Long Time

I haven't been updating this blog in way too long. I added an application that allows me to update it from my phone, so we should be back in business. I rarely get a chance to sit at a real computer since my laptop died :) I had a hard time keeping itvup while Malia was in school last year too. Everyone says I am crazy to commit myself to home education, but I swear I have more time this way... I felt constantly on the go last year.

To catch you up, me and the girls went to Michigan over the summer. Gosh, I never fully appreciated Michigan summers until I moved away. We spent time just being at the beach, picking berries and sailing. It doesn't get any better than that. I hope to continue going every summer. I will try to make a post soon with more details of our trip.

Malia decided to return to homeschooling this year, which I am secretly excited about. :) They are getting to be such cool kids, and I am really enjoying this process. We are trying to let them lead the way in their education... Giving them ablotbof room to explore subjects that they are personally interested in. Hoping to really nurture a love for learning more than anything else at this point.

In addition to Math and reading, Malia is enjoying learning about chemistry, horses, different forms of poetry, chess, and logic/math riddles. She is most invested in her horseback riding lessons for now, she is all about the horses. She is still an amazing reader- whizzing through 3-5 chapter books a week. Right now she is enjoying the boxcar series and sone various mystery books. We are reading The Secret Garden together, which she quite likes.

Eliana has been enjoying chess, ballet, these math/strategy games I have made, art, pottery, story writing, and counting/grouping numbers. Eliana seems to really enjoy creating. She likes to do interesting things like group marbles by numbers and create a different, but related, design out of each numerical set. It is really neat to watch how educational her play is, even if not traditionally so. Eliana also really likes pokemon and super friends comic books right now.

Sasha is doing great, she is leading the way in reading. Starting to sound out phonetic 3 letter words and attempting to sound out her own words. The other day she wrote "boobaree" for blueberry. She seems to be a bit of a whiz at checkers... She can usually win against everyone in the house without coaching. She is getting bored with the checkers game on my puonebecause she always wins. Guess it is time to knock it up a notch to the hard level. She enjoys the computer as much as always, butbis beginning to enjoy bikes and outdoor games a bit more as well. She likes the super friends comic books, super heroes, Kiki's Delivery Service and Totoro (both movies) and she adores magic school bus books. Actually all three girls are quite in to them right now.

We have this great book by Constance Kamii, "Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic". The whole first half dives in to constructivist theory and how to apply Piaget's theories to Math... But the end is full of games you can make (or play with cards) that help build Math skills and concepts. Patterns, strategies, probability, and so forth. It has been a great resource for us, the girls love thier math games and feel very empowered in the subject. They love doing their Singapore Math workbooks as a result.

Let me see... So much going on, so much to share! The girls are all enrolled at at this great one day a week cooperative school for homeschoolers. Every Thursday we go at 9 and stay till 4. They get to choose from a variety of classes in their age grouping and are really loving the experience. Eliana especially seems to really embrace the indepence she has been experiencing. She has specifically asked me not to help her switch classes each hour- likes to manage it entirely on her own. They are all really loving it and I plan to keep going a long as they love it so much.

I am trying to make tamales this weekend (first time without a house full of hands to help!!) so I best get to the task- will do better at keeping this blog up now that I can do it from my phone (though that might mean many typos ahead) :)


-- Posted from my iPhone