still no pictures…

audrey had one of her huge meltdowns at school time tonight, so we skipped the pictures. we worked through the meltdown, though. if she had been in public school and thrown one of these, it would have been a mess. she’s really gotten out of her routine over the summer, so I’m expecting more tantrums over the next few weeks. the important thing with her is to stick it out and hold your ground. if she thinks she can slack off, she will, and it becomes even harder in the long run. we sat there tonight until she did her assignment. I think I have to be a little tougher on her than a typically developing kid, because if she gets out of a routine or skips something, she will never get it done again. not sure if that makes sense to anyone else! I do try and alter our lessons to make them more interesting to her- I don’t want her to hate school or learning. if it comes down to it though, I want her to get into the habit of being responsible and toughing things out. she got through the assignment, and went on to do a great job with geography and spelling, so we ended on a positive note. tomorrow she starts her first history project; a family history book. I think I’m going to save science for next weekend rather than try to pile it on everything else while she’s trying to get used to school again. we’ll try and keep the stress this week to a minimum, lol!

first day of school!

I forgot to take pictures! Ooops! I’ll get some tonight. I think Audrey did really well! She got kind of sluggish towards the end, so I may need to stick a break in there somewhere to make it a little easier for her. It only took us an hour to get through everything because most of the curriculum starts off a little slow. I’m thinking we’ll probably be doing 1.5- 2 hrs on weekdays, and 2-3 on weekends once everything gets going. She won’t do school on Fridays because she goes with her dad. We have some cool projects coming up in science and history, starting with a family history book. Pretty exciting! I’ll get some pix of her working tonight so the next entry is a little better

I might write something in here soon..

 

Audrey starts school this Saturday, so I’ll try and remember to write in here at least every once in a while. I’m pregnant, working full time, and homeschooling her, so we’ll see just how often it actually happens. I bumped her work load way up in an effort to help with some of her problems with reading comprehension and math. No idea if it will work, but she’s ready for more of a challenge anyway. We’re adding science, history (we sort of did some history last year, and then I slacked off), geography, language arts, and spelling. We spent a lot of time last year just making sure she could read, and working on some of her social skills. Math was hard last year, so we switched programs this year and she’ll repeat 1st grade math. We’ve got Right Start waiting for us to start with it this weekend, and it looks pretty hands on, so I’m hoping she gets it. I’ll post some more and a complete list of her curriculum sometime soon here- I need to go get the kids in some pajamas now though!

stuff going on

I’ve been trying to pick it up a little bit with our curriculum, because I feel like A is ready to take more on. So we’ve been learning about ancient Egypt in addition to our regular reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic. Audrey is doing great so far, and seems to get pretty into whatever it is we are doing. We made a step pyramid out of sugar cubes, wrote about Egypt and drew pictures, and came up with some vocab words related to ancient Egypt. I really like coming up with ideas and doing school work with her. We are slowly adding some science in as well with a unit on the moon (she got one of those “moon in my room” lights for Christmas).

So everything is going as well as I can expect I guess. I’m about to go lay down with the little one, but wanted to pop on here for an update. I’ll try and take some pictures of recent projects to get posted on here, as well as the little school area I “renovated” (read: moved a couple little pieces of furniture around).

Hiiisstoryyy

 

We’re learning about ancient Egypt right now. Audrey really likes history. Honestly, it’s the only subject we’ve ventured into aside from reading, writing, and math. Still, I wasn’t sure she would get into it. She deals with the other subjects, but I can tell she would probably rather be doing something more interesting. She probably dreams of finding an open container of chocolate icing abandoned on the kitchen counter as I’m yammering to her about adding one turtle to another. So really, I figured this would sort of be another thing to muddle through- but she likes it!

Quick detour here as I make a mental note that I need to find some way to help Audrey feel less like she is muddling through her school work.

Ah, so anyway, we have been learning about ancient Egypt. She is thrilled with the idea of mummified cats. When we open the Egypt library books, she always asks if she can see the dead cats first. I can’t say I blame her, either. I think she enjoys hearing about daily life in the past as well. Trying to explain to her why a nomad couldn’t make noodley- noodles (aka ramen noodles) in the microwave was a big exhausting, but we got through it. We’re using Story of the World as a text and guide, but I add in projects and things to keep it interesting. So far we’ve been basing our vocabulary words off of our history lessons as well. She likes to do vocab and make a book out of the words, which she eagerly staples with her brand new AWESOMELY AMAZING BIG GIRL STAPLER that I got her for Christmas.

Anyway, that’s about all that’s going on here. We’re just trying to stay caught up with everything. I go back to school tomorrow (!!!) and that always puts a little more pressure on. Fingers crossed it works out ok!

Audrey can read!

I think now I can say she’s officially reading! She basically taught herself, too. I checked out some easy readers from the library and she reads them like its nothing! I’m so proud!

working on stuff!

not much of anything different going on here. probably the one thing I’ve changed is that I’ve beefed up the amount of “academics” we’ve been doing. we mostly focus on reading, writing, and math, with a little history and science thrown in there. I’ve mostly been building up handwriting and math, since she seems to be teaching herself how to read well enough for now. once we get into the habit of doing those things more regularly I’ll work up the science and history some more. she seems to really like history. she’s really into doing thing by herself, so I’d like to get her some materials she can work on independently. she’s not ready to do things like worksheets or assignments- they need to be things that feel like play. I’m  thinking of getting some good science supplies for her to explore and work with, and maybe some language computer games or…? hmm.

this is audrey during one of our snow days- she loved sledding! that’s it for now.