We LOVE School

This morning Josiah was up early, before 5:30. To keep him busy I let him start his school work for the day. He is always begging to do school - even on Saturdays and Sundays. Soon Abby woke up and joined him, and Beth wanted to be part of it, too. I wanted to keep them busy and quiet while I read my Bible. It worked for a little while. They were too cute. I had to take their pictures. How many kids want to do school the first thing after they wake up?!? All the schools around us are on Christmas break, but I can't convince them to take a long break. Plus the weather is not good for playing outside. Who wants four kids under five running around the house all day? My yard is muddy, and the sky looks like it could rain again. School work gives them something to fill up some of their time indoors. We also been baking cookies, and playing learning games.

School update

School is going great. One of the reasons I haven't blogged much is I have been working hard on putting together things for the kids to do. I haven't found a curriculum that I can stick to. I have been piecing different things together. When something isn't working or I find a problem with it, I look for something different.
I started something kind of like work boxes, which seems to be big among homeschoolers. I just couldn't see us having 12 boxes on a rolling shelf for each child setting around my school area. I used supplies that I already had and created a file system for each child. We do six folders for each in one box. The folders are color coded. Any work that we all do together goes at the front of my box. Josiah is all excited about doing his folders each day. I let him go first each day because he will not stop asking until we do it. He usually begs to do it on weekends, also. Each evening (usually after kids are in bed) I put the papers, books, flashcards, or projects in their folders for the next day. I find that I am getting more done with it organized this way. Before I would just write down on a paper what I wanted to do, but half the time I would loose the paper or still forget something.
We do Bible together first thing in the morning. We sing a few hymns. (It is great to hear my kids singing hymns while playing or in the restroom.) They each have a favorite hymn. We then read from the Bible. We are reading through Genesis right now. I usually do half a chapter a day since they don't sit quiet very long. Abby and Robert help do some of the reading. Then we work on our Bible memory. We are memorizing Ecclesiastes chapter one. Even Josiah is getting in on it this time. He surprises me with how much he can say.
After breakfast and chores, Josiah does his school time with mom. He is learning the sounds of the alphabet and starting to blend two letters together. I am currently using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I found it at the library. I love the library it is my favorite place to go in town. We use blocks with abc's on the for him to "build" words. In math he is working on counting and recognizing numbers.
For our second all together time we are using Five in a Row (FIAR). FIAR takes a book such as Peter Rabbit and uses that story to teach math, language, art, science, history for the week. We do one suggested activity or lesson each day after reading the story. The library is my may source of books for this curriculum. I found the FIAR manuels there and the books. I have started buying a few books used that the library didn't have.
Late morning and after lunch I work with Abby and Robert individually. Both reading well above normal for their age, doing simple addition and subtraction, and learning to write neatly. With the warm weather they have not been doing much of their individual work, but have been enjoying playing outside and learning to ride their bikes without training wheels.
Rueben is almost halfway done with his last year of school. Not sure what his plans are after he is done, but we are encouraging him to date, and talk to girls.

