January

At the beginning of January I took Isaac out to breakfast where we discussed everything he wanted to learn about in January.  There was a long list, and we only made it part way through.  We covered a ton about Alligator, Crocodiles, and Snakes.  So much so that for the past two weeks I have been dreaming of being torn apart in a death roll with a Croc.  I am glad the month is over.

Our studies of Crocodiles inevitably caused us to study about Australia.  A friend of a friend was so kind to mail us a postcard from Australia.  He was so excited to get mail.  Especially with crocs on it all the way from Australia.  Now he desperately wants to go to the Australia Zoo.  We are constantly looking at pictures from there.

The past week has been a bit slow on the homeschool front.  A lot has been going on that has kept us busy.  One thing that we have been working on is eating more "real" food.  I have been busy learning how to can.  Isaac has helped me make a lot of soups out of the scraps we have left over from meals.  Then we can it.

This month we ended up with 4 jars of Turkey/Rice Soup, 8 jars of veggie stock (there was more, but we used it), and 10 jars of chicken/veggie soup.  I am happy with what I have so far.  I still have 2 bushels that I need to make applesauce with.  I just keep forgetting to get it out of the car before Derek leaves for work.

We also decided to give Isaac a book allowance.  It was a recommendation from the Read Aloud Revival Podcast to encourage a love of books.  The way we have decided to give it to him is that every time he finishes a unit he will get 5 book bucks.  In each unity is a weeks worth of work.  He can choose to finish it in less than a week, or more than a week.  We put each unit in a folder, and check off the work he has done with stickers.  It has been a pretty good system.

Then once a month has gone by we will take him to Half Price Books (or any book store) to get his books.  He can choose any books that he wants.  We like Half Price Books because they are cheaper, and they give a homeschool discount.  He was able to get 6 books for $10 on our first trip.  He kept choosing books that were more expensive, and he didn't want to use most of his money on one book.

Anyway, tomorrow I will take Isaac out for breakfast and see what fun stuff he wants to learn about in February.