We started back to school this week. I went from one student to 3. 3rd, K, and Prek. We are doing a one room school house approach. This is my first year completely on my own though. The last four years we used a local virtual school. This year we took the leap and went out on our own, and so far I'm very happy with it. It's actually fun planning their days and what we will be doing. At least so far. lol I also designed and made my own planner which I am really loving actually. Another great thing, a friend of ours from our congregation, started homeschooling this year too. She lives only a block away. She is using a different local virtual school, but hoping she too will gain confidence to go out on her own! lol How is every one else doing this year?
We're doing great so far! We've added grandson #2, who is 6. He's doing a sort of kindy/first grade combination; that is, we're starting out sort of kindy, but we'll just flow into first grade materials as he learns stuff and is ready. Grandson#1 is fifth grade this year, but we're still finishing up some fourth grade stuff first. One thing we've done is have both of us "on duty" at the same time, in the den "schoolroom" instead of me in here, and DH in the bedroom relaxing until grandson#1 "needs him" for math, science, or social studies. Sometimes if I'm working with grandson#2, they'll go back to the room so they can read together, but they come back out again to do the written work. Last year, with only one child, GS#1 would just drag it out and piddle around and sometimes not get done until way over in the evening. But this year we're getting up on a schedule, starting on a schedule, and both of us "on duty", so we've been getting done before 2pm, although GS#2 is done well before noon, so his "schooling" is puzzles and constructive play after that. We're making more of an effort to meet up with others, so Park Day, bowling, etc., at least a couple times a month.
Pretty well! Phillip's attitude has improved, which is a big difference. Sometimes he reverts, but that's to be expected! Co-op starts Tuesday, which he's really excited about.
I don't know what happened yesterday, but they both got up on the wrong side of the bed or something. Big one dragged his feet and piddled around and everything was like pulling teeth with a tweezers. Little one was given to manipulative crying - I can't do it, it's too hard, I want Mommy. Needless to say, tough love was the order of the day, and 6-who-was-acting-like-3 found out that yes he can do it if Grandma says do it. Big one found out again that Grandma doesn't bargain, and if I say it's going to get done today, then nothing else is going to happen until it is done. Good news - we all survived.
That's pretty much how my K daughter was Lindina. This is our first year formally schooling her, and she cried the first day she couldn't do it, etc. But, I held firm too, and by the end of the week we had no more problems with that. We are actually kind of doing a blend as well, PreK/K it's some PreK things, and some K things depending on strengths and weaknesses. She is a young 5 year old, so it's to be expected she isn't quite at the K stuff yet for most things, but her Math is exceptional so that she is. Science experiments and such we are doing Rod and Staff for the oldest, and it has experiments they can all do! So that's been great. We too are making a bigger effort of getting out to parks, museums, etc etc... So far at least once to twice a week.
We have good days and bad like anyone else, but overall, the year is going great so far. We have one more week until our first break (we started at the end of July). I've got a 7th and a 4th this year, and I'm enjoying it much more than I did the earlier grades. I REALLY enjoy the tangent discussions, because I find that they seem to learn a lot more when we get off topic and talk for an hour than when we stick completely to the lesson plan. My focus in college was middle school, so I'm just entering my favorite teaching years.
