Apparently we're on a break

From homeschooling, that is. December is insanely busy for us and I would rather spend the time baking or doing other things with the kids. I'd rather sleep more too, but that doesn't really factor into the homeschooling time!

So, the semester in review:

Rachel can read, and more than that, she understand what she's reading. She flew through 2 phonics workbooks and is now very confident about long and short vowels, as well as basic blends. She has been doing some "reading comprehension" and if the cover of the book is to be believed, she finished a Grade 2 level book in a whopping 2 weeks or so. Yes, I'm bragging. I get to do that in my blog! Her printing is getting better, and she is starting to figure out how words are spelled using her new phonics skills.

Rachel also finished up a little book on "map skills", where she learned about directions, legends, and other stuff that I can't remember. This was apparently a hit since she has asked me several times if we can get another map skills workbook.

She's been working her way through a Grade 1 math book but we're temporarily stalled at subtraction facts up to 10. She can do them, but it's not intuitive the way the adding has been, so I think we'll go back and do some review. I need to go back and look at the Math-U-See curriculum I picked up last year to see if it would be helpful to finish up the Primer level of that or not.

Religious school has gone extremely well this fall. Kindergarten Consecration is next Saturday night and Rachel seems to be pretty excited about it. Her teachers are wonderful - they understand her, and she is able to confidently participate without being pushed too far out of her comfort zone. When the kids acted out the story of Noah's Ark, it was (too) conveniently arranged that Rachel would get to be an elephant. Needless to say, we have no trouble getting her out the door each Sunday morning. (Yes, I am daring to type that for posterity. Someone can throw it in my face in a few years!!)

We've done a few science-y things this fall, but not a lot. I think that I'll try to find some more experiments that we can do in the new year. We've decided to put Anna in preschool two mornings a week starting in January. She will love it, and that will give me some good focused time with Rachel. It will also give me some good, uninterrupted time at the coffee shop with a good book since preschool is on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-12 and Rachel is doing a 7-week art class from 9:30-11 on Tuesdays starting in mid-January! I will fully admit that I'm looking forward to this. While I have no desire to work full time, I have a fairly high need for personal space and "me" time, and that's been difficult to obtain this past semester.

Although Ben will "only" be working full-time out at UCMO in January, his schedule is more scattered. He will be gone from roughly 8-3MWF, 6:30-6 on Tuesdays, and 6:30-3 on Thursdays. So Tuesday does seem like a nice day for some Jane time, wouldn't you say? :)

We're also planning to try Rachel in private swimming lessons in January. She's taken Preschool I about 3-4 times now, and the only thing holding her back is her reluctance to put her head underwater on a regular basis. I can't say that I blame her, but she does need to learn to swim. I'm not concerned about when she learns, but since she's been enjoying her lessons, we might as well keep going.

Anna was attending a gym class at My Gym where we used to take Rachel, but we'll be pulling her out at the end of December. The class time conflicts with preschool, and she also would need to move to a different age group with less convenient times. Ben might take her to a parent and tot gymnastics class at the local rec centre, but that's dependent on me remembering to get up early and register her next Monday morning. I've heard that the spots fill up FAST.

And now I should stop taking a break myself, and get back to the kitchen. Oh wait, I'm in the kitchen. I should step away from the computer and go make the pumpkin pie I've been meaning to make for a few weeks now. Yum!