One of "those" days

Ever wish you could start your day over? Well today I do. It started about 4 am with Beth kicking me. She was restless, and didn’t want to nurse. Gabe’s alarm went off and he got up. Abby started coughing in the living room (She sleeps everywhere, but her own bed when given the slightest chance). I told myself maybe I can get a lot done this morning and then nap when the kids nap (ha, ha). So I got out of bed before 4:15! Abby and Beth played on the floor while I fixed Gabe’s lunch and breakfast, put the laundry in the dryer, and unloaded the dish washer (Abby helped put away some dishes). I was off to a great start.
At 5:15 I sat down to eat breakfast with my husband before he left for work. After he left at 5:30 I tried to read the Bible and pray in between Abby’s questions (Can I play the computer? Is it Thursday? When can I go to Heaven? Can I eat a cookie? on and on). Next, I was interrupted by Josiah who woke up at his usual 6am, and asked for his usual peanut butter & “yelly” sandwich. Then Abby wanted one. Somewhere in all this confusion Beth was nursed and went back to sleep. Josiah took his sandwich to his usual spot on the recliner, curled up and ate it quietly (sometimes he goes back to sleep). Abby took two bites of her sandwich, left it on the table and went to sit on the sofa. She asked if she could go back to sleep. My answer, “YES!” I peacefully read another chapter of the Bible, took laundry out of the dryer, hung up items that needed hanging, and was thinking about sleeping again myself. It is about 6:45-7:00, Beth woke so I nursed her and napped a bit, Josiah crawled in bed and began playing with Beth (my napping was over). Then Abby woke up and pucked all over the sofa – YUCK. I feel her head; she has a fever. I clean her up, change her clothes, and clean the sofa. After laying down a towel and getting her a bucket in case it happens again, she went back to sleep. I started the washer full of pucked on stuff, left Beth and Josiah in the play room, told Rueben to keep and ear out of trouble (he was awake, but not out of bed), and went to care for the chickens.
I lost three chickens Sunday to dogs while we were at church. I put the month old chicks in with the remaining hen, Red. So they were all in the same cage I was keeping and eye on her because she seemed to pick on them a lot. Yesterday I had let her out to roam in the usual chicken yard, but I can’t let the chicks out. We have a hawk around here that last year came and sat on my chicken coop. I’m sure he would love chick for lunch.
Anyway, I cared for the chickens, and told myself that I should let Red loose later so she doesn’t pick on the chicks too much. I hurried back into the house knowing that Rueben wouldn’t do much if the kids were getting into trouble. Washed my hands and checked on the kids. Everyone was fine so and Robert was up and playing too. I then loaded the dishwasher. At 8 am I did our usual Bible time with just the boys. You should hear Josiah quote scripture. I marvel that a two year old can memorize like he does, but then he is a little sponge and is soaking everything up that I do with the older two. Next I fed the boys their breakfast, set Beth in the high chair, cut up a banana for her to eat (she refuses to eat anything mushy like baby food and she doesn’t like anyone putting food in her mouth), and I cleaned up more of the kitchen mess since I had already eaten.
Rueben needed help with his school work today. After a few weeks of his “Dynamic Bible Living” subject, we have switched what we are doing. I don’t like what they are trying to teach him on how to live a Christian life. The book makes it confusing and hard. The final straw was a sentence that said memorizing the Bible was not meditating on the Bible. "Memorizing generally is sounding or saying words and then forgetting them." I would like to know how you forget something you memorized. They are trying to teach some strange knowledge process that he is to use to learn how to have a "dynamic Christian life". So instead of doing the complicated, confussing work in the book I have him listening to preaching from this site and writing what he learned from the sermons (two per week). I listened to the sermons with him (while folding laundry, making woopie pies - a promise I made yesterday, fixing lunch, checking on sick one, nursing Beth…), so we could discuss what is taught and help him write down points. If I had to sit still and listen to the sermons, I would have fallen asleep. I love the preaching, but my body goes to sleep if not doing something, especially when waking up at 4 am. I have the same problem on Sunday mornings. That is why I help my husband in children's church where I can stand, more around and stay awake.
After lunch I looked out my window at the sink and noticed that there was a problem at the chicken coop. I had forgotten about Red! I rushed out of the house and left the kids in Rueben’s care to check on Red. She had killed the smallest chick. The one I got that was going to set (hatch eggs) and my favorite.
Right now is quiet/nap time, but since Abby has been sleeping off and on all morning she is awake and fussy. I am not going to get a nap myself, so I will continue drinking tea, and other things with caffeine to keep myself going. I will try giving Abby a ginger-bath. I tried earlier, but discovered that the hot water heater needed to be relit. By the time the water was hot again, I had forgotten and Abby was back to sleep.
Thanks for listening to my ramblings and complaints. I love being a mother. It is much, much better than being a single school teacher. However, there are days that I would love to have two of me to get more done. I am blessed with four great children, a great step son and a hardworking, wonderful husband. What more could any woman want?
In case you are wondering, I did not write this all at the same time. It has been written over the past few hours in between other tasks, but I just had to “tell” someone. My friend, who has five children under five, lost her cell phone (it is on vibrate so she can't find it by calling it), so I can’t call her to share problems. Some how “telling” makes me feel a bit better about the things that didn’t go my way today. No day ever goes completely the way I want it, but that is part of life. I’m not the one in control. God is. So I should get off the computer and go get more things done instead of sitting here ignoring them because they make me feel so overwhelmed some days. I will never get everything done, but I will keep trying to.

