7 weeks of school down...kinda

We've done 7 weeks (or is it 8?)  so far.  It's a modified schedule because of the Bible Bee, so its mostly Mathboy doing academics and LittleSponge doing preschool while Bookgirl studies and does math. 

Little Sponge: so far he's enjoying tracing, and simple scribbling coloring.  He really likes the Character concepts stuff from the Learning Parent (see this post).   He has learned about Obedience, Patience, and Honesty.  He memorizes the definitions and the verses along with the story.  The 2nd week he listens to a Bible story and colors a picture that shows the quality and the 3rd week he listens to a cd story about someone in history that displayed the quality.  I'll post a video in another post.

Mathboy:   I love what we are doing for spelling.  I went to a seminar with Dianne Craft at our homeschool convention.  She talked about a unique style of spelling lesson and we tried it.  So far its easy, enjoyable, and seems effective.   The first day of the week I give a pretest.  I make index cards of the ones he spells incorrectly and we draw pictures and use color on the cards to make it easy to remember.   I hang them on the wall.   He practices those words throughout the week and we do the post-test on Thursday or Friday.

Bookgirl has been studying for the Bible Bee.  We are less than a week away!!  She is getting close to feeling "ready".  I'm glad we still have a few more days.  We truly appreciate all the support we've received.  The bracelet sale went incredibly well - more than I ever thought.  Thank you to everyone that bought one.  Thank you to our corporate sponsors.  I will get their links up as soon as they give me the graphics files.  We also truly love and appreciate the prayers.  They mean the most :)

When we went to the local Bible Bee meet-ups, our chapter leaders made a little reward system for the children.  Everytime they said a new passage correctly to an adult they got a yellow bead to add to their name tags.  We've continued this at home and Bookgirl loves it.  We switched to green and added them when she was able to say a new passage correctly 3 times.   We also adapted the idea for individual passages that were longer.  Each time she memorized a section of it she could add a bead.   I love this idea and thought it could be used for Sunday School classes too.   These pictures were taken a few weeks ago.

Daddy and the boys built the box for our square foot garden.  Unfortunately we just haven't made the time to fill it and plant.  We are going to do it the week after the bee, but I pray its not too late to get a crop.  Even if it is, it's a learning experience right????