Into day 2 of our school year

It's been a good start to this school year. The 3-year-old is loving practicing her letters she gets from the worksheets I print out for her using our StartWrite software. My 7-year-old has enjoyed doing math for two days now. We have added some reading comprehension stories into our second full day. The book she is reading right now is All Kinds of Animals from ABeka book. I bought the book at a used curriculum sale about 2 weeks ago for only 50 cents. My daughters are huge animal lovers, so this was something my oldest eagerly picked up. I didn't know it was an ABeka book at the time. I have never been an all-out huge ABeka fan (and I've been to my share of hotel ABeka showings), but I really have liked this one. We did use one ABeka book for science last year that I bought at a consignment sale. We used it to supplement our topical studies. As I've mentioned before, we are very eclectic. I am always looking for the best deals on great curriculum, and I am not content with paying full retail price for everything we use in our homeschool (there are some exceptions to that statement). Besides eBay, Amazon, Half.com, and CBD.com, another great site I use is homeschoolclassifieds.com.

She is now ready for her third lesson from GoodTyping.com. I was impressed when she finished Lesson 2 yesterday with only a 0.8% error rate (2 errors, to be exact). She wants to learn to type so she can write stories online, as well as email family members. I am not focusing on typing speed right now. I'm more concerned with errors. The speed will come with time and practice. I was surprised when we were driving home from the post office yesterday, and I asked her what fingers touched what keys, and she answered correctly without hesitation.

Tomorrow we'll be adding grammar to the mix. Each day my goal is to add one subject. That is our way of "easing" into the school year.

Oh, and a great freebie I got in the mail was incorporated into our school day. We got a free DVD from Animal Planet on the series Meerkat Manor. The girls enjoyed it, and we are adding the series it to our "must-see" TV for next week. We'll also be waiting for the occasional American Girl movie from Netflix.