So a few weeks ago I decided to start homeschooling Reese. If I ever have the time/patience to record THAT long and painful story on the blog, I will. But just know that we prayed long and hard about this one. It is what we feel like is best for both Reese and I right now. I was/am terrified about the whole experience. After the first week and a half I have learned a lot. About myself. About Reese. And about homeschooling one child with three others at home. I am trying to take lots of pictures and document this crazy time in our lives. So here we go...
Nouns and Verb Towers. We taped nouns and verbs to Duplos. Reese had to sort them and then see which ones he could build the tallest tower with. Nouns won.
Art is a bit of a struggle for me. But for the week of Valentine's Day we did a "Love" water color. Reese was pretty amazed when we took the tape off and it was white underneath. Brisbane wasn't quite patient enough. He still doesn't understand that if we take the tape off of his it won't have the same effect.
Miriam is adorable as ever eating her snack.
Reese identifying the subject and predicate.
Reese then decided he wanted to take a picture. So why not document this terrible hair phase for the blog? I'm waiting a few more weeks for a little more growth and then I will find someone to shape it nicely again. (The woes of growing out a short haircut!)
Miriam again. Same snack. She is just SO CUTE!
One of the tricky things about having one kid homeschool and one kid still going to public school is that one kid gets a Valentine's Party and one doesn't. I took Reese to Target and let him pick any bag of candy he wanted. And we played Valentine's Bingo. My mom made these Bingo Cards back when she was a room mother. Twenty years ago and still going strong!
Here is another Reese picture. Quite the photographer, I think. :)
Our second real snow this year happened over the weekend. Brisbane is really the only one truly interested in playing in the snow. Unfortunately he wants a snow playing buddy and hasn't found anyone willing. I have the weirdest kids. I LOVED playing in the snow!
You can see we got a few good inches on that chair. And it was still coming down. Super fun!
Brisbane needs to be involved in every aspect of schooling. I have decided that I need to get some sort of at home preschool thing going for him because he is just in our business all the time. Cute. But impedes progress. And we don't need any more distractions.
Reese was very sweet though and let Brisbane roll the dice for this Commutative Property game. They don't usually get along (we are working on that) so this was a nice moment.
I brought a little snow into the house for Della and Miriam to try to distract them. They have been super whiny today and that makes Homeschooling HARD. Instead of taking pictures I should have been monopolizing these moments. Oops!
Miriam was the first interested. She tasted it but didn't seem to be a fan.
Della wanted nothing to do with the big bowl of snow. But I made a few snowballs and then she was willing to pick it up. And taste it.
Such a beauty!
And she kept going back for more.
Today the boys discovered that the back door is magnetic. We are supposed to be working on our pirates unit now. But I can't break up happy playing between these two (did I mention that they don't play well together?) and they are learning. About magnetism. Did you all notice that very homeschool-ey excuse to not have to do anything? Good.
All in all it has been a really great week and a half. I think Reese has learned a lot so far. He seems really engaged most of the time. I have only purchased one curriculum for scripture study because I don't want to spend a lot on things for the last few months of this year. We will buy more if we decide to continue next year. This makes for a lot of work for me as I develop activities based on the standards for first and second grade. I'm glad I didn't know about Pinterest back when I was a teacher because I now seem incapable of planning anything without consulting Pinterest first. Where did all of that creativity go? (Five kids. Oh yeah.)
Reese's favorite subject is cooking. He made chocolate chip oatmeal muffins all by himself. (Kind of.) And learned that 1/2 teaspoon is WAY DIFFERENT than 1/2 cup. These are important life lessons, especially if I want to get out of cooking duties in later years.
Mack asked Reese if he wanted to go back to public school last night. I have been too afraid to ask so I have been avoiding the subject. Reese definitively stated that he likes homeschool more. When we asked him why he said, "Because I get to stay with Mom!" He is super sweet. When pressed further he suggested that the games we play might have something to do with it. Thought so, Buddy. But thanks for loving me too!
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