School Year 2015/2016 Plans

Our first day of school is on July 1st. We school year round and that is when the government requires me to report for Lydia, so it works out nicely for us. I have mostly finalized our upcoming plans for the year. Lydia will be a 1st/2nd grader (I haven't decided which), Eleanor is legally a preschooler because of her birthday cutoff but for our purposes she is more a kindergartner, and Adelaide won't be doing much school this year, at least not until the Spring, when I will maybe start reading and math with her.

All three girls will be taking classes at a local homeschool co-op for two hours a week this fall. Our main goal is to get them out to meet people and enjoy themselves, but also experience a classroom environment and another teacher besides me. We did not choose these classes based on their academic needs. Adelaide and Eleanor will both be in a preschool class together, which will be below Eleanor's level academically but that I'm sure she'll enjoy anyways. She missed the birthday cutoff for the more advanced classes. Lydia will be taking 2 classes. The first is called Stories and Art and the second will be working from the curriculum Five in a Row. They are both classes where there will be a book and a project related to the book, which I think she will really enjoy. Crafts are not my strong point, so outsourcing them is a bonus for me too!

We do lots of little extras just through our daily lives. We have passes to a science museum with a zoo and aquarium and regularly take advantage of it. The girls also listen to tons of audio books at bedtime. So this is by no means a comprehensive list of everything we'll do, but it is the most formal.

Plans for Lydia:
Math: Last year we started math with Saxon. In theory it worked well for her, but the program itself was taking us almost 2 hours a day, which was just too much. After a few months, I switched over to Christian Light Education math which had all the benefits of Saxon without the downsides for us. As a result of her late start with it, though, she hasn't quite finished Grade 1 math. So she'll finish that up and then start Grade 2.

Language Arts: Lydia finished Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading last year, so for reading I assign her reading for 20 minutes. A few times a week I have her read out loud to me from a leveled old fashioned reader like the Treadwell Readers to catch any mistakes she might be making. She reads a lot on her own as well, so at this point, I'm not too worried about her reading and her writing program covers comprehension. She didn't finish Writing With Ease Level 1, so she'll finish that up and then we'll likely start Writing With Ease Level 2. She finished First Language Lessons Level 1 and will doing Level 2. Her grammar at this point is learning basic grammar terms and memorizing lists of things like pronouns. I bought the First Language Lessons Audio Companion to help with that memorization that we'll be listening to in the car. We also analyze her sentences for WWE, which she really seems to enjoy and we'll keep up. For spelling, she'll continue with All About Spelling Level 2 and then move on to Level 3 when she finishes it.

History: This will be our first year doing deliberate history. She and Eleanor will both be doing Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancients. They've listened to the audio book many times at bedtime, but we'll be going through it together coupled with books from the library and some suggestions from the accompanying activity book. She is also working through Evan Moor Beginning Geography, which she seems to really enjoy.

Science: This last year was the year of human anatomy. We finished the girls' MyBodys, but we really never did Beginning Foundations of Scientific Understanding like I planned. They got a lot out of it, so I don't regret this last year, but I think we'll try more formality this year. We'll go through the first 12 lessons in BFSU as a family with Eleanor (and Adelaide if she wants) participating.


Plans for Eleanor:
Math: Eleanor did an awesome job last year. She finished Essential Math A&B and also Miquon Orange. She seems to have a good grasp on math so far and is thriving in the more experimental, puzzle-type of math that I'm introducing her to. She just started Miquon Red and Mathematics Enhancement Programme Year 1. Miquon Orange and Red together make up a first grade math and MEP Year 1 is also a first grade math, so she is solidly working at that level. If she finishes Miquon Red, we'll start on Miquon Blue. The jury is still out on whether we will continue MEP, but so far it has been a success for her, so I don't foresee changing soon. For some reason, Math Mammoth just didn't seem quite right for her. At some point, I might add in a word problem book, but we'll see.

Language Arts: She will continue working through Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. She seems to really enjoy reading and spends a lot of time reading beginning readers on her own. I expect that she'll be able to move from the sounding out every word stage this year, and if that happens, I'll start her on All About Spelling Level 1. She is also working through Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten (and doing handwriting apps on the iPad) and when she finishes that she'll start on Writing With Ease Level 1. I don't know that I'll do formal grammar with her this year, but she'll be listening to Lydia's grammar and the CD in our car, so I bet she'll pick most of it up on her own anyways.

