It's That Time Again

It's hard to believe that it is already back to school time! Secretly I am happy. It's not that our summer wasn't fun and full of adventures, this mama just functions better when a routine is set in place. The kids had mixed reviews about school starting. Tatum was eager to get things going and was actually ready to start earlier. Eli, however, not so much. Evan being the "baby" just goes with the flow. He will be going to preschool this year so he is in for some major changes! I'm going to TRY and blog about the school year, try being the key word. I want to document it for them plus it will help me on the days when I am asking myself, "Am I crazy for doing this?" and I will have plenty of those days. I am finally getting comfortable with the whole homeschool adventure. I've figured out what works for us and what doesn't work for us. So, this year everything is different the only curriculum I didn't change was phonics. We jumped right into the new year and the first week went good and I even got some unsolicited positive feedback from Eli...YES! This is how our first week went.

One of Tatum's favorite things to do is journal time. Since she hasn't mastered being able to free journal she enjoys the Draw Write Now books. She will draw the picture in the book and then copy the sentences about the picture. I tried once this week to skip the book and just practice her penmanship with copywork that idea didn't go so well!

I switched math curriculum this year. The verdict is still out on whether it's a hit or not. To say that Eli hated his math from last year was an understatement. He is good at math and learns new concepts quickly the curriculum from last year was not a fit for him. This year we are trying a more hands on approach to math with Math U See. In the picture Eli is working with the blocks to create and solve multiplication problems.

Tatum is working on "building out" place values. She struggled with this concept a little last year. After seeing the numbers built out she understands it better and can tell me what a number represents in hundreds, tens and units. It was an aha moment for her and seeing that happen is one of the reasons I love homeschooling.

In history this year we are studying early American history. I am probably most excited about this. The kids really enjoy history so we are going the extra mile this year. For an American themed red, white and blue snack we had yogurt with strawberries and blueberries. Yep, that's it, that's the extra mile. Pretty good right? Not really, but I do have some fun things planned.

The highlight of the week was science. We talked about why some things can float and other things sink. We even did a few experiments to prove and test our theories. They thought the egg floating or sinking experiment was cool. Eli had the aha moment in science when we were talking about experiments. It was a simple aha moment but he learned something new. I asked if a scientist wanted to prove that music makes plants grow faster how would he prove that theory? He explained that you would get a plant, measure it before you played music and after you were done with the experiment to see if it grew. I challenged him and asked how do you know if it grew different than any other plant? He thought about and he looked at me and smiled and said, "you would need two plants, you would play music to one and not the other then measure to see if there was a difference." He figured it out and I got to witness his aha moment!

After our egg experiment we took our "science lab" outside and I let them play around trying to guess if some of their toys would float or sink.

Tatum decided she was done with her experiments and wanted to have herself a little spa time. This child of mine is a beautiful and unique treasure to our family. She always makes me laugh!!