Monday, November 24, 2014

For the ladies at Ambleside Online....

Here's the requested pics of my two old books I found today! :-)  For anyone not on Ambleside, I took some books to a used bookstore in my town today and got some credit to use.  I was buying books for next year (Les Miserable, poetry by Keats & Byron, Beowulf and more) when I found an 1899 copy of Scott's "Lady of the Lake" and a 1911 copy of Kipling's "Under the Deodars: The Phantom Rickshaw: Wee Willie Winkie".  Yay!!  Here are the books.

The Lady of the Lake

Kipling! 

What's your favorite book deal you've gotten recently?

Monday, November 3, 2014

Now in Unit Two

Well, we finished the first unit of Year 1 in Tapestry of Grace and are starting the third week of unit 2.  I have to admit, I'm somewhat disappointed.  I was under the impression that there would be more "living books" and that has not been the case.  More books than not have been the dry, textbook style, and my kids are NOT enjoying that part of it.  There are a few good books, but not near what I was looking for. 

I started looking for something to move Little Bit--my youngest--to next year and found Ambleside Online, a Charlotte Mason homeschooling site.  It's totally free other than the books, but a lot of them can either be read or downloaded online for free--and it's totally based on living books!  I really struggled as I didn't want to move the older kids yet AGAIN, but ultimately, it was decided that starting next year, all of the kids will move to AO.  I've been collecting books as I can as I definitely prefer hard copies to e-books.  We have a lovely used bookstore here in town that will let you trade in books for credit or cash.  I got a nice stack of books there Saturday.  I was thrilled to get a hardcover (with dust jacket still intact!) copy of "The Story of Painting" by H. W. Janson that most of the girls will need next year for only $1.50!!  I've found a couple of good websites for used books where I can get a lot of books for $3-$4 including free shipping, so that is a blessing!

Speaking of Little Bit, she's doing great in school.  She's officially up to counting to 19 (in her workbook--she can count much higher on her own) and adding up to 6, and very rarely gets her answers wrong.  She's reading more and more.  Tuesday she'll finish the first of three workbooks each in Phonics, Reading and Penmanship.

Munchkin (DD 12) is doing good.  We had some issues with Math early on, but things are going much better now.  She is dialectic level, so her books seem to be a bit more interesting than the older two, but she's definitely excited about moving to AO next year.

Bluestocking (DD 13) is moving right along.  We've moved her to 9th grade this year as she was doing so well.  She's taking Pre-Algebra (TT) in half a year before moving straight into Algebra I.  She completely tested out of almost the first half of the Pre-Algebra book.  She's loving Biology with Bookworm (DD 14).

Speaking of Bookworm, she is also enjoying Biology this year, which is nice as Science is not one of her favorite subjects.  She's really looking forward to Anatomy either next year or the year after, but Chemistry is NOT exciting her at all!  Algebra I has it's ups and downs.  She's trudging through it.  Bookworm and Bluestocking are both really looking forward to AO next year as well. 

How is your school year going so far?