School this year

We have had a great start to the school year so far. We are doing Sonlight for the first year and are learning lots of history. We start the morning by reading a bible story and doing our memory verses. Then we either sing or learn our poem for the month. Next we have our geography lesson. We love learning our geography by singing! Even Lizzy can sing the continents and the countries of the Middle East. After that we read a story about a people group who live in that area. We've learned about Yemenis, Iraqis, and Turks, but so far our favorite have been the Kurds since we are surrounded by so many in our neighborhood. After that we have history where we are currently learning about ancient Egypt. Then we read our story. We've finished Red Sails to Capri, and are now beginnning Ginger Pye. Lastly, we do either Spanish or Science.

Next, the girls take turns doing their Abeka language arts and arithmetic. Lizzy is doing kindergarten and has learned to count by 10s and is learning to count to 100. She is reviewing all her letters from last year. Katie is doing 2nd grade math and relearning her addition and subtraction facts, since we did a really poor job of practicing over the summer. In English, she is doing the 3rd grade program and currently working on capitalization.

 Teaching the two girls is totally different. Katie just wants the facts. Boring is ok as long as she can finish quickly. Lizzy only wants to have fun. If  it's not enjoyable, her attention span is gone. I am more like Katie and would rather finish something quickly than waste time trying to make it fun, so I am always having to remind myself to make it fun! Lizzy is also quite the comedian and loves to make people laugh. It is hard to tell her to stop doing something because it's not funny when I can't stop laughing at her.

This week we start back up at Girl Scouts where Lizzy will be an honorary Daisy (since I'm teaching we can sneak her in) and Katie is starting her first year as a Brownie. Wednesday nights at church start tomorrow also and soon our Co-op will start and that's when our lives get really crazy until Christmas break. Right now, we've been enjoying not having too many places to go or things to do but I know it can't last. We've also been squeezing the last delicious drops out of summer, swimming every night and having friends over when we can.