Week One

As expected, this week was a rough one. In my experience the first week always is. There will always be one moment where I'm ready to quit. Usually it is just the chaos of implementing new curriculum, getting everyone adjusted to doing school instead of playing, and just managing time! Usually by the second week things have somewhat smoothed out. But boy does Mommy need a break after the first week!!

I decided to start something new this year and we did an "all about me" sheet. The idea being that we can see how they've changed as each year goes by. Questions were things like favorite food, favorite color, what I want to be when I grow up, etc...not everyone had as detailed of a business plan as Hannah's idea for opening a dog kennel complete with gift shop!

                                               Our "back to school" pictures
                      

 Elaina will be doing some preschool.

 Sean will be doing lots of playing!

 Grace is in 1st.

 Hannah is in 3rd.

This week we studied the settlement of St. Augustine, FL. We also studied the continents, oceans and how currents work. We got to do a fun activity where we drew a giant world in our driveway (complete with mom's terrible artwork as I attempted to draw continents!). We labeled each continent and the oceans and the girls took turns jumping to whichever continent/ocean I called out. They enjoyed it and they really had to stop and think about where to jump.

Hannah's new favorite subject is math. At least for the time being! She loves her new curriculum that she gets to do on the computer. I love that she's finally excited to do math and that I have the reassurance of knowing that she's getting a solid lesson each day. She's also enjoying her extra history readings, this week she is reading the fictitious diary of a little girl who traveled to Jamestown. She's speeding through it and I suspect she'll finish it before her allotted 3 weeks which is fine because then she can start on book #2!

Grace has also been loving her math. It is a lot more review for the time being. We'll see how she feels in a couple weeks! Reading continues to be a struggle for her. Rather than keep dragging her forward I've decided to slow down and review some of the basics hoping that if she grows in confidence she won't find the forward movement so emotionally challenging!

I'm hoping to start working a bit more with Elaina next week. She's certainly eager and ready. I've had her work along some with Grace this week but she's wanting more formal one-on-one time. Which was just impossible this week with trying to sort everyone else out. But hopefully soon...I want to take advantage of her eagerness!!