Monday, February 9, 2009

No More Reading Woes!!

My Brianna just picked up her workbook that comes with the HOP program and read a lesson that she had never seen! She is finally understanding how to decode the words rather than just memorizing them! I am so proud!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Just a quickie

Just an update on school this week.

Reading and Phonics-
Brianna made it through the next two word families in her HOP program. So we now know -at, -ap, and -an. Of course we are still working on fluency and I imagine a bit of it is memorization as opposed to actual "reading", but I consider it a start in the right direction!

Math-
Flowing as usual. We started counting to 40 and she seems to already have it down pretty well. Keira surprised me by counting to 20 with us. I guess she has learned from listening. We continue to work on addition which she excels at.

Writing-
I have been terrible. We have been focusing so much on other things this week that we have only journaled once! I plan to get it back on par this coming week. She enjoys it so much.

Bible-
We continue to do memorization and I have some little work sheets. I have ordered a book that teaches the basics of our beliefs that I hope to have in the next week or so.

This brings me to my final thought. Science or no science this year? Brianna and Keira both have shown an interest in the stars and planets recently so my thoughts were to maybe start Apologia come July when we start our new "semester". I am just not sure if she is ready to add anything else since we are still finding our stride. I am sure some prayer will help me make the right decision.

Monday, February 2, 2009

AT Phonics Book

Now that we are using HOP to do Brianna's Phonics I decided it would be fun to do a lapbook to go with our first lesson "at" so here it is!








Now that we are using HOP to do Brianna's Phonics I decided it would be fun to do a lapbook to go with our first lesson "at" so here it is!

Dallas Mulls Daytime Juvenile Curfew


Dallas'
Public Safety Committee, eight members of Dallas' City Hall, is expected to soon
discuss expanding the juvenile curfew into daylight hours in the same way that
Hurst-Euless-Bedford did in
2008.
Dallas' current juvenile curfew law only covers the hours between 11
p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturdays, the curfew
goes into effect at midnight.
Proponents of expanding the curfew want to
include the hours of 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and insist that if truancy can be
curtailed, so can crime. Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia said that in 2008, 63
percent of juvenile arrests took place during school hours and that the majority
of home burglaries in that year were caused by minors.
Officials with H-E-B
said unexcused absences dropped by nearly 10,000 since the curfew was
implemented in their district.
Officials with the Dallas
Independent School District
said the daytime curfew might not only cut
crime, it would increase the attendance at Dallas' schools which would increase
money from the state.
There are, of course, the standard exemptions including
those students who are traveling to and from work or for those who have
graduated early.
Under the proposed plan, parents could be fined $500 if
their child is guilty of truancy -- one part of the plan that parents are
against since some say they can't control whether or not their child stays on
campus.
Dallas plans to hold a public hearing on the matter March 25 with a
final vote scheduled for April 22.



This is not good news for homeschoolers who could end up heading to court to prove that they are enrolled in school. Pray that this either does not pass or is written in a way that will allow for those who chose to use alternate education.