Summer!!!

For the next little while my posts will be far and few between because it's ..............SUMMER!!!!! 

Dalton finished his final round of school online.  I have to voice how incredibly proud of him for all his hard work.  Since we started late in the year but still had to complete the entire program, he completed a years worth of courses in just under 3 months.  Some days we cheated and acted like the computer didn't exist while other days he buckled down and did 20-25 lessons a day.  Homeschooling him accomplished exactly what we both wanted it to accomplish.  The stress load on him was reduced tremendously allowing him to relax and catch his breath for a minute, it gave him time to adjust to some personal stuff and in the end his whole personality has changed for the better.  He is more relaxed, happier and is handling stuff much better!! He is very excited about Middle School next year and seems ready to succeed so hopefully it will go great for him.

Colton is still flourishing with his reading program even though we have slacked off a little.  I have ended up repeating days because sometimes he just wasn't going to sit still even for the 20 minutes so the lesson just didn't sink in, we have skipped days even though the book says not to but well it's SUMMER!!!  Regardless of these adjustments the book is working wonderfully for us, he has advanced from little or no letter recognition visually to reading three letter words that are making up sentences.  One of my favorite discoveries thanks to a couple of home school chat groups has been Reading Eggs.  This is a wonderful online program for children up to Middle School age.  Colton started at the very beginning obviously but they offer placement testing for the kids that have prior reading experience so that they start exactly where they need to.  It is very inexpensive and has a free trial period.  We have been and will continue to utilize this program frequently.  The best part is Colton loves it!!  You don't have to home school to benefit from it, it is a great thing to use as extra practice.

We have a couple of fun activities/crafts planned over the next several weeks so  I will do a update on how they went sometime.  In the meantime enjoy the Summer everyone and have some fun with your kids!!!!!