What We Are Learning

Here is an update on what we are doing in our Little Homeschool. We are just finishing our second term, and I am hoping to be done by the end of April.



Benjamin is in 2nd grade this year and doing great. Here is a list of what he is learning in each subject.



History: Studying the Middle Ages with a focus on England's history during that time.

Resources: Our Island Story, A child's History of the World and The Little Duke



Science: Studying the different mammals of North America and making an animal notebook.

Resources: The Burgess Animal Book



Geography: Focusing on the countries of North America and the Santa Fe Trail

Resource: The Tree in the Trail



Shakespeare: Plays I read to him are Romeo & Juliet, and All's Well that Ends Well

Resource: Tales from Shakespeare



Literature Reading list:

Wind in the Willows,

Understood Betsy,

Pilgrims Progress,

Parable of Nature



Poetry: read poems from Walter de la Marc and Eugene Field.
Learned to recite The Window and The Duel



Composer Study: He listens to music selections from the composer for that term.

Composers studied are Maurice Ravel, Beethoven & Antonio Vivaldi



Artist Study: He observes painting by the artist for that term.

Artist studied are Monet, Durer, Carivaggio



Writing: Benjamin has been improving his printing and now he is starting to learn cursive.

Resource: Handwriting without Tears



Math: He is mastering subtraction and starting to work on multiplication through skip counting.

Resource: Rightstart



Carter is in Kindergarten this year. He is focusing on the 3 r's and doing great.



Writing: He has learned all his letters and has moved on to copywork.

Resources: Handwriting without Tear and Draw Write Now



Reading: Carter is working on learning his phonograms and has started reading simple books

Resource: Teach America to Read and Spelling



Math: He is learning simple addition, grouping numbers to make ten and odd & even.

Resource: Rightstart.



Family Subjects: These are ones we all do together



Bible Study: We read a the story from a child bible, then the next day out of the KJ bible

Old Testament: Reading about David and Saul

New Testament: Jesus getting Baptised

Book of Mormon: The start of Nephi's journey



Verses: We are working on memorizing Psalm 23



Nature Study: Focusing on Flowers, mammals, and birds. We spend a hour outside and then making a journal entry on what we observed.

Springfield, Illinois

Our little family decided to take a trip to Springfield, Illinois. We were going to go to a friends wedding, plus it was Benjamin's special birthday. (For those of you who don't know what a special birthday is it is when you turn the age of our birthday date. Like Ben turned 8 on the 8th).

Poor Benjamin ended up waking up sick on his birthday, but he was a really trooper about it. We got to Springfield way to early to check into our hotel, so we walked around the Lincoln History Museum for a few hours.
Once we got to our hotel, Ben went right to bed and stayed there. We did get him to muster up a smile for his birthday picture and he open his presents. As soon as they were opened, he went right back to sleep.

I was hoping to get a picture with all the kids in their nice clothes, but with Ben being sick it just didn't happen. But here is one with the girls in their fancy dresses.

Babies, Babies, Babies

So for everyone who doesn't know yet, I am expecting baby number five. We are so excited. I am only 5 weeks along and figure my due date to be Aug. 27. So far I feel pretty good.

The picture is of all us Andra girls that are pregnant together. First is Theresa who is having her first baby and is due at the end of January. Next is Rosa who is having her fifth and due the First of April. Then Martha who is having her first and due the first of April. Next is Michelle who is having her fifth and due Mid May. Last is me.

It should be a lot of fun when all those babies are born.

Pumpkin Carving

This post is really old, but we have been having such bad Internet problems that I haven't been able to finish it till now. At Halloween I helped the kids carve their pumpkins.
It was so funny to see their reaction to having to clean out the pumpkins. Amita just dug right in without problems, but poor Carter had the hardest time. He was totally grossed out by the slime.

I thought this picture of Melody was so cute I just had to include it.

Corn Maze

This post is a little behind, but here it is anyway. While my mom and Monte were out here for a visit in October, we went to a corn maze. This year the weather was great, and we had lots of fun.
Benjamin having fun with the water pumps.Melody saw this train and wanted to go on it, but as soon as it started going she started crying. I felt so bad, but as soon as we got her out she wanted back on.

Amita in her pretty dress. She loves this dress. A friend of ours gave it to her.

We had lots of fun going through the maze. Once it was dark, we went through the scary maze. It was interesting to see each kids reaction. Benjamin screamed at everything. Carter never made a peep, but held onto my hand. Amita was totally ok because she was on her dad's shoulders the whole time. And Melody did pretty good because I was carrying her.

Natural Bridge

On our way home from Florida, we stopped at a natural bridge in Arkansas. We had a lot of fun taking pictures around the rock formations.
The mountain men of the family.

Amita being a rock climber.

Florida Trip

Isaiah and I have been planning a Florida trip for some time this winter. We were thinking in January, when on a Wednesday we decided why wait, we should go now, so Friday we packed up and headed to Panama City Beach to spend a week.

The crazy think was we had some close friends, whom also decided to do an impromptu trip to Florida at the same time. We ended up only 3 miles from them. It was really fun to hang out with them while we were there.

Some highlights from our trip were:
miniature golfing
snorkeling
seeing dolphins and stingrays
chasing crabs on the beach
Benjamin diving for hermit crabs

The boys with their sand octopus.

Melody loved playing in the sand, but would get so mad when a wave would come up and get her.

Our condo was on the 23rd floor, so we had an awesome view.

There is just something about the ocean that is just magnificent. We had a great trip. I am glad we didn't wait and just did it.