Yes, We Are Still Here

Oh, my goodness!  I knew it had been a while since I last posted on our blog, but goodness....nearly 8 months!!!!!  No, we did not fall off the face of the earth or get committed to the looney bin.  We are still here, happily homeschooling and enjoying life in LaLa Land!  So much for resolutions to blog more regularly, though!!!  Today is a new day, though, so let me get you caught up.  Later this week, we will reach day 120 of our homeschool year (the state of Louisiana requires 180 instructional days) so we are nearly 2/3's of the way through our school year.  The curriculum changes we have made were good moves for us as they girls are thriving on them and I am managing to keep everyone moving forward.  For Megan, we are using ABeka Academy for Bible & language arts (reading, poetry, grammar, penmanship/writing, & spelling).  For Madelyn, we are using Michael Clay Thompson for lanugage arts and various Bible studies for Bible.  For both girls we are using Singapore for math, Apologia Anatomy for science, and ABeka Book and Story of the World for History.  We mainly use SOTW as a supplement and plan on increasing what we do with that next year.  It was a bit of an adjustment (and continues to be some days) to have our school days involve me so much while caring for AJ who is so active, but we find ways to make it work pretty successfully most days.  It will continue to get easier as he gets a bit older, too.  We will likely continue to the next level in all of this curriculum as they are doing well and enjoy it.  We do a lose curriculum with Andrew mainly being activities surrounding a central letter, color, shape, or theme for a few days at a time.  He's still too young to "do school", but he soaks up a ton just by talking, exploring, and reading books with us.

A big addition we have made this spring is the participation in a Co-Op where we participate every Monday for 10 weeks in 3 class periods which is mainly elective or group learning.  Madelyn is doing physics, American Sign Lanugage, and Bible narration and Megan is doing cooking, outdoor games, and science.  Andrew even has classes to go, too, and loves it.  To participate in the Co-Op, Mom has to teach or help in two classes so I am helping in a Jr. High level art class and teaching the ASL class.  It has been great for all involved!!!

We of course have been doing field trips and are now involved in 4 different homeschool groups (FAITH Fellowship, Southside, Adventures in Homeschooling, and Crossroads).  Many of the events overlap the groups, but some do not.  If you add the Co-Op group to that, it makes 5, but most of the Co-Op members are also members of the others, so all kind of one big happy family.  Needless to say, we have tons of opportunities for all sorts of fantastic field trips and events.  The girls are really making some great friends.  Our field trips for this year so far include the Tabasco Factory, the Denver Mint, the Nina & Pinta, the Elissa, the fire station, Shadows-on-the-Teche, the dinosaur exhibit at the Lafayette Science Museum, and a few other smaller adventures.  We have several more lined up as well including at least one that I need to find and set-up.  Very excited to finish up the year!!!!

Madelyn joined 4-H this year and while it hasn't been a big hit with her, I think she is glad to have experienced it.  Both girls are participating in Girl Scouts in a new troop that I am the assistant leader of.  It is multi-level so both girls are in the same troop and able to participate at their own levels.  Both girls also take riding lessons, though we did move from Woodland Hills to Knollwood Farm to keep taking from Ms. Susan.  Madelyn starts competing in just under two weeks.  Megan won't start competing until next season.  Both girls were taking a gymnastic/P.E. class, but we stopped that when we started Co-Op as it was just a little too much. 

Well, I think that about catches you up for the last 8 months.  We have been busy, but it has been fun!