First Week of School

the littles

the bigs

the crew

Don't we just look like homeschoolers?

No new outfits or back packs needed here!

We had a great first week of school. I must admit I was very apprehensive about how we were going to get everything done this year with my new job responsibilities, but God was faithful again. He smoothed out the bumps, sweetened our attitudes, and generally gave us all joyful hearts about getting back to school. We started out with our traditional go out the front door, get your pics taken by Mom and then knock on the side door and be welcomed into "school." The littles love it, and the 12 year old tolerates it.

One thing that I was counting on to simplify our days really delivered on it's promises. After week one, Switched On Schoolhouse, has been a lifesaver. Camille is doing the entire 4th grade curriculum, and although it took her awhile to get in the swing of things, she enjoyed it. I was available to troubleshoot "what does it want me to do?" questions and the grading took me about 5-7 minutes a day. YEA!!

Ryan is doing the Language Arts and History/Geography parts of the 8th grade curriculum. He is breezing through them, and we have supplemented his history readings with the American History suggestions from the 9th grade curriculum from amblesideonline. His online Biology course from Veritas Press has not started yet, but he and his father have begun the VideoText Algebra Module A without killing each other. :) He will plumb the depths of Dante's Inferno in the coming weeks as well. We found an excellent article at wikipedia.

Grace had a great week and was so excited to be a first grader. We are doing the Charlotte Mason 1st grade curriculum found again at amblesideonline.com. She has learned to count the minutes on the clock, even numbers and begun work on the doubles addition flash cards. Her poetry selections inspired wonderful discussions about how the Sun rises and sets and the water table at the seashore. We are doing a poem a day from A Child's Garden of Verses by R L Stevenson. We learned about the balen inside a whale's mouth thanks to Kipling's Just So Stories. She handled the big girl narrations from Fifty Famous Stories with no problems.

My baby is a Kindergartener! He was beyond excited about it all. He loves having books and folders and a real live schedule just like everyone else. He did nice work in phonics this week and was very proud that he read The Little Red Hen online all by himself. My baby is growing up, sniff.

We are also learning the Charles Wesley Hymn, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing together in bible time. The Joni Erickson Tada Hymns For a Kid's Heart is a wonderful resource.

Here's to more adventures in learning next week!


Heavenly Father, You are so merciful! Thank you for the things You taught each of us this week. Help us not to waste them. Amen.