Been busy lately

Sorry about the wait between posts. I've been a little busy lately. We are currently dealing with our fresh fruit crop which was supplemented by a gift of fruit from our neighbors. It has resulted in a blackberry pie, three batches of plum jelly and some soon to be made dried apricots. In addition we have some more plums and nectarines for fresh eating (I may need to dry some of the nectarines, too).

In addition I've been reading up on a homeschool book that talks about the classical education method. It is titled "The Well Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Bauer, if you were wondering. We really like the classical ideas and will probably use a lot of them in our homeschool. I have already revised some ideas for the coming school year. We will be concentrating on continued reading practice, with more handwriting practice, and continuing the math curriculum we recently started. We will hold off on the science and my own ideas about beginning history lessons for a year. The reasoning for this is that reading, writing and math are the building blocks for every thing else and we want to lay a good foundation during her kindergarten year. I am tempted to jump the gun on the recommended time to start spelling lessons, since she has recently shown interest in writing and is frustrated by not knowing what letters to use. Besides, spelling lessons could be a repeat of phonics rules which would strengthen her reading skills too. Besides trimming down the curricula we had originally planned, we will be wanting to increase gradually the structure and amount of time she is spending on lessons this year so that the first grade year will not be as much of a shock with the added subjects. I now have some interesting ideas to use for art and music when the kids want that as an extra treat. I am only halfway through the book. The other half that I have yet to read talks about 5th grade through graduating high school. There are a lot of things yet to be decided yet, but we have lots of ideas and, yes, Latin is one of them. I really like this book and would recommend it to anyone who is considering homeschooling, especially if they are starting out with an early elementary child.

The last thing that has had me occupied is that all three kids have colds and my husband and I are trying to fight off our own cases with Zicam.

That is all for now. The family needs me again.