On Monday, J started a new book, "The 5 People You Meet in Heaven". W read Morris the Moose to me, which was amazing. I still can't believe how his reading took off when we cut out most of the phonics games, books, and websites. He does use phonics after staring at an unfamiliar words for 10 seconds, though, but attempting to teach him more will just go right out the other ear. I absolutely LOVE listening to him read.

Both kids went on to copywork after reading. J copied half of a huge passage from Shakespeare's As You Like It and W copied a few sentences from a new Frog and Toad book. Then J did another math lesson in Teaching Texbooks (with her earphones in) and I sat with W to do math workbook games. He loves "greater than, less than, and equal to". I learned inequalities in about 3rd grade and never learned to use the correct sign until high school. He picked it up immediately and sped through 3 pages of exercises (like 20 to a page!). After about 20 minutes of math, J did some spelling in a workbook and W went to lie down since he was getting sniffy and sneezy.

They were very happy with all they'd got done. They do prefer a weekly schedule with their mornings full of academic learning. Maybe J's just got used to it from spending 4.5 years of her life in school. W just goes along with whatever she does. Well, we will keep at it this way until they're ready to change things up.

Tuesday they turned off the tv and asked if we could start. I grabbed a history book and read to them about the first colonists, Roanoke, Jamestown, Sir Walter Raleigh, England, and John Smith. J grabbed a notebook and wanted to take notes on it all. W also got out his pen and paper, but prefered following along with the flippy atlas map we have of the eastern states. They love American History. I'm going to pick up more art supplies this week so they can make projects on the history (and world history and science) that we go over. W enjoys the hands-on stuff more and J learns better when creativity is involved.

Their schedule is still a work in progress. And life will get in the way of it sometimes and that's ok.