On a scale of 1-to-10 this week falls at about a 7.5. The week went really well for a first full-load week. Everyone seems to be settling in well, especially after I made the change to Katie's math. Thursday was the first balky day we had from Mary, in that she really fell apart over the writing. But, we worked it out (after much gnashing of teeth) and came back in much better moods this morning.
Some areas that need to be improved on are:
1. Being able to get each one the hands-on, mommy-time they all want without all the interruptions. I'm having to constantly remind each one to not interrupt when I am in the middle of a lesson with one of her sisters. Some more quickie activities in their boxes for the wait time would be helpful. It is just going to take time to get them used to not interrupting as I have been way to lax in this area.
2. Emily needs more in her box. I'm not going to add to her curriculum, because I like it and feel like it is just right for us this year. But, she wants more to do...alone. She wants more workbooks like Mary & Katie that she can just pull out and go to town on. I've added a couple cheapie maze workbooks, but need to print off a few more things from Enchanted Learning for her folders. She loves to go to her box and just pull out something to work on.
3. Work with Robbie more to do his things on the floor of the family room while we are at the table. He has his box, but wants to do it at the table with us which is a huge distraction. Of course the older ones want to build with the blocks or play with playdoh.
All-in-all the week went really well. Mary and Katie finished off the week with A's on their spelling tests. Really proud of Mary's hard work and surprised by Katie's natural spelling ability (did not inherit that from DH and I). We tried something new for Mary; having her listen to her spelling words on her mp3 player. It seemed to work for her to listen to it every evening before bedtime. I have already loaded next week's words for her to listen to over the weekend.
Mary is having a good time with her math so far. She has learned several new mental math techniques that really make sense to her. And, today's activities with Pascal Triangles were fun for her!
I did sign both Mary and Katie up for a Wilderness Survival course through the NC Wildlife group. It is a free class and will be held in November. They were both excited to find out that the class was being offered this semester.
Besides school Mary has spent the week getting ready for her first soccer tournament of the year this weekend. When she has had the time she has been outside working on ball control. She is very excited about this soccer season and loves her new coach. Of course DH and I are less than excited about having to have her out of town at the fields by 8am and be there all day long. Sunday, at least we don't have to play until noon. Though, we are ready to see how this team does. About half the girls on the team are from last year's team and half are new girls to this level of play.
I went to the first leadership meeting for Girl Scouts this year. What in the world have I gotten myself into? I came away from the meeting more loaded down with books than I was in college. Wow, a lot of stuff to work through. Not to mention we are still on a hunt for a new troop co-leader. I did find out that one of the leaders for another troop is the mother of Mary's new friend she met at Girl Scout camp this year. She has been a leader for 5 years. Can anyone say "new bestfriend"?
Time to get busy for next week. Sometime this weekend I need to go to the library, but first I need to figure out what I need.
Peace,
Amy
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