last week

We started school this past week. We started slowly with the 'fun' subjects...geography, history, science. No math or handwriting or grammar yet. Those will start Monday. And we're learning Latin this year - even me. I'm really excited about all of our curriculum this year. It's gonna be great!


Abbi is TOTALLY into American Girl right now. Jon and I got her the Kit doll for her birthday (don't tell her) and some accessories, but there are a ton of American Girl books and Abbi wants them ALL. We went to Borders last weekend and they have a whole wall dedicated to American Girl books. Abbi was in her own little heaven. She loves to read. She read a 140 page book in a day this week. I had Jacob and Abbi do an online reading test last weekend to see where they’re at and find things we need to work on this year. Caleb isn’t quite ready for the test, but at the end of this school year, he should be. They both did awesome on the test. Abbi surpassed Jacob’s scores in a few of the categories (which didn’t surprise me) and she’s reading on a 4th grade level. Jacob is reading on a 7th grade level. Jacob is very much into Legos - mostly Star Wars Lego. He builds anytime he has a chance. Of course he does take a break long enough to play the PS2 Star Wars Lego game. Caleb is really turning into an outdoorsman. We got him a bow, arrow & target for his birthday. He wants a bow so badly. And a BB gun. He can’t wait until he’s old enough for a BB gun. We'll see how he does with his bow and arrow.


Our co-op started yesterday. This year we'll be meeting on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month. The 2nd Friday we'll do our field trips. On the 1st Friday, we're following a program called Keepers at Home (girls)/Contenders of the Faith (boys). It's similar to American Heritage Girls and Boy Scouts. Yesterday, the girls learned how to stencil. They each made a card and then got to stencil on whatever kind of project they brought. Abbi brought a little frame. She loved the stenciling. So today I went and bought her some stencils and paints. While the girls did that, the boys learned one-stroke painting from a lady we hired for the afternoon. Each boy painted a mallard duck and boy, are they ever beautiful. I'll take pictures of the kids' projects for you all to see.