A Common Shepherdess

This week the girls have been studying things that begin with the letter C. Since today is Fat Tuesday (the last day of Carnival), it worked out perfectly. We read about C arnival and made Mardi Gras masks. The girls chose a butterfly template we found online. For supper the girls helped me make c reole pork chops and a king c ake .

A few months ago I started our oldest daughter in Year 1 of Ambleside. It proved too much for her. She just wasn't ready yet. Last week we switched to Letter of the Week . Big improvement! One thing I like about the switch is that our 3-year-old can sit in on the lessons as well. It has been easy to adapt the lessons to each girls' ability. Math for the week was addition. We used animal crackers as manipulatives. Our 3-year-old did some simple problems orally while my older daughter wrote out problems using mathematical notation. When we are done with Letter of the Week, we will move on to Sound of the Week . I have chosen books with a little more depth than picture books. For the letter A we read a short chapter book that was a biography of Johnny Appleseed. We read two chapters a day. I am also able to use some of the material from Year 1 Ambleside where I can. For the letter B we will be learning about bluebirds from the Burgess Bird Book. We will also read &q