This week has been a busy week at home.  We have gotten up fifteen minutes earlier then last week each day.  Our nap/rest/reading time has been much more peaceful.  I think I will go another 15 minutes earlier next week and then see how this schedule works for the rest of the spring. 

Why would I be changing our wake times?  Summers are hot here, and we plan to have a bigger garden then last year.  We also plan to go ahead and school through the summer.   At least with reading, math, spelling and science.  We will probably do some history too.   Schooling through the summer prevents us from having to review for the first six weeks next fall.  We just keep swimming as Dora would say.

I am getting ready to start planning our late spring and summer schedules.  Part of this is the earlier wake time in order to be able to work outside during the cooler part of the day.

For our read aloud this week, we started the book Boys’ of ‘76 by Charles Coffin.  We are all really enjoying this book.  We just finished reading about the battle of Bunker Hill.  “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes”.

We have also started our Nature Studies up again.  Just this morning we spotted what looked to be a small hawk of some sort eating a bird in our alfalfa field.  However, we couldn’t get close enough to see it well even with our binoculars.  We also have a possum we are enjoying observing. 

My oldest son is wanting to learn more about electrical things.  He is very interested in circuits and such inside of computers.  Can I say this is all Greek to me?   I am glad he is able to find information on the computer and in some of my husband’s resources as I would not be of much help with all this.

As a family we have continued learning Latin.  My children are really enjoying Latin for Children.  Be watching out for my review of this program at the end of the month.

My oldest daughter has been working with fractions in her math studies.  This afternoon we will be making a mega-batch of Amish Friendship Bread to help show her how we can use fractions in real life.

We have started a new way to check how well we our children are doing on their spelling.  I give each of them a lap sized white board and call out a word.  They spell it and then I check it off of our master family spelling list if they get it correct.  This makes my children realize that I am keeping track and that they do need to try to keep up.  It is kind of like a spelling be, but it is written, not oral.

We are now halfway through our first Proverbs People by Rick Boyer bible study.  I highly recommend this study for your entire family.  My oldest two do write out the answers, but we discuss the question orally each day too.

Speaking of Rick Boyer, I have a surprise for my readers scheduled for next week some time.  Keep an eye out as you will not want to miss it.

Well, that pretty much wraps up our week. How has your week been?