Homeschool Friday

Well, we made it to Friday and we haven’t been to the hospital.  So at least for now, we can once again return to “Homeschool Friday.”

Sooooo…how do you catch up on 3 weeks worth of homeschooling updates?  Things have been going pretty well.  It was much easier when Knut was home and didn’t have to work.  On days where he has to haul corn and I have all 3 kids, it gets a bit trickier.  There were one or two days where all that got done was Silje did her reading.  Other days we got a day and a half’s work done.  Overall, we haven’t fallen behind at all, and I’m pleased with that.

I talked a bit about the Mountain Born book that we’ve been reading.  We got caught up on her read alouds by having her read one of her read alouds by herself as one of her independent readers, as she’s still a month ahead in that area.  Her read aloud turned independent reader was Henry and Ribsy which was a really fun read for her.  So now we’re all caught up on our read alouds, and still way too much ahead on her independent readers.  We are in desperate need of a library run or she may finish all of her readers for the year before we know it.  I hope that one of these mornings that Knut is home we can squeeze that in.

We’re finishing up our huge unit on ancient Egypt in history, and will be moving on next week in our year of ancient history to Greece.  I’m really curious how she’ll like it.  Our read aloud book will be many stories of Greek mythology which could honestly go either way.  I know many parents who use this curriculum skip over the Greek myths, thinking that it can be confusing and unnecessary to teach kids.  However, I’m a firm believer that it’s nearly impossible to discuss many literature “greats” without a firm grasp on 2 things that public schools don’t really teach anymore: the Bible and Greek mythology.  Stories and analogies from those 2 areas show up everywhere in literature and it’s very foundational information.

Now, maybe she won’t major in literature like I did.  In fact, I hope she does her own thing.  I guess I just love the idea of a classical education too much, and Silje will just have to suffer through that.

We have had a bit of time off from our homeschool group, and will have our Christmas party with them next week.  I’ve almost not had Silje go to her piano lessons and choir practice with all of the upheaval in the house, but Knut has managed to be home on those afternoons to drive her, so she hasn’t missed a beat.  It turns out that instead of a Christmas choir program, her choir will be caroling at a local nursing home, which I still need to get the details on.  I think she’ll enjoy that, though.

David has started asking for more schoolwork again, which has surprised me.  He’s asked to start learning more about reading, and he’s been working on his learning puzzles and I think I might even be able to get him to do a worksheet again *gasp!*  He and Elias have been playing together almost non-stop lately on their wooden train set and that’s been fun to watch their friendship really deepen as Elias gets old enough to keep up with David.

The big new thing that will happen soon is our “Physical Education” that Silje will be doing this winter.  We were planning on signing both kids up for our local chapter of MYSL (Minnesota Youth Ski League) which only lasts 8 weeks this winter.  However, Knut recently found out that Silje isn’t quite old enough for our chapter, but she’s so close, and the leaders/coaches know her and her ability and said that they’d be willing to take her.  David however, is definitely too young, and they’d take him only on the condition that Knut stays with him to help out at every practice.

So we’ve been having lots of discussions as to whether or not we should put both kids in the league.  David certainly has more enthusiasm for skiing, but Silje could use the incentive to get outside and stay active much more.  Both of us are leaning towards putting Silje in this year and keeping David out.  While he’s a great skier, and would probably learn some things, his maturity level just isn’t ready for that type of training.  He can still ski in the yard, and with the rest of the family when we go to the ski gaard, and perhaps Silje can come home and tell him all about the things that she’s learning.

Silje is so pumped about being in this ski league.  She now wants to go outside and practice everyday which is very uncharacteristic of her!  She’s usually found in a corner with a book…not outside running around!

I’ve already begun some research as to what we might do next year, with all the computer time I’ve had lately, as Knut is still handling many of my chores.  I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to attend some sort of Homeschool Conference this spring and page through all the different vendors with curriculums there instead of just researching online.

As I close this rambly post, I’ll point out that when this baby comes, I’m officially calling “Christmas Break” until January at least.  We’re already more than half way through most of our subjects and I could call it now…but it fills our days and Silje just likes doing it way too much to stop right now!