Week TWO!

Monday: Thomas was a little miffed this weekend that there was no school. He took great pains this weekend to tell me about the weather each day.

This morning as we were making breakfast we played the kids K5 music CD. The “Low in the Grave He Lay” song was playing and as the song ended “He arose…he arose…hallelujah Christ arose!” KK added/sang “Praise the Wort”…sooo cute.

Today in Bible we reviewed everything we learned last week. How I love seeing first hand exactly how much my kids retained from a short lesson. It just cracks me up too that Thomas has decided that “I go to prepare a place for you” means that Jesus is designing our mansions on a computer and that we don’t need lamps in heaven because the streets of “gode” are bright enough to illuminate heaven!

Today was our first day of math. I am in big trouble…I hated math in school and Thomas seems to love it!  I see joining a homeschool co-op in our future simply because I will do well to get him past 8^th grade math! He had so much fun counting out loud and clapping his hands to each number. Kaleah joined in just for the clapping. 

Thomas will start writing tomorrow and just for grins we practiced today. I am so thankful as I learned something valuable. We usually patch Thomas’ eye because of the Amblyopia in the mornings. He wears it two hours a day. It is clear that I am not doing him any favors by having him “patch” while trying to write (or at least learn to write). We patch in the mornings so that he doesn’t have to worry about going out in public with it on, it’s time to revamp the patch schedule!

Tuesday: Learning more about how to structure our day…I think after the pledges we will do the academic stuff and end on the Bible lesson. Bible ran long today and KK ran out of “juice” before Thomas finished his writing. She got fussy and irritable. I think if we end the day with Bible, both will be engaged and the day will go better.

Today we were talking about the verse John 14:14 “If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” We go over our verses several times each morning. I will say part of the verse and then the kids repeat after me. I started “If ye shall ask”, the kids repeated the same; then “anything in My name”, and Thomas said “ask only one time!” It is so hard not to laugh! Thomas loves the Bible stories and I love sharing them with Thomas and Kaleah. It is clear that Thomas is listening and absorbing and that just blesses me!

Handwriting is going to be interesting…I tend to be a little OCD-ish and Thomas is not. I will have to remind myself that he is only 4 and I should not expect him to have perfect handwriting on the first try. 

Wednesday: Another fun day…As we were eating breakfast, I was asking Thomas about things we had learned in Bible. It amazes me how much he has retained. We are going to use the K5 curriculum for two years so I can only imagine how much he will have absorbed by the end of next school year!  

We started the day with our pledges as usual and went to the academic stuff. I LOVE that we can incorporate action into math…”what number is this?” “THREEEEEEE”….OK lets jump three times! Thomas LOVES it and is quite accurate in his counting while jumping. Kaleah on the other hand jumps all over the place but sure has a great time! KK is just practicing for next year anyway.

Bible is going to have to wait until later because we need to take care of some business for Ashley. This flexibility makes me happy. So little pressure other than making sure we get our Bible lesson in TODAY.

Thursday: Thomas isn’t feeling well today so we are going to take today off and make it up on Saturday. Where I don’t plan to make this a habit, I sure am thankful for the flexibility of homeschooling!

Friday: Kids feeling better but “Teacher Mommy” is sick this morning! School must go on so we moved on with our day and got most of our school day done before picking Charles up from the airport. We are so happy to have him home!

We need to finish up Bible today but we will take care of that this afternoon or evening.

The kids and I were in the car and I was asking Thomas questions about our Bible lessons to show Ashley what he was retaining. Thomas patiently answered a couple of questions and then said “Mommy, this is not school time!” I guess he was tired of showing off! 

We will have a school day tomorrow to make up for Thursday. Thomas will be happy. He loves school!

Saturday: As I type, the kids are still sleeping and since neither has felt well this week I will let them sleep as long as they need to and we will homeschool at some point today.

We didn’t do our Bible lesson until just before dinner yesterday because “life happens”. It never fails though; the kids sit and listen no matter what time of day. I wondered when our curriculum arrived why the Bible curriculum came with small poster sized visuals but I get it now! The kids love the pictures and they help tell the story. Thomas will tell you that they put Jesus in a cave after they took Him from the cross…we’re getting better, it was a HOLE at first! 

Weekly synopsis: Saving Bible for the end of class has proven successful. Both kids love it when we read to them especially when we are reading about Jesus. Bible time takes longer than the other lessons and though KK may get tired of sitting, the stories and pictures that go along with them keep her captivated.

I implemented a “chore” in each school day…Monday we gathered the trash because the garbage truck comes on Tuesday. We cooked Monday night (busy day Tuesday) and used our new counting skills when adding an egg or flour…both kids love to scoot a chair up to the counter and help mommy. We have been busy this week so haven’t been disciplined about chores but plan to have set chores for each day soon.

In just two weeks of homeschooling, I have seen an improvement in Thomas’ ability to self-correct (with a little coaching from Teacher Mommy) and he is choosing more often to control his fit-pitching because he wants his daily star sticker or Nintendo time. I don’t mind offering him incentives (not bribes!) for his good actions, it works for him. The structure of school is good for him, just like daily exercise.

Another thing that I have noticed is that the kids want to be in the same room more. They are rarely out of my sight or hearing but if I am in the kitchen, they come and hang out with me. If I am folding laundry in the living room, they come and hang out with me. In many ways, homeschool doesn’t end at the end of the daily lesson. Homeschool goes on throughout the day.