These aren't the best pictures, but...

Here's a sampling of what my son learned this week.
Today's picture is right below. He already knew what a vole and a goshawk were. What seven year old knows that? I didn't know! The picture says, "I learned about the food chain of the animals."


















This was what he learned yesterday. He really does not like to color, so I had him just outline the map (and I colored the water for him because I'm such a nice mom like that.)




















I have to admit I have been amazed that he is enjoying learning so much about maps. I was pretty sure I'd be able to get him interested in the countries and the people/animals that live there, but I was kind of nervous about the first few weeks. So far, he's soaking it up. And he's learning so much! He named all of the continents for his dad yesterday except Europe and we've only been studying this for 4 days. Pretty cool I think. Considering I didn't know where all the continents were when I left high school. (I've since learned them, obviously) And, with that statement I promise not to go off on a tangent as to why homeschool is so great. Oohh kay...

So, that concludes our first week. Tomorrow (Friday) we will begin week two and do Monday's work.

Today was tough.

None of us could stay focused. It's not abnormal for the kids, but I couldn't get myself "into" today for anything. I don't know what my deal was. BUT, somehow even still we're very close to being done for the day! Including the extra stuff from Friday, so that we could get ahead and take Monday off. It's 2:30 and all we have left to do is the poster from Tuesday that we skipped and Daddy is going to do the scale project with him tonight. Yes, math is done. I know I usually write and say that we only have math left. :-)

I wanted to mention how I've been working things out with Superkid. He has one notebook that he puts everything in. We've tried to do separate before, but it just gets confusing. He also has a section where I give him a copy of the weekly outlook for his records. I was nervous about doing this at first, because I wanted some of it to be a surprise (activities, projects, etc.) But I've found that it actually really helps him to see that he can work harder to get ahead, to have time off. It also does give him an element of surprise, because all he can read in certain boxes is "activity" - he doesn't know WHAT that is, he just knows that he has something coming up! I also allow HIM to choose what he wants to do next throughout the day. I've been amazed that he's actually chosen some of his least favorite things to do FIRST, so that he can get them out of the way. His choice! Before I was coaxing him to write, now he does it willingly first!! It has worked out really well actually. I've also given him full control over how he organizes his notebook. Whatever way he wants to do it is fine, I just want it to be in some sort of order. We'll see how that goes over time.

This weekend I plan to go shopping for the rest of the supplies we need. I am going to get 2yo her own binder too. She usually winds up drawing pictures and painting with Superkid. I haven't been doing any one on one "school" time with her this week. Once we get into a groove, I think I will do more "school" time with her. (We just count and sing, etc.) I've been focusing mostly on keeping her naptime more regular than I had been. After lunch she reads a book and then gets into bed. That gives us time to do more of the projects in the afternoon that need to be done without little fingers in the way. :-D

Ok, I guess we'd better get focused here so we can get this day finished up.

Another day gone by...

Today I squeezed a few extra things in so that we can take Monday off. (Or at least make it a really light day because I am hoping to take a good nature walk. We need to go to my parents house for the afternoon, so we'll be busy.) Anyway, so I'm breaking up Friday and doing Friday's work today & tomorrow so that I can do Monday's work on Friday. Confused? Nevermind then.

Anyway, so even with doing a few extra things we didn't do bad on our timing. We were done with everything except math by 2:00. Not bad. Well, you have to remember we START around 10am. Much later than I'd like, but that's just how it seems to work out.

Math was tough for my superkid today. He does Horizons and we don't have the teachers manual. It's a good thing he really catches on easily to math! Today they introduced A LOT all at one time. So, I had to sit with him the entire time and give him different ways to look at the problem. For instance, counting by 4's. He'd never tried before, but after circling all the 4's on a number chart, I pointed out the pattern in the "Ones", then I reminded him that he could add too. (even if he just pays attention to the Ones and applies it to whatever the Tens were.) I have no idea if I am making sense here. Anyway, there were a few new concepts for him that I know he learned some things, but I'm just always amazed how POP here's a huge concept to master. I will be switching to Singapore Math as soon as we are done with this workbook. I'm just not sure where to place him yet. He appears to know almost all of book one, but I'm not sure if he'd be missing concepts or not. We'll just have to see when the time comes.

Other than that, today just kind of went smoothly.

