Addison is now officially well past the halfway point in her Language Arts and Math curriculum for 1st grade. We are adding some enrichment activities and doing some additional Social Studies for now and will be adding a study of the states soon. She is pretty excited about it.
In other news, I am working on getting ready for our newest addition due in December. I embroidered his name on his carseat cover this week and finished a quilt top as well. I will post pics when that is done:) Clothes are washed and put away. I still have some things to buy and get ready, but we are all on our way. Since he is due shortly before Christmas, my goal is to have everything ready (including all Christmas gifts wrapped, etc) by December 1st.
Here is Addison doing a crossword puzzle with some words with prefixes and suffixes. And yes, she is dressed in a cow costume. We were in the car this week and she was reading a library book. She was very excited to point out that all in one sentence, she had found a work with a suffix, a contraction and a compound word. We have worked on all of these recently:)
Jaron continues to love anything that involves cutting and really doesn't like coloring. Here he cut out the squares and is working on AB patterns and AAB patterns. We also started the Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten level with him this week. He has his sticker chart on the fridge and loves reading time. I used this program with Addison when she was three, and she loved it as well. I waited a bit to do it with Jaron (he just turned four), but he is doing great. Since he begs for more every day, he is already past where I had planned him to be.
Back in July, Addison asked Jesus in her heart. She had been asking questions for a while, but I really wanted it to be her idea so I let her bring it up when she was ready. I really wanted to get her a real Bible (not just a story book) of her own, but wanted one that was a translation she could read and understand. After some research, I chose the NIRV (New International Readers' Version). It is geared toward 2nd-4th grade readers. Since she is around 5th grade with her reading, it is just perfect. There are lots of different ones to choose from, but the Princess Bible was right up her alley! Not only does it include the entire Bible, but it also has some added pages with pictures of princesses AND it's pink! The added pages include character qualities. It says, "A princess always..." and includes a Bible verse to go along with it. These are some of the first verses she will be memorizing. Here she is with her treasured Bible.
There are many reasons we homeschool. One is for the academics. We are able to move at their pace rather than basing their activities on their birthdate or what everyone else is doing in the class. Another is that I am selfish. I will give you the long version sometime, but I started doing "activities" with Addison when she was about 4 months old. It grew and grew and suddenly she was reading and doing things well beyond her age. I have loved every minute of teaching her things and seeing her light up when she discovers new things. Now I get to do the same things with Jaron and she loves to jump right in there and teach him too. I wouldn't want to miss these times for anything. The most important reason we homeschool is so we can talk about Jesus. I want my children to have the head knowledge AND the heart knowledge of Jesus. I want to work on character qualities and be able to take advantage of serving opportunities as well. I know this can be done when they are in school outside the home, but homeschool is where we feel led for now. People ask me all the time if we plan to homeschool through high school. The wonderful part is we don't have to decide that now. For now, we are called to homeschool. There may be a time down the road, they we feel led back into public or private school.
I hope everyone has a great day! We are off to do some painting and run a few errands soon!
Dedra
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