how quickly they learn

The kids are zooming through school like pros.

I haven't actually taught Yonah how to read for quite a while. Our reading "lessons" now are simply practicing and testing his reading comprehension.

He's been doing so well, in fact, that today we went to buy some more school books. We were focusing primarily on reading as far as "real" school goes. Now that he can learn more independently and is better at following instructions, we're switching our focus to math and science.

Arabelle is also doing well. She has spent the time so far practicing drawing and identifying shapes and letters, and specifically writing her name. This last month has seen an incredible amount of improvement.

We've tested the waters with reading lessons a few times, but she wasn't ready for it yet. Recently she's begun doing the first pages of Yonah's math book and has really excelled at it. We'll be trying reading lessons again soon.

Lila is also really into the school thing, though hers can't really be called "school" yet.

All in all, it's been a whole lot of fun for all of us.

Photo Challenges: Week 2

We've been busy lately.

Busy with kids, busy with horses, busy with recording songs.

Last week's photography themes were Daily and Love.

I combined them into one shot. Partially because I just love this picture, and partially because coming up with two separate ones that week was a very overwhelming thought.

Yonah loves learning to read just as much as I love teaching him.

December Photo Project: Day 10

Over the weekend, Lila destroyed some of the ornaments we'd made.

Today we made some new ones to replace them.

There was a lot of salt dough left over. So the kids and I played with it.

I had to show them that their creations didn't have to be two-dimensional like the ornaments we had made.

I taught Yonah how to roll balls instead of snakes.

And how to then turn those balls into cubes.

Lila ended up with a salty, floury face.

She kept sniffing hers.

December Photo Project: Day 9

Today's picture is from a visit to Kim's grandparents' house.

They brought out one of the first grade learning-to-read books that they used in school, and Yonah read it with only a few understandable stumbles over the trickier words.

(The picture quality is not as great because it was taken with my phone.)

December Photo Project: Day 4

Most people know by now that we "officially" started homeschooling our kids this year.

It's been (mostly) a blast for everyone, in part because we're keeping it pretty casual. Our primary focus right now is learning to read. Though we have "real" school for reading and math, everything else is picked up throughout the normal day.

I like to think that I'm pretty awesome with how I pull lessons out of whatever we're doing each day. But Kim was the one with the brilliant idea to start teaching Yonah how to type.

I snapped this shot of his "type school" (a.k.a. Mavis Beacon) today.