Our First Week of School

It has been a busy week! We started school on Monday. I wanted to start early, so that we would have more flexibility throughout the year. I have two "official" students this year. Isaac is in first grade, and Bailey is in Kindergarten. It is more accurate to say that I have four students, because Olivia and Anna Grace are not about to be left out! In fact, Olivia is constantly asking, "What about my school?"

Monday's school went pretty well. We started with breakfast in bed -- green eggs and ham. This is becoming a tradition (if two years in a row can be considered a tradition). We ended with lunch at McDonald's. It was our weekly Mommy & Me outing, but Isaac and Bailey thought that everyone was coming to celebrate their first day of school!

It will take me a few weeks to learn how to juggle everything and get us set up with a good routine. I had planned to homeschool four days a week, for about an hour and a half a day, for the rest of the summer. I have decided to change that to three days while we still have summer activities. I tried to school on Monday before we went to Mommy & Me and then again on Wednesday before we went swimming, and it was just too much -- I was getting very stressed! Sometimes I greatly overestimate how much I can get done! So, we are going to try doing school on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for a week or two and see how it goes.

So far, the curriculum we are using seems to be a good fit. This week we have focused on math, reading, handwriting and Bible. We also started Charlotte's Web. I will add in history and science next week. Isaac is enjoying his reading lessons. I had pushed him pretty hard last year, and it seemed to be a bit over his head by the end of the year. He has been able to read the first few lessons easily this week, and that has been great for his confidence! I had started a new math curriculum (Math-U-See) towards the end of the year, and we had gotten about a third of the way through. We had to review a few concepts this week, and we are ready to move on. Bailey is using the Kindergarten Math-U-See program, and she loves it. I think that it has been her favorite part of school so far. Olivia and I have been working on some preschool skills. I want to encourage her love of learning!