Who started today? How'd it go? (August 15)

[Halcyon]

We started today and it went well (yay!!!). Older finished all the assigned work (and can I just add that HST+ ROCKS!-made everything go so, so smoothly) by 1:30 pm. Younger needed a bit of a "talking to" about the, um, non-optionality of math ;) but other than that smooth sailing. It was also the first day of music afterschool for younger--he enjoyed it and now knows a great deal more about Bach!

 

All in all, a success. I think it helps that I was prepared, had dinner in the crock pot, pencils sharpened, etc. etc. Whether this level of preparedness can be maintained throughout the rest of the school year remains to be seen. :tongue_smilie:

[mom&nana]

We started today as well. I was so nervous and this is going on my 9th year of homeschooling...lol. I just felt so ill-prepared but the day went very well. Much better than I had anticipated.

 

Glad you had a great day too! :)

[Critterfixer]

Yesterday was our "official" first day, but today was the first "real school" day for second grade. The day went well, but then we were schooling all summer long, so the routine was never broken.

I discovered a better page format for narrations than what we have been using, so I'll compose and save that tonight.

We got through everything we needed to do for today. With breaks and lunch added in we went from nine am to about four. Lest anyone freak out about how long our day is, let me say, we take a lot of breaks during the day, and I ended up adding in a good hour of read-aloud by request.

[laundrycrisis]

Today went well. I was impressed with how DS1 hung in there through the first "Story of Western Civilization" lesson. I think I am going to love this series of workbooks. When we catch up to where we were in SOTW I will combine the two. DS2 is going to take a little time to get into the groove of "school time". We won't get as much done tomorrow because I have to haul dogs to the vet in the morning and they have music lessons in the afternoon..so I'm glad we got a lot done today.

 

I still get this thrill when I hear and see the bus come and go on the first day, and my kid is not on it. :D It's a wheeeeee, here we go ! feeling.

[LucyStoner]

We are gearing up for the year but he wanted to do some stuff today so we did spelling words, he drew and did a little math.

 

Last year we were kitchen table homeschoolers which was fine but we decided to make some space and clear out a little room downstairs for him. So, he also made labels for the shelves in his new teeny tiny homeschooling room and he helped put together a bookshelf we got off of Craigslist for his school books.

[Tree House Academy]

We re-started today. We had put in two weeks of our curriculum at the end of July and then missed two weeks for my older son to visit his daddy. Unfortunately, it was not the best start. My youngest son found a cavity last night and had to have the tooth pulled today. SO not fun! But we managed to get school done anyway. :P

[mytwomonkeys]

We started today. It was great! I did LA & Math with my son. Then he took a break while I did LA & Math with my daughter. Then we grouped together for everything else. We started at 7:30 (totally not normal - my son's choice) and ended by 12:30. Great day!!!

[ChrissySC]

We started today too. :)

[Donna T.]

We started back and had a very smooth day. I was so nervous! We used Sonlight last year and it's just such a relaxed way to do school. I wasn't sure how I would do with two HOD guides, even though I have done it in the past. Everything came together nicely. Now I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow!

[smile.its.me]

We did. Our first year homeschooling. 9yo DD took over 3 hours to do one handwriting sheet. :( It is now 6:45 and she still has 2 things left to do. 6yo DD (has practically the same work) was done just after lunch. Both are identified gifted from ps. DH and I had a long talk tonight to try and figure out what to do with 9yo DD. She made straight A's in ps through last year in 3rd grade. Rebelling that she has to homeschool? She was so excited when I mentioned it to her, but now...not so sure. Both of my girls are very social.

 

I work full time at home (for a company...with set hours, 8:30-5:30). The girls work at a desk right next to mine, so I made it a point today to go over everything with them very carefully.

 

[[[sigh]]] Maybe tomorrow will be better? Or should I just wait until after this year? I hear that the first year is always difficult.

[Bang!Zoom!]

Today is a practice run for us. It's about half and half. Late start, last night wasn't feeling good...so..eh..

 

She's just finishing geography and is taking a break in her room. She's teaching her American Girl dolls the history of Hawaii with the maps she worked up. It's kinda cute, I'm gonna sneak in and photograph her.

 

We did have a moment today..we spotted a 70 foot dust devil coming down the mountain and had to switch to that quickly from math. My card wasn't in my camera though, what fun it would have been to photograph that monster...but it was nice being able to do whatever she was in the "mood" for.

 

It's kinda nice having that flexibility huh?

[ChicoryChick]

We started back today. Overall it went really well, but I am realizing just how bad my boys handwriting is and we need to really work on that. We didn't get to science, but finished all the other subjects, so I was pretty happy.

