Back to School

We began school yesterday. I have been very pleased with the progress made. Yesterday was a little crazy for a first day of school because my sister called and talked to me for awhile and my friend Joelle stopped by to pick up something and we talked for a little while. We fit a little school in-between those.

Lamb 1 complains about math but retained it over the summer. We jumped right in to finish a couple more lessons in his math book and will begin a new math book next week. I think this was more difficult than just beginning a new book. The standardized test he took last spring showed us he has some work to do in grammar. He began grammar today. I backed up and gave him a spelling test to try to figure out where he is at. He scored 100% on that test. He struggles with spelling so this was great!

Lamb 2 is also doing well in math, we are finishing the second half of the math book he did last year. I am hoping he can finish this book and start the next one before Christmas. I had him read BOB books just to see where he is at. He complains they are too easy, which is great news! His handwriting looks beautiful as compared to the beginning of last year. I want him to review printing and we will begin cursive in a few months.  We haven't begun piano lessons yet, but I am still requiring daily practice of whatever they want to play from their books. I was a little worried with no lessons over the summer. He has done great on this.

Lamb 3 is still my challenge to motivate. Yesterday with all the interruptions he did not do well and I was afraid of this year. Today was the opposite and he did everything he was asked to do. He is doing well in math. I am hoping he finishes his math book and begins the next one after Christmas. So much focus last year was on Lamb 2 learning how to read that Lamb 3 has been neglected in this area. I am going to attempt to work with Lamb 3 more this year. Yesterday showed me that he needs more fine motor skills before I can expect better handwriting from him. So he is going to have more time to do play doh and fine motor activities. We learned good fine motor activities when Lamb 2 went to OT. I taught first and second grade in the classroom. It makes me a little sad that this year Lamb 3 is my last second grader to teach in homeschool.

I will blog about our schedule and what we plan to study this year in a future post. Even after 6 years of homeschooling, it still amazes me that we just jump right in and begin school on the first day. Even with the tweaks in our schedule that I made this year (adding in grammar for Lamb 1, etc.) we just began where we left off last spring for each Lamb. There will be no review unless they need it. That is one reason why I love homeschooling-each Lamb is able to use their time wisely.