First Week

We had a good first week of school! The boys are excited to be back!

Since I always like seeing what other people are doing, here's what our school plans look like.

Elijah's 1st Grade:
The basics look a lot like kindergarten, especially since we started our current math and phonics books mid-year.

Bible: memorizing Bible passages, hymns, and catechism plus our family devotions

Math: finish Right Start Level B (we're about 1/3 done) and start Level C -- love it! And Elijah likes it, too

Language Arts:

• Phonics: continue Rod & Staff Phonics -- solid program; don't love it, but it works well for Elijah and our co-op
• First Language Lessons -- short lessons, mostly oral, make for a gentle introduction to grammar 
• Writing with Ease -- separates the skills of putting thoughts into words and putting words onto paper using narration and copywork
• And, of course, lots of read aloud time!

Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears -- 1st grade

Science: R.E.A.L Science: Biology -- hands-on, experiment based program; my first time using this curriculum, but it looks like fun

History & Geography: Early American History using Beautiful Feet curriculum; very literature based history; the boys are still super into American history, so I know they'll love it. Also learning US geography and memorizing key bits of history (Pledge of Allegiance, Preamble, Star Spangled Banner, etc.)

Fine Arts

• Art: rotating between drawing using Mona Brooks' "Drawing with Children," picture studies of early American art with some accompanying projects, and unstructured art projects
• Music: studying the Orchestra using "Story of the Orchestra" (fall semester)
• Poetry: reading poems and poetry memorization
• Lessons: Piano with Daddy

Foreign Language: Weekly Spanish with a tutor for the class; hopefully we'll do some DVDs and CDs to supplement at home

It looks like a lot when it is all typed out, but a lot of the extras we do only on co-op days. Our just us days are pretty basic.

Josiah's PreK:

Having already sat in/participated in three years of preschool, Josiah is very ready for more of a challenge. He asked to learn to read, so we'll continue working through "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" (almost 1/3 done!). He's doing some Before the Code workbooks for independent work during 1st grade. He's also using the Handwriting without Tears PreK book, and we've started Right Start Level A for math (I'm aiming for 2 lessons or so a week). Plus whatever activities we do at his PreK co-op (and he sits in on most of the first grade work). 

July: Reading

Josiah asked to learn to read this summer provided it did not mean he was starting kindergarten -- so we've been working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He's over a quarter done and loving it--he's very motivated!

Both boys do some reading work after dinner while we wait for daddy to come home. Claire doesn't normally roll around the floor happily looking at her book while the boys read, but she did one night.

July: Swimming

Elijah has absolutely loved swim lessons at Biola this summer. He's been super motivated to learn to swim. When I suggested we sign up for the 2 days/week lessons for his second session, he wanted to continue 5 days/week so he could learn faster and better.

He started the summer splashing around in the water, and now he's jumping off the diving board and swimming to the edge.

Josiah's plan is to take swim lessons at 5;
in the meantime, he prefers doing copywork
(the mom next to us asked if we homeschooled.)

Claire sits surprisingly well on the towel for the 45 minute lessons--
the only time of the day she is still and neither eating nor sleeping

We played at the Olive Grove one day after swim lessons.

Celebrating jumping off the diving board
everyday that week; the rest of us celebrated
sitting through all the swim lessons.

Not gelato, but still tasty

July Pictures

Even though we celebrate the American Revolution every day the year, the boys especially enjoyed the 4th! We started early with a bar-b-que at church followed by watching the city fireworks from our front lawn.

They are British soldiers here

On the actual 4th, we had a special breakfast, Dustin worked long and hard on insulating our bedroom ceilings, and friends came over for hamburgers, s'mores, and fireworks. Elijah loved setting off fireworks by himself!

An afternoon at Clark Park:

Claire loves meat; she thought the ribs were delicious!

We went to the Getty with a dear friend:

Lunch is lots more fun on a hill. The water bottles just
"had" to be rescued multiple times.

Best quote of the day: "So you mean all of these are originals?!?" Apparently, I neglected to tell them what made museums so much cooler than reading art books.

In the child's play area

Claire spends her days pulling things off of shelves and out of drawers. She likes to put them on her head and around her neck if possible.

We've had summer camp twice a week. One day we made African rhythm instruments, which were a hit.

 .
Claire discovered the joy of looking through colored window blocks...

...and climbing. Steps help you reach even farther!

We celebrated Dustin's birthday. His birthday weekend looked like putting dry wall up on our ceilings, running sound at church, and leading our small group.

And more July pictures to come -- Claire's birthday weekend, swimming, and reading!