Abby is feeling better now that she finished her ginger-bath (1 Tbsp of ginger added to bath water). She is eating, asking questions and being her normal self – except for her cough. Hopefully the food will stay down.

Busy Days

In the past few weeks I’ve done a lot of canning and freezing, which is one of the reasons that I haven’t done much blogging. Other reasons are taking care of my family, new chicks, caring for teething baby (I'll be glad when the teeth come through), home schooling, etc.
We canned nectarines and jam. I got them on sale at a local orchard, and one of our bus riders came over to help. I froze green beans (from my garden) and green chili’s. The kids helped out some. I am happy to see them old enough to start helping with things like this. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of canning week when Grandma came to help us can and freeze. I love the way canned foods look in the pantry.

My husband’s work has slowed a bit and he is not getting as much overtime, so we have had time to do more hiking as a family. Here are a few photos from our most recent hike to Potato Lake. We told the kids that we were hiking to a lake so Robert carried a rock from the parking area to the lake (about a mile). There were plenty of rocks along the way, but he kept his rock!

Not much has been done in the way of official home schooling, but learning continues to happen throughout our day. I have gone to several yard sales this summer of teachers who were retiring or changing grades and I have bought games, visual aides and more – too much maybe, but they were a good deal! We are fairly well set with curriculum for first grade. I really enjoy using My Father’s World. It is very gentle, fun, and hands-on. The kids like it, too. They ask to do school, if I skip a few days. They are really enjoying art and continually ask to do more. I am having trouble staying ahead of them in reading the book.

Math for Breakfast

We did spontanious hands-on math at breakfast today. We openned a new box of Fruit Cherioes cereal. I usually don't get colored cereal, but it was on sale and I had a coupon for it as well. The kids started telling what colors they had on their spoon which prompted me to start making a pattern and having them add to it. We have been discusing repeating patterns and sorting recently in math so this went along with what we have been doing.

After several patterns we sorted them by color.

Then I grouped them in small groups and had them add them together to find the total.

We also have released our second butterfly this year. It was not a monarch! I was surprised. After checking my butterfly book I learned that it was a queen, another kind of milkweed butterfly. It looks very much like a monarch when the wings are folded, but when they are open it is definatly different. It doesn't have the black lines that the monarch has.

Book Review

I wanted to share a few books that we have used lately and are enjoying. Our curriculum suggested reading books that deal with math topics. The first one I tried was Beep, Beep, Vroom, Vroom by Stuart Murphy. It is about making patterns with cars. It was a big hit with my kids. After I read it once, Abby then read it again and again out loud to her brothers. There also is fighting over who gets to look at it, and since it is a library book I have put it up high. I'm sure I will have to read it several more times before we take it back to the library. We are now looking for and making patterns in our everyday activities.

The other book making a big splash around here is Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes. I love the way this book breaks down the drawing process into easy to understand elements. I didn't think I could teach my kids how to draw, but this book makes it all very easy to understand and teach. My curriculum schedules art once a week, but my kids are asking for more art time. I love the quiet as they are busy drawing. I am looking forward to teaching this.

