Springs of Joy Homeschooling

We've been in quite a nice rhythm over the past few weeks. I've recently started a new house cleaning schedule (isn't it fun to keep searching for the perfect system that will transform you into this amazing domestic goddess??). Anyways, I got it from motivatedmoms.com and I have been enjoying the short list of daily chores I am supposed to do each day. I have found it much more manageable than flylady. If you go here you can download her 2002 schedule for free, or you can pay a small amount to get her current year's lists.
We have also been making it to daily mass again each morning at 8am. An early hour to be sure, but such a grace-filled way to start the day. When we get home, we're already in the right frame of mind to focus on school work for a few hours.

We've been busy learning how to tell time in math, and how to find the area of a rectangle or square through skip counting. In our Language Arts program (SWR), we've been busy practicing cursive (she's getting so good!), spelling, and reading through our weekly lists. I have really fallen in love with this program!! The author suggests that instead of frustrating a child by presenting them with an entire page full of words they have to slowly decode and understand (i.e. a book), why not start with mastering individual words first so they become easy and almost automatic before embarking on reading in books. That way, 'reading' doesn't become a battleground. She doesn't actually think she's reading when she's only reading me a word at a time.

Father's day this weekend was lovely for us. All of the father's in our family were out of town, except my darling husband, so we had a nice quiet day together. First the kids and I got up early to make daddy breakfast in bed (waffles... what fun to make!!), and then we went off to mass as usual. After that, we packed a picnic lunch and went for a nice afternoon at Bowness Park, and finished off the day with an ice cream cone.