We use Story of the World for history, and are currently in the second book. Now except for Christmas break we have done one chapter a week since September. I thought we were doing really pretty good.

However, Monday I counted the remaining chapters and realized we still have four months of history to finish this book!! FOUR MONTHS!!!

May, June, July, and August.  No summer break. No time off for good behavior. It is work straight through until August and then start book 3 in September.

Uhhh. In a word. No. Not gonna do it. We will attempt to do two a week, which means hopefully we can finish in June. Doing two a week should take us 7.5 weeks instead of 15.

I understand the concept behind SOTW and truly we love it. I just wish they had broken it into smaller bites.

Last week we studied about the 100 years war between France and England. This week we learned about Richard III and Henry Tudor. Tomorrow we read about Ferdinand  and Isabella.

We haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. We have just been very busy lately. But not too busy for school…well most days anyway.

Last week Goober took some achievements tests at our local Christian school. The school offers the tests free to homeschool students. Ostensibly I know to increase their enrollment.  We know the principal of the school and he has wanted Goober to attend since he took over the position of principal.

Which while I don’t find it horribly odd, I do find it intriguing. You see her birthday is in July and the cut off birthday for kindergarten enrollment is March 1. She is 4 months too young to enroll in the grade she is excelling at currently.  If we had enrolled her at that school, she would not have gone to kindergarten until last year and right now would only be in first grade.  She is doing mostly 2nd grade work now with a few subjects at 3rd grade. Can you imagine her in first grade? Oh my.

Anyway I digress. Goober is bound and determined she will not go to school. She didn’t enjoy it much at all. She didn’t enjoy getting up at 7am, being in class at 8am and not coming home until 3:15 pm. She didn’t enjoy not taking potty breaks when she wanted/needed to.

She did enjoy her teacher (another friend of ours) and her classmates. It was funny. She would tell me everyday just which of her classmates had their name written on the board.

Here are some pictures of her at school.

I was a little concerned about how sh ewould do with the history and science tests. But she told me she only had math, language arts, reading and spelling.  If she did as well as I know she can, she should have blown the curveon those.!!!! I will be happy with however she did.  I would like for her to be at least at her grade level if not a bit above.

Beanie was fine on Monday. She played Barbies in her room quite happily the whole day. But that night was a different story. She was crying that she didn’t want Goober to go to school. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she earned herself a new nickname…Clingon! I would almost swear she was attached to me with Saran Wrap.

The Friday before that we had our Home-School Talent show.  Beanie recited The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rosetti.

She was also in a little bell choir with other pre-schooler.

Goober played the piano. Which I’m thinking is a good thing because I don’t think she will have a spring recital this year. 

About the recital. Goober’s beloved piano teacher, Mr.Baily will be moving the end of this month. He highly recommended a teacher and she starts  with the new teacher on the 7th. I haven’t heard about a recital before then however. .

Now if the phonics rules say “Silent e on the end makes the vowel say it’s name” why do we say have and not hayve? And give and not gI-ve

I got the best book from Rainbow Resource. It is called Healthy Me and is by Michelle O’Brien-Palmer. It is for ages 5-8 and is just chock full of wonderful activities to do. It has sections on cleanliness, teeth, nutrition, exercise, and safety.

Yesterday we did an experiment with tomato soup. The girlies learned about microbes and hand washing. I rubbed their hand with a cotton swab, then rubbed that in some tomato soup in a low bowl. We put that in a ziploc baggie and watch it every day for 10 days. They say the second or third day you should see the microbes growing. We check it every day for a week and then throw it out.

Today we made soap. I got two bars of glycerin soap. The recipe calls for unscented but the store I went to was out of unscented. I bought muffin tin with heart shapes so we are making heart shaped soap. The girlies picked out lemon oil to scent the soap and the lady at the store (we love this store and they know our names!) gave the girls a tester of Freesia. So we have lemon and freesia soap.

I feel so oh..Little House on the Prairie-ish.

Here are some pictures of the process.

Beanie stirring the melting glycerin.

Goober stirring the melting glycerin.

Half of the amount we made cooling.

On a different topic. We use Story of the World for history. (thanks, sis!) I love it because it’s easy. The girlies love it because it is written in story form. They get coloring pages and maps to do. Here are some pictures of them doing their map work.

Beanie doing her map.

And Goober with her map.