homeschool journal

this week we:

• finished our map of Australia by adding the labels
• added spelling into the mix - I bought the "Building Spelling Skills" books by Evan Moore publishers for Grades 1 and 3
• began reading about Australian animals

fail of the week:

• Since their Dad is running for office as a councilperson in the ward of our city, the kids will get a personal look at US politics and government. As part of campaigning, I was going to have the kids help make shirts for themselves using the freezer paper method. I had each of them help design the logo for the front of the shirt, but after it took 2 hours to cut and paint the designs for my husband's shirt (getting arm and finger cramps in my arms and fingers in the process), I decided it might be going a little overboard to do the same for four additional shirts. So I may resort to the iron-on transfer method, which is as exciting, but takes a lot less time!

moments to savor:

• Luke putting his arm around Ben at "snack time" - a time we all look forward to during the school mornings!
• teaching Brie and Reese how to play "Mastermind" while Luke and Ben went with Dave on some errands
• the three biggies having a sleepover in Brie's room and trooping downstairs in "born order" the next morning while holding the backs of one another's shirts - a happy gang knitted closer together by the adventure of an in-home sleepover
• working with Dave on the details of his campaign kickoff

seeking homeschooling advice on:Language Arts curriculum - I purchased Learning Language Arts through Literature this year because it is one of the few comprehensive LA curriculum's that I've come across. After piece-mealing everything last year, I wanted something that told me what to do day-by-day. And LLATL does that which is wonderful. But I feel like it might be a little too easy (I need to supplement the grammar and spelling portions because LLATL doesn't go deep enough) or maybe I'm looking for something that involves fun projects based on books we read. Any suggestions out there on language arts curriculum's which lay out your lessons and are comprehensive? Or good writing/reading programs which also spell out the lessons and incorporate fun, hands-on or exploratory projects?

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