Snippets

Could our vacation be ending SO soon? Not that we don't miss school - my daughter has asked almost every day if it's a school day - but sometimes it's nice to have a break and do, well, whatever. The kids have been busy creating Art (after they found a roll of fax paper), playing in PILES of newly fallen snow, enjoying their new Christmas toys, games and handicrafts, watching movies, going to basketball practices and having fun at scouts activities, and, yup, playing video games and watching TV. And I've been busy making changes to our curriculum and preparing for our 2nd half of the school year.

I snagged an AWESOME deal on Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read Deluxe for S. All 5 levels with workbooks, LOTS of readers, flashcards, and audio cassettes for $22.99! (A newer USED version with CDs goes for $800+ on Amazon!) S and I tried out a borrowed Level 1 from the library this month, but it's a hot commodity and we couldn't have it for more than 3 weeks, so I'm excited to continue with it!

C will stop her The Complete Book of US History studies and begin working on History Pockets: Native Americans. Making a Trivia Game using this book hasn't been a hit with C and the information presented in the book isn't all that exciting really, so I'm having her switch to HPs again and we'll delve into it using a GAZILLION wonderful books right from the library. And the awesome part is that she's starting with the Inuits and S is doing a Snow/Winter lapbook so they can share most of the books! C can read aloud to S! (You should see the PILE of books I picked up from the library today! LOL)

I'm planning to add in Winter Wednesdays nature studies and have the kids begin Nature Journals with drawings and information. I have been gathering up books and ideas from Harmony Art Mom's Blog.

And our first Composer Study is ready and waiting: Chopin. O'keefe is next for our Artist Study.

But! no changes to J's usual curriculum.

Here are some snippets of our vacation weeks:

(l.) S flinging snow from the driveway.
(r.) A leather coin purse that J made for C from his Basic Leatherworking Kit

(l.) C listening to a book-on-tape with her new cassette player and working on her knotted fleece quilt.

(r.) The kids playing Mario Cart together on their DSi game systems.



(r.) C learned to play one of our new games - Phase 10.

(l. J playing C's new keyboard.








(l.) S and A building a Lego firetruck together.




(r.) C watching Christmas movies.

On Monday we'll be back to school! Our first week is already filled with Boy Scouts, basketball practices and games, and library storytime. I'm looking forward to our new curriculum changes and the 2nd half of our year!