A good day

Just as I start thinking that maybe we are not doing enough 'learning' around here... we have a day like today. F has started a coin collection with the help of his father. he is really into it, he spent about 2 hours on the computer yesterday looking up all kinds of coins and their value, writing things down and looking at his coins to see what he has. He also does a few math pages daily, we are currently working on long division. He has picked it up and can do it by himself with out any help. We also work on grammar daily and this is basically our regular scheduled 'learning'.

Today we watched John Adams part III, did some grammar pages, spent another hour on the computer with his coins :), did some long division and some triple digit math problems. He also reads every night before he goes to sleep and knows all kinds of facts about countries, planets, the solar systems. He was reading today in one of his books about various countries and their literacy levels he decided he wanted to see exactly how much of each countries population could read/ write. So he took out a piece of paper and decided to divide.... so for instance for Yemen has a 50% rate, so he divided 9,547,118 by 2 :). And he got it right with out any help.... :)

It is days like today when he takes the initiative to do things that are harder than what he usually does and gets it right is when I know home schooling is working for us....

Another thing that I am feeling better about is his spelling, he figured out a kind of short cut to spell certain words and is feeling more confident about his writing. We are reading The Story of The World for history and he is starting to write a few sentences for each chapter that we read. He is also doing his reports with more confidence which I am glad about.... he is a child who loves to read and to learn new things, he likes facts, and factual data, he just doesn't like to write but he is working on that and I figure the better he gets at spelling the easier it will be for him to write. At this moment he is working on a cartoon drawing complete with word bubbles that he is filling in with silly words... "hey why are you..." learning to spell new words this way works for him too.....


J seems to be the opposite, she likes to write, create stories, draw, dance, sing, anything that is artistic. I love how home schooling works for our family in different ways and all are happy and thriving and learning.
A is busy learning to write her name and a few other words of her choosing, drawing and building with blocks, playing with Betty Spaghetti dolls with her sister, doing the US states puzzle over and over again, reading with F, coloring in her coloring books, and just being a kid.
J has finished her report for Finland for the geography club, complete with drawings and a few words that she will present to the group. She loves to be in front of a group and talk, she just lights up when she does that.