A few weeks in

We are now beginning our fourth week of homeschooling. I wouldn't say its been all fun and games, but I wouldn't say its awful either. It is work. Lots of work. I found teaching cursive to be very difficult with the curriculum I was using. C felt stressed. It was disappointing because I've seen a marked improvement with his handwriting in general. His cursive is much cleaner than his print and even his print has improved with me able to remind him to hold his pencil correctly. I was at my breaking point. I have a curriculum to get through. I suppose I'm a bit of a type A personality. I follow the rules. We have to get it done...wait a minute...wait...I'm homeschooling. I can set the rules.

outside play

I made a trip to the store and picked up a few cursive writing workbooks and I've decided to do one lower case letter at a time and move on once he has mastered it. This instead of both upper and lower case at the same time and moving to a new letter (or two) everyday. C is feeling more relaxed and so am I.

I've also really enjoyed how much C has been reading on his own. Today I introduced a sheet he will fill out with each book, so I can tell how much he is comprehending. He tells me the characters, the setting, the problem and the solution. I hope in a few weeks to start having him fill out the same sheet for creative writing. I'm super excited!

M has been a bit of a challenge. She has significantly less work than C, so it's harder to keep her engaged. I can't really send her off to play otherwise C will have a harder time focusing. She is pretty good most of the day, but I've picked up extra workbooks for her to do. She also has learning toys in the school room she can play with when I work with C.

Last week, we began a week long study of stars. I decided I want part of our homeschool experience to include some child lead studies. For our first week the kids wanted to learn about stars. We read a number of both fiction and non-fiction books, watched a Magic School Bus episode (thank-you Netflix) and a few star art projects. The kids loved the study and were excited to pick the next two studies.

We are planning a trip to the Planetarium before we begin our next study on a few Ocean animals (Whales, Dolphins and Jellyfish). I wish we had an aquarium here in Memphis!

The kids are also meeting with daddy one night a week. He is working on music lessons. C is learning the recorder and M is playing on the keyboard. They also practice for 10 mins each day. C has also began practice for the Christmas church musical. He practices one night a week. They've also had three karate classes (they both love) and C has started soccer.

Keeping busy at the library, while mom looks for books

Next week Cub Scouts start back up for him, and M will be starting Heritage Girls in a few weeks. We are also looking into starting horse riding lessons or tumbling for her, as well.

I'm very excited with how things are going! It's a lot of work, but the rewards have been amazing! I've seen improvement with C. He was a good student last year, but struggled with handwriting and his spelling. I can see improvement with holding his pencil, his handwritting is more clear and he did fantastic on his first spelling test! Have I mentioned I'm using phonics to teach and it is amazing! So many neat rules to help him!