We Started!

School has started. Somehow we managed to be up and going with all the computers ready for our starting date. So now we are two and a half weeks in. As you can tell, Brooke has not blogged yet. Oh well. The ringer is off, though. That was the best idea I have had. I seem to get a couple journal topics in a week for Emily and Grace. It is really fun to read what they have to say on things. The first two weeks I was dedicated to spending time everyday with Sophia doing preschool things. This week hasn't gone so well on that. But I am hoping I will get back on track with that. She just loves to do school work. So much right now is dependent on how well Lydia is sleeping. When we have a good night it is easy to get up at 7:00 and keep on our schedule. However, that doesn't seem to happen very often. Many days it seems I am not up until 9:00. Thankfully the kids manage to get going on time so they don't get behind on their school. It is really hard for me though to start my day late. I feel like I am behind all day long. And of course that leads to a crabby overwhelmed mom. :) But I like to remain positive that it will get better, that Lydia will start sleeping through the night, and someday my schedule will be successful!

Some of the fun things we have done:

We took a field trip to the running track in Sidney and did a timed mile. Brooke needed to do one for her Fitness Fundamentals class. Brooke, Emily, Grace, and I all did a timed mile. It is crushing to my ego that I am running fairly consistently and Brooke doesn't exercise at all and she was only 10 seconds slower than me in the mile. Oh that hurts! Brooke and I also got our body fat measured. Obviously I am not going to post that on here! Let's just say there is work to be done, and oh how I miss those younger years! The only other fun school thing I think is that the bookmobile comes almost right to our front door now! That is really nice. Sophia and Allison just love going to pick out books there.

Brooke: I just love Alpha Omega Academy! Brooke is getting used to new classes and new teachers. Things seem to be going well so far. There is some difficulty with new teachers and understanding what they expect of her. But she is adjusting. Most days she is done with her school by noon and has plenty of time to work on her assigned projects. I know as the year goes on, the work load will get harder, but it is nice to have a slow, easy start to get her used to it.

Emily: Fifth grade is going good for Emily. The hardest thing for her right now is learning how to take notes in History and Science. It is very time consuming for her. But something has to be done because she has such a difficult time with her quizzes. Emily probably spends the most time of all the girls doing her schoolwork. Someday it seems to take all day for her to finish. Thank goodness she is not a complainer. She just sits and works until she is done.

Grace: We decided this year that Grace should do third grade again. She has struggled so much with school. It seemed that if we were going to do it, now was the time. Now she is redoing it and getting such good grades that I wonder if we should have moved her up! But, I know it will get more difficult for her as we get into the year more. It is very good for her ego right now to be doing so well. I think she needs that confidence booster. As Josh said, it is better to have a third grader that feels really smart than a fourth grader that feels, well, we'll just say "not smart".

Sophia: Sophia is working on learning how to write her capital letters in a workbook right now. Then I have a lower case letters workbook after that and am hoping to get to the preschool workbook this year. We are also doing Pre-Math-It. That is basically just dominoes. Right now we just match up the squares and are learning about zero.

Allison: I am trying to do some reading with Allison. She also helps Sophia and I with the Pre-Math-It. Her favorite though is at the end when I line up the dominoes and she gets to knock them over.

Lydia: She is sitting up now! We've been working on clapping, waving bye-bye, signing milk, and of course saying ma-ma.

So that is what is happening right now in our homeschool. The journey continues...