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We started our homeschool morning on this Wednesday scrambling to get out the door with everyone dressed and lunches made for Larissa's and Brianna's science class at the learning center. On the 15 minute drive over, I actually thought ahead to redeem the time, and brought along our brand-new audio cd's for "Story of the World vol. 1: Ancient Times" by Susan Wise Bauer. The audios are read superbly by Jim Weiss. During the car ride over and back, we were able to listen to:

*The introduction- what is history? and What is Archeology? *Chapter one-The earliest people-The first nomads and the first nomads become farmers. *Chapter two:Egyptians lived on the Nile river-two kingdoms become one. (half of chapter 2)

Here we stopped, because I was afraid we would advance too fast for the kids to process. The reading was well done, all 4 of my kids listened intently. In case you missed that part...All 4 kids listened...that's an 11 yr old, a 10 yr old, a 7 yr old boy! and a 4 yr old. We usually achieve that kind of active listening only for "Hank the cowdog". Mr. Weiss did an excellent job with the reading, very pleasant to listen to, and he kept our interest with his very expressive voice. The material was informative and well presented. When we returned home after lunch, the kids completed a map work page from the activity book identifying the town of Jericho, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the area known as the Fertile Crescent. They also worked on a coloring page of a farmer using a Shaduf.
Friday we are going to work on a project of making our own Nile River model. I'll post pictures when it is done. So far, I really like the curriculum. It seems to have a just right mix of core text material, reproducibles in the activity guide, and plenty of activities to choose from-without being overwhelming. I was free to choose which activities to do or not do, without it affecting our learning content.

After we finished these two activities, we moved on to handwriting and Math (Abeka). Rand did some phonics work and read a "Bob book" to me, and worked on his handwriting and numbers writing pad (Abeka). Rand had also watched a sonlight math video while the girls were at their class, and completed a math worksheet (Abeka) with me. The kids then went out and worked in the garden with dad. Later the older girls listened to an "Elsie Dinsmore" book on tape and Rand worked on "Jumpstart Kindergarten" on the computer. Again, we don't seem to have many typical days, but here is a picture of what our day was like on this day.