History/Science: She'll be tagging along with Lydia for these with the exception of geography. We'll probably wait a year for that simply because of the reading skills required.


Plans for Adelaide:
Since Adelaide won't be four until almost the end of the school year, I have no formal plans for her at this point. Mostly I have her working on iPad apps to learn her letter sounds and beginning blending. I assume that I'll start reading with her sometime after Christmas. She has already expressed that she wishes I would teach her, but she just isn't ready yet. I'll probably start her on math around the same time as well.

May Report

I'm not sure what month of school this is, but since I'm trying to be good about blogging again, I thought I'd do a report for the month!

May was an eventful month for us, mostly in the form of news. Tyler took and found out he passed his Step 3 exam. This means that he is now a licensed physician! He still has to finish residency (2 more year) and then hopefully a fellowship (3 more years) and pass the boards for both of those, but it is still a major accomplishment.

We also found out some health news about Lydia that will affect her for the rest of her life and is a big deal, although nothing life-threatening. We will be in and out of doctors offices for the next few months as they do a bunch of tests related to it. This diagnoses has been difficult for all of us to deal with, but we're doing ok. If you are family or friends and want more information, send me a message and I'll tell you about it.

In other news, we bought a small above-ground pool on a whim. A goal I had for the summer was to get my girls more comfortable in the water and hopefully teach the older 2 how to swim. This was a tall order for 3 little girls that spend their pool time sitting on the stairs. When I saw this pool online, I knew it would be perfect for us. In fact, the older two girls are swimming in it right now.

This month was an awesome school month. We got a lot done and the girls worked hard.

Math:
Lydia is almost finished with Light Unit 106 (she finished 101-105 and there are 10 altogether in her level). She has been doing a great job on her tests and quizzes and is learning her math facts very well.

Eleanor started MEP 1 and is doing well with it. It has things that are very easy for her and things that are quite challenging for her. One question that challenged her was a picture of 6 sailboats with a flag, sail, and hull. She was told to color them yellow, red, and blue, but not to make any of them exactly the same.The lessons so far have been very short, so she is still working her way through Miquon Orange. She has been working on simple multiplication and fractions in Miquon and doing a great job.

Reading:
Lydia has been really into Clifford lately and we've checked out almost all of the Clifford books the library has. She reads them during school time but she can often be found reading them throughout the day. On a friend's recommendation, I also got her Princess in Black which is technically a chapter book but has very large print and pictures on every page. She read it in a day. I'm finding that the "leaving books laying around the house" method is working pretty well for her. She is also reading from the Treadwell reader a few times a week so I can check up on her and catch any reading mistakes she might be making.

Eleanor is halfway through lesson 61 in OPGTR. It takes her 2 or 3 days to get through a lesson, mostly because she still has to sound out every word, but she's getting there. She also likes to read the BOB books and Nora Gaydos readers we have in her spare time.

Everything Else:
Everything else is mostly do the next thing and we continue to power through.

Martha Wins a Race

Lately, Lydia has been making lots of little illustrated books and having me staple them together. Most of them are based off characters she knows, although she does have a few original characters that are regulars in her stories as well. After listening to the Brave Writer podcast, I knew the Brave Writer style of teaching writing wasn't for me, but there was one suggestion I liked for Lydia's age. They say it is good to scribe the children's stories for them. It helps make writing seem more fun, and it helps them "write" much more complicated stories than they might be able to with their limited penmanship skills.

I decided to record one of Lydia's stories today and then I typed it up. Lydia was absolutely thrilled about this entire process and wants me to do it for all her other stories (which I'm not sure I can because she makes up like 3 or 4 a day!) This story is based on Martha the dog from Martha speaks. Martha's character in the show ate a bowl of alphabet soup, so now she can talk and go on lots of adventures.

Martha Wins a Race

by Lydia

We have lots of adventures together. I have lots of adventures with my speaking dog Martha. I took Martha for a walk one day, but today Martha said, “Let’s Go!” and I attached her leash. She ate her alphabet soup and we were ready to go. “I’m going to win,” she said, so we came to a contest with dogs.

