Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Week 12: Homeschool is like Kauai - with noise...

How in the world could the world of homeschooling be like a tropical paradise vacation? It's not anything like I expected at first and the longer you are there, the more things you find to do!

This week we are in Week 12 of most lessons although I think technically we should be somewhere near Week 13, but only being a week behind in our core work makes me happy :) We are behind in Science because I switched curriculums (which I am SO happy I did and the happy little experiment on our kitchen counter is a good thing) and Writing because I consciously went at that very slowly to "unschool" them from things that were disasters at the end of last year. Danny still doesn't "like" to write, but since we have been doing Handwriting without Tears printing with both of them, both of their writing is MUCH more legible than the beginning of the year and Ben holds his pencil correctly SOME of the time now :) 

We have taken care of PE and Music with outside classes at the YMCA, church and the music store for cello lessons, but sadly, I haven't tackled Health yet. The last frontier. Not that it's hard, just that formal lessons weren't included with my curriculum and I have to piece this one together myself. Doing good and ready to start our first unit next week and then all the pieces will be in place.

Whew! It's alot of work, but truly I have to say how much I enjoy putting the lessons together and working with the boys - once they are on track. Most days we have some version of the "Abbott & Costello" show in our homeschool room, though. It's funny the first 5 minutes...then, you know what I mean. I have never yelled so much in my life as I have with these two boys. And it's not usually in anger! It's more like a referee - to get their attention! I know I'm ruining my voice, but until Santa brings me a referee's whistle for Christmas (wink, wink Honey....:) I've got no choice.

This weekend is our first big Homeschool Family LongDistance Field Trip with our second visit to Jamestown/Powhatan Village/Yorktown - and I'm very excited! Even though it comes at a busy time after Thanksgiving and my granddaughter Freya's birth last Friday, it comes at the tail end of our early colonial History unit and the boys will be able to see again the places we've been reading about for months - and now they have a context to see them in because Pocahantas, Captain John Smith and all the others are now "real" to them from the stories in the Sonlight collection. Really, really pleased with how Sonlight works good children's literature into their core study program. Aside from the History text we occasionally visit, all of our real learning about culture, vocabulary and geography come from the books and the boys get it without even knowing they are "learning"...:)

Well, lunch is over so back to finish our experiment and work on afternoon classes. Ciao!

P.S. By the way, have I said recently how LOUD BOYS ARE?!?! Argh...I'm hiding in my bedroom with the door shut and the TV playing classical musical and I can STILL here their conversation over lunch downstairs. *sigh*

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