Home School-The Adventure Continues

I think we are now about 8 or 9 weeks into this home schooling adventure. It is getting better and better, but is still not something that comes naturally to me, Darin or the kids. This week, Jori has decided to take her backpack to school and she has been calling me “teacher”. When we are done with school, she goes “home” and calls me “mom” and tells me all about her day at school, even though I am the one who just taught her : ) If she finishes before her brother, she’ll say “Mom, when will Tyson be home from school?” and Tyson, who is sitting right at the table says “I AM home right now”, but she just ignores him, because in her mind, he is at school still. 

Today, Friday, we are having a home school holiday. We all needed a break, especially since we are all a bit behind on our sleep, which leads to a lot more tantrums and fussing about the school work that I want the kids to do. I am so thankful that Darin is still working one on one with Tyson! This seems to be working out for all of us! Last week Tyson wrote his report on his boat. This week he started one on snakes, a topic he is very interested in. He still needs to write a bit more and then type it up and add some pictures, but be looking for it early next week. He has also been doing a lot of handwriting practice this week, and we’ve seen improvements in his handwriting already. Tyson tends to hurry through his work, so we’ve been trying to help him slow down and catch his mistakes early. Right now he is reading a “Judy Moody” book that we found at the Oktoberfest book sale. He is also doing a lot of story problems in math. I am especially glad that Darin is around to teach Tyson math as it is one of my worst subjects! Tyson is also memorizing the books of the Old Testament. I think he is up to Esther now. His brain is like a sponge. He takes information in and it sticks. He has also been teaching Jori the books of the Bible, which I love.

Jori finished the first half of her math curriculum! It was a lot of number writing and other repetitive things. We started her new book on Monday and she was so proud of herself. She had to write the numbers 1-100 two times already, and that did not make her very happy. Jori has also been working on her handwriting. Her little mind works faster than her hand and I also need to remind her to slow down. This tends to make her crabby as she just wants to get the work done! She is still having a hard time with those pesky letter b’s and d’s. We’ve been working on site words and reading this week and I can see big improvements in both areas. She is almost finished with her “Explode the Code” phonics book, so I need to work on finding more things to keep her little mind busy. We’ve been memorizing weekly Bible verses and have 8 that we are working on right now. We hope to put on a little program for Papa and Gram when they come, and according to our paper chain, their arrival is a mere 19 days away!

On Tuesday, we took a field trip to the local library. The kids were thrilled to be able to check out some new books. Tyson found a whole section of non-fiction books about doctors and dentists, two of his favorite things to read about! He also brought home some crime and detective books. Jori found 2 Barbie books, a Cinderella book and we also found 3 easy reader books for her to use during school. This is what the kids had to say about their library experience:

Tyson: I got 6 books. The library is cool. I got my own library card. I got cool books like a crime buster book and all cool books.

Jori: I got 2 Barbie books and one princess book. I got 3 other books for home school. The gingerbread man and Sniff. The library was cool and it had a park outside.

Darin and I also checked out a book each and some magazines. I’d like to go back again and look through the shelves more carefully to see what kind of books they have for me and the kids. I really miss the Gary Byker Library and its huge section of Christian fiction, my favorite genre  : ) I also miss the kids section with so many new books and series. I am thankful that there is a library here with books in English, but the books are old and worn and have pages missing and it just isn’t the same. So all of you with access to a good library, GO and be thankful!

Right now the kids are running around outside in their undies chasing a lizard. They ran through the sprinklers for a while and are both filthy dirty, but laughing and having a great time. I think we are all glad we took the day off. Next week we’ll start up again.