Friday, November 4, 2011

Wrapping Up Our First 9 Weeks

Wow! What a ride!

Our first 9 weeks is coming to an end, and it has been such a learning experience for me. Adjusting to a new curriculum and homeschool two kids full-time while caring for a baby has taken more out of me than I ever expected, but it has also blessed me beyond what I expected.


Princess has been so absorbed in learning everything she can about creation and the Egyptian and Jewish cultures. In our study of these cultures, she's read Genesis through Dueteronomy in her children's Bible. Plus, I've been able to feed into her creative side with crafts and various projects (salt maps, paddle dolls, cereal box structures, pottery, etc.) without breaking the bank or pulling my hair out. In math, she's blown through 50+ lessons and still going strong. She's grasping concepts and a crazy rate and acing all of her tests. I'm so proud of her! Science is by far one of her favorite subjects. So far this year, we've studied what botany is, seeds and the process of germination, and flowers both "regular" and carvivorous. We've been able to fit in so many experiments this year to really solidify the concepts she's learned!


Warrior has been eating school up as well. So far, he's learned letters A-O with very basic writing practice on them and numbers 0-9 also with writing practice. I'm having to work on some speech issues with him - nothing major, just normal things for his age like saying L sounds as a W (i.e. yellow is pronounced "yewwoh"). Arts and crafts abound in preschool as with most, but I really struggle with getting him to color. He does not like it at all but is getting better at trying. Somedays it just doesn't happen.

Sign language is something both kids are learning, and as important as I think it is for my children to be bilingual, it often gets put to the back burner. So far this year only two chapters plus fingerspelling have been learning, which as been about 40 signs. I had hoped we'd be a little closer to 5 chapters completed but somedays I have to cut something out to "get it all done".

In the last week, I was notified to one big change in our homeschool set up. Our wonderful piano teacher Miss S will no longer be teaching. She just had her second baby and feels very overwhelmed adjusting to it all and still maintaining a teaching schedule. Fortunately, I know a bit of piano; the kids' grandma knows piano; and their uncle is a music teacher. This helps with my stress of losing such a wonderful element to our school!