Skits raced against a dog named Martha. The dogs were competing in pairs. The zig-zagging trick was first. The dogs had to zig-zag through the flags during it. Martha was good at that trick. “Go Martha! Go Martha!” I cheered. She was really fast, but for the next trick the dogs had to go over a ramp and through a tunnel. It was Skits’ turn now. Skits was fast too, but he didn’t do that trick right. Martha got ten points. Skits got four.

The next trick was easy for Martha, but not for Skits. The flying saucer trick was next. The dogs had to chase the saucer and jump high to catch it. But Martha was good at that trick, too. “Yay Martha!” I screamed. Skits was not good at that trick. Ten more points for Martha, but Skits had one more chance.

That trick looked the hardest of all. The dogs had to go down that slide and make a big splash, but Skits knew he could do this one. But the contest wasn’t over yet. The end result was that Skits did not win the contest. Martha did. “I won!” she said when she grabbed her award. The award was a trophy with no handles. She was a super dog now. Skits did not win the contest, but he’d always been a dog champion.

~The End~

What We've Been Up To

Well, I sort of stopped bloggging for a bit, but I've been wanting to get back into it, if only for the personal accountability.

A few highlights of the last few months:

Thanksgiving, Daddy had to work so I took the girls last minute to Texas to visit my parents.

Helping Grandpa decorate their Christmas Tree

Christmas was fun, although Daddy had to stay in North Carolina and work again while the rest of us went to visit family in Arkansas.

Cooking with Grandma at Christmas

We also got to see Tyler's sister get married in Las Vegas right after Christmas.

After that trip, we were a bit tired.  Then in February, everyone got sick several times for pretty much the whole month, even Daddy.  And our heat went out downstairs for almost 2 weeks, so we were stuck in our rooms upstairs. Between the two, almost no school got done for the entire month.

March was uneventful and we spent most of the month just enjoying the nice weather and working on our yard.

April was fun. Tyler had a week off and we spent a few days in Washington, DC. We were able to visit a bunch of family and see the sights. I've never really "done" Washington, DC, so I was especially looking forward to the trip. We saw the Natural History and Air and Space Smithsonian Museums and the National Zoo.

Lydia watching the panda playing

They were getting grumpy by the last day. This was the best we could get in front of the Lincoln Memorial

At the end of April, we were able to go to Kansas City and Arkansas to see another one of Tyler's sister's get married.

Our girls don't much like posing for family pictures.

So far in May we were able to go pick strawberries.

Overall, I'd say we've had a good year so far. As for academics, Lydia and Eleanor seem to be progressing nicely...

Math:

In Math, Lydia is doing very well with CLE. It is the perfect fit for her right now and for the foreseeable future. She is on lesson 101, and while I don't think she will finish it before July (which is the beginning of our new year), she won't be too far behind considering we spent the first few months of school doing Saxon and started this one late. 

Eleanor is doing really well with math. She just finished Essential Math B, meaning she is officially done with Kindergarten math and we will be starting 1st grade math in the next few days. I've given it a lot of thought and am going to try Eleanor with the Mathematics Enhancement Programme Year 1. It is a British program that is free online, but I'm using it because it is a really solid, deep program unlike anything I've ever seen. I've never used it before, so I'm going to give it a trial run and see if it is a good fit. If that doesn't work, we'll probably try Math Mammoth, which I have already on hand.  Eleanor is also doing well with Miquon and is almost done with the first level (orange). I plan to continue with it as well and move her to level 2 (red) when she finishes it in the next few weeks.

Reading:

Lydia reads for 20 minutes every day from library books during mandatory reading time, although she reads many other books throughout the day. Even though her reading level and fluency is quite high, she really doesn't like reading chapter books yet and prefers picture books. Too many words on a page overwhelm her still. So for now, she is reading mostly picture books and higher leveled readers. I also have her read to me every day so I can make sure she doesn't forget her phonics. For that I am using the old vintage Treadwell Readers (sort of like the McGuffey readers pioneers used, but I like these better). She has been enjoying the stories and illustrations, and the way they are typed out isn't intimidating to her. This is a fairly recent change in our routine, so we are only about a third of the way through the first reader. At this point, I plan on having her go through all of them until she hits a road block.

Eleanor is doing well with OPGTR. She is on lesson 58 and is learning about her first digraphs like "sh" and "ch". Today she read the sentence, "The dog will catch the stick and bring it back." just to give you an idea of where she is (approximately a mid-first grade level).

