Well lah-ti-dah, just like that Thanksgiving is over and I have posted just a couple times since the beginning of our school year in mid-August. This says to me one big thing: we've been working hard with school and that plate (with a few occasional others) is all I can muster to spin at once. And that's ok. Plus it's saved you from reading a lot of dumb stuff.
Here's what's going on in our household and with our peeps:
Andrew keeps being an awesome husband, dad, teacher, and worship leader. His Lego collection multiplies like bunnies and I don't know where we will put them all. :-)
Me: I feel like my life is way dull, as I'm constantly immersed in the schooling of our little people. I still have anxiety blips on the radar screen and I keep working those bugs out and logically talking myself down when I get a bit wrapped up in my own brain. Fun fact: I'm going to spit in a test tube tomorrow morning and ship it off to a lab to check hormone levels. Way cool. Seriously though, I have a suspicion about progesterone levels and this will tell me for sure. Also new this fall was teaming up with some great women from church to launch a brand new women's ministry. The Lord has truly blessed our efforts so far and we look forward to seeing Him work in our lives as a result!
Ben: I feel like I need to praise Ben's math efforts. It's his least favorite subject because it doesn't come easily to him (he's more language artsy). As I shared at the end of last school year, it took some letting go on my part to get over the "must finish the book at the end of the year" mentality. He is a few lessons away from completing this level (taking a year and a half total). But going slowly and taking days off here and there means that he's truly mastered the material. In the early fall, he was really struggling with word problems and we had to really trudge through those day in and day out. But the fruit of the labor came with each assessment every 5 lessons: he went from scoring 14/20 to 18 or 19/20! He also had a big learning curve as we began Essentials through Classical Conversations. It involves a LOT of grammar memorization and developing writing skills with different features in an outline and paper every week. Ben is an avid reader and is progressing really well with piano lessons!
Joey: Joey's language arts skills are his weaker area and I've also seen great improvement with him too. I feel like we really dragged through spelling at the end of last year, but things really clicked and he's doing so well. He's flying through math and still can compute huge numbers in his head. At this point in his life, Joey reads because it's required in school. :-) I hope to see that develop more as he gets a little older. He also is doing a great job with piano lessons.
Hannah: She's almost four. I know. We work out of her little pre-school books and she's mastering some pre-writing skills. She can draw a few letters and often signs her name with a capital H and a backwards S. Or she'll write H1: "H for Hannah and 1 because there's one Hannah Scott" she says! Sure, I could teach her the alphabet more formally and have her write her name every single day, but there's really no reason to at this point. I will get more formal with her schooling for the 2016-2017 school year, but for now enjoy her being cute and little.
So that's that. We put up half our Christmas decorations today. And I have fun story about a necklace and a give-away that I hope to get to by the end of the week!! Two blogs in one week? I guess I'll believe it when I see it. :-)
xoxoxo
Here's what's going on in our household and with our peeps:
Andrew keeps being an awesome husband, dad, teacher, and worship leader. His Lego collection multiplies like bunnies and I don't know where we will put them all. :-)
Me: I feel like my life is way dull, as I'm constantly immersed in the schooling of our little people. I still have anxiety blips on the radar screen and I keep working those bugs out and logically talking myself down when I get a bit wrapped up in my own brain. Fun fact: I'm going to spit in a test tube tomorrow morning and ship it off to a lab to check hormone levels. Way cool. Seriously though, I have a suspicion about progesterone levels and this will tell me for sure. Also new this fall was teaming up with some great women from church to launch a brand new women's ministry. The Lord has truly blessed our efforts so far and we look forward to seeing Him work in our lives as a result!
Ben: I feel like I need to praise Ben's math efforts. It's his least favorite subject because it doesn't come easily to him (he's more language artsy). As I shared at the end of last school year, it took some letting go on my part to get over the "must finish the book at the end of the year" mentality. He is a few lessons away from completing this level (taking a year and a half total). But going slowly and taking days off here and there means that he's truly mastered the material. In the early fall, he was really struggling with word problems and we had to really trudge through those day in and day out. But the fruit of the labor came with each assessment every 5 lessons: he went from scoring 14/20 to 18 or 19/20! He also had a big learning curve as we began Essentials through Classical Conversations. It involves a LOT of grammar memorization and developing writing skills with different features in an outline and paper every week. Ben is an avid reader and is progressing really well with piano lessons!
Joey: Joey's language arts skills are his weaker area and I've also seen great improvement with him too. I feel like we really dragged through spelling at the end of last year, but things really clicked and he's doing so well. He's flying through math and still can compute huge numbers in his head. At this point in his life, Joey reads because it's required in school. :-) I hope to see that develop more as he gets a little older. He also is doing a great job with piano lessons.
Hannah: She's almost four. I know. We work out of her little pre-school books and she's mastering some pre-writing skills. She can draw a few letters and often signs her name with a capital H and a backwards S. Or she'll write H1: "H for Hannah and 1 because there's one Hannah Scott" she says! Sure, I could teach her the alphabet more formally and have her write her name every single day, but there's really no reason to at this point. I will get more formal with her schooling for the 2016-2017 school year, but for now enjoy her being cute and little.
So that's that. We put up half our Christmas decorations today. And I have fun story about a necklace and a give-away that I hope to get to by the end of the week!! Two blogs in one week? I guess I'll believe it when I see it. :-)
xoxoxo
Motherhood is never dull, you are sacrificing huge so your family can thrive! Keep up the great work, we never get out days back. PS. I like reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement Michelle! I sometimes feel like I have nothing much to offer in conversation with those outside the homeschool bubble. Maybe I just need to get over it and tell people about elementary word problems. haha.
Delete