First week of new school year

Well we started school this week.  It was a little stressful for the first few days, but things got running smoother by the end of the week. Of course I didn't get around to taking our first day of school pictures until the 4th day.

N. is doing HOD's Revival to Revolution Guide this year that includes a classical music study and a 50 state study as well as 2 Bible studies.  The set up of the guide is familiar to him so that helps.  He was a little distraught over the fact he had to do his history written narration on day 1 instead of day 4 and that he had to wait until day 2 to start his history project.

The big hit has been the science which is using Exploration Education's Physical Science program.  He does his lesson on the computer and then fills out his log book and builds something in order to perform the projects.  This week he built an electric racer.  This box is marked as Independent, but he does need my steady hands to use the glue gun and to hold the tiny pieces. 

What I liked about it is that in his off time he was looking up Discovery Streaming Videos on force to watch due to what he had studied in science this week.

For mapping this year I was concerned about all the labels he would have to put on his map.  The ladies on the HOD discussion board helped me brainstorm a solution.  I put a number by each city, river, lake etc name on the teachers map and then he puts that number on the student map.  I made him say the name outloud of what he was labeling.  He then glued the teachers map to the back of his student map so it acted as a key.

His history project this week was using oil pastels to make a Woodland Indian head dress.  He also looked at a map to see all the names of the different tribes on the East Coast.  He was a little rusty in the following the directions department this week on several things and this was one of them.  He ended up having to redo a small part of it.

We are reading Amos Fortune: Free Man for storytime.  I have chosen to still read aloud to him the storytime book.  We both enjoy that time together.  The questions in the guide this year follow Bloom's Taxonomy and they are definitely a higher level of thinking.  At this point I am guiding him some with these if he can't come up with a reasonable answer on his own. 

His cursive is also a little rusty, but overall he did a neat job with his notebook pages this week.

In Math he started Chalk Dust Pre-Algebra.  I have broken it up into daily chunks that are more manageable than what Chalk Dust recommends.  He likes the videos, but seems to have some space cadet moments when working the problems.  I think it is a case of 13 year old boy brain.  Hopefully next week will be better.

Overall he has had a pretty good first week, and from past experience I know each week will get better.

S. has had a challenging week in that her dual enrollment online classes have had some issues.  My plan ahead daughter didn't like the fact that the syllabus wasn't posted until the first day of classes.  This did prove to be an issue because the book that the bookstore had us buy for one of her classes was not the book listed in the syllabus.  The syllabus was correct so now we are waiting on the right book to come.  She is doing a great job of taking on the responsiblity of the college classes as well as doing the few "mommy" classes she has.  She oredered herself a new desk chair since she is spending more time up in her room doing school this year so she can concentrate.  Here she is putting it together.

I must say even though the school year adds extra work for me I like having the structure back in to our days and I really love teaching my kids.