We spent the week of the 4th with my family at the beach in Destin, Florida. It was a jam-packed week of beach days, the aquarium, a lunch with alligators, playing in the pool, a day at the water park, fireworks, shopping and crab legs, and of course lots and lots of sun (and a few rain storms too). The girls enjoyed themselves, as did I, but we were glad to be back with Daddy-O in South Carolina and back to our daily routines.
At the end of the moth we explored our area a little bit and ventured one morning to the Kings Mountain Battlefield. We took one morning and visited the visitors center, but since I didn’t have on proper walking shoes we chose to come back and walk the trail another day. We also took a trip into Charlotte, North Carolina one afternoon and visited the Discovery Place Nature Center. The girls mostly enjoyed playing outside and building a fairy house, though they also enjoyed the butterfly room and especially enjoyed it when Winnie the dove, decided to visit Momma’s head.
For part of the month we attempted to do school after lunch in hopes of getting more outdoor time when it was cooler out. Outside time didn’t happen as much as the girls just wanted time to play with toys and the bugs were not very friendly no matter the time of day. Schooling in the afternoons, however quickly became a no go for us. We did learn that we can do school in the afternoon, should something come up in the morning, but we function better for school when it happens first thing in the morning rather than later in the day. We returned to our morning schedule this week and part of last week and things seemed to flow more smoothly as a result.
This month we began a new approach to our bible study time together. We have begun using resources from Kids of Integrity and the 365 Veggietale Devotionals for Girls. Using Kids of Integrity, we will begin a monthly focus on a character trait. This month our trait was Respect. We made a family rule chain, learned new ways to pray and learned 2 verses that help us show respect to others according to God’s word. The girls were able to practice these rules and manners, and each had a Daddy-o and Daughter date night on their own. I am still perfecting this system and finding activities to incorporate, but I really like the intentionality this new focus is giving us. I want to help instill in the girls a sense of why we behave the way we do, is because it is how God outlined it for us in the bible long ago. We also continued reading in the bible about Moses and the Arc of the Covenant.
For our read aloud this month we read Little Pear, which tied into what we were discussing in history learning about Ancient China and the Great Wall. This week the girls are excited to begin A Wrinkle in Time as our next read aloud. As a reward when we finish the book we plan on watching the movie that came out earlier this year.
Mouse is trooping right along with All About Reading Level 3 and we are in the middle of Lesson 15 learning about vowel suffixes this week. For spelling we are in a season of review as we began Level 2 this week. Prior to this week we took 15 words a day from the word cards in level one, just to solidify the rules and to help me identify areas she may still be struggling with. As we moved along I noticed we still needed review over plurals and the use of plurals and -ck. We are taking step 1 in level 2 very slowly as we review and gear up to continue with this level. In Math we hit a stumbling block at lesson 18 with 3-digit column addition. She’s having trouble with the visualization of so many numbers. So right now I am printing out extra practice from the worksheet generator on Math-U-See’s website and we are building each problem with the blocks. Hoping it eventually clicks for her to add multiple digits together without the blocks, because she does well when I sit through and work with her, however with the mastery approach she will have to be able to do it on her own to be able to move onto the next lesson. We are also focusing on correct penmanship as an incentive to be able to learn cursive writing in the fall. I’m having her intentionally take her time to make letters/words neatly and correctly. I’m hoping by the end of august she will have improved in her intentionally and we can begin cursive in September.
It was Thumper who had the biggest struggle with our adventure of having school in the afternoons. Her little brain was wearing out by that time of day and her heart was no longer in participating in her favorite part of school, her songs. With her we reviewed the letters I,J,K and L and have moved onto the letters M,N and started the letter O this week. While not exactly a part of her school time songs, her favorite song this month has been I feel Like a Monster by skillet.
