Lovin and Learnin

Last weeks learning topics have been varied and fun. I am absolutely loving the Charlotte Mason method of teaching and her book! I had already been doing thing a lot like she recommends but am a lot more relaxed about it now.
For Isaiah, I still keep him motivated with a timer for mathematics and English papers but am letting him work more on his favorite topic,history, and having him narrate from 'living' books. He is currently reading War of the Worlds as well as the educational books. Yesterday, he read a book about Christopher Columbus in about an hour. He really enjoys reading and when he brought the book back he told me that it's like he's in the book when he reads because he gets so 'into it'.
We also spend a lot of time outdoors, exploring Gods wonderful creation! Yesterday, Isaiah caught a huge dragonfly. I measured his wing span at 4 inches!
Emma, being just five, has more wiggle room.Each day I ask her what she would like to learn about and she always has an interesting answer! Yesterday, she chose the Three Toed Sloth (no idea what inspired that)and in the days prior she chose, "How babies grow" Giraffes, Zebras and butterflies.
I decided to test her ability and pulled out a 1st grade lesson book for her yesterday. She amazed me! My girl does first grade addition and subtraction with ease, as well as filling in the blanks with proper letters, tracing, counting and writing. She doesn't read books yet but I am quite certain that it won't be long now.
Also, as part of our day, she colored a sloth, painted several pictures, made tartar sauce, mopped the bathroom and played outdoors.
Noah is only two but he definitely learns new things every day. He can count to three, get his own yogurt out and open, get his spoon and bring them to his seat. He talks more and more and enjoys slang like "whaat" (with head tilt and attitude) and "gross". He loves to help me clean so it's hard to keep the broom, mop, or wet rags away from him.
I could go on and on all day and not even touch half of the thing I love about my kids but now I need to get back to living life with them, and loving it. ~