Postcards for the swap have been mailed out and now comes the waiting game :) We hope to receive 5 cards internationally – kids are really excited about this!
Mars is doing alright in English alhamdulillah – I am quite satisfied with her reading, grammar and vocabulary but she needs to do a little more written work, so I’ve collected a few more English resources. We are continuing with Worldly Wise 3000 – rather traditional but this will probably be helpful for her PSLE in 2013 (the dad man is not budging on this even though I’ve launched an aggressive campaign against it :P).
We are also using Charlotte Mason’s Simply Grammar: An Illustrated Primer by Karen Andreola this year as well – perfect for my daughter who adores the vintage illustrations.
We are also stepping up on copywork – Mars is getting increasingly frustrated with her less than neat handwriting. She wants to do cursive, but I really think she isn’t ready. I know some families begin writing with cursive so I am tempted but also very torn. Any advice? We’ve also been doing note-taking during our rainforest unit study. She has been summarising our discussions and will transfer her notes to a rainforest journal in shaa Allah. Hopefully this gives her more writing and spelling practice.
I was also very fortunate to meet Sushma when I was in Singapore – she doesn’t homeschool but is a curriculum and book junkie much like yours truly :) She passed on many of her used materials to me at a discount. One was Natural Speller by Kathryn L. Stout. I was initially put off by the layout – it looked like it contained nothing but endless wordlists, but it is so much more than that. It also teaches dictionary and grammar skills and even Latin and Greek word parts. Quite a gem for S$5 ma shaa Allah :)
I’ve found a few other spelling resources online as well which may suit some of you :)