First full week of school

Today is Friday, August 29th

The kids finished up their school work just a little while ago, for the day and week.

I think the week went pretty well. We had a day of struggle, but it turned out to be a really good week of learning.

We made a few changes in our school this year. Instead of doing their school work at the dinning room table, we cleared out the small bedroom, and turned it into a school room/office. This has proven to be a WONDERFUL thing. Last year there were a lot of distractions. Two of them being the little boys. Having them in a separate room, where we can close the door, to close off the noise and distractions caused by two very active and normal toddlers. The work was completed a lot faster, and with less frustration. We also put together some new rules for our classroom, some are very similar to what normal rules would be for a school classroom.  One of the new rules, and a pretty hard one, is for the completion of school work. The school day is done at 3pm. It doesn't matter what isn't complete, school is done at 3pm! IF they haven't finished their work by that time, it becomes home work (Just like a regular school). The home work is due the next day. If it isn't completed and turned in, there will be a check mark put on the white board in the room. 3 or more check marks in one week, will result in complete black out (Thank you Dr. Ray), until ALL school work is caught up and turned in. NO EXCEPTIONS! My hope is, this will stop the kids from getting too terribly behind, due to laziness, and lack of concentration while doing their daily work.

We had to implement this on Tuesday (I think) this week. The older kids were really dragging their feet on Tuesday, so I told them, if school work isn't complete and turned in by Wednesday, they were on black out. Well, they didn't get everything complete, so Wednesday they were on black out until all their work was turned into me. They didn't get to go outside and play with the neighbors, or anything thing else until the work was done. GUESS WHAT?!?!? The work was completed and turned into me on Wednesday afternoon!!! YAY!!! It worked!!!

Faith is LOVING school! She is so far ahead of where she should be right now! According to our curriculum, she is on week 6 of her handwriting, and at least a week ahead on everything else! She is like a sponge. I am  using this momentum to my advantage, and keeping her busy. Last Saturday, she brought me some of her school books, and asked to do some work, because she was bored.....really?!?! So, we worked on some of her school work :)

Justin: Completed all of his school work as asked, and got 100% on his first spelling and vocabulary tests!! He's working hard on his math, and other subjects.

Libby: She has a lot of English work to get through this year, because we bumped her back a grade in English last year, so she would have a good foundation of English, and Language Arts. This will be a difficult year for her in this subject, but she proved this week she is up to the challenge! So proud of her and her efforts!

Patrick and Nick: They seemed to enjoy the time with just me this week while the kids were in the room working on their work. While I do have things I should be doing, I did enjoy some quality time with the two little boys this week.

Quiet Time (aka nap time) is a heaven send! After lunch we do a quick clean up of the living and dinning rooms, clear the table and sweep. I rock Nick to sleep, and Patrick watches a little Netflix ( his current favorite show is "Justin Time". It's a cute little cartoon, and has lessons for the young boy in it. I like that!

After Nick is asleep and in bed, and while Patrick is laying on the couch, I start Faith on her work, and do dishes in between helping her out. I also try to get dinner figured out during this time. I usually have a pretty good idea of what we will have for the week, but keep it pretty flexible. Nick usually sleeps for an hour or two, and Patrick is content to watch "Justin Time" while I am getting that stuff done. Some of her school work is pretty hands on for both of us, so on those subjects, if I can't get to them before dinner, we complete them after dinner, and dinner clean up is done.

It feels like we are really starting to get into a good routine.

Last year was a bit more of a struggle, and I think that was because of having a new born, and a young toddler, who required a lot of my time and energy. Some how we managed, it didn't feel like we really got into a good routine though. I have hopes of a smoother year this year. Don't get me wrong, I know we will have our challenges, and we will hit our brick walls, but for now, I have hope!

Well, it's Friday afternoon, and we are going into a 3 day weekend. I think I will finish this up, and go spend some much needed down time with my family.

Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Blessings and love to all!