Enjoying It

I have heard myself say this a few times before but--- Today was my favorite homeschool day ever! There you have it, a broken record-- but I said it! So what did we do you are probably asking-- well let me share. I sat down with Rachel, Annalyn, Julia, Anna, and Galina for language arts. Though they are almost all at different levels, I yearn to find things that they can all do together. Since we have curriculum coming out our ears and numerous publishers I picked one of the harder ones since I would be able to explain anything and everything to them. I chose a story that I thought they would all enjoy and we went around in a circle taking turns reading a paragraph until the story was finished. Then I went back and discussed the story with them, the vocabulary, and had them write out the answers to all the questions in complete sentences. Later when I went over the questions with them I was surprised to see how anxious they were to answer the questions. Their participation excited me and I got to see first hand what a passion for learning looks like. Since I felt we were on a roll, I gave them a challenging writing assignment which they all seemed eager to do. They had to pretend to be the main character writing to an advice columnist and then they had to be the advice columnist and answer him back. To see them enthusiastically do schoolwork was refreshing to say the least!

Julia and Annalyn had their first day of online classes. They were excited to see how much it resembled a regular classroom but they quickly got bored as the teacher explained things over and over and over to the kids who didn't get it.

Annalyn and Julia tend to get finished with their schoolwork rather quickly and are able to help me out-- which is a big help! Here they are reading through a science project I am going to be doing with Sveta, Anastasia, and Jonny.

Speaking of Sveta, Anastasia, and Jonny-- they are all at about the same level. They work together as a group when we use math manipulatives and do Wordly Wise which is a fun vocabulary program. Often times I read the same stories to them and I try to include Sveta and Anastasia in as much science related things as I can without it being over their head.

The other day we read Dragon Goes Shopping. For a fun activity, I had them draw a shopping cart and fill it up with food that they clipped from grocery ads. I told them that they had to do a better job at balancing out their food groups so that everything was not junk food like in Dragon's cart.

I think they did a fine job. I told them that one day they would be great shoppers!

Did I mention we cook at home a lot? Julia is our "Queen of Desserts!" I asked her to make this recipe .

I think it looks absolutely gorgeous and normally it is wonderfully delicious but I think that we made too much filling and so the ratio of crust to filling was a little off-- which tells me do not triple the recipe next time! They remind me of bear claws.

P.S. I know that I need to update my header and side bar-- but I can sure use some help. I invision a picture header with random rotating pictures that change every few seconds. Anyone know how to do that? Also, I am running out of space on this blog-- has anyone else experienced that? Can I go and delete previous years to free up space or do I have to think abot starting a new one?