Caz
Well we've had our first official few days of home schooling for the year and we're well & truly in the swing of things now.   We prefer to sort of ease into things rather than suddenly have a WHOLE DAY of stuff to do, so last week we started Wednesday with a bit of Math U See for both boys, some History Odyssey reading, Headsprout for Sam and a little grammar review for Frodo.   They were both pretty happy to have their usual work to do after a long break.

On the weekend I hit Brodies, which is an educational bookshop, and spent a good hour geeking around at all the neat books, learning games, posters and all those cute bulletin board thingies that teachers use in classrooms.  Not that I have a classroom.. or a real bulletin board... but I always loved those :)  I picked up all but one of our needed resources, and the other will be arriving from another store for me to pick up in a day or two.  So this week we'll add reading comprehension, grammar, and handwriting practice and science back into the mix.

Today we had a full on day, as it was day 1 of the kids' gymnastics & art classes with a local home ed network.    I'm having a bit of an insomnia thing at the moment, so it was a struggle to get everyone together & out the door.  I soldiered on though, and the boys all had such a great time!  Merry had kindy and bolted to the home corner the second we arrived, he always gets angry when I leave if he is outside... but if he can hit the home corner he's a happy chappy :)  Frodo & Sam  had a great time playing at the play area where the classes were held, along with all the other kids.  So much for unsocialized homeschoolers ;)  The gymnastics teacher was so great with the kids, and said the kids do much better when parents go off & have a cuppa or something, although we are welcome to have a seat & watch the class....helping ends up not being much help apparently LOL.   

 Here's Frodo one one of the 4 balance beams tip toeing across :) This is about the only pic that came out, as the gym is HUGE and there isn't much close enough for the flash to bounce off of, so my photos all came out a bit dark... I've got at least 7 more lessons to get it right though ;)  There was tumbling, different swinging movements on the uneven bars, and Sams' favourite... trampolining!

 Here's Sam with his work of art... today was all about colour & how blending the 3 primary colours produces secondary colours.  Sam's favourite colour ever is orange, so he was all about making some of that lol.   He was such a trooper too.. normallly he makes a few swipes on a paper and is done, but he was with the teacher right up until nearly the end of class!  Kudos little dude!

 Frodo was also awesome in his class.  He was in with the senior art group (ages 7 and up I think it was) and I was in & out making sure Sam was cool doing what he was doing (and not freaking out because I wasn't around.. which he wasn't!) but Frodo was fully paying attention while I was away according to one of the other mums.   He made a gorgeous sunset scene with a city skyline that he's very proud of.  Their class was also about blending colours but with an eye towards creating a landscape type image.   Note the very stylish 'mums stained shirt turned backwards' paint smock there? lol  That's what my decluttering gets me.. I had to raid clothing that I actually WEAR to use, because I either tossed, cut up for rags, or donated all excess tshirts.  This one shirt had a freaky greasy shadow from cooking so it was the perfect candidate.  I bet by the end of the year it will be a work of art itself!

We headed home from class around 1pm, and would you believe BOTH boys were crashed out in the back seat within 15minutes on the road!? lol  It's about a 45minute drive (but very worth it!) so after all that working out in gymnastics, I guess they were worn out.  Made for an unusually quiet drive though ;)    

6 Responses
  1. Todd Says:

    Really cool day. Totally awesome!


  2. Kez Says:

    Sounds like a great day (esp the quiet drive home part lol)


  3. Caz Says:

    Thanks guys. I'm with you Kez.. quiet drives are NOT something we get with Frodo the Navman in the back seat lol. (he simply has to know our exact route hehe) Looking forward to lots of fun activities like this in the upcoming year!


  4. Kylie Says:

    I'm so glad the boys enjoyed themselves.....my kids wanted to go again today LOL!!!


  5. Caz Says:

    Kylie, the only reason MINE weren't asking today is I made very sure to tell them this was a thing we'd be doing EVERY Monday ;) But yeah, they have not stopped talking about it!


  6. Bridgett Says:

    Sounds like a great start!

    I'm trying to convince my husband to homeschool our daughter too. :D