Here we go...

Ready or not, school is back in session. Yikes. I always have such grand plans to accomplish so much during winter break and then BAM, it's over. Shoot. I'm not gonna lie, I was just a wee bit thrilled when our first day of CC was snowed out. Remind me of that in April when we have to tack on another week to everything. Ugh. But it did help us to ease back into schooling a little.

I'm not changing much up this semester at home. T did finish his math book in Dec and started the next one. YAY. I'm still keeping it simple and focusing on the basics for T and P. Everyday, we do Bible (LOVE Draw to Learn still - probably my favorite thing I reviewed last year with TOS!), Math, Spelling, Phonics (for P), Handwriting (another one we continued and love - they do history and math handwriting and I'm definitely seeing improvements), Memory Work and then go deeper in ONE of our memory work subjects. Grammar will start back up next week with Essentials for T and the made up stuff I'm doing for P.

I started this semester really pushing outside reading. Not outdoors reading, it's WAY too cold for that! Just reading outside of school time. I am having them all three keep track of how many minutes a day they read, and they earn a chip for every 10 minutes that they can cash in for electronics time or other fun things. They have gotten majorly hooked on electronics...ipods, ipads, xbox, netflix, etc and it's gotta stop. They pitched a bit of a fit, but so far so good. They are all blowing through books and we have got to get to the library tomorrow for more.

Speaking of the library, I went to reserve some books online and I have $30 in fines. OOPS! No reserving for me! We have two books that were checked out in August that we owe for. One of them I found under the couch when we put up the Christmas tree, but the other is anyone's guess. Gotta go grovel tomorrow and get back in good standing with the library system. Or get a new account with a fake name. Kidding. I'll pay up, but I won't do it happily.

Captain C starts his second semester of Challenge B. He just finished up his science fair project and it looks great. I am SO glad to have that done. Phew! That was a pain. ;) This semester is their mock trial, which I'm looking forward to. They are switching a few things up at semester, like their literature focus is moving to short stories and then they get to write one. It should be a great semester for him.

I'm also looking forward to the new curriculum we will get to review for TOS. I love sprinkling in these things each week and finding new things that work for us. I can't wait to see what we get this semester!

Are you making any big changes this semester in your homeschooling? I'd love to hear about it!