Updates From the Classroom

We've been in school over a month now and I've had many ask how it has been going.  My reply?  Pretty much just as I expected!  I anticipated having days where one or both boys were on and/or off.  Or I was on or off.  Or any combination thereof!  And we've definitely had a combination of all of it.

Our little school is currently unnamed.  I haven't heard that MO law requires us to have a name, although there are states that require it for paperwork and testing purposes.  I thought at first it would be fun to have a witty, clever name.  But the more I read online about others' homeschool names, the more I found people saying that it is best to use something that A) gives credibility to homeschooling and B) looks good on a transcript.  We are planning to follow Classical schooling, so I thought it would be nice to incorporate that into the name.  Ideas so far... Scott Classical Academy, Magnum Opus Classical Academy (translated, best work), and then there are the words for home (domus) and school (schola).  Any thoughts?  I'm all ears!!

Here are tidbits on what has been going on...

• We work on all subjects Monday through Thursday, and only do math on Friday.  At this pace, he will complete exactly half of his math curriculum and more than half of his reading and handwriting books by Christmas.  We have had a couple days off but are right on schedule.  We will also be able to take a "fall break" the first week of October, the entire week of Thanksgiving off, and a standard two week Christmas break.  In the event we fall behind on anything, those weeks off are safety nets to use as catch-up!   
• Math seems to be Ben's favorite subject.  It's usually the first thing we do each day because it tends to be the longest of any of our subjects, and his attention span is the freshest.  We are just getting into "real" number sentences... like 3+3 = 6!  So far it seems Ben's got the hang of it.  He does have a very photographic memory, so while he can whip throught flashcards, it takes him longer to actually "compute" the problem on worksheets.  He'll get there!  This curriculum is very very repetative, so we practice daily. 
• Handwriting is going well... we continue to plug away through his book, letter by letter, and will probably start doing more copy work in the spring semester.  He doesn't enjoy it at all, but he does a really good job and his writing is very neat and legible. 
• His reading lessons continue to go well as he is learning the mechanics of sounding words out.  He has a ton of words committed to memory already and can read some beginner/easy reader books to us!  I've been able to employ our reading lesson techniques as we've approached new and more complicated words as we read, and he gets it. 
• Our first read-aloud together was Charlotte's Web, which we finished last week (and Momma only cried a teeeensy bit, yes!).  We got the movie from the library but haven't had a good "family movie night" opportunity to sit and watch it together.  Ben does well to sit for one chapter, and maybe two.  Now that we're done with Charlotte, we've moved on to another children's classic, The Boxcar Children.  The youngest child in the book is named Benny!  I read somewhere that having kids doodle while they listen to a story actually helps their concentration and comprehension, so we started doing that.  It's helped not just with his comprehension of the story, but his desire to sit and draw!
• The Joey factor each day is always different.  I hoped that he would be willing to go off and play more often than what has actually transpired.  He generally wants to be in the dining room with us during school time, and most days he does a pretty good job.  He will sit and doodle, play with our math linking cubes, or bring little toys in.  But there are other days that we just have to stop doing what we've been doing, go off and play together, and then Ben and I come back to the table while Joey's napping.  It's worked out just fine.
• Andrew's school district has Friday off, so I didn't plan on having school at all that day.  Our Bible lesson and science lessons have been about animals this week, so I thought Friday would be the perfect opportunity to go to the zoo for a field trip!  The zoo offers different scavenger hunts on their website that can be printed off, so we'll have some guided/structured activities to do in the Children's Zoo and through some of the other exhibits.

• The other question I am asked is if we'll continue next year. At this point, we have not prayed to seek out God's will in that area, so I don't have a "real" answer. But if I had to choose right now based on how this last month has gone, I'd say in a heartbeat, yes, we will continue. In this short month, I've seen my relationship with Ben blossom in new ways, Ben and Joey's relationship as brothers develop, and Ben's desire to spend quality time with his Daddy after school has strengthened incredibly. Why give that up?!