Weekly review #7 or is it #8?

This week turned out to be bittersweet. Emma is growing up, which is wonderful, a little girl moving from being dependent on mom for much to a young lady willing to go at it on her own. I saw signs of the breaking away from dependency at the beginning of the 3rd grade year. She insisted she have her own schedule for school, so each week there are two schedules, one for her independent work and one her dependent work. Slowly over the 8 weeks I would see her doing things fro my portion of the schedule. Little things like doing the history readings aloud to me instead of me to her, grabbing the Discover 4 Yourself  Bible workbook without me knowing and completing the work then bringing it to me to check. Thursday she rearranged her room, and had her brother move the desk upstairs (it normally sits next to my desk). Friday she took both schedules and did all the work alone, with the exception of the read aloud. She did throw me a few bones though...I was allowed  to discuss the history and Apologia science with her after she read it to me. So it is official, my baby has grown up.

Emma Ruth   3months  2005

Emma Ruth   8yrs   2013

 A few months ago I joined (for Emma) a post card exchange offered on the Sonlight Core D Forums and have steadily  been receiving postcards from all over the United States and a few from Canada. As of today we have 18 cards. This has been a great addition to the United States study and I am so glad we have been a part of this. I do feel sort of guilty though, most of the cards we have received have had facts about the state it came from but on the cards Emma sent out I had her write something about herself (we were using it as writing exercises for English). Our cards did not reflect the interesting facts about Iowa, instead they let the recipient know what was happening in an 8yr old's life at the time....likes playing with dolls, learned to ride a bike, went swimming, tornado warnings and being scared of storms. This is how we are keeping track of the cards we receive:

One more week of Indians and then a week off. I am looking forward to both. Next week I will give a review of using the American Girl books on Kaya. I will just say that so far I am happy with what is happening with our school and plan on staying with my plan....using the AG books and the TT studies with SL core D as a go along.

Just wanted to add this picture of Emma, this is a typical scene during one of the school breaks. She listens to a cd while reading on the Nook.