Science with little ones

We have been reading and studying on the water cycle. It is a bit hard for my kids to understand since we live in a very dry area and there is not much natural water cycle happening. The curriculum that I am using for the twins called for an experiment to demonstrate the water cycle, and it really seemed to help them understand it. First I filled a pan 2/3 full of water and brought it to a boil. I removed it from the heat, set it on a hot pad on the table where everyone could watch, and put a cookie sheet covered with ice cubes on top of the pan. After about a minute we lifted the pan and watched the water vapor rise, meet the cold tray and turn into tiny water droplets on the bottom of the tray. When the drops got big enough they “rained” back into the pan. Monday we released our first monarch for this year. I have one caterpillar that will soon make his chrysalis. I also have a baby caterpillar and two eggs that we found Monday when we released the monarch. It has been fun listening and trying to answer all the questions that this has brought up. I wish I could remember them all so I could list them here.

Home Schooling Update

I love to teach. It is in my blood. My dad was a teacher and that is what I always wanted to be, too. I taught school several years before I got married and had twins. I think God gave me twins so I wouldn't go back to teaching. Other teachers at our church's school would teach with their young ones in class with them, but that did not seem possible with twins.
Naturally I am continuing to have school with the twins. We do about three days a week for about one and a half hours. They enjoy it and I love it. Josiah loves to join in with them. He even seems upset when I do not have a paper for him to do like the twins. Abby is really doing well with her reading and Robert is right behind her. We are starting to talk about sounds that two letters together make such as “sh” and “ch”. We talked about how “bossy” R is and they loved all the sound effects I used. I have also introduced the magic “e” that makes the vowel say its name. Abby is getting it, but it will take Robert a little longer. That is fine and I try not to push him.

Last month when my aunt was here Abby read several little books to her that my aunt had just given them. Robert even read a book for her. He is not as willing to show off as Abby is. I love getting new books and learning things from my aunt. She enjoys spoiling the kids, too! On our recent trip to Phoenix Abby read an entire Dr Seuss book several times and has increased her reading vocabulary. I was surprised she read the book. I had planned on reading it to her. When she got stuck on a work she would ask me for help. It is defiantly time to go further with the phonics rules. Robert read part of the book, but gave up after a few pages. Now when I give her a book to look at she asks, “How do you read it?” We are daily amazed at what she can read to us without any help.

In math we are still going over the calendar daily. We use a pattern to mark off the days. This month our pattern is balloon, kite, cake, balloon, kite, cake… We then count the days until the next special event such as birthdays or upcoming trips. We review the months of the year and the days of the week. Then we count on our counting chart. One day we count by ones to 100. The next day we count by 10’s to 100, and then the next day we count by 5’s. We just started counting by fives. Some days we do a paper for writing their numbers, other days we practice adding one to a number, and some days we go over the clock and telling time. We have also started talking about money.

Josiah is learning the names of his shapes. We do this two ways. First he points to a shape on the chart on the wall and then I say the name of that shape. The other thing we do is name a shape and he points to the shape we called out. Abby and Robert join in with this game and clap for him when he gets it right (which is most of the time).Their handwriting is improving. Abby loves to sit and write everyone’s name in the family and some names of her friends at church. She is a people person!! Last week I started getting them to spell words on their paper. We were using blocks with letters on to “build” words. The only problem was that Josiah wanted to run off with the blocks to build his own tower. :)

This is just the learning we are doing during our "school time". Tons of learning happens throughout the day. We read signs, count items, and play learning games. I have the Phonics Game that I got for $20 at a yard sale. I love this game. It teaches the phonics rules in a fun, easy to understand way. I have used it for many years with students that needed help in reading. Rueben was one of the first students that I helped using the phonics game.
Rueben is continuing his home schooling. He is close to half way through his 11 grade work. It is going better this year since we are not struggling with algebra.=) He is determined to finish school for which I am glad. He is doing business math this year and he says it is easy. English is the subject he doesn’t like - too much thinking to write sentences and reports. :(

Our Holidays

We had a nice Christmas. There was snow on the ground part of the day, and we got more again the next day. We didn’t go all out on gifts, only a few items for each child – and nothing with many pieces. We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve after church, and then we went to be with my husband’s family on Christmas day. The kids enjoyed all that we gave them. Rueben’s mom bought him a digital camera so he recorded the kids opening their gifts. They love watching themselves! Grandma mostly got the kids clothing, but she did get Abby a bike. Uncle Mauno got Robert one this past summer from a yard sale on his bus route, and there has been arguing about who rides it. Abby rode her bike in circles around Grandma’s sofa, and later around our kitchen table. She now lets Robert ride it, since it is a few days old, and he is getting the hang of how to ride. Once our mud dries up, we will take the bikes out around the neighborhood. While Abby’s is still new and clean, I am allowing them to ride it around the house.

