Week 19 in Review

This is a week I would consider to be fairly successful. I managed to get back in the routine of getting up with an alarm, but added to that, waking the kids earlier and having them finish chores before breakfast. With holidays, and then colds, snow days and what-not contributing to the break-up of routine, we had fallen back into a late to bed, late to rise routine. Understandable, but unacceptable. We simply cannot accomplish what we are able when we get up earlier.

So, we began our new spelling and phonics programs, All About Spelling for Matty, and Phonics Road for Molly. I am just figuring these new systems out, but once and for all, I am going to work to fill in the gaps in Matty's phonics knowledge, which hopefully will help him to improve his spelling. In Molly's case, I am excited to start a program which will leave no gaps and at the same time prepare her for literature, composition and Latin.

I have made the decision to register Matty for Classical Conversations Essentials of the English Language program next year, so in order to prepare him for this fairly rigorous program, I have resumed our First Language Lessons 3 to ensure his comfort and familiarity with the parts of speech and diagramming. This also is going well.

Molly is moving along nicely in reading and has begun the second Pathway Reader Days Go By. I highly recommend these books for improving fluency in reading. She sincerely enjoys the stories and can't wait to find out what happens next.

The highlights of this week were days in which we simply laughed a lot. On Tuesday I spent the afternoon laminating phonics cards while the kids chased each other around giggling, fighting over tortilla chips. They probably were burning more calories than they were consuming. It was hilarious. Another day I came across some videos which made me laugh all day. I posted one of them here in the previous post, about working out from home. Please check it out--it had me giggling all day.