Our First Week

So here we are on our first day. I wanted a photo of all three of us, but I never took the time to figure out if our new camera has a timer or how to use it. So, I took a photo of the girls together and I let each of them take turns taking photos of their sister and I. As you can imagine, there are many, many images with heads chopped off, or of the floor, or of mom's rear end trying to get back in place before the junior photographer gets trigger happy. So these are probably the best photos of Day 1.

I have to say now that we are four days into it, things are going better than I had hoped for...so far. Julia is paying close attention. Karley is a dream little sister who entertains herself quietly and well for long stretches of time. I have only had to put my foot down with Julia over something (i.e. "Julia, I want you to open your eyes when you are practicing your handwriting." "Oh mom!" she says) a handful of times. Our lesson time is intense time, but we are not arguing during that time. She is more attentive and respectful than other periods of the day. She is going through mostly review stuff, but I can see such a big improvement from when we first went through these lessons, months ago. She doesn't need time to "get it". Its already there. Julia tells me that homeschooling is easier than she thought it would be. I told her that I was happy to hear that, but that we would be adding in some things. "Like what," she says. "Well, like history and some science, but we will add one new thing at a time" I tell her. She comes back with, "Oh mom, can't we just do it all?"

So overall, I feel relieved. I feel like we spend a good amount of time on math, phonics, and handwriting each day. In addition she reads to me, I read to her, and she works on art and/or craft stuff each day (much of the time it is during her free time and she does her own thing). Even with all this though, I am still working really hard for us to meet our weekly minimum amount of time. Our time spent is real, solid chunks of time which I do not believe you can duplicate in a larger environment. I can also really see how well this learning style fits her. Even with Karley as well behaved and quiet as she is, anytime Karley speaks Julia is distracted from what she is doing. She has to stop and turn around and see what is going on. I can't imagine her in a room with 20 other students. She would be all over the place! Anyway, so far so good.....