We spent our New Years day working around the house and going to a big family gathering on my husband’s side. He tried to tell me who people were and how they are related to us, but I doubt that I will remember.

The baby’s crib has been sanded and painted. Now we need to buy a mattress. I feel more ready now, and I am ready for this baby to be born. I’m having plenty of Braxton-hicks contractions, and some are quite uncomfortable. Josiah tries to climb on my lap, but there isn’t much room for him right now. Abby is excited that it is January and baby sister is coming. She keeps asking questions like, “When will baby sister be as big as me?”

Josiah’s vocabulary is improving and expanding almost daily. He is putting together two word sentences. He is on the road to becoming a talker like Abigail!! Abby bugs me any day I decide not to have school, so we have continued our “school” though the holidays. It gives me something to keep them occupied. Today we finished the first phonics book that I bought this past summer at an Amish book store. The kids were very excited about this accomplishment, and I was too. There is a book two in the set, but I think I’ll wait to start that one after the baby comes. We have plenty to keep us busy in the meantime.

With baby coming I will probably not post much this month. I will try to have pictures on as soon as possible after the birth.

New curriculum

I am trying a hands-on curriculum for the twins. It is called My Father’s World. My sister-in-law uses it with her girls. When we went home this past July, I looked through her teacher’s manual and other visuals. I liked all the activities and science that I saw. When I saw it for sale on my favorite use curriculum site, I used the money I made at my yard sale and bought the teacher’s manual. One problem with this curriculum is they do not use the King James for the Bible verses. This is only in the teacher’s edition so I can easily look it up in the King James and read it to them. It is better for them to see me open the Bible to read it anyway.

This is little of how our day goes. I started this when Rueben was working with his dad for a month so I had time to develop a rough schedule without interfering too much with his studies.

I do our Bible lesson while the kids are finishing their breakfast. This way they are all seated and somewhat occupied. I read the Bible to them and then draw a picture to show what the story is about. This helps to hold their attention, and they can tell me the next day what we talked about already that week. Then on Sunday I use the same lesson for the 4-6 yr. old girls class that I teach.

After breakfast we finish up our morning chores, and have some free play time before starting school. During school time we start by going over our memory verses and sing a song from the hymn book. I try to pick a hymn that has something to do with the week’s theme. For example we sang “Sunshine in my Soul” when we studied the letter S and the sun.

Our first subject is math. First, we go over the calendar. We review the days of the week, mark the day we are on, and talk about up coming events – like trips, holidays, or birthdays. I just purchased a chart with the months of the year that we will soon start going over each day. Then we count. I made a chart of numbers from 1-50. Each day we go over a new number. We started at one and are going in order for the numbers. Each day we add a straw in a bag that I attached to the wall by our chart. When we reach a ten, I put a rubber band around the bundle to illustrate the idea of ones and tens. Then we search the house looking for that number. They find them on the clocks, calendars, boxes, papers, and so on. They love this activity! Next we go over how to properly write the number. We practice on the chalk board, and then with their finger in a small box with salt on the bottom. Abby loves this because she likes to lick off the salt from her finger, but I do not let her put her finger back in the salt once she has licked it, so she has learned to wait until she is all done writing before licking her finger.

Josiah joins in the fun. He runs around with them when they look for the number of the day, he scribbles on the chalkboard, and loves to “write” in the salt, too.

Since I do not have any the student book, I have made math papers to go with the weekly theme. Right now we are working on writing our numbers, counting objects, and doing simple adding with objects to count. I try to keep the pages simple and short since they are only 3 and their attention span is rather short. I have mistakenly given them long worksheets only to have them quit after the first few problems.

