Oops!

I loaded up with Miss Pink and Miss Purple this morning to make the 3 hour drive to my brand new nephew, but the car wouldn't start. I've suspected the starter was going for a few weeks, but this morning it completely gave up. So, I'm house bound until Daddy gets it or the van fixed.

When we moved back to this state 3 years ago, we knew we would be in a rental for about a year before moving into this house. Instead of unpacking everything in the rental, we loaded up the barn with things that weren't in use at the time. Fast forward 3 years, and now we'd really like to use the barn as, well, a barn. So, today we went out and filled up the truck bed with boxes to sort through. There's lots more to go through, but this made a good start on it.

We found the greatest stuff, including some of the kids most loved toys, i.e. dress-up clothes. My greatest find though was all the school supplies! I found my missing Story of the World 4 cd set, unopened. I've since bought the mp3s, so I guess I can put this one up for sale. I found a lot of Bob Books, which are perfect for Mr. Yellow in the next few months. We also found a lot of Peg Puzzles, which Baby Orange is loving. He puts a piece in and claps for himself. The greatest part is he claps whether he gets it in or not. It's just hilarious and adorable. Mr. Yellow is also liking the alphabet puzzles we pulled out. We discovered duplicates of the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History and the Usborne Internet Linked Science Encyclopedia. These were put away before I cataloged our books in the rental, which reminds me I need to update those records. This just scratches the surface of the great stuff we found. Most of what I'm excited about is for Mr. Yellow's kindergarten year. He's starting to show signs of reading readiness. It's such an exciting time! More on his plans later though. For now here's Miss Purple's list.

Song School Latin We've used this before, with Miss Pink. She enjoyed it, and I imagine Miss Purple will as well. We love the songs!

Math Mammoth 1A She's nearly done with this, so we'll soon move on to 1B. I haven't done well making sure facts are memorized, so I need to add some drill work.

Miquon Orange I used Miquon when Miss Green was 4. I pushed a little too much and we both ended up hating it. However, I scored this for free when CurrClick had an Easter giveaway. I printed out the pages that use Cuisenaire rods, (another find in the barn) and have her working 1 or 2 a day. I've seen her make connections that weren't there before, so I think I'm going to buy the Red book and continue in the same way.

Writing With Ease 1 I would say how wonderful this is, but I think I'd be repeating myself. One thing I don't think I've mentioned is how this series piques their interest in some classic books. We've gotten a lot of library books after using passages from them for narration and dictation.

First Language Lessons 1

She's loving the poetry memorization. I've typed in some of the definitions, which we'll start doing as copywork soon. I use StartWrite for that, which is quite handy. I can easily print out different fonts for different kids.

Handwriting Skills Simplified Level B Her letter shapes are pretty good, but she doesn't know how to use the lines yet. I'm hoping this will help that issue.