Homeschooling Update

We've almost made it through our first week of homeschool. We've had a few challenges... Today, I woke up with a slight fever and was not feeling well. Alex was still coughing and sniffling a tad, so I gave him some Benodryl, as I had done yesterday... This is not a good combination for schooling. On both days I noticed the medicine had left Alex somewhat out of it, tired, and uninterested when we'd try to do our lessons. And of course, I too felt tired and not very enthusiastic. But we still managed to get through all of our book work and still did our "math" lesson yesterday after reading our book for Five in a Row. Bill made a Geo-Board so the kids could make shapes using colorful rubberbands. They have had so much fun with this! And they did actually make shapes with it, even though in the following pictures Alex was just having fun making lines (or a guitar, as I was later told)...





I'm feeling better tonight and overall we had a good day. Alex went to his speech therapy this morning, and I think it went well. However, I do worry that he was a tad confused when he saw the familiar faces of some of his former preschool classmates. I could tell he was glad to see them, but at the same time he was a little disoriented by the encounter. Hopefully it will get better with future appointments. Then this afternoon Alex had his first art lesson, taught in the home of a very sweet woman who is teaching them about various artists and their use of color. And despite my van being side-swiped by the mom of a fellow "artist", it was a wonderful experience!

The only thing I was disappointed in today was that we did not get to do the "science" lesson for our Five in a Row book. Since the book we are reading takes place during a big thunderstorm, we were going to put together an emergency survival kit should we ever be hit with a terrible storm. We were also going to read some great educational books that discuss thunder and lightning and clouds and have a discussion about what happens in a thunderstorm. But by the time we did our book work, went to his speech appointment, had lunch, and then went to his art class, we were all a little worn out and I could tell no more "work" was going to get accomplished. For those who are unfamiliar with how Five in a Row works, you read the same book 5 days in a row (though we are actually doing it only 4 days) and each day you study a different aspect of the book. They really encourage you to read the book each day. I was worried, however, that my boys were getting tired of hearing this particular story, what with it being almost entirely a conversation between two characters and somewhat lengthy. And so today, since everyone was pretty exhausted (especially me), I thought we'd simply read some fun books on clouds (de Paola's The Cloud Book and Troiano's It's Your Cloud), no discussion. Well, to my surprise as we sat down to read the other books, I was greeted with disappointment. Both boys informed me that they wanted to read Storm in the Night. I was so excited by their enthusiasm to hear it for the fourth time in a row. And even Nathan can remember the name of the book AND the author of the book. I'm amazed by what they remember from reading it each day and the things they've learned by the repetition of reading the same book everyday. They've even shown a big interest in the other Five in a Row books we'll be reading. I had been worried how my kids would do with Five in a Row because they've never been big on books... Obviously I had nothing to worry about. What a great program!