The Weekend

This is weekend went well. I spent much of Friday evening and Saturday compiling a tentative plan for HS MB next year. I also got some good ideas from the TWTM bulletin board about introducing more organized school to MB. One suggestion that I got was to gradually increase the different subjects we are studying, instead of hitting her all at one time with a new schedule. This made me step back and really evaluate what we already do and I was actually surprised to see how much we are doing. We already do a biblical story and then two other reading times during the day. At least four days a week we work on MB's reading, not including the time she spends on the computer doing self-directed phonics drill and the other phonics games we play just on a whim throughout the day. We also seem to do math as an everyday thing, although she may not actually sit down and do a math worksheet but every so often (then she will do them until I make her stop).

Writing is an area that we need to work on. Not because she can't or doesn't like to, as she will often go off and write me notes all the time. But I have not been very rigid with her in her actual handwriting, and since she does enjoy the process of writing, I think it will also be a good vehicle to for helping with memory work and sight words, while improving her handwriting.

Organized Science and Art are hit and miss, although in the course of every day she does something along those lines because they are the two subjects she loves the most.

So to facilitate her transition from less organized to more organized I am going ahead an implementing 2 organized science activities a week this spring. We are going to take advantage of our spring here and do a nature study on Spring. We are going to study weather changes, and teach her how to record and graph numbers. We are going to observe changes in the plant life over the next few months. And I am going to have her help me plan and plant our garden this spring. I figure we will get some weather science, biology, and earth science in while also working on her recording and observation skills.

I don't want to introduce too much this Spring because she will be traveling and involved in daycamps this summer and really will not be home that much. We will have to start over some this fall, but hopefully by then it will look more like fun and less overwhelming.

We will also probably school throughout the day for this first year. I have also observed that in the morning she enjoys more of the hands-on interactive learning activities, early afternoon we slow it down with reading, computer time, independent art projet and quiet time. And then in the evening is when she most likes to tackle things like workbooks and sheets. So this is the routine I will probably use to start things off on, since she is already used to this.

The motto I am going to try to remember for the next year is "Don't make too many changes."

On Sunday I tried to make up for lost time by working on my proposal for the Holy Spirit bible study that I have to make to our church board on Wednesday. I have a pretty good Purpose and Format presentation for the board and have a draft of topics that will be covered in the study. I spent hours Sunday weeding through the overwhelming numbers of good scripture passages on this topic. My draft really moved easily until I was trying to wrap up the last day and then I got stuck because of all the information and not really knowing how I can fit it in with the time I have. So I put it aside for a few days to let the Spirit guide me in how He wants me to finish the study.

Other notes from this weekend. The weather was good and we spent a lot of time outside. In fact today is supposed to be in the low '70s so I see us being outside quite a bit today. Celebrated my MIL's bday on Saturday, and my dad and stepmother stopped by Sunday on their way through town for a short visit with the girls.

I am off to prepare for the new day.

Peace

Amy