That Week When We Got in a Groove (Kind Of) (Week 2)

Well hello there. I'm back for the wrap-up of Week 2 in our journey of homeschooling.  And we're still all alive.  So there's that!

After the disastrous start to homeschooling last week, this week could only be better, right?  Right!  And it was.  Better, that is.  Thank You, God. 

CC (Classical Conversations) went well, although the Essentials class that Cade is taking makes my brain smoke.  Lots of things to memorize: 4 sentence structures, 4 sentence purposes, 5 parts of a sentence, 7 sentence patterns.  And that's just the "112 Sentence Classifications" chart.  Then there's the Verb anatomy chart.  Trust me; it's a lot to memorize.  BUT.  Cade (and I) will know his grammar backwards and forwards.

School at home the rest of the week went pretty well.  We're still fighting some bad attitudes (mainly in one kiddo).  But the threat of assigning them more work if attitudes didn't improve seemed to work wonders.  All of a sudden, kids were almost eager to do their work.  It was great! 

There are still things I need and want to tweak (spelling, for instance).  But for the most part, I'm very happy with our curriculum choices and am looking forward to learning right alongside the kids.

I'll try and include pics each week... since that makes blog posts (at least mine) SO much more interesting!  I didn't take any pictures this week, so I'll just include the kids' first day of school pictures.

First off is Cade.  With his pseudo-smile.  **sigh**  Some day we'll get him to smile genuinely for the camera.

Then there's Claire Bear.  She never takes a bad picture.  I'm actually jealous of her.

And finally, Jack.  I can't get him to smile for the camera nowadays if his life depended on it.  He was in between making lame faces at the camera and greatly annoying me in the process when I caught him laughing.  Success!

And of course, I promised the kids that they could take a silly picture if they would just sit still long enough for me to get some pics of them.

Hope your school year is off to a great start too!

That Week When We Started (Week 1)

So I find myself homeschooling again.  "WHA???" you ask.  Yes, you heard me right.  I'm homeschooling again.  I can go into the reasons another time.  Suffice it to say that we started last week, and it is my goal to chronicle our journey this year.

As Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music, "Let's start at the very beginning.  It's a very good place to start."

Week 1 was... um... well... it's over. 

Monday

We started our week with Classical Conversations.  CC is a co-op (kind of) based on the classical method of learning.  All three kids are enrolled in the Foundations program, which is a memory work program based on a 3-year cycle.  We are currently in Cycle 2, which starts with Pre-Reformation times through modern times (Cycle 1 begins with creation and Cycle 3 is American History).  Cade is also enrolled in CC's Essentials program, which is an intensive grammar and writing program.  We were at CC, which is held at a local church, from 9am-3pm.  Mondays are going to be very long days.

Tuesday & Wednesday

Tuesday through Friday we stay at home.  I tried blocking this pastTuesday and Wednesday out of my memory, but God wasn't so gracious to allow that.  Tuesday and Wednesday were hard days.  Attitudes were poor, my patience was in short supply, and we didn't get a whole bunch completed.  Some of my expectations of the kids were unrealistic (for example, having them work independently from an assignment task list is totally unrealistic).  I had to talk myself off the proverbial ledge multiple times.

Thursday

Thursday was a great day.  Attitudes were markedly improved.  I adjusted my expectations of the kids and found a way to juggle educating and working with three kids at different levels of learning.  We accomplished quite a bit more on this day.

Friday

Friday ended up a mixed bag.  Attitudes slipped a little again, and my patience was at an all-time low.  We stopped school at lunch time and patted ourselves on the back for completing the first week of homeschool.

Thoughts and Meanderings

As part of talking myself off the ledge, I've had to remind myself that homeschooling will be an adjustment.  Just like if the kids were going back to public school again, they would have to adjust to being at school for 7-8 hours a day.  And I would also (easily) adjust to them being gone for 7-8 hours a day.  This venture, too, will take some time to get used to. 

Yes, I miss having the kids out of the house for 7-8 hours a day.  Yes, I need and miss "me" time.  No, I can't function when I have the kids (or any people for that matter) around me 24/7.  So we will have to be creative about how to provide opportunities for breaks for me.  But I also know that investing in my kids' educations and character development is priceless. 

Our workspace

This year, we are working in the upstairs living room.  Several things this room provides us:  natural light, plenty of space, and a little privacy (my mom lives with us; or more accurately, we live with my mom)

To store the kids' curriculum, I bought these crates.  Each kid has a white crate for their school books.  The teal crates underneath the table are for their individual library books.  The bright green crate on the table is for general library books (books that correlate to what we are studying in history, science, and art)

The rest of our books (my teacher manuals, texts used for our group studies, and reference books) are stored in this first bookcase.

 To store basic supplies (pens, markers, erasers, dry erase boards, etc.), I bought this drawer cart. I love this thing!

 

So with that, I will leave you to peruse other blogs or similarly waste time on the interwebs.  Check back at the end of the week for an update on how we're doing.  My goal is to write over the weekend about the preceding week.  Hopefully I'll be more diligent about this than I have been in the past. ;)