Mariposa Academy Homeschool

I am dragging today. It’s been grey and rainy all day (edges/remnants of tropical storm Fay), and days like this sap what little energy I have. Llani has been procrastinating her schoolwork and I don’t really have the energy to push her. Still, she’s doing well. She did a ton of math work, she did some reading, and part of her language arts work (working with similes). She still has to do social studies, science, and Spanish today, but she’ll get it done, even if it is toward evening. Now if only we could find Charlotte’s Web. That’s our current read-aloud. Llani misplaced her copy a few days ago. On Sunday, my mom brought over my old copy that she had at her house. Llani caught up with the reading Sunday night, and promptly lost that copy of the book, too. I don’t understand how two copies of the same book could go missing that quickly. At least it’s a book we’ve read (and listened to on audiobook, and seen two movie versions of) before. At worst, I can play our audiobook of it. It is read by E. B. White himself, and really a treat to listen to.

Can I say again that I absolutely love Sonlight? Because I do. It’s really terrific. I am so glad I decided to try it. I’m so glad I didn’t let the price or the fact that it’s a Christian curriculum scare me off. Those two factors, by the way, proved to be way less significant than I first thought they would be. It is easy to secularize, and I bought most of the material at a discount. Some I got from Ebay, some from VegSource, and some from my local bookstore with my 20% homeschooler’s discount.

You may have noticed that my blog is still messed up. I know Mom #1 wants to kill me. I am a lazy lazy lazybones, I know. Seriously, I am going to fix it soon. I need to back it up, clear the whole thing, and do a clean re-install of Wordpress. If that doesn’t fix it, nothing will.

Because my blog is messed up, my blogroll doesn’t show. So I am just going to tell you about the fantastic blog I have been reading religiously lately: The Jason Show. Heartwarming and hilarious. Go read.

Yep, it is week two, day two of second grade here at Mariposa Academy. Llani couldn’t wait to start her new curriculum so we started last week. We are using Sonlight Core 1 and so far we are both loving it. I feel so much more on top of things now that I have everything planned out for me. I open up my Instructor’s Guide, see what the assignments are, and check them off as we go. I don’t have to worry about not covering a subject, and I don’t have to spend hours hunting down resources and putting together lessons.

I have changed some things around. Most importantly, I am secularizing the curriculum. I skip the Bible section entirely. For geography, Sonlight uses a couple of books about missionaries and “Bibleless peoples.” I am skipping those books and instead using other books about various countries and cultures around the world. Right now our social studies spine is the Dorling Kindersley book Children Just Like Me. I’m using it as a substitute for The Usborne Book of Peoples of the World, which I wasn’t able to buy in time. I finally ordered it directly from Sonlight and it should arrive soon, at which point I’ll use both books together. But for now I think the DK book is a nice substitute. Each 2-page spread tells about a particular child’s country and customs. We read about the child, talk about his/her life, and find the child’s country, its capital, and any cities mentioned, on the map. Llani is learning a lot.

We are using the Level 2 Intermediate readers. They are actually below Llani’s reading level, but I decided to use them so that next year, when we use Core Two, we can use the Level 2 Advanced readers and in fourth grade, when we study Core 3, she’ll be reading the Level 3 readers. from Core 3 upward, the readers are closely tied to the social studies work, so I want her to be reading the appropriate readers when we get to that point. I don’t think it’s harming Llani any to have readers that are easy for her. She is enjoying the stories and learning a lot from them. She sometimes reads her read-alouds independently instead of listening to me read them to her, and she reads challenging books on her own time.

For math we are using Singapore. It seems to have just the right amount of repetition, and I’ve read several reviews saying that it helps children think mathematically. Math is Llani’s least-favorite subject but she seems to be understanding it well. We are on the 1A, which is below her grade level, because she really needs to bone up on her basic math facts. She is moving through it quickly, and I am confident that she will be up to grade level or maybe even beyond it later in the school year.

We are studying handwriting again this year, after trying it and discontinuing a year or two ago. I think she is finally ready now; she seems to have the motor skills and the ability to sit still. We’re doing Getty-Dubay Italic. She tried a traditional cursive first, but it was too difficult for her. This is within her abilities and the italic will make the transition to cursive easier.

Llani says she is enjoying our new way of homeschooling, and likes it better than what we used to do. When I ask her what she likes about it she shrugs and says she doesn’t know. I think the structure makes her feel more comfortable, even though she can’t really express it. She likes to look at the Instructor’s Guide and see what assignments she has for the day. She probably feels more in control when she knows what is in store for her.