changing my mind again!

So anyone who has read this blog knows that we have already changed our curriculum from what we initially started with. We went from Tapestry of Grace to My Father's World. Surprise surprise...we are changing it up again. I do love the simplicity of My Father's World. I love how it's set up for two days on, two days off. I love how they have an entire day set up for "exploration. MFW was what I needed to get started. It told me what to say, how to do things etc. LOVE that! But I started feeling like it just wasn't enough for my kids. I longed for history; which MFW does not have at this level. I was already beefing it up for Alexis (since I was using a 1st grade curric), but I started feeling like it wasn't enough for Haylee either. Haylee is rather advanced for a 1st grader...shes already reading where Alexis was at the end of 1st grade. When I first started MFW I loved loved that they were learning a new Proverb every week. But to be honest, I got really tired of the proverbs and I could tell my kids were too. The last two weeks I just used things I found online. And I started to realize that I can do this without ONE curric! I can make up my own based on the needs of MY kids.

We are two months (give or take) into homeschooling now and I really am feeling confident about this journey now! I have gotten to really now my kids learning abilities---what works and what doesn't. I really longed to teach them history. So...I prayed about it for about a week. And God brought me full circle...right back to Tapestry of Grace. What seemed like SO MUCH before...didn't feel like such a challenge. We will now be using Tapestry of Grace again!

Today was our first day using TOG and the kids LOVED it! We are starting out with Ancient Egypt (which I LOOOOOOVE!!!!). Today we read:

The Nile River by Allan Fowler
This is a great little book! Filled with real-life photos of the Nile. It talks about where the Nile starts and finishes and all the places along the way!

We also read:
Mummies, Pyramids and Pharaohs: A book about Ancient Egypt by Gail Gibbons

This book is awesome!! HIGHLY recommend this one!!

TOG has printable maps, so I gave each kid (yes, Logan got one too!) a blank map of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Africa and the World map. Alexis and Haylee filled in the map of Ancient Egypt (Med. Sea, Nile Delta, Nile River, Red Sea, The Black Lands (Kemet) and the Red Lands). We discussed how important the Nile Was to the Egyptians-how it was their life-blood. We also briefly talked about Moses and how Moses grew up in Ancient Egypt. The kids recently watched The Prince of Egypt...I think this really helped the put it all together in their heads.

This should be a fun week! We will be making a salt map of Egypt and learning about land formations and bodies of water. We will talk more about the Egyptians and Moses. I am hoping to have the girls dress up like an Egyptian Queen (think Cleopatra!!), maybe make some jewelry and a paddle doll like the children used to play with! It's going to be a busy week but so much to look forward to!

We are also moving past Proverbs. This weeks verse is my FAVORITE verse: Jeremiah 29:11. We actually started it last thursday. Lex has it memorized already!

On a slightly different note...here is my proud homeschool mama moment of the week (and yes, I know the week just started! lol!)

The girls have been struggling a little bit with skip counting. It's been a little bit of an issue and I have been trying to figure out what I can do to make it finally CLICK! And make it fun for them! Last night I came across a few songs on itunes. The artist is Have Fun Teaching. The songs are a tad on the..ummmm...annoying side, but VERY catchy. So I figured...why not! Today in their math books we were skip counting by 4's. So I played the song for them. They listened, they sang along. Then I asked them to try it without the song. And they GOT IT! I got tears in my eyes today because I was SOOOOO proud of them! Moments like that remind me of why we chose to homeschool. Had they been in public school, the class would have moved on, regardless of if all the kids truly understood or not. And kids...MY kids could have been left behind. But I was able to take the extra time and help the really understand it. They loved the songs! And I have heard them singing it even after "class" was over!

SOOOOOO proud of my kids!