The week in review...

Mane has been picking up books and reading them ON HER OWN! Shhhhhh...don't tell anybody. She doesn't think anyone has noticed.

Mango spent some time doing math with Mane this week. It was good time for them. Mane loves to spend time with Mango, and he loves knowing what to do with that time. She took test 26 yesterday, and I think we're going to slow down again, reviewing the math facts, the rules and procedures. We only have 4 lessons left in Alpha, and we've got plenty of time to get them done before the end of the year.

On Monday we had a playdate with another homeschool family. The mom was my high school Spanish teacher. She now has a daughter just a year older than Mane, and they homeschool. The girls had a fantastic time together, and it was fun for me to catch up with my old (not so old) teacher.

Tuesday I did our taxes while Mane listened to All-of-a-Kind Family on itunes. Later in the day I took out our co-op newsletter and a free local magazine called Edible Twin Cities. Who knew you could homeschool out of these little publications? We read an article about the Schultz family farm. We buy Schultz eggs at the co-op. Mane saw a picture of Larry Schultz, and then went to see his name on our egg cartons! Then we read an article on maple syrup. The article had info about how syrup is made, as well as some statistics about the states where most maple syrup comes from, and the MN maple syrup producers.

Wednesday we went to Bible Study, and in the evening we went biking around the block. Mane has been outside for several hours every day this week, and we're all so happy for the warm weather and fresh air!

Yesterday we went to the MN Orchestra to see Casey at the Bat, a program on the connection between music and sports. Afterward we went to Chipotle for lunch and then walked down to the library where we found 2 bilingual books at the library bookstore, including The Gullywasher, a book we needed for Five in a Row. In the evening we read Albert, the book we're going to be rowing for the next week or so.

Today Mane took her scooter (and I ran along behind) to the doctor's office. We're still trying to sort out some allergy & arsenic issues. Since then she's been listening to On the Banks of Plum Creek on itunes.

Handwriting

Mane LOVES handwriting. This really ought to come as no surprise for me. Reading has been tough for her, but she's been writing ever since she could hold a writing utensil. She's been asking me how to spell things for her ever since she could understand that letters join together to form words. The house is full of samples of her writing. When we began the StartWrite handwriting program I was thinking it would be tedious for her, and I didn't know how well she would like it. I should have known, though. The idea of writing fancy makes her exceedingly pleased. She's learning italic cursive right now, but I have a feeling she may actually learn more than one type of handwriting over time. She entreats me to write things in "real" cursive for her now. I have been teaching her one letter at a time, but I finally printed out a page for her today with all the letters because she wanted to write a story and wanted to see how to do ALL the letters.