January 2013

Wow, January flew by! It is exiting with a powerful cold front. Tonight it is 12F and getting colder. I have no idea what the windchill is, but it is quite frigid! Our poor outdoor heater is working it's wood burning butt off to keep that water hot. (and I get to keep going out to stoke it up...I think I will stay up late tonight to be sure it lasts all night).

Anyway, it was a good month and getting back into the groove of school was pretty pleasant after the holidays. I changed Luca's math curriculum from MUS to McRuffy Press. Within the week I saw major improvements! Yay for homeschooling and being able to easily modify the curriculum to fit my child's learning style.

We started out January with a fun night to the rodeo. Here is a photo of the end of the night where the last bull decided to give us some excitement and gave the rodeo clown a ride.

The kids had a couple of New Year's activity sheets to fill in on our first day back. I wish I would have had Nico do a little more reflecting on 2012....next year that will be an assignment. I found these activity sheets on Pinterest...my new addiction!

I have been using WinterPromise Kindergarten Science with Luca. It's all about nature and animals. We have moved from woodlands to swamps. Woodlands was great as we are surrounded by woods. The swamps are a bit harder. We do have lots of ponds and lakes so are filling in a lot of material with those. Luca had an experiment to see how the moss can look dry but really be holding a lot of water. We used sponges to simulate the moss. We had a beautiful spring like day (just a couple of days before this bitter cold) when we went to the park to see what observations we could make. The boys preferred playing on the playground and statues.

I started a geography unit with Luca. I had started one earlier in our school year, but things just weren't clicking then. He is doing so much better I decided to try it again. Thanks to Pinterest and the internet I have found some fun crafts for him in this subject.

At least twice a month I try to squeeze in Meet the Masters. I need to get it done as it expires in May...yikes! This is one of Nico's projects. We really enjoy this program but I am so bad about putting the fine arts in our curriculum and sticking with it. It always seems like we are rushed to get the important things completed so I brush this off. Nico loves art and does take watercolor class with an art teacher outside the home. Luca loves music and was taking a music class which was canceled. I have bought a music and movement curriculum to start with him.

I also realized that we have not done a lot of field trips and my goal for the upcoming months is to join in on more field trips and hanging out with friends.