A peek into our homeschool week

I have been wanting to do something like this for a while, to have some sort of written "progress report" of sorts but just never had the right format--every time I tried, it just looked dumb to me. Lo and behold, Mrs. Cuddles has a weekly meme on her blog Cuddles on the Couch, see?

Neato mosquito! I'll play! Sounds like a great way for me to keep myself in check...not to mention to disspel the myths that all I do is sit on the couch eating bonbons all day long....'tis to laugh!

Kelsey--week 3: Kelsey is finally getting into the groove of what independent learning really feels like. It is SOOOO much easier not having to prod her along, but rather to say, "Here's your schedule, I will trust you to grade your daily math work with the understanding that if you don't pass your quizzes and biweekly tests with flying colors, all grading rights and privileges return to Mom." She's loving it, and so far she seems to be learning BETTER this way! Consumer math, while it isn't really a 'tough' math course, is still rather meaty and full of practical application (something Kelsey desperately needs work in), and once we got past the inevitable "Mom, they're asking me to do something that's not in the book" arguments that have happened EVERY year since the first grade, she did just fine. She is truly enjoying her Starting Points worldview/philosophy/literature/history/Bible course. She says she likes being able to see HOW things make sense. Funny, that's what I've been trying to.....oh, forget it. I'm not going to get into that again. All in all, great week. No fighting about getting anything done, chemistry is not stumping her like she thought it would, and she is finally starting to look like a high schooler, academically speaking.

Morgan/Jamie--week 2: This week went incredibly well, all things considered. Last week, our first "official" week of kindergarten/jr.K, did not go so well, but week 2 was much better. For starters, this week, Mom had a voice and wasn't coughing up a lung every ten mintues! So yes, we actually got our reading DONE! Sonlight's Pre-K (ages 4-5) program is a great fit for us, and I'm supplementing with 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons', Horizons Math K for Morgan, and Comprehensive Curriculum pre-K/kindergarten workbooks for Jamie. As I had guessed (and partially feared), Jamie is catching on to writing, while for Morgan, it's a chore she'd rather not deal with. I think for now I might just go ahead and focus on learning to read with Morgan and leave the handwriting for when her fine motor skills catch up. No hurry, she's only 4!

Jamie is continuing to shock us all weekly with the things she can memorize. She can spell the names of just about every family member (we haven't quite gotten Shelby's and Danica's names in the mix yet), and thanks to a couple of really neat PBS shows, she's learned how to spell several other words as well.

She's also the one who will analyze a story, making sure I stop so she can ask WHY the mouse would be so nice as to help the lion when the lion wanted to eat the mouse....while Morgan just loves to listen to the stories. Morgan is not thrilled with the Poky Little Puppy--the injustice of Poky's siblings not getting the pudding, chocolate custard, and strawberry shortcake is just too much for her sensitive little mind! OH the injustice!

Of course, Dani can just not abide with being left behind in anything, so we had to make sure she had some "school books" of her own to scribble on while the big girls are doing their own seatwork! You'll notice, by the way, that she's wearing a pajama top that is not her own, a cloth diaper on bottom, and Morgan's flip-flops. Standard homeschool uniform, is it not?