Our first week back homeschooling

Not at all surprised by how the week went. Started out on a high note and then reality set in. We started Tuesday and enjoyed the day by going to one of the local 'not back to school' picnics. We had a blast, saw lots of friends, had good food and the kids go some special treats - one family brought a slip-n-slide, a sprinkler, and a pinata. Oh the fun!

Wednesday through Friday saw us working on some basics (reading, writing, LA, and math). Friday had a bit of history thrown in as well. Like I imagined, my son jumped right in and is excited to learn new things while my daughter drags her feet and is afraid. This year I'm much less unschooling than I have been in the past. In the past my kids were given more free time and they chose more electronic time than I can deal with. This year is going to be different and my daughter doesn't deal well with change. She never has. But I know she can do this so I'm going to challenge her to rise to the occasion.

We managed to get to two park days this week and the kids and I had a great time. Today's (Friday) park was a new one for us and only about 10 minutes from our house. How did we manage to totally miss this wonderful park all these years? I just wish it had a bathroom. The kids so need to the time to run around outside and hang out with kids during the day. It's good and necessary to blow off steam.

Next week we're adding in more history/geography, science, art, cooking. I know the kids will enjoy the subjects, it's just fitting them in with how our mornings are going. Some will be in the afternoon, but I still don't want to feel like a dictator and be grumpy and burnt out by the time we get to lunch. I want to enjoy our time together. I guess it will just take time to get to that point.

This coming Monday will be our first history crafting with my daughter's friend. We're sliding into history this year through the historical American Girl stories. We're starting with Kaya and I think Monday will include making a dress for their American Girl dolls and doing some string games. Depending on time we might make a period snack (or I'll have one made). This two person crafting club is sometime I came up with in the hopes that it keeps my daughter interested in reading the books and learning more of the history of the time periods.

As you can see I'm using this blog as a way of keeping track of some of the activities we're doing along with how our homeschooling is going. At some point I hope to post some pictures of things we're doing or places we've been.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Look, another year gone by...

Seems that I only post at the beginning of a new school year. Here I go again. I'm going to try and keep an account of at least some of our homeschooling activities for the year here. I've had those plans before but I'll give it a go again. My two children are going into second grade and kindergarten this year. Those grades are only for the kids to be able to tell people what grade they are in, not their ability or what we are doing for the year. I'm not keen on labels of any kind. though it's impossible for me to not use them from time to time. My artistic daughter is just about to turn 8 in a little over a week. She's so excited to be getting a year older. She's chosen to not take any official classes this year, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have activities planned. The artist has signed up for the local American Girl book club that another homeschooling mom is leading. She participated in it last year and is looking forward to doing it again. I've set up our history this year using the historical American Girl books as our spine and am having a 'club' meet every other week to do crafts based on the time period. My athletic son is going to unofficially start kindergarten this year. He'll be doing actual kindergarten/1st grade work, but the county thinks he's staying home for another year before starting kindy. That is an option here in Virginia. I did that with my daughter as well. It gives the kids an extra year before testing and the big leap expected for the first grade testing. The athlete has been busy this summer with hopping on a two wheel bike and taking off with help of all of 20 minutes before he did it on his own. He's also enjoyed a two wheel scooter instead of his beloved Mini Kick scooter he's had since his second birthday. The athlete still is not interested in taking any official classes, not even sports. He wants to play the sports and enjoy them without structure. I'm fine with that. He'll get there when he's ready. Both kids are in 4H this year. It's a total change from 4H last year. Last year this 4H group was much more structured and met inside. My kids didn't like it and we only lasted a couple of weeks. This year all the meetings are outdoors, even in the winter. It meets two times a month with one day as an exploration day at various parks/outdoor areas. The other day is a park day at a nature center. The kids will have a playground but also a great area to explore including a pond. Besides those activities we have two possible park days to attend every week. So even though we don't have official classes the kids will be busy and I hope have a lot of fun this year with their friends. I know that eventually my kids will want to participate in larger groups and when they are ready I'll be there to support that decision. Some activities I can see my kids loving if it was at a different venue or not as many people, but they are just not a good fit for my kids at this point in time. They may never be a good fit and that's ok. I'm happy to let my kids be kids and not force them into activities they don't want to attend. This weekend I'm on my own with the animals and I'm busy planning out the next few weeks of the beginning of our school year. I seem to be making my own curriculum for everything this year. I hope what I plan is a decent fit for my kiddos. More on plans to come.