A lovely performance

Elijah is teaching himself to play the piano. He learned Baa Baa Black Sheep, which was our Little Hands time theme this week. He invited us all in to sing along while he played. My camera ran out of memory, but this gives you an idea of the cuteness of it all.

The adventure begins...again.

So, here we are in our 10th year of home educating and I am glad that each year keeps getting better and better. New ideas, new opportunities, new materials, it is just all so fulfilling. We always start our year when daddy heads back to work in the middle of August. It allows us to start earlier than most and we usually wind up finishing before he is off for the summer.

I won't go into all of the details of what "curriculum" we are using, but I will share what has proven ultra beneficial over the past year. I spend the majority of our morning pouring pouring pouring into the littler children. We have devotions at breakfast and spend the next chunk of time doing chores together. We then have Little Hands time, which is when the little ones sing songs, do a craft, listen to a story, and have a snack. It fills them up for the remainder of the morning and frees me up to work with the older children later.

Dante has picked up quite an academic load this year that will take quite a bit of readjusting. We are working through a writing program to get him ready for the high school years. He is also starting a foreign language through the library. He is switching Math programs to Pre Algebra Teaching Textbooks, which we have heard fabulous things about. Of course, being at home allows him to lots of time to practice his music. He is still playing the guitar, but has just now started making some serious progress. He spends quite a bit of time practicing. He has even starting messing around on the piano a little. I love having our home filled with the joyful sounds of my childrens' music.

I have also scheduled one activity each afternoon to help in structuring the second half of the day. This holds me accountable and also gives the kids some constructive time before the evening craziness without daddy around begins. Mondays and Wednesdays we are doing an outloud reading time. Tuesdays we are learning to play the recorder. Thursday is a day to take a nature walk around the property and draw in our Nature Notebooks. We are leaving Fridays open for our errand day.

I am looking forward to some great time with my children at home.