The CarlinZoo Homeschool

In general:

• Planning our road trip across the US! So I'm busy collecting busy/educational activities for 6 days in the car.
  
• I've ordered the Math-U-See primer to start on some basic math concepts. It should arrive before the trip.
• We are listening to the original version of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. Six days in a van should be enough time to finish that.
  
• We might even get through The Bible Experience

Luke

• continues to work on letter and number recognition and potty training every 20 minutes. We are obviously going to have to put this on hold during the trip

Leila

• Can read small words and once something is read to her she usually is able to repeat it almost verbatim so she is kind of getting the reading concept by memorizing the words.
  
• Some favorites right now: Madeline, Franklin and Beatrix Potter

Liam

• He's not recognizing any letters yet and I can't help thinking of how Leila knew her letters by this time but it's hard not to compare the two. I need not too.
• He loves to push buttons and put things together. I think he's going to be an engineer.
  

Challenges:

• Liam's scheduling and not wanting to sit at all. Leila would sit on my lap and listen to stories read to her when she was his age. But he wants to be included of course. So this has been a little challenging.

Successes:

• I've realized with the help of a wise friend that when it comes to homeschooling one of the most important things for me to instill in my children is the love of learning. It isn't most of the concepts that they will actually remember but rather, it is the love and desire to learn which will help them academically.
• And both Liam and Leila love to sit and look at books more than almost anything else. I'll count that as a little success.

For next week:

• Start the Math-U-See program daily and introduce Leila to general math concepts.
• Make more of a conscious effort to go over all the alphabet and numbers to each Luke and Liam each day.
• Introduce mini piano lessons (10 min)
• Spanish?