Back ta Educatin' my Young'uns

Yes, it's finally that time of year when we pull out the table and chairs, sharpen our pencils, open up our books, and bring out the glue sticks again. We have started school. We originally planned to start on August 1, but that attempt was thwarted by some attitude issues and plain old lack of preparation. So after one day of a false start, we gave it a week and started again on August 8. That's just one more benefit of not being stuck on the county government's schedule in the public school system. You're not ready until you're ready!

Katie Mei fell asleep at my feet and Merrilee was mad at her math book on the first day of school. So much for getting a head start!

Katie Mei has really grown in maturity over the summer and she's been doing a great job of taking on some more academic pursuits this year. She is still occupying some of her time with games and puzzles, but she's been able to work in some preschool workbooks and do some activities that require more skill than I knew she was capable of. It's nice to be surprised when she can tackle those tasks I didn't know she was ready for. I'm not going to push it, but I have a little inkling that she might possibly be ready for Kindergarten next fall. She'll probably start reading next summer, since she's already asking me how to spell words and I can sound out the word and she can tell me what letters are required.

Picking out objects that are the same.

Building a copy of my pattern of blocks. We took her up to five blocks and she didn't miss a beat.
Busy work...sometimes it keeps her busy and sometimes it doesn't work!

Cutting and gluing~ two of her absolute favorite things to do! And she's cutting on straight lines perfectly now.

Merrilee is excited to be learning history and science from a new perspective this year. She's had three years of early American history with Pilgrims and Squanto, and this year she's able to move ahead and learn more world geography, map skills, and profiles of prominent Americans. Her science is also moving into physical science this year. Our first chapter was on simple machines and she's really enjoyed it. I have been blessed to find out that Georgia Public Broadcasting allows homeschoolers to sign up for streaming video of all their materials. It is free, and gives me access to their archives of all their educational video material. So the documentaries, children's programs, and other stuff you'd see on a PBS station are mine to use in our homeschool. It's really awesome, and I am thrilled to be able to let an interesting, age-appropriate video entertain and teach all three of my kids about simple machines. If you remember how fun it was to have a movie in the classroom in elementary school, the same excitement happens in homeschool. The kids just love it! Thank you GPB! We're already looking forward to our videos about ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt. This is going to be a fun school year.

First science lab demonstrating pushing and pulling forces.

My view of the world during school. Glass of ice water, handy dry erase marker, lesson plan book, teacher's guide to the subject at hand, and one somewhat willing student.

Jacob has had to go back and review quite a bit of his math. Last year he breezed through the Kindergarten math book and I started him on the first grade book. But after a few weeks of it I could tell we were getting into territory he wasn't ready for, so we quit. This year I have started back at the beginning of the first grade book and quickly sped through all that he was comfortable doing, and we're almost back to where we left off. I have found that he really needs to spend a little more time working through concepts until he's really solid in them. Review really helps him. Merrilee hated review once she learned something and she always needs to move on quickly. It doesn't mean she grasps the concepts any faster than Jacob, but he really needs to soak in them more than she did before he's ready for new stuff. I just cannot imagine how their grades and ability to retain information would differ if they were in a classroom setting; one just cannot teach different kids the same way.

So we've now got three weeks (and one day) under our belts and are almost ready to turn in our first month's attendance to the Lee County Department of Education. Sixteen days down and 164 to go! Woo Hoo! Bring it on!

P.S. I know there are a lot of sentences ending in prepositions here. I am not in the mood to go back and fix my grammatical errors. Live with it. Just rest in knowing I had a really high GPA in English, and I recognize my mistakes, and I promise not to pass them down to my children. :-)