Well, we survived our first week back to school. I think there were more ups than downs. This year I started my baby on the workbooks I’ve used for all of my three-year-olds. He is so excited to be doing school now, but it’s bittersweet for me.
I am finding this school year a little harder because the exercises we are doing to cure my eight-year-old son’s dyslexia have become very intense and take quite a bit of time. On the plus side (to help me keep going with them) I’m beginning to see an improvement in his reading, and his math has taken a big jump forward.
I haven’t had a lot of time online with getting back to school, but I did find a few things that interested me.
I’m going to try this to make my laundry smell nicer.
How to Make An Easy Laundry Scent Booster
Our family LOVES peanut butter, and if you pair it with chocolate I’ll eat it three times a day! This post only reinforces my love.
15 Reasons to Stock Up on Peanut Butter
This is a beautiful story of what a love-filled marriage looks like.
And some photos from the first day of starting school. We’ve started a different school schedule and a different seating this year. I moved all of the older children into the dining room so I could have more space in the family room for concentrating on the little ones. So far it seems to be working.
I didn’t get a picture of myself with the little boys. Maybe we’ll try next week when I’m feeling a little more organized.
How did your first week back to school go?
Intentional Simplicity 
Wow – where did the summer go? We are in Week 4 and doing well. I started a “reward” system after the first week went so well and Tim wrote so neatly and received mostly 100’s. It has taken off well (Tim got to treat everyone to ice cream the first week) so now there is competition for who will win the prize. Each week it is different – like it may be I write their definitions for them – or it may be nothing at all. Tim cried when he won that prize ’cause he didn’t want me to have more work. I assured him I LOVE school and copy work so much that it will be the easiest 100’s he has ever gotten…he laughed and life was good again lol.
I see Noah is doing the same English as Em. They can compare notes – hahaha. She is doing business math, english, creationism and US Gov’t (appropriate for this year eh!). The older girls only have four classes each and then they are doing a day of sewing and all of us are doing the Royal Canadian Music theory course together. Our reading together is our best time and we are working through Cherry Ames – they LOVE LOVE it!!
All in all – school is great – now to find the secret to keeping an 8 year old focused on going from one item to the next. They each have piano and one instrument to study but she has two – french horn and cello….some days it is a constant reminder to keep moving haha.
Can’t believe Jonah is 3 and in school!! Great job on coloring Jonah! We should skype sometime! xo Miss our talks!
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We did two weeks of school at the end of August/beginning of September, then went on vacation for two weeks, so this past week was kind of like the first week of school again. But it went pretty well. The thing I’m struggling with the most right now is balancing when all three of my kids are asking for my help at once — I have a hard time staying patient when I feel like I’m in some kind of time-pressure situation. So I try to order things so that my third-grader is doing quiet things by himself like math and language while I’m reading history and science with my first-grader. And then when my third-grader is reading his history, my first-grader does her math and phonics workbooks, and I can help both her and my preschooler with what they need to do on each page, etc. It’s gradually working into a routine that feels comfortable, but I’ve had to do a lot of adjusting with having TWO science lessons to read aloud (last year, Kindergartener listened in on Second Grader’s science and just absorbed what she could) and so on.
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It’s like a dance – trying to figure out how best to do everything. I enjoy school most when we all figure out our steps and get into a groove. 🙂
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