Kula a Hale Na'auao Akamai is rockin'

We started school last week, and now are officially under way with week 2. We did some work on a unit study I reviewed the week before, and it made me really ready to start school. So we did. I have loved homeschooling from the time we started. It was an adjustment for the kids, but they do not want to go back to school. Here's what we are doing and what we want to do.

The Big Girl:

• Progeny Press Study Guides- Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Magician's Nephew, The Secret Garden, and Mr. Popper's Penguins.
• Landmark Freedom Press Mathematics

The Boy:

• Lifepacs Language Arts Grade 3
• Lifepacs Math Grade 3

The Baby:

• Explode the Code 1,2, and 3

History: Story of the World 1 & 2

Science: God's Design for Life-Animal Kingdom

Bible: Acts Bible Study, Exodus Bible Study Lapbook, Discovery from Apologetics Press, Explorer's Bible Study. *

*It seems like a lot for bible, but it really isn't. The Acts bible study is about 8 weeks long, but I can make that as long or short as I want. The Exodus study we may not do as a lap book. Discovery is small booklets that cover different topics, but relate to scripture. The Explorer's Bible Study I bought at convention, but now I'm not so sure I like it now. That one will be a work in progress.

There are also some "extracurricular" things I would like to accomplish. We have a Spanish curriculum that I bought, and typing that I would like the kids to use. Somehow, we have to fit that in. Along with that is reading some of the books on our own bookshelves as well as getting to the library once a week or so.

Of course, we are also dancing this year. There's one more monkey to throw in. We got signed up Friday and I am OK with our choices. We only have three days instead of four, but Wednesday is going to be crazy busy. We go my dance, JAM, back for the baby's dance class. Busy, busy day that will be. The big girl wanted a day other than Monday, but we had to sign up for Monday. There is a class on Tuesday, but the teacher wanted to see the demographics and experience of the students. She doesn't want to push the big girl backwards. If she does move to Tuesday, that is two days of dance. That would work for us.

It is going to be a very busy school year. We also have co-op one day a week. That starts in September. We have our first field trip scheduled in a couple of weeks. There is a museum in Tampa that is doing a free homeschool tour of the museum, which includes access to many of their key exhibits. Hubby is taking the day off to go with us. I would also like to do a zoo trip or SeaWorld towards the end of our year to talk about animals. The Butterfly Gatdens are always popular as well. Some of the projects hubby has lined up are bird and bat houses. He is going to help the kids build one of each, and talk about why they have some of the features they have. Pretty interesting so far. Then there's the ecosystem in a bottle that they will do at the end of this week.

Lapbooks will be very present in our school year. We just started one today on ecosystems. We also have one planned for mammals and Exodus. I am also planning one for our co-op. I downloaded a great one about inventors and am very excited to get it started. I like the hands on activities, and the way a lapbook can reinforce lessons learned. If you haven't done one, you can scroll through my old posts and see the three we did last year.

I hope that's it. I'll keep you updated as to our progress. That's pretty normal, though, I think. I believe it's nap time. I pray that you embrace Christ today, as he embraces us each day.

Have a great day!