Homeschooling Whitney

So I know that it has been a little while since we have posted, but I have recently started homeschooling Whitney.  It has been a bit of an adjustment going from mostly playing over the summer time to doing real schoolwork.  But I think we are adjusting well.  We just finished week three today.

Our school day always starts with reading our book.  We are currently reading Charlotte's Web (thanks to Michael and Allison who gave the book to us).  Whitney is not a huge fan of the story and says it is kind of boring and yet she always sits really close to me and looks at the pictures intently and knows what is happening.  So I think she likes it more than she claims.  We also read some 'little' kid books that we have gotten from the library.

This is Whitney doing her math.  We spent the first two weeks reviewing numbers and how to write them correctly.  Now we have moved onto simple addition.  Whitney does some problems everyday and then she gives me math problems.  I don't mind this because it helps her learn how to write mathematical equations.

Will made this number chart that we are also working on.  Whitney is starting to hear the differences between like 'sixty' and 'sixteen'.  Things like that.  So that has been really helpful.

Whitney points to the continent of Europe.  I don't think she will memorize this year which continent is which.  But we have a book that has some pictures of interesting sites in each continent.  We had an interesting conversation the other day on whether it would be more fun to visit the Great Wall of China or Buckingham Palace.

This is Whitney's favorite part of school work - science.  We are studying the human body.  Mostly we have just gotten through with the brain.  We got to do little experiments about the five sense.  That was fun.

And everyday is an 'extra' thing.  So one day a week is music, one is church, one is art, etc.  The girls had learned about Noah's ark on Tuesday, so on Wednesday we pulled out some wooden animals and got to color them for art and pretend to put them on the ark.  That was fun.  Of course, Megan picked a button.  I don't think that really belonged to the ark, but oh well.  

Not shown is Whitney's work on reading and writing.  My mom gave us a neat phonics book and we are learning to distinguish between beginning, middle, and ending of words.  Everyday gets a little better.  That is what is so neat about teaching, you get to see progress.

This isn't from homeschooling, but has become a part of our everyday living.  Megan thinks she should "help" me wash dishes.  She has kind of become a water hog and she spills a ton all over herself and the floor.  But it just makes her so happy that I don't have the heart to tell her no.

Anyway, homeschooling and Umatilla are going well.