Donnie is going through the Italic handwriting course, which is going great! I have seen a great improvement in his writing. He is in the third grade, and I never really concentrated too much with him on writing his letters. We did a lot of his work oral up to this point because his writing was so shaky. His letters would come out squiggly. So I figured it was a fine-motor issue.
Well, this year as he was entering 3rd grade, I knew we would have to work and improve on his penmanship because more writing would be required. So, I bought the italic course because it seemed the simplest to do.
I started him out on the first book, the very basic book with just the alphabet. He did a page a day, sometimes two. We made sure he took his time. Sometimes I had him recopy the page on a primary writing pad we had bought some years ago.
He then moved to the second book. And now he is beginning the third book. Even in his everyday writing that he does outside of studies, I can see an improvement.
But as he did his other writing for other subjects on wide [...More]

We are in the process of memorizing this WHOLE chapter. I am guessing it might take us (or me) about a month or so. I am going to shoot for 2-3 verses a week. More if the kids can handle it. Their reward for memorizing this chapter will be a Beanie Baby stuffed animal. They are so into Beanie Babies right now. They are collecting quite a few, most of them bought with their own money or as gifts for Christmas.
Okay, back to 1 Corinthians 13. As we go through each verse, we are also discussing what they mean, looking up words that might not be familiar and sharing how we can apply them to our lives. We just started 3 days ago, and already have the first one memorized.
I do want to find a commentary on this chapter so I can read it and glean from it so I can better answer any questions the kids might have.
I know I memorized most of this verse as a child when I was part of Missionettes. I remember having to replace my name in the place of ‘charity’. I think I will have the kids do this also. Maybe I will [...More]

I wanted to share an update on how we are doing with the Robinson Curriculum which we began early summer 2009.
Pros: Self educating Cost effective Minimal parent preparation for lessons Three subjects Self paced Used with multiple students and multiple grades
Cons: Takes time to print books Takes getting use to, especially if you didn’t begin this way when the kids were young.
This all I can come up with. I think the pros out weight the cons. Most of the books can even be purchased if you prefer that route.
So far we have slowly evolved into a routine that is doable. The kids still have a hard time getting started every day, but we are still working on them being more independent in that area.
One challenge was completing a Saxon math lesson a day. For a few weeks we did half lessons. If their error rate was high, [...More]

I was sharing with my sister the other day on the phone about how my kids enjoy a simple recipe I found on Clara’s site called Pasta with Peas. It is so simple!! I knew the kids would eat it, because they are really good at trying new things that I make, but I didn’t know it would end up being one of their favorites.
When I tell them we are having Pasta with Peas, they get all excited and cannot wait for it to be done. Go figure!! My husband enjoys it too, so that makes it one of our regular, quick recipes.
We have also enjoyed her tradition of having sugar for Sunday breakfast. The kids like this. Clara had sugar cookies, and we have her sugar cookies now and then, but we have extended this to enjoying sticky buns or scones of different types. The kids and I then enjoy these with a cup of tea.
Here is the video of her cooking Pasta with Peas. You can see more on her YouTube Channel.

She even has a book out now!!
I think Clara’s Book and DVD will go great with any Great Depression Unit Study. I have listed [...More]

The kids and I have begun to use English from the Roots Up Vol. 1. Like everything else, I seem to over think things out. Should we copy them to index card? Or maybe just use a notepaper and have them draw a green/red square around the word. Should I just buy the ready-made index cards and have them use those instead of writing them out? Should we do a root a week and a word a day? Ack!!
Well, I decided to have them notebook the roots copying the words and definitions. We might…might add some words of our own. I remember reading in the book that you can look up some additional words in the dictionary. Later on, we might do this also.
I made up notebooking pages for the kids and I to use. One for Greek words, and one for Latin words. We will just color in the border with marker with its respective color. (You can also use crayon or color pencils.) We could have used regular notebook paper, but I didn’t like how it turned out. I thought of gluing on an index card too, but then decided to go with creating the page and printing [...More]