Oh, I had to laugh because something triggered my son today about when he went to his cousins school (a Christian school) for the day as a visitor. He began to reminisce and talk about it, but he did say that he would much rather be at home. (happy, proud, beaming mother writing this here!!) He was able to spend the day in each of his cousins classes, which were (I think) Kindergarten and 2nd grade. In the kindergarten class, he was just bored I guess. And to keep him occupied they let him sit and read. Well, apparently at one point the teacher put him to work "teaching" other children to read! He was thinking intently about this and he said he wants to become a teacher so that he can be an example in the public schools. But, that once he has a family he'll do something else, because he would homeschool his children. He was just in this real sober mood talking seriously about how he wants to change the world and how much he loved teaching the "kids". I told him that maybe he should consider tutoring others or volunteering to teach others to read. Well, that just got him thinking even more and I couldn't reel him in after that! He'd sit and think, then come to me and say, "you know what else I could do..." - It was fun! I am so thankful that we have time together to have these "deep" conversations. I wouldn't trade it for the world! :-)

That was my day, how was yours?

2nd day done!

WOW! Today went quick!! We didn't start too much earlier today. We were on schedule according to our plan though. Here it is lunch and all my son has to do is Math! Amazing. We had a nice day. I was a bit on edge for some reason. Which doesn't help anything. We are waiting to do the poster because Superkid wants to use the coloring pages on his. So, we skipped that. I am just amazed though that we are done!!!!!!! WOW!



Ok, here's our world map we made today. Don't laugh at my drawings. :-D





Have I mentioned that I LOVE this new curriculum???

Chronicle of our 1st day of school:

We came home from Church last night, stopped off at walmart and got home at 10:30. Someone around here, we won't name any names (ahem, daddy) decided having ice cream when we got home would be a great idea. Yeah. So, the kids were in bed after 11pm. Hmm... Poor Superman was busy with paperwork for his job until after midnight. So, it was a late night, which of course starts our morning out a little rough.


I woke at 7:30 to pray and read.


Superkid actually woke up first at 8:00. He's one of the harder ones to get out of bed. So, as I made him breakfast we talked about the new school. :-D He's excited. Which is really good!!


Here's the sign I made on the whiteboard for today. Superkid loves the colors red, white and blue. (Although he informed me I should have done Red, then white, then blue. Instead of Red, blue, then white. Can't please em, I tell ya!)























Daddy walked out the door at 9:30 for work this morning. Superkid went running to the end of the street with his dog like he does most days. (He races Daddy's truck.)


When he came back he said he was still hungry. This kid really can eat. I only gave him two waffles, so I let him have some more.

I had him go outside to get his bible out from the car. Instead of coming straight in he began to talk to the neighbor for WAY too long (about his bike, etc.) eventually I called him in. It is now 10:00. Oh boy!


Ok. So, as he eats, I begin bible time with him.


11:20: Oh my... This has been one challenging day! It is not the work, which has actually been really fun! It's just circumstances. The entire morning my daughter has been crying. I think she is not feeling well. I haven't taken her temp, but she seems hot. So between her needing a lot of attention and my son being EXTREMELY distractable today, it has been challenging to say the least. However, in the midst of the trial we have completed - Bible, handwriting, and we did a pretest (we just went over verbally what he knows and I told him the ones he didn't.) We're trucking along. There just seem to be a few bumps in the road and some unexpected turns. :-D


12:20: We've been working on the application for an hour now. I gave him the option of stopping for awhile to take a break and come back to it, but he wants to finish. He's still working on his handwriting skills. It's soo nice and quiet and peaceful now that little one is napping. Poor her, she must not be feeling well. I prayed for her and she did seem to be feeling a little better. Hopefully she wakes refreshed!


1:00 - Finally completely finished with the application. Because it was something different he actually pressed through. It took A LONG time, but I'm proud of him for not complaining! :-)

LUNCH TIME!! And time for a much needed break.

---I just have to mention that this boy must be growing! He had a few waffles this morning, a half of a hamburger with fries, small frozen pizza a pudding and he's STILL hungry! (please disregard my unhealthy choices for my child. I'm going to use the excuse that I'm pregnant and I go for convenience more than anything recently. )


3:20 - YAY! We're almost done!! Superkid is working on his math, then we're done. Our geography book I had him read aloud and just asked a lot of questions as we went along. I am amazed everything we read today was new to him. He reads enough that I thought he had at least heard of many of those, but he said he learned a lot. Then we did science. We read and he balked a little about having to draw (he hates to color and drawing is second below that), but he did a great picture. I think he'll get more accustom to doing it as we make it a habit each day. The other three things we did he's been doing: our read-aloud, pocket full of pinecones (we have a few chapters left), english and now he's doing his math.

WE DID IT!!!!! YES!
It feels so good to be done and it was a great day overall.

By the way, Pickles wokeup feeling MUCH better and in a much better mood. So our afternoon went much more smooth. My son's mood never changed. I don't mind so much, because he's just excited and happy for his new school. He's been hyper and it has been hard to get his attention. (this is not very normal for him. He's a pretty mellow kid.) Anyway, all in all, everything went GREAT!

Thanks for sharing my day with me. :-D