Isaac's Book Review: Nate the Great Goes Undercover

In this book, Nate the Great goes undercover. At 2 or 3 in the morning, Oliver comes over, Nate is sleeping. He tells him the trash can is tipped over again. So, he has to figure out why and who tipped it over. At the end, we find out its his dog that tips it over because he is sick of eating pancakes every day.
I liked this book. I liked reading about him being undercover.
Isaac gives this book TWO STARS.
(I will be making this a regular part of my blog. I will be having Isaac pick a book he has recently read and he will tell me about the book and whether he liked it or not. He will rate the books based on a three-star rating system.)

Nature Walk!

It has been a long, long, long, long, long winter. I say that every Spring, but this year seems especially true. We went on our first nature walk of the season today. We had a Spring Nature Walk Senses Scavenger Hunt worksheet that I printed from the Handbook of Nature Study, although there wasn't a whole lot to tell us it was Spring quite yet. We will have to do it again in a few weeks.


Of course, we saw a lot of mud, which was on our list.

And probably the biggest sign it is Spring in the Red River Valley is a five letter word: F-L-O-O-D. Some say we have four seasons here: Summer, Winter, Winter and Flood.

This is the bridge a block from our house. That is the Sheyenne River you see creeping precariously close to the bridge. This is not uncommon and happens every year. Thankfully, someone had the presence of mind 20 years ago to put in a diversion for the Sheyenne River, otherwise we'd all be 10 feet under water by now.

We saw a lot of fat and happy Robins on our walk.

There are two in this photo, can you see them? Double click the photo to enlarge.

Drum roll please....

The selections have been made and purchased for our Curriculum for next year. Here we go:

Isaac, Second grade

Phonics/Language Arts/Spelling: A Beka
We used this for first grade and he is reading great, so I assume it worked well enough to use again! Plus, I found myself omiting very little of the lesson plans, which is my litmus test for a good curriculum.


Mathematics: A Beka
We used Developmental Mathematics this year, and it was OK, but I thought there was a lot missing. I really like the comprehensive approach of A Beka. Plus, the workbook pages are kid-friendly with their colorful pictures. They also tie a lot of the story problems, etc. into geography, which I think is an added bonus.


Literature/Supplemental subjects: Five in a Row
I have wanted to use this program for awhile now, and decided to take the plunge this year. I will also be including Graham in on this portion of Isaac's studies. There are some great, free accompanying lapbooks to FIAR books out on the internet, so we will also be working on those.


Geography: Expedition Earth
This is a great, inexpensive download from Confessions of a Homeschooler (although there are accompanying text books that you need to purchase). We will be traveling the globe, focusing on one country at a time as we fill up our passports. Should be big fun!


Penmanship: A Reason for Handwriting, Sonlight
Being a leftie, Isaac's handwriting has left a lot to be desired this year. We started the year with hopes of writing cursive by the end of the year. Since his printing resembled that of a serial killer, I decided to backtrack a bit and focus just on printing. It has gotten better, but not much. I plan to spend a little more time on his printing before we head into cursive.


Bible: AWANA, various
I may supplement our AWANA Bible memorization with something else, not sure yet.



Graham, Pre-K:
Christian Light ABC Readiness Workbooks. These came on the recommendation of a friend with lots of homeschooling experience who said these are the best.

Confessions of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week curriculum. This has been hanging out on my harddrive for months, and it is looking forward to being used! I have my ABC tree ready to go for next year!

I'll also be supplementing these two choices with lots of fun activities, various workbooks I have on hand and preschool packs.