Our Blessed Nest: (Home)School's in Session!

With Nathan going to school it honestly felt a little strange for the rest of us to not be doing school. The weather was beautiful that week (he started August 18), so we did a lot of playing at parks and bike rides, but.....we missed him terribly! Ella especially didn't know what to do with herself, and I was even having a little guilt that we were enjoying ourselves without him (silly I know...)

But that being said, we ditched our plans of waiting until after Labor Day (when school should start) and began easing into school the week before instead. We love the care-free summer days. but the girls were excited to get started, so I decided to go with it.

We are now in full force!

Ella Grace is a 1st grader.

So cliche, but it's hard to believe my baby girl is 6! She is officially school-aged...eeks!

For Ella's first grade curriculum we are continuing to use Heart of Dakota (which Nathan used for 1st grade). I love it because it is literature based and ties everything from science to history to poetry to art to the Bible together. There are especially many great history readings that I'm looking forward to doing again!

Ella is also using a math curriculum called Singapore math (book 1B), and a language arts curriculum called The Logic of English (Foundations B). This is our first time ever using LOE, and so far we are really liking it. Everything is laid out well and it covers not only phonics and reading but also spelling and handwriting.

A major new thing for us this year is that we also joined Classical Conversations. It is a classical Christian home school group. We have a class day every Tuesday, and though we've only had one meeting the girls love it! We've never done any group, so it's nice to have a day to meet with others, both for the social and fun aspect and for accountability as well. Using the classical approach Ella and Adeline will primarily be memorizing lots of history, math, science, English, geography, and Latin facts. They also do a science experiment and art project in class every week, as well as give a presentation (which for Addie could be as simple as show-and-tell). I shouldn't forget that they are also memorizing the first twelve or so verses in John chapter 1.

The memory work seems like a lot, but thankfully it is on CD so we listen to it in the car when we pick up Nathan from school. This also works well because I can have Nathan memorize it with us so he's not missing out. So far so good, but if you see me and I just start singing skip counting songs or history facts, you'll know that we need to take a break and listen to the radio a little!

And here is Miss Adeline, age 4, all prepped for pre-school.

I've always assumed she would be my most difficult child to home school. However, she has certainly surprised me so far! Addie loves to accomplish things and she feels very proud of herself when she learns something new! Her "schooling" is still pretty relaxed, but besides listening to the CC CD and doing class on Tuesdays, Addie is doing Saxon Math K, handwriting, coloring, puzzles and whatever strikes her fancy. She enjoys listening to Ella's history for school, (which I love), or she'll play with Evelyn for a bit. She also just started "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", the same book I went through with Nathan and Ella to teach them how to read.