Home school update

Homeschooling is challenging because as parents we are learning how to teach elementary school.  We are figuring out how to delivery content and how to structure the day.  However, due to our space constraints we face some additional challenges.  What we don't have is a desk with a way to organize our supplies, books, and other materials.

A beautifully organized drawer of a desk representative of what I WISH we had

What we do have is a kitchen table which serves every purpose (and can even transform to a bed if needed).  Get it out, clean it up, get it out, clean it up....repeat... So this is not ideal, but then add the distraction an active, three-year-old little sister might cause (I mean, hypothetically, right?).  Yeah, so a two hour lesson becomes a 4+ hour session with many breaks and attempts to refocus...it's really wearing on the "teaching staff."  So...effective this week we are building in some trips to the library where we can create a space for focus. 

On the flip side, let's talk about our second child who has not received the one-on-one attention our first born did (sound familiar to any other parents?).  Is it really fair to create a space for Brother without considering what she needs at this point?  So, by dividing the class we are able to each spend some valuable time with each kiddo and I think this is going to be a big turning point for our success in this endeavor.  On Monday when I stayed with Sister we worked on her preschool workbook pages, we read books and we laughed together.  She was so happy to receive my full attention - it was a good day.  The ironic part was that we only had about 40 minutes because it turned out the library was closed for President's Day - so Brother didn't get his focus time after all...he had to come back to the Hideout and complete his work as usual.  Next library trip is scheduled for Friday.

An organized table of school supplies that is not representative of our set-up.
Our supplies are kept in the bench belonging to the kitchen table and we have to open up the bench often to get things out.

Regarding the curriculum - Moving Beyond the Page - we have mixed feelings.  We just finished a language arts unit which was centered on The Lion, The Witch, and Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis) which led to some interesting discussions about Christianity.  Before that we read a historical fiction book called Ben and Me (by Robert Lawson about Benjamin Franklin and his mouse Amos)...which was a little hard to get through with all the fictional mouse drama.  However the science lessons on Electricity and Magnetism were awesome and we did some cool experiments.  We are starting a civics lesson which will explore government and we have another science unit on Forces of Nature that is paired with the BFG (Roald Dahl) - something he has previously read twice.  We bought cirriculum for 8-10 year olds (Brother turned 8 in December) and we thought some of the LA concepts were too difficult for him - though we see growth/improvement in his work, which is awesome.  We purchased a quarter of a school year worth of curriculum and are considering whether to go with the same level, change the level, or go in a different direction...choices choices!