Our First "Semester" and a few Christmas pictures

Technically, the first half of our school year is over even though I'm not quite as far along as I had hoped we'd be. It doesn't help that we took most of November and December off. I've been reading some end of year recaps on other blogs, some are ahead of schedule, some are behind but the most important thing is that everyone is on the same page with learning and working at their ability level, that our kiddos are enjoying learning and thriving. I am not discouraged by not being where I had planned. I am just going to reevaluate and make changes where they are needed.

Playing with new Legos, Christmas morning.

I have plans to speed up the lessons in My Father's World, finishing them in 2-3 days rather than 4-5. Joshua is really enjoying the reading (out-loud and learning to read), writing and anything artistic or crafty. {I wonder where he got that from.} We will be starting Explode the Code Book 1 this week as well as ETC Online. I ordered Learning Palettes for math and reading from Usborne and both boys are enjoying those already. Joshua (and mom, too) have been challenged by Math-U-See and I won't be using it again next year. I am trying to finish it but if the fighting continues I will be looking into other options.

Joshua showing off his "Cars" Christmas shirt.

Nikolas is doing well with preschool activities. He knows all his letters and can count to 20. His "L"s still sound like "W"s but I know that will happen in time. He loves to listen to books and especially likes having Joshua "read" to him. He is my littler gamer nerd. He loves anything Sonic or Mario Brothers. We got them an XBox 360 with Kinect for Christmas with some games to get them active and I'm hoping to work that into school.

Nikolas with his "Crayola Story Studio".

I am starting college next month and have been looking into curriculum for next year that will require less planning time. I have prayed about it and read about and asked questions about it until I went completely cross-eyed. But I have decided to switch to Sonlight. I will be able to use a Core program for both boys and then individual language arts and math. And everything will be planned for me. Normally I am a great planner and organizer but with full-time school also on my plate I figured this would be a good place to trim some time. I love the readers and curriculum that Sonlight offers and I am really looking forward to making the switch in the summer. Only seven months to go. 

Checking out a new monster truck.