Saturday, September 3, 2011

Homeschool Mother's Journal Second Week

The Homeschool Mother's Journal
 
In My Life This Week: We are settling in to our routine this week. It always takes me a bit to adjust to the school thing again because it really does take up a lot of time. Anything that requires more forthought on my part takes some getting used to. The bonus is that I feel like I have really been on top of it more this year. It could be the fact that my newborn is not so new any more. Sleep really is an amazing thing. But, like any other routine it will need tweaking as we go along especially since miss cutie patootie is trying desperately to learn the crawling thing. There will be some readjusting when that happens for sure! For now I have focused on having lessons prepared, fun things to go along with our lessons, and cleaning the messes we make a long the way so we don't have so much to do once school is over.
 
In Our Homeschool This week: We stuck with the letter A for the second week because Brylee never got what letter we learned. Every day daddy would come home and ask her what letter she learned and she would say "B" or make the sound for S. Don't know what her obsession is with those two letters. Well at the end of the two weeks it is still iffy if she will say the right letter. I have decided to move on to the next letter. At the end of the alphabet we will start over again. She's only three and she will get it eventually. I have seen success in other areas though. For one her attention span is better. But, she finally knows almost all of her colors. I have to keep reminding myself that Bodie was a early and fast learner and she is right on schedule for her age. Physically she can do more sooner than Bodie did because she wants to keep up with him, but letters and colors and such  has not gone as fast I think in part because I did not have the one on one time with her.
Bodie has really picked up where he left off. He reads super well, devouring chapter books and sadly for his mother getting wayyyy to many ideas reading the Calvin and Hobbes book he got for his birthday. He hates to be wrong. We were doing some math on the board this week. I thought to make it fun we would race. We were working on the number between problems. He would have 28 _ 29 and only have the number between to write. I would have to write the whole problem on board and the answer. A couple of times I got my answer written down first and the tears would start. Mean old mom for not letting him win every time. It really is hard not to laugh when he gets so dramatic. Losing (as he sees it) is not something he is very graceful at. 
 
Places we went or people we meet: This week we jumped right back in full mode. Bodie had his three hour PE class and then we had our monthly enrichment club meeting too. Bodie and Brylee got up and recited the Elephant poem they learned this week. Brylee never said a word while she was up there. She was content to let her brother do that part, but I was proud of her for getting up in front to all those people. This year our group has really grown and it looks like it's gonna be a fun year. We had the Burnet Fire dept come to give us a fire safety demonstration. I think they all enjoyed that.
 
Favorite Thing This Week: When Bodie has his PE class I run errands and do "girl stuff." When I told Brylee I needed to go get some new "girl things" she promptly informed me that when her panties got bigger she would let me wear them. I'll remind her of this one day!
 
What Works, What Doesn't: This year I got Abeka phonics and language. I really like it so far. I also got their math too because last year we had a lot of tears with Horizons math. So far Abeka math is way easier, maybe too easy... so I am just adding some extra stuff in. I think it will pick up some further in the year. In retrospect I think Horizons was good, just last year it required more concentrating ability than he was capable of at that time. This year I am already seeing an improvement in that area.
 
Homeschool Questions: What are some of your favorite ways to burn energy when it is too hot to go outside?
 
Photo To Share:

I really like these puzzles from Melissa and Doug!

Mr. Perfection concentrating!