School Days, School Days

So, in this post I said I was going to try to get significantly caught up on our scrapbooks.  Um. Yeah. That didn’t happen. I did, however, get laundry and ironing and other house duties completely caught up over the summer.

Now, though – school has started in The Shoe!

We are using the following curriculum -

Science: Apologia, Exploring Creation with Astronomy and I’m using the notebooking pages from Jeannie Fulbright’s website. I love that she includes a notebook for “non-writers”, too, because it allows Harrison and Annie to participate in science with the big girls. Harrison loves doing school with his sisters.
History: Story of the World  All four kiddos have a history notebook and they love it. They love history, which is a ton of fun for me since I love it, too.
Reading: Annie is doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She’s doing well, loves learning new sounds and reading small words.
Katherine will be using the Veritas Press 2nd grade literature list. She needs a little more practice before she starts chapter books so we are doing the “More Favorites” before she moves on to The Boxcar Children.
Elizabeth will be using the Veritas Press 3rd grade literature list. Narnia, a children’s prose verion of The Iliad, Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte’s Web. She gets to read some great stuff this year.
Handwriting:  We continue to use A Reason for Handwriting.  Annie is in book A. Nin in the transition book (and I’ll probably have her go through more of the manuscript section of the book than Elizabeth did last year).  Elizabeth is in book C – it’s all cursive for her!  Why yes, we do still teach cursive in The Shoe.
Math:  Annie and Katherine are doing Saxon Math.  Annie is doing Math1 and Katherine is doing Math3.  Elizabeth has moved to A Beka Math 3.  
Grammar:  Only Elizabeth and Katherine are doing grammar and we are using Shurley. They learn both grammar and writing in this curriculum. Diagraming sentences. Oh. Yay. Something they’d stopped teaching in English when I was in school. I never learned to diagram a sentence.
Spelling:  Again, only Elizabeth and Nin are doing spelling. We are using A Reason for Spelling which they are loving.  I’m using a level that’s probably a little easier for Elizabeth because I’m teaching both of them at the same time. 

Phew. That’s it.  And I’m working, too.  Is there any wonder I’m up at 5:30 and awake until midnight?