Language Arts:

Lydia is still working on the same levels she was in writing, grammar, and spelling. She's powering through.

Eleanor finished her PreK handwriting book and has started HWT Kindergarten. She is very excited to learn how to write and copies lots of what she sees, even if she can't read it. My favorite was a few days ago when she copied "Disney. Made in China." from the back of one of her toys.

Geography:

I recently started Lydia on Evan-Moor Beginning Geography. I thought she would enjoy it and maybe learn a few valuable skills. So far I am correct. It is painless and she has fun doing her one page a day of geography.  Eleanor wants to do it too, but I'm making her wait until she can read a little better.

I'm in the midst of planning for next year since we are only about a month and a half away. It isn't going to be very complicated as we will mostly be continuing what we are already doing, but I will be doing more science and history now. I also plan to make memorization a larger priority this year, so will be working on that. I'll be doing a post on our plans in the next few weeks.

Months 4 & 5 Review

I forgot to do a review of our progress for September, and by the time I got around to it, I was halfway through the month of October and decided to just wait and do two months worth at once.  First, the extracurricular things.

We have been very busy.  In September we visited a butterfly farm.  It was really cute and the girls enjoyed letting the butterflies sit on their fingers.  There was also a little presentation about butterflies which set the girls on a butterfly information binge that we are still working on.

I caught Lydia reading her sisters a family favorite all on their own.  I love to see times like this.

For dress like a pirate day, we went to Krispy Kreme and got 2 dozen free donuts.  Two instead of 3 because Adelaide didn't want to be a pirate, only a bunny and for some reason that didn't count.

A few weeks ago, Tyler had a week vacation and we had a blast exploring our new area.  There are many things to see and do within an hour or two of our new home.  One of our favorite things was exploring Hanging Rock State Park.  There were many beautiful waterfalls and the girls were champs at hiking.  Eleanor, especially, would have gone miles and miles.

Dad with the girls behind a waterfall

Eleanor and Dad seeing a waterfall on their own without the rest of us because we were too tired after a full day of hiking.

Lydia looking at our first waterfall.

We spent a day at a nearby city park that had a carousel and train.  We got passes and rode them many times.  We also rented a canoe and Dad took the girls out on a really pretty lake for their first rides on a canoe.  

Eleanor on the carousel.

Dad and Adelaide on the train.

We also explored the traditional English gardens at Reynolda Gardens.  It was a fun morning and really pretty place.  The girls enjoyed frolicking in the garden.  They literally frolicked, but it was good to see.  We'll go back sometime, I think.

Our last family activity was to visit Old Salem.  This was probably the biggest bust, simply because the girls are a little small to enjoy the history aspect, although they did enjoy a lot of the more hands-on elements.  They enjoyed a puppet show, running the cider press, and the water pump.

Adelaide liked pumping water.

We had a fun Halloween.  Daddy had to leave to go to work at 7, so he took the girls out for a little early trick-or-treating and then we handed candy out to the kids who came by.

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Now for our school report:

Math:

Lydia had started fighting me on math and I was getting sick of how much time it took and decided that although it worked fairly well, we needed something more streamlined.  I switched Lydia over to Christian Light Education Math.  By all accounts, it was supposed to have all the pros of Saxon but be more streamlined, and this is exactly what I have found it to be.  It is a Mennonite math program and I am LOVING it.  We doubled up on the first several lessons in an effort to catch up since she was starting late and now our lessons are taking about a half hour a day.  She has completed through Lesson 32.  There are many more lessons in CLE than there were in Saxon in a given year, so we will be doing math most days, even when we don't do other school in an effort to get it done before next year.

Eleanor finished Essential Math A a while ago and is now well into B.  She is on page 64 (out of 158).  She is doing an amazing job and I'm already looking towards what she will do once she finishes.  She is also doing a great job with Miquon.  She is almost halfway through Miquon Orange.  I think I will try to introduce more math games rather than just worksheets in an effort to slow her down and help her have a deeper understanding of math.

Reading:

Lydia finished OPGTR!  This was a major milestone.  We've been working on OPGTR since Lydia turned 4 years old and she went from not being able to blend two-letter words to now being able read fluently on about a 4th grade level.  She also finished her first chapter book, The Boxcar Children, and is halfway through Sarah, Plain, and Tall.  I found this reading list by Mensa and have decided to have Lydia work through it.  She has also started Book-It again and I'm struggling to figure out goals for her.  I'll just have to think on it.

