I can't believe it's time to start another school year. Summer seems to fly by, and yet by this point I am usually eager to get back to a schedule and routine. The kids start to fight and get bored and watch way too much TV. And I absolutely love fresh school supplies, new books, and newly organized binders and notebooks. (Maybe way more than the kids do!) This year, my 6th year homeschooling, we've decided to try things on our own, without Classical Conversations. We will probably be doing a co-op with some local friends, but it won't require travel or planning or outside work-- just a fun extra-curricular day for socialization. I am excited about all the things we'll learn together!!
I'm thankful they still humor me for a 1st day of school picture! They were all pretty excited about starting a new grade-- let's just hope the excitement doesn't wear off too quickly.
4th Grade seems so old! This year we're covering some brand new topics that I am excited about learning myself-- Latin and writing (not handwriting, but actually composing paragraphs and stories). We're also tackling American History, Geography (hopefully memorizing all the states & capitals), and Chemistry as a group-- Andrew and Abi will be participating, but of course will not be required to do as much as Leah. These are subjects I will have to study a great deal myself in order to teach, because I don't remember much at all from my school days.
Andrew is a pretty active boy who doesn't really like to work hard, but he CAN do great work when he tries. I got him a math book that I know will be harder for him, but I don't want him to be bored doing math I know he already gets. He will be learning cursive this year while still practicing on his print. I also really want him to get better at spelling, because that is a weaker subject for him.
I'm calling Abigail's year "Junior Kindergarten," since technically her birthday is later and she doesn't make the cut-off for public school kindergarten. She will be going to the preschool again this year, but I still want her to get ahead on learning her letters and numbers, at the very least. She isn't quite ready for full-blown school work anyway, so really I'll just be using kindergarten materials at a slower pace to cover 2 years.
Abi starts her day with her Calendar Notebook, where she's learning her days of the week, practicing numbers, and learning shapes & colors.
This little boy always proves to be a challenge in our school day. He won't really sit still, so he just goes around dumping out all his toys, making messes, filling his diaper at inconvenient times, and making lots of noise. It's a good thing he's cute!
Everyone's favorite time this year is Computer Time. Leah's math program is all done on the computer. She will also be learning typing. For the others, I've found several educational websites that have games that will reinforce what they're already learning in other subjects, as well as YouTube videos. Of course, if they finish all their assigned computer work, they get to play a game of their choice, which is what they really like!
Our first day of school also happened to fall on the day of the highly acclaimed Solar Eclipse. While our state only experienced about 70% totality, a nearby town had a big party to celebrate, with bounce houses, free viewing glasses, popcorn & cotton candy. It was way cooler to look at then I had imagined it would be, and we were amazed at God's handiwork in creating the sun and the moon and the sky! Leah's BFF Apple was there to have fun with.
Jacob of course had no clue what was going on but LOVED bouncing in the bounce houses (with tons of big kids, by the way) and playing in the sandbox.
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