The closing of Learning Adventures...moving on

Ok....So we had a great time trying out all differents foods during this time period. I'm sorta sad but excited for finishing this unit up. It was lots of fun and educational and I have to say not at all the dullest. Rebekah enjoyed learning about different artists (her favorite Leonardo Da Vinci) during this time and her favorite scientist, Isaac Newton.

Now, it's time for myself to get ready for the next unit of study. I've chosen something different after researching all different styles of teaching. We were already doing something like this before in Learning Adventures but the narration, copywork, and dictation was missing. We use living books with learning already but I am now convinced this is an awesome way to learn with all different styles of learning. I m planning on using the "Charlotte Mason" approach. Charlotte Mason lived in England in the 1800's and had devoted her life to children and their education. She never married. "The Charlotte Mason method uses living books with an emphasis on quality rather than quantity, narration instead of comprehension exercises or composition, copywork for handwriting, spelling and grammar modeling, nature observation as the primary means of early science, and literature, poetry, art and music to give children's minds beautiful ideas to feed on."

Narration is a skill that is learned. I've tried it with Rebekah to see where she was at and we do need some work. Rebekah has great comprehension skills but narration is difficult for her.

Isaac starts school with us too in a couple of weeks (once I have all the books to start)! We are going to use Ambleside Online Curriculum which some awesome mothers have put together and have used the Charlotte Mason approach. I've changed my school room around to have some centers for Isaac. One is a reading center with all different styles of books (for Rebekah too) and a art/science center. We are going to do a nature study on birds in our area and learn how to identify them and their habitat. (Currently Isaac is intrigued with caterpillars so we'll learn the caterpillar cycle and watch the caterpillars change.

We have a busy busy month of May! Rebekah has her musical, recital, swim meet (once every month now), her birthday and Craig is taking her on a special three day trip to Atlanta GA. In early May Rebekah and I have a special mother/daughter day. What a busy month it will be!

Elsah is now 14 lbs at her 6mth appt. All of my babies are tiny. She is sitting up for short periods of time, turning over from her back to front now, moving toys from hand to hand and sleeping (yes!) for 7-8 hours a night! We started her on some oatmeal at night for dinner and then she has her normal feeding at 9-930pm. She is such a good baby. God has blessed me with easy babies. We'll see how she is at walking stage and crawling. I bet she'll be different from Isaac though. He was all into computers and gadgets. Toys were a bore to him. So, he kept me on my toes.

Finally, here is Isaac's favorite recipe from the renaissance!

Toad in the Hole:

1 Cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
pinch pepper
2 eggs
1 cup milk
8 oz sausage links (already cooked)

combine dry ingredients then add 2 eggs and milk. Chill 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 and then pour into 9X9 greased pan. Place sausages on top of batter. Bake 25minutes or until golden brown.