Homeschool Week 1, Review.

Week one is behind me.  Phew!  I've been anticipating this week's worth of work for a long time, so it feels surreal to have it behind me!  In most ways it was easier than I thought it would be, and in some small ways it was harder.  Spending all day, every day with my kids?  Easier.  I've found that when my time is devoted to them, my patience is lengthened.  When I'm trying to do something else and they keep interrupting me, that's when my fuse gets short.  I've also found that they're better behaved.  Maybe it's because they have so much to do to occupy themselves that they aren't as difficult, or maybe it's because they're getting LOADS of one on one time with their mama and that makes them super happy.  Or maybe it's both.  But they have fought less, screamed less (Libby and Will), and argued less this week.  Will has been the tricky one, though.  During one of our lessons this week he walked over to Libby's supply drawer and peed in it!  It's going to take some skill to keep him busy while I'm attending to the others.  I'm learning, though.  I'll get it figured out.  (p.s. "me" time isn't as hard to come by, even with them home all day, as some might assume.)

The hardest part?  Overcoming my own mental pathways that have been engrained into me through 12+ years in the public school system.  I've read a number of books this summer, went to a number of seminars, and watched a number of videos that have all inspired me and helped me see the vision of what a truly great education really looks like.  I have a vision now of what exactly I want my kids to get out of their schooling, but the hard part has been applying it.  All of my years of doing it another way scream at me that I'm doing this wrong!  "School doesn't look like this!"  I have two sides in my head battling it out, and that's something that's been hard to deal this week.  But each day gets easier as I apply it and try to figure out how to make it work.


Alright, so let's get on with it!  This week we:

- started each day off with a prayer.

- went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity ($2 Tuesdays... super great deal, came with a super big crowd, but the kids super loved it and we stayed for 3 hours!)

- the kids memorized Moses 1:39, through writing it out each morning.

- we did yoga with Cosmic Kids every morning (this is one of their favorite parts of school so far).

- we reviewed math concepts that they learned last year.

- we read 30 pages in the original classic, Robin Hood (this is their other favorite thing to do, which surprised me because the language is such that I didn't know if they'd follow along.  Turns out they do, and they love it!  It reads like this: "Father, betake yourself to the forest and secure your safety."  "'Whither now?' cried the second outlaw.  'We must all to cover, and that right speedily.'"  I question them and sure enough they somehow get what's being said!)

- we learned about negative space art work, through painting around painters tape and then removing it.

Libby's.
I helped tape, but she came up with the idea and painted it all herself.

Keiras.
She came up with the idea, taped, and painted it all herself.

Garrett's.
Dad helped with the tape and the idea (he wasn't getting what negative space was), but he did all the painting.

- the kids learned 5 words in Latin, all from the scripture Moses 1:39 translated into Latin.  They learned that "opus" means "work", "vitam" means "life", "hominis" means "man", "gloriam" means "glory" and "aerternam" means "eternal".  They're so proud!

- finally, the kids improved their spelling and their handwriting a bit as they wrote out their scripture verse for the week every morning (Keira and Garrett), and writing their name multiple times every morning (Libby).



Overall it was a good week.  Next week we have more to add to our day (other subjects, and library day), and the week after that we'll have even more to add (violin lessons, and PE).  So we'll see how we tweak things as we add on more.  As it was, we only spent about 2 hours working in the classroom getting things done each day, and we didn't do more than 30 minutes worth of things on Friday, and I feel like we accomplished a good deal.  We'll see what I have to say next week as we add on more.  ;)  But so far, so good.

"Unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives."

- President Thomas S. Monson