Back to School!

It's that time of year again for us! Back to school! We have completed a couple weeks and are really enjoying it and finding our "3 kids in grade school" groove. It's taking most of the day to get it all done, but we are really trying to stay focused for our 6 weeks so that we can relax and enjoy our 7th week off. Entertaining the toddler is a challenge at times, but because the big kids are older now, they too, can help with that part. This makes completing Grady's school doable, since most of his is with mom. We do history twice a week, as a group with mom, and science once a week, sometimes some extra weekend activities to go along with the unit. Needless to say, it is BUSY and not well photographed, but we are all enjoying it and everyone is able to participate, which also makes it fun!

Language for everyone is still their current level in The Good and The Beautiful. Grady is starting level 1 and the two big kids are in Level 5. It's not really grade specific, but they just move through the levels at their pace. It's more a timed curriculum. So, for example, with Grady we work 30 min in the lesson book. We stop where we are and pick back up there the next day. So mastery of the phonics sounds and spelling rules is the focus, not necessarily just zooming through. This was a new, very appreciated approach we picked up when we switched over to this particular curriculum a couple years ago. The big kids have a daily checklist and they work through it each day, but it never requires more than 60-80 min of their time, at once, so not to overwhelm them.

Math, for Grady is level 1 in TGTB, very hands on and fun. We really enjoy our lesson each day! Short, sweet and to the point. And the big kids are  continuing to use Teaching Textbooks, which again, is a great fit for us. I need to be relieved of the math teaching responsibility at a certain age, and this does just that! Grady will transition over to the computer with time, but probably not before 3rd grade or so.

Our History unit is currently on the Ancient Greeks. The big kids are actually in the process of gathering information on a chosen topic to do their first presentation. Grady presented today on the Sahara Desert and did a great job sharing orally many facts he learned about the desert. Ada has chosen the Library of Alexandria and Grayson has decided on Greek gods. I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

 Everyone striking an Egyptian pose in their new Egyptian wrist bands :)

Our current Science unit is Energy. We are learning through experiments and hands on, what energy is, how it exists and how it is transferred from one object to another. We've done really well finding yummy things to cook for science this unit. We've made atom cookies and oven s'mores so far.

Everything is really off to an awesome start and everyone is maintaining pretty decent attitudes and really starting to get in a rhythm and get it all done, which is always nice! Looking forward to what this year has in store for us! And maybe, just maybe, during our sabbath week, I'll have time to catch up recording our summer adventures. I hope to!