Our Europe study got stretched over a few months, since we took an extended break for Christmas. (The curriculum is only 30 weeks long, so I had already planned on taking breaks.) I wanted to do a Christmas unit study, but the season was so busy that it felt too stressful to plan a unit study on top of it. Maybe next year!
For our longer novels, we read The Children of Noisy Village and Linnea in Monet's Garden. Rhonda liked both books, but I think she liked Linnea better because it had tons of pictures. We also read lots of Magic Tree House books, and Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep. I think Princess Sonora was a little over Rhonda's comprehension level, but I enjoyed re-reading it. I usually read aloud from a chapter book while the kids eat lunch or a snack. They usually only choose picture books for our "reading time," but when they're eating, I'll just pick any book I want and start reading. I do enjoy reading picture books, but I prefer chapter books!
After we read all about Monet in Linnea in Monet's Garden, we tried our hand at some painting. It's always a special treat for the kids when they get to paint.
My homeschooling energy has definitely slowed down and we didn't get to the library much the last few months, so we didn't read a lot of supplemental picture books for this unit. It feels like January is renewing my enthusiasm, though, so hopefully in the next unit I'll be more proactive about getting books.
I've been casually introducing some math into our days. Sometimes Rhonda will and I will play little math games with M&Ms where we add and subtract. She's getting good at it.
The kids have been watching a lot of StoryBots lately, which is a show on Netflix about science for kids. I didn't really expect the kids to get much out of it, but Rhonda started explaining to me how people catch a cold, how cell phones work, and other things she learned on the show! The other day I told her that she seems to really like science. She seemed very pleased by that idea.
We have continued gameschooling. Rhonda got some new games for Christmas that we've played. She also got some puzzles, and now she's really into puzzles! I'm surprised how good at them she is. She got a little 24-piece sweet shop puzzle that she adores, and she frequently puts it together all by herself. Sierra also got a bunch of toddler puzzles for Christmas and she's remarkably good at them.
Both kids are continuing dance. I was considering taking Sierra out of her class, since she didn't seem very engaged. However, after a couple months of seeming relatively disinterested, she suddenly got really into it! In her last class, she danced to every song and followed all the actions, and she didn't need to be held at all. She had so much fun! I'm glad I waited a little longer before I took her out. I guess she just needed lots of time to adjust.
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