Abeka, Museum, and Books

This past week has been busy but fun and educational. We took a trip to Houston and had a wonderful time visiting with family.

I enjoyed a long talk with my SIL who is a veteran homeschooling mom. I was so encouraged and of course it was so informative and fun to look at all the curricula she uses in her schooling, one of which was Abeka Language Arts. She had the book that Cat will be in for next year and it looked really good. I had never really looked or even considered Abeka. Why? (1.) Because I thought it was very expensive and (2.) I didnt realize you could purchase just certain books and not the whole grade level.
I spent a lot of time yesterday looking at Abeka's web site and have decided to order the Language Arts and Handwriting for all three kids. I am still debating about math. If there was ever a curr. I loved.. it is math u see.. so its going to be a hard sell to get me to switch.

One of the things she shared with me is a little system (book) called Choreganizers. I have tried all kinds of charts and systems for chores. When I started this system yesterday I could tell it would be different. Its a great system, easy, and very motivating for my kids. I love how the back of the cards have instructions on how to do certain chores.. .. its just great! I have created a link here.. be sure and click on "additional views" and it will take you to another page where you can actually see the cards front and back views.


My other SIL and I took the kids to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We all had a great time. The kids said they liked the Dinosaurs, Mummy, and Butterfly habitat the best. I enjoyed Ancient Rome, with all its carved marble, gods and goddesses, jewelry, and everyday items... in the Chemistry section it was fun to see the "life size" periodic table with examples of each element inside. All and all it was an amazing.. and of course it seems the museum is a bit like the library for us.. we could have stayed until it closed and gone back the next morning! I could go on and on.. and I wish I could post some pictures.. but it seems we have misplaced both our cameras and so I had neither for the trip. I did have my cell phone and took a few shots with it.. but I have no idea how to get the pics off of it. :)

Our school day yesterday was wonderful. The kids did their book work at the dining table together while I hopped for child to child answering questions and make sure they were working diligently. We read Bible yesterday as well and began our new read aloud. The kids are all now in chapter books so I thought I would post what they were reading too:
our read aloud : Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Nathans reading: Magic Tree House Tigers at Twilight
Josephs reading: Magic Tree House Twister on Tuesday and Kidnapped by Robert Lois Stevenson
Cats reading: A Encyclopedia Brown book and The Borrowers by Mary Norton
We plan to head to the library today and look forward to seeing what they pick out next!

On the home front.. our bathroom remodel is coming right along, my new dishwasher ROCKS! (I dont even have to rinse the dishes and the washer gets them spotless!.. amazing!) and I think today I will be completely caught up on laundry :)

thanks for reading!
blessings!
Ruthie