First week of school 2011/2012 school year

We started our 2011/2012 school year on Monday August 15,2011. This week and next week we won't be doing our actual curriculum that I've chosen for this year (because we haven't received it in the mail yet...due to me procrastinating ordering it). I am just kinda giving them review stuff just to get them in the hang of actually sitting down and doing school. Since we homeschool, our home has been just "our home" for the past few months and now it's also our school..so it takes a little bit of adjustment for them to get into the routine of it all. It takes ME some adjustment time as well. I'm trying to balance all my other duties around the house and trying to not do too much of that other stuff (cleaning, laundry, etc) while its school time. If i take my focus off..even for a moment my kids seem to loose focus as well. (something we are going to be working on the next couple of months though, not to get so distracted and lose focus on their school work. Even if there is lots going on around them).

This is the first year that each of my kids have their own desks. And I must say...wow..I didn't realize how much that is going to make school easier this year. Each child has their own space and they have really taken ownership of "their desk". So it really helps them leave each other alone when they are trying to get something done. Usually when the big kids are working on something, the little ones would try to climb on the table and be right in the middle of it. Now they don't really pay much attention to what the big kids are working on which enables the big kids to focus better. Also, this is our first year we actually have a REAL school room (okay, so we had one a few years ago when we first moved to TN in our temporary house..but that turned out to be a flop...since we had to go outside to get to the school room. IT just didn't work for us and we ended up doing most of school in the main house at the kitchen table.) I had fun making the school room look like a school room and the kids really liked that as well. I still have some work to do on it. I have to get a book shelf and some other things but for now I just used what I had around the house.

I know it's only Thursday but I would say our first week of school was a success! I accomplished all what I wanted to do. Just have fun and start to get into the swing of things. I am really excited to get their new curriculum in the mail and get our school year really rolling. I hope my kids are as excited as I am!

A few changes I've made is that we have decided to NOT have the kids participate in a co-op here. We had actually signed them up for their classes and everything. BUT after much thought and prayer about it. I just didn't feel it was something my kids needed right now. They are involved in many other activities and church and by using our whole day on Friday for these classes we would be using a whole day that was really needed to be spent at home. I'm not worried about my kids needing that for social reasons. They get plenty of that elsewhere. So I felt it was best to skip that for now. Right now we have Jordan in fall baseball, Mason in fall T-ball. Mya is in 2 dance classes. We also have church on Sundays and Wednesdays. I think we are good as far as "activities" go. Sometimes I just want to stay at home and never leave. I don't like making our schedules so busy that we are just running from activity to activity. I like spending time at home as a family and not feeling rushed from place to place every day of the week.

Here's a summary of what we did so far this week:
Jordan -reviewed his math facts; took his English diagnostic test (so I knew exactly what English level to order), worked on some 2nd grade Social studies A.C.E paces. (little workbooks that are used in our new curriculum. I had ordered those awhile back to just see what they were like)
Mya -reviewed writing her alphabet, reviewed phonics, worked on some math bookbooks, took a 1st grade math test that was left over from jordan's 1st grade math curriculum. she got all of the answers correct by the way.
Mason -reviewed his shapes, practiced writing his name, did a lot of playing with gracie with playdough and some learning toys.
Gracie -ate crayons, ate playdough, colored the table, played with toys. But I must add..she did all this sitting at her little table...a step up from her climbing all over the big kids work like she did last school year! :)

All 4 kids are also working on memorizing Psalm 1. We are up to verse 3 now. We have a month for them to learn the whole thing. I'm sure they can do it! They are coming up with all sorts of creative actions to help them memorize it! They will be memorizing a new passage of scripture every month. Some months it's a whole chapter and other months it's just part of a chapter. It goes along with their new curriculum.

So there you have it. What we have been working on. Here are some pictures of our school room.