Eleanor is on Lesson 46 in OPGTR.  She has moved from CVC words to simple blends.  She is doing a great job with it too.  She enjoys reading Bob books and has finished the first 8.

Language Arts:

Month 3 Review

August...didn't go very well school-wise.  I just really wasn't on the ball and fell short of most of my goals for the month.  The good news is, I had built in enough extra so that I had a buffer.  The bad news is that I no longer have a buffer.  But I'm feeling a renewed sense of dedication and I think that September will be awesome.  August just had a lot of little things happen that got the better of me.  First was Lydia's birthday!

Sorry the picture is a bit blurry.  My phone has been doing that lately and I don't know how to fix it.  And yes, she was wearing her favorite Thomas PJ's and yes, she got a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Lego set.  She has played with it daily since and really enjoys it.  Our family rule is that birthdays are school holidays, so we didn't do any school that day.  We had to open her presents first thing in the morning so that Daddy could be there.

We also dealt with Tyler's Jeep breaking down beyond what was worth repairing, and we decided to buy on of my in-law's cars to replace it.  I had to fly to Arkansas and drive it back, all in a 36 hour period so that Tyler could go to work.  My flight was delayed by several hours and I ended up driving mostly through the night (it is a 16 hour drive).  I slept for a few hours in the car at a rest stop, but mostly relied on caffeine to get me home.  I made it home with one hour to spare.  It took a few days for me to recover from that experience.

This month was also the first day back to school for the local schools and the first day of what would have been Lydia's very first day of school if we were sending her.  It was sort of weird for me, and it in a way, it has helped me take school more seriously because I think about the fact that she would be in school if I wasn't doing this, so I should make sure to do a good job.

I took this during what would have been her first day of school ever.

Math:
Lydia finished through lesson 38 in Saxon, which is 29% of the way through.  Not as far ahead as I would like, but still on track.  She is still excelling at it.  We've started doing addition facts and the ones we've done so far she really has down pat (doubles and +1).  She's also doing well with her worksheets and tests, almost always getting 100%.  Saxon takes FOREVER to complete (I'm talking an hour and 15 minutes or so a day), which is a lot for a 1st grader, but the variation within it keeps her interested.  We do a homework page, then review her math facts, then do calendar, counting, pattern, and money jar, then the day's lesson, then a math facts sheet, then the worksheet for the day.  So it isn't the same thing the whole time.  Math isn't her most favorite thing ever, but she doesn't really whine about it and it really seems to be working for her.

Eleanor really likes when we do math.  She really wants to keep working through Essential Math A, so we've been doing that.  I think she likes the pictures.  We also do a page of Miquon each day we do math and she really seems to be getting it.  We started on some of the addition pages, specifically the ones where she has to figure out all the ways to "make" 5 or 7 or whatever number.  She really likes these.  She's almost done with Essential Math A, so we'll probably move to B as soon as that happens, but we'll continue with Miquon.


Reading:
Lydia has finished through Lesson 208 in OPGTR.  She is working on three-syllable words now and is doing pretty well with it.  I've also started being more consistent in having assigned reading time.  I'm still working out how to best do that.  I tried just setting a timer, but she just played with the book.  Now I'm sitting with her while she reads to me.  I'd like to wean her off that though and be able to have her read by herself for a set amount of time, but she is still young and we'll get there.  Currently she is reading the first Boxcar Children book to me, a favorite of mine from when I was little.

Eleanor has been doing ok.  She still gets frustrated with reading very easily and since she's three, I'm letting her veto when we do school.  When she's 4 she doesn't get that choice, but everything right now is informal.  Her birthday is in a few weeks, so she better live it up while she can.  She is through lesson 34 in OPGTR.  She's still working on basic cvc words and just read her first BOB book, which she was very proud of.


Language Arts:
Writing With Ease is still going well and Lydia completed through Week 9, Day 3, which is the same as 39 days.  She enjoys it and I can see some improvement in her ability to answer my questions and give a narration.  She also likes the variety of stories.

Lydia also completed through lesson 35 in First Language Lessons, which has mostly covered proper vs. common nouns so far.  She has the definition of a noun down pat, but she still struggles to identify common or proper nouns.  I'm not sure how much of that is lack of understanding and how much is carelessness in answering, but we'll probably take a little break before FLL moves on to something else to solidify it a little better.

