First Week of School

I love starting and ending at odd times. Quarantine came, and I decided to ditch 2nd grade with Andre. (The girls are on their own tracks to finish 8th grade.) He was already in Third Grade math and reading, so I figured, let’s drop it. I wasn’t inspired by it, neither was he.

So I used Quarantine to … change. I love change, I love seeds of ideas bursting forth into blooms, leading into fruit. In January, I had planned to move midwifery studies to first place. But then, several factors converged to change my direction once again.

I realized that Skyla and Vika would be G-O-N-E GONE in four years, and my window of opportunity with them is in its final stages. So I:

And most importantly at this moment, I invested in myself as a teacher– I’ve been realizing that if I’m going to enjoy home schooling, I need to invest myself in learning the skills of it, So I:

I did this because I think I have a similar personality to her and I really, really love her program– how it integrates history, literature, culture, arts, geography, philosophy, writing.

I spent time learning the program, learning to do the parts I’ve been skipping and which I naturally am repelled by. I also set myself up for success (hopefully) by starting early (this week) with only Andre and Una. I made an early bedtime and before bed we clean the living room and I set up our needed books the next day. We set up a big table. And we have a definite start time. I also made Weekly Assignments for them, and they (Andre especially) love seeing what they have to do for a day and crossing it off as it’s done.

clean, organized, devoted workspace
school books in one place
Our unit topics for 36 weeks of school
Weekly assignments for each Level: grammar (upper or lower), dialectic, rhetoric.

I’m starting Andre and Una as Lower Grammar students; Andre is writing level 3 while Una is level 1.

Literature and history
Fine Arts
Extra/Other: Geography, science, and extra history reading

Left: Una learning to read. She still doesn’t remember all the sounds of the letters in the alphabet but we go on slowly with combining sounds a bit. Her brain will click with it when it’s time.

Right: Andre took off this year with English reading. This is a third grade reader I found, and he reads a page aloud each day.

Math is easy for Andre; It’s what’s most interesting for Una though it clicks less at this time. She has fun with the shapes, counting, and writing numbers.

Andre has another handwriting program, but I’m also trying to incorporate more writing for him. He needs repetition and practice. He’s getting ready for spelling. We use Spelling Power. He writes the group rule, then does a short activity like writing in chalk markers on the board below. Today he recorded himself saying the words and spelling them.

And this is a recent photo of moi, teacher extraordinaire.

I have more to say, but it will wait for another post 🙂

One thought on “First Week of School

  1. Love what you’re doing! When our son John was in the 6th grade, each Monday his teacher and he filled out a contract for that week’s work. When he finished the week’s assignments, he was free to study in the Arts and Sciences section of her book case. He usually finished by noon on Wednesday because he loved the extra learning so much. At the end of the 6th grade he tested out on the 13th grade level of all subjects!

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