My thoughts are more jumbled than usual this week.... starting school has been a welcome return to routine for us, but with that start comes lots of planning, projects, and later nights than usual. All in all, I'm very happy with how the first week of school has gone. It's certainly a lot more smooth than last year (which was the first time I was homeschooling two!).
We have been using a modified version of the Workbox system, which is going VERY WELL! I can't wait to share it with you, but I want to give it another week so I have a little more to write about. I'll give you just a couple pictures to peak your interest! (Special thanks to Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations for the Workbox printables!) I must say that it is giving our days more structure and my children know better what is expected of them. On the flip side, I may be giving them too much structure because my husband pointed out to me last night that he really liked how we were going towards "unschooling" last year and how much the children seemed to be learning. He has noticed this year that everything is more scheduled and wondered how that's working for us. I never EVER imagined my husband and I would be having a conversation about ourselves and unschooling - life is funny sometimes.
My plan is to take my weekly wrap-up each Friday that I write here and print it to put in my homeschool binder. I've been so good about keeping up with that this week and writing down everyone's accomplishments. I think having a weekly wrap-up printed each week would be a nice addition.
Our accomplishments this week include:
Working on math, writing, and spelling each day. History was studied three days this week. Next week I will add science and Latin (hopefully). I'm still wondering how our schedule will play out ~ I love homeschooling because I can adjust as needed!
Serious piano practice each day for Miss B - I'm so thankful she loves her music, and she can retreat to our music room and play piano and recorder each day.
A reading time to therapy dogs for GMan. This sweet little dog is Ginny, and my son loves to read to her. He reads for 20 minutes to a dog as a part of a program called Reading PAWS.
LOTS of hands on activities: plenty of Lego building while mom was reading aloud, and a fun soap carving activity. We learned all about the Parthenon this week and how the statues in it were carved from marble - we carved our own statues out of Ivory Soap.
Lots of time was spent outside each morning (very early because it's so hot here right now). One of GMan's workbox cards is "Baseball" for "30 minutes" -- he sets his timer and goes outside to throw with his pitchback. He is so funny - he talks to imaginary batters, gives pitching signals, spits on the ball, etc... This kid is obsessed with baseball!
We're culminating our week today with a Fun Friday activity - Sharpie Tie Dye Bandanas. I'd like to have a fun art activity or craft each Friday. Of course we include more throughout the week, but something on Friday that will be just FUN for FUN'S SAKE is what I'm looking for. This afternoon we're also having a Fudge Tasting Contest with a good friend of mine. She claims her fudge is the best, and I claim mine is the best. We are going to blindfold some kids and put our masterpieces to the test. I think it should be FUN!
That's our first week in a nutshell! Have you officially started back to school yet? How's it going? If you haven't, when do you start?
I'm linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers this week!
