Curriculum

Hello again! Olivia's down for a nap and the kids are watching a cartoon so I have a few minutes. For our homeschool curriculum we use a wide variety of resources. I am very interested in the Charlotte Mason approach--Charlotte Mason was an English Christian educator from the 19th century. We somewhat follow the free curriculum of Ambleside Online at http://www.amblesideonline.org/ , but there are also several areas where we do different things than suggested. I teach Austin and Nyah the same things (Ambleside's Year 1), and even though they are at different places in their learning what we do is flexible enough that they are both learning.
Subjects recommended daily are:
Penmanship/Copywork: I don't use a penmanship program, as I figure that when they are willing to write, they can do it how it feels most comfortable for now. Writing seems to still be a physical struggle for both of them so I keep it light--if we are writing for phonics or math I won't do writing in other areas. Nyah almost always starts letters and numbers at the bottom or where most of us probably end ours--its just how her brain works. I haven't started copywork as suggested by Ambleside for this reason as well.
Phonics: We aren't using a specific phonics program. We stared Englemann's 100 Easy Lessons, but found it to be too stressful for all concerned. Austin had far more success with a Reader Rabbit computer game and can now read--He's still pretty intimidated by reading books no matter how easy, and Nyah isn't quite ready yet. I don't feel there's a need to be in a hurry. We are currently using Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families for our phonics and word building.
Math: This year I didn't use one of the complete math programs Ambleside suggests, but used a lot of different things--library books (http://www.livingmath.net/ and Math Through Children's Literature), workbooks (simple ones from Wal-Mart or Barnes & Noble), and created my own word problems, activities, etc., to supplement when they needed extra practice in an area (like subtraction). I think for this next year we may use Math-U-See, as I wonder if a program might give us more structure and consistency, but I'll look over a friend's before I decide.
Foreign Language: We are currently not doing this. I started using sign language at the beginning of the year as this is something I've had a little previous experience with, but it ultimately just died off. I've talked with Kurt about him teaching the kids portuguese, as that is the language he knows, and though he's done a few lessons with them, it isn't close to daily or even regularly. Sometimes Papa will speak French with them, but again not a regular happening. Something for us to aspire to I suppose :)
That's enough school talk for today. Austin and Nyah are doing well, as Olivia is going to be running circles around us any day now. Love you all!