I don't know what happened to me over the summer...it is obvious to me now more than ever, though, that I THRIVE on a schedule and am a complete mess without one! The start of school returned my nice, organized, and controlled life :) Hurray! Whew. Summer's done. Lots of fun, swimming, sun, friends and family. It was nice for 3 months, but I can't live like that all the time!
Anyways, we started school the day after labor day and it went pretty well. The biggest disappointment was that everything was WAY too easy for Eli and he was crushed when he found out that his new math book was very basic and he already knew how to do everything I had planned for him that entire MONTH. So, we went ahead the next day and skipped to chapter 10! And after this week, I see that we are going to finish his entire kindergarten book in about a month. Steve predicted that Eli would be at the same math level as Abby, and biting Zeke's heels in a couple of years. How do you challenge a kindergartener like this? He can read so well, but is still at kindergarten level for writing/fine motor skills...I'm just going to fly through as much math as I can this year, and maybe at the end of the year, he will be in the second grade book already! Zeke and Abby are doing well in everything. We've spent a lot of time drilling multiplication facts and refreshing our division skills with Zeke while forging ahead in his 4th grade math curriculum. I totally slacked off this summer with them, but he's back up to speed in just two weeks. We had a few tears this week as he tried to remember how to write a summary for his history notebook--having to write in complete sentences, and not start all 6 six sentences with "They" and end with "too". But again, the very next day he produced a summary leaps and bound better with no tears! No permanent damage, I think! Abby dove right into learning inequalities and rounding. She's doing great in her new English curriculum. Listening to her read has been a hoot! This girls' mind moves so fast, it is just so obvious when you listen to her read out loud! She skips so many small words, entire lines of text, changes words...yet, at the end, she can give you a spot-on summary!!!!! Micah is a true joy this year. He is loving any "school" that I do with him. We are doing a letter a week and he has fun trying to write his letters, coloring his letter sheets, cutting and gluing, and just sitting at his desk collecting paper upon paper. I am seeing many challenges to face this year, but great growth in all of their minds and maturity. We are looking forward to a great year!
We are joining a co-op this year, something I've never tried before...it starts next week, so I will let you know how it goes! I have mixed feelings, but hope it will be good for all of us.
I have visited some of your blogs after being absent all summer and am looking forward to keeping updated again. So many of your blogs are encouraging and interesting! Thanks for sharing!
Abby was inspired to draw the picture at the top of the entry after we had a real, authentic Jewish Sabbath Feast last Friday night. It was so much fun!
Here we are measuring the approximate length of Noah's Ark:
Our first day of school and our newly designed school room!
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