What happened to the Reports

I know it has been a long time since I actually reported on what we were doing as far as school work around here. There is good reason.... we haven't been all that focused on school work the last few weeks. After Thanksgiving it has been really hard to get back into the groove of doing school for some reason.

These were an art project done at co-op this past week.

Now, this doesn't mean we are sitting around doing nothing every day because, my goodness, are we busy. But busy doing what?  The answer to that question is one I really need to work out! I have our monthly meeting with the Charter School's ES next week and I have to turn in a report about what we covered for the month of December.

Honestly for the last few weeks I have thought it was a good day if

1. my kids and I read scripture every day. (We are finishing up the Book of Mormon at the moment. We should be done by the end of the year!)

2. They each wrote a page or so in their journals (I assign a topic and they write a few sentences, paragraphs or even a few pages.) Topics include "How to cook a Sunnyside up egg", "Our trip to see the Nutcracker", "creche exhibit", "Bethlehem", or favorite Holiday foods, songs etc. They are getting pretty good at writing these quickly and without complaints.

3. They practice piano. Supposedly this is daily but it sort of falls apart on weekends.

4. They do some SSR (Silent Sustained Reading). This is any book they choose but if they complain or can't decide on a book I assign them. I have been assigning The Wright on Time series for Ian lately since he usually asks me to find him a book. He enjoyed the first two and is working on the third. Henry has been picking up a few Batman (DC Super Heroes) books from the library. Both boys are  also trying really hard to make their way through the 5th Harry Potter book. Sophie reads everything she that crosses her path.

Somehow science, history, latin, grammar and all those other subjects just haven't fit into our schedules a whole lot.

Now I do have a little science and history to report. But really the only reason we have fit in any The Story of the World or Astronomy is because I know I have to have something to report. But both of those subject have been very minimal but at least we did get them in once or twice over the past few weeks,  so I can claim them.

We have listened to a number of Audio books too. My kids love audio books! They love them in the car and can't seem to get out legos without a book to listen to as well.

We listened to A World Without Heroes (Beyonders) by Brandon Mull, Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling and are currently working through the 12 disks of The Mark of Athena ( by Rick Riordan. We have the next Alcatraz book waiting for its turn next.

We have read a lot of Christmas picture books too but I can't really claim those as school especially on a report to the Charter School. They are very particular about keeping everything Christian out. I just don't report such things. It certainly doesn't stop us from including Christian books and subject into our schooling.

We also learned about Handel. We listened to The Story Of Handel and read the Venezia biography of George Handel . So I guess we can count those as school work. But I better not mention that we also listened to the Messiah .

I guess I could report a trip to see the Nutcracker. That is a great field trip!

Sophie finished up her Beautiful Girlhood class. She loved it. I have signed her up for three classes next term. Ian is going to be taking two. Online classes are great and deserve a post all their own.

Sophie also has been doing a lot of pottery. She has all sorts of pots, plates and even a few mugs to show for her hard work.

Then there is also co-op each week. The kids are doing some creative writing, a little art appreciation, a lot of chess and other game play, and tons of singing. In fact they have learned a lot of great holiday songs and are singing at a number of nursing homes this holiday season.

They all have piano and the boys are doing gymnastics too. So there is certainly plenty to keep us busy.  But it all should end this week. We will actually get a little time off before classes start up again in January.

But I guess there is enough to report on to my ES so I don't feel like a total slacker!