Happy Thursday

So glad it is Thursday today. Actually, I have to say I am just so glad last week is behind us now. It is always so much better when my dear hubby is home instead of away.

I have been thinking about how great of an experience we have been having with schooling the kids at home. Granted there have been a few crazy, going to pull my hair out, run screaming from the room days, but they were more in the beginning than a constant now. We still have some moments but it takes nothing to get kids on task. I found that by saving Art and Science for later in the day there is something to look forward to doing.

Speaking of Science, we have had a great time with both of the kids' science curriculum. Last week with 5th grade Science DD and I made salt water layers and today she and dad made a current using different temps of salt water. She loved it and completely understood what and why it was happening. 7th Grade Earth Science is on Rocks and Minerals now and DS and Dad were doing scratch test using the rock and mineral kit he got for Science. The next couple of days he is busy classifying the rocks into different categories, he is a happy boy.

It has not all been fun and games, grammar is one of those subjects that is easy to use (for most people) then to describe. The grammar is a bit more advanced then what both of the kids were used to, fortunately I have found some different helps and ideas that enhance what we, yes we, are learning.

In many ways I think Literature is their favorite subject next to Science. They have enjoyed the reading so much. They actually end up reading a lot everyday. DS has an online portion of his Math, then reads a couple of extra pages, before doing the exercises. They both have two to three chapters of History everyday to read and answer questions on. I am amazed at some of the conversations we have had about what they are studying. Great times.

First Week of Homeschooling

WOW!!! We have completed the first week of our homeschooling adventure and what a week it has been. We have some ups and downs as well as the normal confusion following any school break. I can see certain subjects that my oldest child has missed in his education since he was a late reader needing extra help on a regular basis. So we struggle a bit with grammar but he has figured out quickly to do it quickly and get it out of the way and on with better subjects. I think he is really liking the options.

My dear darling daughter on the other hand sometimes seems to have the attention span of a gnat. My oh my...we had a lesson where she decided to play around more than actually work so I told her that I really do not care how long it takes her to finish the lesson she will only get 1 hours worth of credit for it. She looked at me like I have grown 2 heads. By the end of the day when brother had been finished for an hour and she was still working, maybe that did the trick.

Couple of other points came to focus when reading the wording in their lessons, it is not the same that they are used to so we hit a challenge. After a bit of rereading I explained that when you see that word this is what they want to know. This came up once for both of the kids but in different subjects.

On a better note Science is a hit with both kids, as is US History. My son also discovered that he loves the vocabulary. The vocab unit is on prefixes of uni-, bi-, mono-, he had no idea these were based on Latin and Greek words and then how many different words you can make with these prefixes. I love seeing the excitement in him for learning. He has also discovered Literature and he is loving the reading as well as the discussion questions afterwards. WOW...what a change!

This has been an awesome week and none of us can wait to see what next week has to bring.

First Day of School

Well our First Day of School proved to be very interesting. We were all set, got up on time, had my coffee and a friend called to say that they were in the hospital having a baby with their 18 year old daughter, my suedo-niece. So the younger kids do not start school until tomorrow in the public school so they needed to be picked up. So we went and picked them up and started breakfast.

I alternated kids and their class introductions while the others were playing xbox and then it was time for a break for ALL of us. Off to the lake, yep you guessed it, PE for two hours. They never came out of the water until I begged them to. I got some relaxation time in and read some of my book.

Finally, we made it back to the house and some more introductions. Then the ice cream truck came through the neighborhood so off we went and had a treat with some basic math added in. Everything is a lesson. Tonight the kids are watching the History Channel and something about WWII, yep we got some history too. This weekend my son found a show about PT-109 and is excited for more history.

I forgot to take some pictures of today but tomorrow when we really get into the thick of some lessons I will take some pictures. We had a great day! By the way we ended up with a "great-nephew" weighing 8 lbs. 5 oz. and 21" long. What a very blessed day!