Week 2 in school

    Last year ended up being a hard year for me with school. With having a newborn and a very active 2 year old I confess to getting a little burnt out. It happens to a lot of us. I was reading once on The Well Trained Mind Forum that the 6th or 7th year homeschooling is another bump in the road. Well, for us I guess that bump happened a little earlier :) This is going on my 6th official year as a homeschool mom (not counting all those wonderful preschool years). Last year was just hard I think because the kids weren't too terribly independent and my 3 little ones made things a little more challenging ;) I truthfully considered sending the kids to school but that thought just kills me. I know there are several parents who don't have a problem with public schools, but I just don't want to send my kids there. The other option would be private schooling but sending 3 kids to that would be very expensive and we are on one income so not the greatest idea. So finally after a lot of praying I decided to hop out of my plan for school and try Abeka online. I needed school to be a little more easier on mommy since I tend to gravitate to more literature based programs that involve a lot of mommy reading ;) So, anyway, you have probably already figured out we are using Abeka for K with my beautiful princess Brie (she insists you call her princess Brie Brie lol). Anyway, since I haven't seen a lot of blogs to show what Abeka streaming is like I thought I would post a little throughout the school year of her progress. I am truthfully very impressed with the program so far.
     I have heard several times people not wanting to do school like this because they are spending so much time on the computer. Yes she is probably on the computer watching 1 1/2 or so a day, but truthfully she is learning so much. As you can see it is not strictly on the computer work she is doing. There are several worksheets they do together. Here is her doing the cursive little e. I confess that handwriting is not my strong point in teaching. This program is great at explaining how to hold your pencil and the proper strokes and they repeat it over and over again. I have a feeling that by the end of the year she will have beautiful handwriting. So far she has learned how to write a cursive i, u, and e.  
     Along with learning how to read and write and of course math, there are little fun games and songs she is learning as well. I confess I am not good with memory work but she has already started memorizing several songs, a poem, the Lord's Prayer, the pledge, and another memory verse. She probably has done more but she is getting good at watching and following instrutions so I am not always watching with her and miss some things. I do try to stay close during her lessons to assist her, but there are times when little Nick or Tony Jr need help and I am able to help them without distracting her ;) Thank you Lord for that!!!
     Another plus is they have art time every once in a while and she is learning to draw. I can't draw so it is nice that there is a little instruction on that...if she needs more help there I am thankful that my 2nd DD is a little artist so she can help her there. So finally, I thought I would post a little of her favorite work from these first two weeks that she has put up on the fridge. There is a lot more but she puts those in her room ;)
    So, next week will be my last week with just schooling her so you will get to see what my big kids are up to using My Father's World :)