Books, Books, Books.

We're year-round homeschoolers. I find it works better for us because then if I need to take some time off from homeschooling during the year, there is still plenty of time to play catch-up without worrying about it cutting into our "summer vacation". Take January, for instance. For some reason, January was a crazy month for us, and we ended up taking most of it off. And it worked out well. We got to breathe a little, straighten some things out in our lives that had fallen to the wayside, and get back on track.

Right before Christmas, The Mermaid finished The Story of The World Volume I. She also finished up the first volume of The Complete Writer and we are starting the second volume today.

For the most part, The Mermaid enjoys all the subjects she studies (especially math and science) but she really struggles with reading. I know that she can read, but she is such a perfectionist that it gets in her way. If she sees a word that she doesn't know by heart right off the bat, she gets frustrated and wants to give up. I try to explain to her that it's okay if she doesn't know the word, that's why we sound it out, but she doesn't like that answer. I've finally resorted to bribery - for every book she reads, she gets a star. Ten stars means she can pick out a small treat at the toy store. Since we've started her star chart, she's been a lot more willing. Then recently the Six Flags reading program was pointed out to me and I signed her up. What a motivator! As I'm typing this, she's in the other room, reading books to The Tadpole and The Guppy.

The Guppy is enjoying school as well. I read to her a lot, and she is working her way through Math U See Primer and doing very well with it. We're also doing The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and she enjoys it a lot. I'm glad I switched from How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - that book just caused a lot of frustration with The Mermaid and I didn't want to repeat that!

For all you other homeschoolers out there - what are you working on? Unit studies? Lapbooks? I love to see the great ideas floating around out there!

Books, Books, Books.