Ancient History and Literature (AHL): Week 1 Day 1

Well, Rabbit is a bit ambitious. We are enrolled in a homeschool co-op this fall for her Biology labs, so that is going to take about 2 hours out of our day once a week. Rabbit is starting the AHL part of her year now, trying to get about 30 days out of the way so she won't have to do AHL on those days.

The first day was pretty good. We went through the lesson plans and just worked through them together. It was shorter than 3 hours, so we filled in a lot of reading. Plus, she's been doing Logic this summer, too.

I did copy all the timeline pieces from the AHL packet onto Avery 8 x 11.5 label paper, and Rabbit has already started coloring some of them. I think it will look really nice doing it this way. It even has me thinking of making an accordion fold timeline for each of the boys to keep in their history notebook, and then copying the Creation to the Greeks timeline pieces onto the label paper so they can each have their own timeline. I would still put one on the wall using the pieces we colored and laminated from the first time through.

Oh, I forgot to mention, Rabbit is in All About Spelling Level 7. I am very excited about the content of it. It covers Latin and Greek roots (which we will also be covering in Creation to the Greeks this fall), and words that we have pulled in from Italian and Spanish. Plus, it has a system for the kids to keep adding words they need to work on as they go.

We didn't get to math, or Physical Science (we have the last module to finish), but I also started the boys on our summer-school light program. I think it may take the whole summer to figure how to juggle two programs, but that's fine. That is one of the reasons we do summer-school light.

Gradually starting

So yesterday I started with Rabbit on Saxon 8/7. The first few lessons are quite long, so after we finished the practice set, I let her stop for the day. Then today we finished up the first lesson. She did pretty well with it, but it is basic review right now. Today she also did the first page of the pre-test in All-in-One English.

For Pooh and Tigger, today we started our Handwriting Without Tears Cursive book and Singapore 2A. That went well. I taught them together, but for math, I had them do their math pages separately. 


I think I've got 98% of my lesson plans entered into Homeschool Tracker Plus. I haven't put in dance, P.E., AWANA, or Writing Strands. And I haven't figured out how I'm going to do the Progeny Press stuff with Rabbit, either. I'm still stressing a little bit about how to schedule it all. I have a lesson plan for Rabbit, and then another for the boys since there is quite a bit of difference. For the Apologia Science, Saxon, and Singapore I just have "Lesson x" and then the notes say to refer to the lesson plan book from MFW. The nice thing is I have my Primary Language Lesson plans from back when Rabbit was in 3rd grade to use with the boys. 

The Summer Time Craziness

When to get it all done...

We've been doing "school lite" in the morning. First, we read from the Bible or some other spiritual stories for the day. Then Rabbit goes off to do typing drill and Quarter Mile Math drill. The Quarter Mile Math drill is starting to pay off. Oh sure, she's been doing it a long time. But, she can now remember her nemesis 3 x 6 = 18. Her math facts are coming a lot faster. She also found a "letter practice" option somewhere in Quarter Mile Math, and has been alternating between that and Dance Mat Typing for her typing practice.

So, while Rabbit is off on the computer, I'm working with the boys. We're finishing up Math-U-See's Primer. This week we've started learning about telling time. The boys are very excited about that, as we do have a couple of analog clocks in the house. And then were going through Abeka's 1st grade reading schedule. So far, it is just review, so they're kind of bored with it. But Pooh definitely needs it. I'd say after about 10 minutes or so of reading, his brain kind of just shuts down. He can hardly remember how to put the sounds together. Tigger is doing good with it, though.

I hope to add in Handwriting Without Tears workbooks for the boys soon (they shipped last Thursday or Friday). Pooh is definitely left-handed, so I'm hoping that will help him improve his fine motor control.

Then I have Rabbit do math with me. She is doing well with Singapore now. She gets the ideas, and sometimes can even do a problem or two in her head. I do see her starting to think more about how to do a problem, and look at the whole problem more. We're enjoying 3B because it is more practical - weights and measures, time, and such. After that, we finish off with spelling and reading. Poor Rabbit... I've been going through our "mastered" words again for the summer, just to make sure they're really mastered and "cleaned" got her again. But, she did finally spell "direction" right after about 7 days of trying. We're pronouncing it "digh-rec-tion" for spelling instead of "der-ec-tion" and that seems to be helping her. Otherwise, she was missing that first "i" in the word.

I really need to get the kids doing some chores everyday. Just not sure how to work it in to the overall scheme of the day. I also want them to be able to play outside when it is cooler. I'll get it worked out soon. Probably just in time to start school in the fall. Ha!