Lesson 23 of All About Spelling has been tricky for Lydia.  The lesson itself wasn't that hard and she actually understood it well (s or es to make a word plural).  But the fact that some of the other rules are starting to be used in her new words is tripping her up.  She has to remember that in a one syllable, short vowel word that ends in f, l, or s, they are doubled.  She knows this rule but almost always forgets it until I point it out.  This is just an example, but one of her more common mistakes.  That, combined with the fact that we can only do about 10 words a day before she gets frustrated means that Lesson 23 has been slow going.  But I think it has also been very good for her.  I want her to learn to spell, not finish the curriculum quickly, so we are taking our time.

Eleanor has been enjoying handwriting a lot lately.  She writes her own name all the time and tries to write her family's name as well.  She has only formally learned a few letters so far, but that hasn't stopped her.  I think I need to speed her up in handwriting, if only because she really wants to write letters.


Science:
We added a uterus and muscles to their bodies.  The girls were fascinated by the uterus and the fact that only girls have them.  They both talk about that a lot.  We'll work on the digestive system soon, which I think will be another favorite.

Month 2 Review

Watching a video of the CC timeline while I get lunch ready.

This month was a little more productive than last month, although not a bunch more.  Eleanor has started doing more official schooly things, although I still give her power to overrule me until she is 4, which isn't for a few more months.  She wants to do school almost every time I ask, though, so she's doing pretty well too.

Math:
Lydia completed 15 lessons in Saxon, which puts her at 22% of the way through, which is still ahead of where we need to be right now.  She's building a nice little cushion for later if she struggles with a concept or if we take a break.  Saxon is still going wonderfully for her.

Eleanor started Miquon.  She completed 16 pages of Miquon Orange and did math on 9 days.  Since Miquon Orange and Red together are a first grade math program, I have no particularly strong goals for her to finish at any time soon.  I guess a tentative goal would be to finish Orange by next year, which is 126 pages, but I won't push it.  So far she really likes it but I see us mixing it up with other sources as well in the future.


Reading:
Lydia did formal reading lessons and formal extra reading 9 days last month.  I would like to do better with it this next month, but she's still fine.  She spends a lot of her own time reading too, so she is still getting practice. (As I'm typing this I can hear her reading the Frozen golden book to herself, for example)

Eleanor started OPGTR!  All that time with the HOP app really helped and her blending is much improved and she was definitely ready to start.  She finished through Lesson 33 and did formal reading lessons 8 days in July.

I did read alouds 6 days last month, including reading the entire first Bone book, which they enjoyed a lot, especially Eleanor.  I picked up the whole set on a whim at a consignment sale a while back and haven't red them, although Tyler had.  I thought they might enjoy a graphic novel format, although I will say it is sort of tricky as a read aloud.  They are begging me to start the next one.  We also continue to do daily family scripture study and the girls listen to an audio book for 2 hours or so every night in bed.  Lately we've been rotating Story of the World 1&2, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, How to Train Your Dragon, The Complete Winnie the Pooh, the Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter, The Wizard of Oz, Little House in the Big Woods, and Paddington Bear.  Can you tell we love audio books?

Lydia's most recent narration.  She insisted on copying it herself.

Writing:
As I planned, I tried to kick up writing this month.  Lydia completed 14 days of writing putting her in the middle of Week 7 in Writing With Ease.  She is enjoying it a lot and even does extra copywork for it by her own insistence.  She is getting better at answering the comprehension questions and she is starting to write a little quicker as well.  This puts us at 18% of the way through the program which is a little bit ahead of where we need to be.


Grammar:
We did 12 days of grammar and Lydia has finished through lesson 26 in First Language Lessons.  I am almost certain we'll start doing level 2 this year because there are only 100 lessons total in level 1.  We are definitely ahead.  I think Lydia likes it too because it is the first language arts that she always picks to do, although this may have to do with the fact that there is almost no writing.

Science:
We did science 4 days this month, so better than last month but still not great.  Maybe upping this should be my goal, although one of those 4 days was a "science" day where we only watched science shows, went to the science museum, watched a planetarium show, and worked on their MyBodies.  The girls have also watched the first season of Zula Patrol one and a half times while in the car.  They are enjoying it and we have been having lots of impromptu science discussions as a result.