After math we work in our phonics workbook to continue their phonics learning. I am still using the Amish books that I got this summer. I love these books because they are very unworldly, and they remind me of where I grew up.

Then we take a break and go for a walk if the weather is nice.

After lunch we do the reading section. I usually wait until Josiah is asleep to do this part. The teacher’s manual is for teaching sounds, but since the twins already know all their sounds I am stressing the handwriting of each letter and just reviewing sounds. They have a science theme for each week that corresponds with the letter being taught. For example they learned about the sun for S and the moon for M. Now we are learning about leaves for L and apples for A. I am trying to do the two letters a week, since we don’t need to learn the sounds; we just need to practice writing them. The manual is full of fun activities to teach and review the sounds, plus they have a section on handwriting activities – like the salt in a box. One I haven’t tried that will be messy, but fun is writing in pudding on a tray.

They have an activity for each day of the week. There are also suggested books for reading and activities to go along with each book.

After we finish our work for the week I put all their papers together in a small book using construction paper for the front and back cover. Then they show dad, or anyone else who comes to visit, the book of their work. The only problem with this is it will create clutter. In the past I have thrown away most of the papers we do – when they are not looking of course. I hate clutter and I am not very sentimental and I don’t feel like I need to hold on to every thing.

So far, this new curriculum is working real well for them. I enjoy the freedom of taking the ideas in the teacher's manual and adapting them to the needs of my children.

Rueben

Hurray!! He has finally finished his tenth grade work. He took his last test this afternoon. It took us 13 months, for several reasons. One reason was not finishing Algebra I during ninth grade. He didn’t do well with the complicated math. He knows his basic fact for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. I made sure of that. I have been teaching and working with Rueben since he was in fifth grade. That is how his dad and I started talking and dating.

Rueben has a lot to do with our being together. Rueben rode the bus to church for many years. Finally his dad started coming with him. Gabe got saved after a couple of years of attending church here. I moved here from Florida to teach in the church’s school. Gabe and I went to the same church for four years. We rarely spoke because Gabe thought I was too good him, and I thought he wasn’t interested in me because I’m not Navajo. But, once Rueben was in my class we had to talk. : - )

When Rueben came into my class from public school his reading level was very, very low. He got a very poor foundation in reading from the public schools. Parental involvement is really needed in the area of reading. In Rueben situation, his mother had left and his father was working a lot so he was with his grandparents much of the time. We have worked on his reading over the past few years, and it has improved greatly, but he is still behind for his age and grade.

It is very hard to make up for time lost in the area of reading. If there is one message I could send to parents of young children, it would be do everything you can to give your child a good reading foundation. Start when they are babies and toddlers. Read to them. Let them see you reading. Teach them yourself. Don’t expect some school to do it for you, because it probably won’t happen the way you expect it to. In just about every student that came into my class from public school, they could not read well. The only exception to this was one family where the mom made her kids read to her and had worked with them on their reading. It was the parent that made the difference not the school, and she was a single mom working as a nurse.

The other evening Rueben’s younger aunt needed help with her algebra homework. Rueben looked at it and said he knew what to do. I was very excited to see him helping his aunt. It was great practice for him, and I could see that he had really learned something from the algebra that we struggled with for two years.

Rueben is my helper with the young ones. I try not to put too much on him, but is nice to have a back-up when it a tight situation. When I need to get all three out of trouble, it is nice to have an extra set of hands. When running errands I can take one child with me into a store, get what I need, and quickly get out again without unloading and reloading every one. He also is a great help with grocery shopping. I shop at the same store every two weeks (I don’t like to shop, so I try to do it for two weeks at a time). I have a list that I created on a spreadsheet that has all the aisles of the store and what items are on that aisle that I use. I make the items needed write in the things that are rarely bought, but needed that week. Then I can give Rueben half the list and one child, and he will get the items on that half while I get the other items. He does carry a cell phone so he can call if he has any questions.

