Still working out the kinks but it's getting better. I've decided to forego having Jonathan do any of the history with Matthew. It seems to be just a bit too high of a level for him (go figure, it's written for middle school) and while it sometimes grips him, more often it doesn't and it just leads to frustration. Add in that once we get all of our supplies in, I have no idea where he would find the time to do it! LOL I figure he is getting US History circa late 1800s in with our literature and we discuss history in other places like when we went and saw the Samurai exhibit so it will sneak in. He's in 3rd grade so I want to keep it fun. He has such a hard time with his reading and spelling, no sense making something else hard for him.
Today we started on our Little House on the Prairie curriculum. Nico didn't make it easy but we got through Day 1 with reading the first chapter and discussing it, reading up on bears, talked about the toys they played with (it said we could make a corncob doll but I didn't think the boys would be super interested and I wasn't interested in making a pig's bladder balloon....ewwwwww!). I did pick up the stuff to make homemade butter and molasses-on-snow candy for later this week. Hopefully that makes up for not getting the pig's bladder. LOL
We also read up on interrupting, what it means to interrupt, how it makes others feel when you do it to them, and what you can do to avoid it. It's definitely something we have a problem with here so it was nice that this curriculum includes talking about those things when they come up.
Another thing I really liked was that there are only 4 lessons a week. I was so worried how it would work out with field trips and such since things are broken up by week and planned out accordingly but since there are only 4 lessons a week, it makes it really easy. I've told the boys that if we don't have a field trip for the week, then we'll use that extra day to do science experiments and delve into whatever they want to learn about. Poor guys. LOL
I have to say that I'm pretty happy with how this morning went and will keep it going. I took Jonathan to therapy at 10a and dropped Christopher off at the library to do the research for his biology class. Nico and I did the grocery shopping and errands while they were occupied. Matthew was able to stay home and work on his math, history, and other things that didn't require my help. The only downside is that it leaves me very little time to work with Nico on Mondays but hopefully with a little more tweaking, that won't be a problem. We did find some time to work on two of his workbooks a little bit and we did FIAR and he mostly listened when I was reading to the big boys this afternoon. I'm going to be happy with that from him. LOL
Speaking of Nico, I just got in our first Preschool Projects pack and I have to say I'm very happy with what I see! Is it September 1st yet?! I don't want to wait to get started on some of these things. 20 projects, all prepped and ready to go, in individual baggies, with instructions, a calendar with suggested use, and a teacher's guide talking about what exactly they are learning from each project and how to maximize it's use. Wow! I'm trying very hard to calm down and NOT go ordering the rest of the year right now as I do want to make sure that Nico enjoys it as much as I hope he will. He is starting to get much more into his workbooks and art projects tho so I have reason to hope.
So even with therapy for Jonathan this morning, we got most of the days work done before I took them to KSW. They should be able to finish the rest when they get home or just after dinner without too much hassle. Hopefully once we get things going a bit more smoothly, schooltime will generally go from 9a-3p. But I'm still going to definitely consider this day a total success!
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