This week was our first full week back. We did a couple of days last week, but they weren't too eventful since we didn't do any extra work like science or geography. I find it is better for all of us to ease back in to school instead of starting full force!
This year is actually the first year that I have sat down and figured out exactly how many days or weeks we're going to need to get finished with everything. I've usually just gone through the book and stopped when we get to the end of the year. It's never been a problem before now. Usually we end up finishing almost everything ahead of time anyway. But Mystery of History is set up to have exactly 18 weeks each semester and I wanted to make sure we finished it this year, hence my taking a little more time to figure out how much time we needed for everything. My results were:
18 weeks of History
16 weeks for science
16 weeks for Bible
15 weeks for #1's IEW
15 weeks for all 3 in math
15 weeks for #3's First Language Lessons
14 weeks for #2's First Language Lessons
14 weeks for geography
All in all I was happy with the progress we made last semester. My only issue with history needing 18 weeks is that technically we'll only be doing school work for 16 weeks. However, the nice thing with MOH is that a lot of the work involved with it is the quizzes and tests after every 3 lessons. You take those away and the actual reading part doesn't involve much. So I get to pick a couple of weeks that the girls don't have to worry about the tests and just double up on reading. Not a problem!
So moving past my need to have a list for everything I do--this week was a good week. I found myself being done teaching earlier than last semester. Only by about 30 minutes, but I still noticed it. I chalk it up to the fact that we've switched so that #1 is doing IEW now and #2 is doing FLL. #1 has been doing IEW for longer so she requires much less teaching on my part. In fact, she wrote her entire paragraph this week starting with an outline without me doing anything except proof-reading her paper. I even had her proof-read it first so I could see if she would notice any mistakes she had made on her own. I was glad to see that she did correct several things on her own so that I only had to help her fix two grammatical errors. Still can't say enough how much I love IEW!
We also implemented another policy with #1 that she now has to write down her math problems on her answer sheet that I grade as well as her workbook where she works on the problem. I saw a pattern that most of the problems she missed was from reading the problem wrong or not clearly understand what she was supposed to do instead of her not knowing how to do the problem. There was a marked improvement once she started writing the problems down. I hated to do anything to add to the amount of time it takes her to get her math done since she already spends so much time on it, but since it made such a big difference we are sticking with the new format.
#2 is sailing right along in all subjects. Her printing is still atrocious, despite me making her take an extra year before learning cursive. Her cursive is very pretty because she has to go slow and take her time. She gets to writing so fast when she prints that it is just a mess. I've about decided to let it go though. Honestly, how much will she be writing by hand when she grows up? As long as she can read it, and I know she can have good handwriting if she takes her time I am almost past caring. Almost!
#3 is finally starting to get to where she likes to read more. I was really sad for a while because it seemed that she wasn't fostering a love of reading like my older two. But now that she is getting better at reading and doesn't require hardly any help with any words I find her reading on her own more. Yay! I'm not sure I would know what to do with a kid who I had to remind to read!
And I just realized a few days ago that I'll be needing to order Pre-K stuff for #4 next year. I don't believe in a "formal" curriculum for Pre-K, but there are some nice workbooks that I have found by Rod and Staff that are good for them to learn from without sitting for any great length of time. I started freaking out a little at the thought of having to be teaching all 4 in a couple of years, but I shoved the thought to the back of mind and I refuse to think about it for at least 8 more months. After writing it down on here of course...
So that was our week. I am still amazing sometimes when I see how well everything is going that I actually feel like I have a handle on this homeschool thing now. I remember feeling overwhelmed all the time when the girls were younger, constantly feeling like I didn't know what I was doing. This is honestly the first year I haven't felt that way. It's a nice feeling!
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