We are taking the month of October off of school. Rueben will go to work with his dad for about five weeks. This will give me time to order his eleventh grade work, and he gets to learn more about surveying from his dad.

Our Phonics Journey...

... started when the twins, Abby and Robert, were about 2 ½ years old. Abby started pointing out “a, b, c, d’s” I was surprised that one so young would recognize letters. However, I took it as a hint to start teaching the letters and their sounds. I believe the sounds are more important than the names, so that is what I stressed. If you ask Abby to spell her name she will give the sounds /a/, /b/, /b/, /y/. Now you can name a letter and ask them to point to it or give its sound and they will, but they rarely give me the name of a letter. To teach the letters I started making my own signs on the computer. Here is a photo of what I did.




Each week or so – when I felt Abby was ready to learn new sounds – I added two new letters. We would go over the sounds usually once a day. I would point to the letter, say the name, say the sound and the name of the picture that illustrated the sound. For example “A says /a/ apple”, “B says /b/ bell” and so on through the letters they knew.

Robert at first used the /d/ sound for every letter, than when we did the Rr he switched to the /r/ sound for every thing. I could say point the letter that says /g/ and he would point to Gg. I knew he understood the sounds, but he wasn’t making them. Then one day he started using the correct sounds for all the letters.

By the time they turned three, they knew all the sounds, and my question was “What do I do now?” I asked several different people. The most helpful people were a home schooling mom and our school’s kindergarten teacher who had home schooled her daughter. They both liked the Abeka system, so I dug out my Abeka charts that I saved from when I taught at our church’s school and tutored reading.

I felt like there was too much on one chart for mine to learn all at once. I didn’t want to overwhelm them. I broke down the charts and made my own individual pages with one consonant per page. I found a cute ladder in my clip art and used it as the back ground. Then I put “ba”, “be”, “bi”, “bo”, “bu” in the ladder spaces. At the bottom of the page I took the verse that the Landmark Freedom’s curriculum uses for that letter. (Another friend gave me the teacher’s guide for K3) For Bb they use “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…” (Acts 16:31) Here is a photo of how they look.

I made up a little song, which they love. I use their names and names of people they know in the song. For example the song for Rr goes “The R says /r/, The R says /r/, Robert ran round and round, /r/,/r/,/r/” All the songs follow the same pattern. I just make up different phrases for the middle.

Abby started doing the ladders perfectly from the beginning, and Robert went back to his same-sound-for-all-consonants trick. He would sound out /b/,/a/ then say /ra/. He likes his /r/-Robert letter. Then all of a sudden he started using the right sounds, just like he did for the alphabet.

The next step was to get them to read consonant-vowel-consonant words. I tried with Abby on several different pages and styles. At first she would sound it out correctly, but couldn’t seem to get the word put together. Then she started getting a few right, but she still struggled with it so I only would do a few at a time. On evening during bath time I took foam letters that I bought for them to play with in the tub and arranged them to form words. Abby started reading them one right after another. I was so excited. I called in my husband to hear her read. After that night she has been reading any consonant-vowel-consonant word we show her, but she has a limit of how many words she will read at one sitting before she gets tired of it.

They are almost 3 ½ right now. We do a school time on most days. When I went home to visit my family in PA in July I went to my favorite book store. It is run by Mennonite people. They have a large collection of used school books and several new workbooks. The prices are great. I spent about $25 for math and phonics books for the twins, even though I had to buy two of each. We are well into each of the books that we bought. I also print off free worksheets that I find on the web. Mostly for handwriting right now, since I don't have a workbook for that.

I am excited to see them love learning. I hope I can keep them enjoying learning and "school" work. I am also excited about each new concept they learn. I always thought you had to wait until they were five or six to teach them to read, but the twins keep surprising me with their hunger for more knowledge.

I keep "school" time to about 30-45 min. They don't sit for very long. The third desk is for Josiah (18m). He kept getting on Abby or Robert's desk, so I went and got him one - not like he stays in it, but it gives me a place to move him to when he is pushing his way onto the other desks.