We have our ups and downs with this model, that is for sure. I honestly talked with Lorelei about switching to public after a really tough home day. (Obviously this is not the only tough day we have had...) She wouldn't mind going to school 5 days a week, but wants to go to GCA all five...well that is not an option! While we feel UM schooling is what we really want for our family, we do know we need to analyze and evaluate this for each child. We are working towards more outings and more socializing in hopes it will make our home time less stressful. We are trying to make the adjustments needed to make this a good fit for our girl, and hope that she thanks us in the long run. Overall she still struggles with math, and I'm not thrilled with how fast the curriculum goes. She excels in English and is a good little writer. Her reading is hard to gage level-wise, but she does well and doesn't usually get upset while reading anymore.
Makin is trucking right along in Kindergarten. He is improving his reading quite a bit and I can't wait to see where he ends up by the summer. He really needs to be challenged more with math, and we do some, but still probably not as much as I should be. He played a computer game one of the days he was home after surgery and proudly announced that the game taught him how to tell time, so at least the computer game pushed him. :) He considers handwriting as his hardest subject and doesn't elaborate much in his journal, so that would be another area we will work on a little more, but he does take his time on his writing, which I'm happy with. I cannot say how much I love kids having these journals!
Random home school pics I have taken the last several months...
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| Loved Graphing |
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| This girl can label her parts of speech in sentences like nobody's business. Love Shurley English. |
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| I love hearing her read her guided reading books. They are about each state and I recently told her she needs to get going returning and getting new ones because I want to hear all about all fifty! |
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| Stuffed animals are often at school with us. |
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| Fun Work Locations |
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| Making Mama Proud Not a peep from me, when he was asked to group them by twos, he decided to match the colors and then put them in a pattern. |
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| Some snowflake catching fun. |
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| "Mom, I want to do my work in the snow." |
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| Lorelei loved making her own recycled paper! |
Makin was excited it was his chance to make a salt dough map. He remembered Lorelei doing this last year, and wanted to make the same map, the USA. After he brought it to school, he came home with new plans if he does it again in 1st grade. :) "I'm not making mine as flat!"
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| Adding some computer time on home days for math... hoping it is a fun way to improve knowing her facts! |
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| "What!?! I have to spell umbrella?!" He has short spelling tests on home days and is proud to ace them, though this one made him a little nervous. :) |
Some moms are starting to meet Wednesdays in the library, so we took the opportunity to meet up with Sonya and her girls. Makin loved getting some school work done with Amelia. :) Lor and Alex are in different classes, but she still liked that we got out of the house. We may do other meet ups with some of her classmates coming up. Trying to combine lessons for her and classmates is a little overwhelming but we will see how it goes!
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| 2nd Grade Group The Following Week |
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| Mrs. McCorkle sent us a link to an eagle cam. The kids have absolutely loved watching the eagle family and we have learned so much! |
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| Makin's optional shape assignment was to make an animal out of shapes. After a day where he was doing a LOT of writing, this was a great activity. He decided he wanted his animal to be 3D and was very proud of his cat! Mrs. Harris even hung it up in the classroom which made him feel extra proud! |
Adding some art and journal entries along with this, although I feel like I could add a lot more, hope you can read them if you click on the picture!
Lorelei:
Makin:
Looks like lots of great, hands on learning!
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