored with it.  We were just using an inexpensive book I’d bought at Barnes & Noble, so I looked it up online and looked at the 3rd and 4th grade one with Zander.  He looked at the different word lists and we decided to go with the 3rd grade level- but if he decides it’s too easy again, I actually already have some 4th grade spelling on the shelf from when Abigail was there.

Zander’s also loving his math.  All of his math.  Call him crazy, but he’s actually doing three different curriculums this year- and he loves them all.  He’s really enjoying the Teaching Textbooks 3, though he’s really anxious to get to the multiplication and it seems to be taking forever for him to get there.  He’s also started the 3A books for Singapore math after we finished up 2B.  Singapore is just a completely different way of doing math- it’s a lot of mental arithmetic, and her really enjoys that.  And just for something different, we’ve also added in some Life of Fred.  He quickly worked through the Apples book and is almost all the way through Butterflies.  I’m not sure if I’ll order Cats, or just let him focus on two maths for now.

Both kids are really enjoying Life of Fred math.  It’s yet another completely different way of doing math.  The elementary series that Zander is doing is definitely supplemental- it would never work to use just that book for math.  But it introduces math in a story form, and shows the integration of math into everyday activities.  Abigail’s Life of Fred, on the other hand, is working great for her as a stand-alone math.  She began this year with the Fractions book and now is working her way through Decimals and Percents.  We had originally intended on her doing Teaching Textbooks 7 for her math this year, but school began and the funds just weren’t there to buy it for her.  Instead we went with Fred, and she really, really enjoys doing it.  I find it quite thorough, and it’s really helping her cement these topics that have really only gotten a brief overview so far.  I’m very impressed with it, and when Abigail nears the completion of Decimals and Percents, we’ll have some thinking to do, as I think she’ll actually be ready to move on to Pre-Algebra.  Whether we stick with Fred or swing back to Teaching Textbooks remains to be seen.  But Pre-Algebra is definitely already on the radar for her.

Zander’s book list is going well.  He’s enjoyed the Beverly Cleary books a lot, but we really haven’t struck on any one book yet that he just loves.  He reads because I tell him to read.  He was kind of grossed out by How To Eat Fried Worms, and was not a fan of Paddington either.  He’s reading Pee-Wee’s Tale this week, and I keep getting rolling eyeballs from him when he picks it up.  I think for next week I’ll throw in a Christmas Geronimo Stilton before he takes his Christmas break.   I’m thinking after Christmas I’ll hand him The Littles.  Maybe that will be the magic book?

During our two week break we’ll also be reading aloud together The Silver Chair by C.S.Lewis.  We finally managed to finish reading the Dawn Treader, and we want to move on, as Abigail has The Horse And His Boy coming up as a scheduled read-aloud, and I want to have the right books read before we get there.

I think that’s about all there is to update.  School keeps us busy, and we’re all still enjoying our time together, but I, for one, am looking forward to a couple of relaxing weeks ahead.

Here are our “official” First Day of School pictures.  Just before starting, we cued up a really fun dance song and had a dance party to welcome in the school year properly.

I tried to make a special breakfast by toasting up a cinnamon bagel and adding sprinkles to the smear, but Zander doesn’t care for bagels, really, and the sprinkles on his peanut butter did not entice him.  Oh well, he ate the fresh fruit salad that went with it.

I was delighted yesterday to come home from our weekend away and find that my package of materials for Zander arrived while we were gone.  Thankfully our neighbors retrieved the package from the rain for me, so all was intact and in great condition.   I will still need to order a few missing books, but otherwise, we got to begin our school year as I desired- with Both Cores going at full blast.

And I’m tired.  Really tired.  Our school day went so much longer.  I know we have a few kinks to iron out, but I’m afraid that my Middle Schooler has extended our day by a lot.  In years past our Fridays were the light day of the week -I’m now eyeing it up as our most jam-packed day of the week.  That’s just the way it’s going to have to be in order to get everything in that I want to get in.

But it was still good.  I’m looking forward to getting used to this new normal. though I expect that will take several weeks, as there is a whole lot to get used to. 

So our Summer School plans never matriculated.  Honestly, each week I would look at our schedule, and it just didn’t feel right to start school.  Between swimming lessons in the morning for four weeks, and our evening dance schedule, we just had so little free time that getting any schooling done was so unappealing.

So I decided to shelve it for a little while, and now I’m very glad I did.

I’ve been worried about the coming school year.  I waited too long to begin ordering curriculum, and now that it’s the time we have to have it, the finances are not there to do so.  For a few weeks I stressed and worried about this, and then I was reminded that God sent us on this journey in the first place.  He knows our exact needs for school this coming year, and I am trusting that He is going to make a way in that regard.  But in addition to that, my eyes have also been opened to the materials I already have here in the home.

I have math that both kids can do.  I bought a Life of Fred book for each of them to supplement their Teaching Textbooks with.  Well, I don’t have the Teaching Textbooks yet, but I do have the Life of Fred.  I probably have enough material for a good six weeks- plenty of time to order and receive the Teaching Textbooks.  I also have the last few weeks of Singapore math that Zander could do- and have fun with because it’s all measurement and time telling and graphing skills- usually saved for the end of the school year.

I have Language Arts for both of them.  I had been planning on having Abigail do Lightning Literature 7 at half pace over the next two years.  Instead, I’ll have her begin with that and it will serve has both her Language Arts and her Reading until we can get the Sonlight Core material ordered.

We definitely have Science- both kids have over half a year’s worth of NOEO Biology to get them going.

We have Reading.  We have an ample home library, and can easily supplement with our amazing libraries shelves as needed.

I have Sequential Spelling for Abigail, and while I’ve decided that Zander doesn’t need spelling this coming year, I do want to do some vocabulary work with him- that will come with the various books I have him read.

I have the computer program Word Roots for Abigail- this is meant to supplement her spelling and help her to better understand the English language.

For our Bible time, we’re simply going to continue reading our way through the New Testament, so that one we’ve totally got covered with our own Bibles on hand.

I have a Spongebob Typing program for both kids to work on their typing skills.  In fact, I have a whole pile of educational software that is meant for school, we just haven’t used it yet.

Obviously, I have an abundance of material to get our school year rolling with.  Really, there are four items missing from our household that are vital to our schooling, BUT we can easily begin without and incorporate as we can.  Namely, we are missing the biggies.  I am missing both Teaching Textbooks programs for the kids, and we are missing our Sonlight Cores.

But you know what?  I’m totally okay with that!  After two years of homeschooling, I feel like a pro.  At first I was really stressing out about not having the Core material here- Core F is going to be huge, and I hate the thought of not getting it all done within a “school year” time frame.  But in the last few weeks, it’s really been impressed upon me to relax and not stress about what we are missing.  It will come.  I will likely have to order the cores in pieces as we go, but I’m actually totally relaxed and okay with that.

And we’re ready to start learning again.  It feels g0od to have a plan, but it feels even better to be so relaxed about it.  Obviously, the beginning of our year would be easier if I had all the materials here on hand, but the peace that I have about just doing it and getting going is awesome.   Just today Zander was flipping through his Handwriting book and mentioning how he’s looking forward to doing it.  Abigail was looking at it a little wistfully, so I’m sort of expecting her to come to me and ask if she can do Handwriting too this year.  I’ll be okay with that if it comes.

Now I just need to get the school room organized and ready to go.  I have a few new tools that will need a place to live and be utilized, so I hope I can get everything figured out. Wish me luck!