[Joyofsixreboot]

We had a Not Back To School trip to the zoo. Then we did read aloud (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory since the girls got parts in a local production) and they did independent reading of some animal stories to go with the zoo trip. This is our ease back in week. We'll mostly read and do history and science. Next week we ramp up.

[Lori C- Texas]

We started back today, too. It went really well. I was really surprised with how well my boys behaved today. I am praying that the rest of our year goes as well!:)

[Farrar]

We did.

 

The kids opened up the big box of stuff I've been accumulating over the last couple of months. I put out exciting little things like new erasers and pencils. They accidentally dumped out the HUGE rock and mineral set meaning they had to sort it. And they started a puzzle. Then we spent all morning with our co-op taking a nice hike. Ah. First day of second grade.

 

Tomorrow we might do something. Sort of. Maybe. We'll see. ;)

[jayb842]

Our first offical day was today. He rocked right through it. I loved hearing my teacher voice again but this time I was using it on my little boy.

[kathkath]

We started too. Friend watched 2yo (THANKS!!!) while I worked with DD and DS. This was DS's first foray and he did ok.

[eewaggie99]

We did. Our first year homeschooling. 9yo DD took over 3 hours to do one handwriting sheet. :( It is now 6:45 and she still has 2 things left to do. 6yo DD (has practically the same work) was done just after lunch. Both are identified gifted from ps. DH and I had a long talk tonight to try and figure out what to do with 9yo DD. She made straight A's in ps through last year in 3rd grade. Rebelling that she has to homeschool? She was so excited when I mentioned it to her, but now...not so sure. Both of my girls are very social.

 

I work full time at home (for a company...with set hours, 8:30-5:30). The girls work at a desk right next to mine, so I made it a point today to go over everything with them very carefully.

 

[[[sigh]]] Maybe tomorrow will be better? Or should I just wait until after this year? I hear that the first year is always difficult.

 

I can't give you too much advice as we just started midway through last year, but I found things were very rocky at first. My ds struggled with the lack of structure and also the higher expectations. He coasted through 2nd grade; nothing like the teacher singing his praises at the conference, talking about what a great job he does teaching the other kids.:001_huh:

 

We started third grade last week and things are much better. We start school right away (Spanish during breakfast) and he can't play or see his friends until all his work is done. It's a big motivator for him to complete his work. I also found asking about his interests helps keep him engaged. He likes historical fiction and fantasy so I give him good books in these genres, (which he can't read until all other schoolwork is done).

 

The best advice I can give is talk to many hsers. Try different things to motivate her without making it seem like bribery. Math lessons with m&ms, watch the movie based on the book she's reading, field trip to the zoo. Yes, in the past year all these things have worked to keep my ds focused. Unfortunately, it doesn't work all the time. That's why I read these boards to get new ideas and to be entertained.

[HollyB]

We had a great first day. My 7 year old was enthusiatic and cooperative; she finished everything before lunch. It was a dream day... if you ignore my preschooler's behavior. My 3 year old actually yelled, "I HATE SCHOOL!" several times before she just left the room to play. The poor thing is *not* a morning person! I hope tomorrow goes better for her.

[Dolphin]

We did. Our first year homeschooling. 9yo DD took over 3 hours to do one handwriting sheet. :( It is now 6:45 and she still has 2 things left to do. 6yo DD (has practically the same work) was done just after lunch. Both are identified gifted from ps. DH and I had a long talk tonight to try and figure out what to do with 9yo DD. She made straight A's in ps through last year in 3rd grade. Rebelling that she has to homeschool? She was so excited when I mentioned it to her, but now...not so sure. Both of my girls are very social.

 

I work full time at home (for a company...with set hours, 8:30-5:30). The girls work at a desk right next to mine, so I made it a point today to go over everything with them very carefully.

 

[[[sigh]]] Maybe tomorrow will be better? Or should I just wait until after this year? I hear that the first year is always difficult.

 

Just take it slow. Last year was my first year. Someone early on told me that the first year is more about learning how home school is going to work in your family. How are you going to teach, how are they going to learn? Which curriculum's work, which don't?

 

Not only is this new for you, but they are having a total switch. Not just being home, but most likely they have new curriculum in every subject. You probably won't have that again, you will tweak as you go. Each curriculum has different language, and ways that they explain things.

 

Someone told me to start slow. One or 2 subjects a day the first week, then add a subject a week. I had the problem that I was really excited, and wanted to start with everything. For some kids, it is better to take it slow.

 

I found that I found a lot of holes, or gaps that I didn't expect, and those almost derailed me. I decided to have a relaxed year instead. You will get there, and find your groove. I am feeling much better going into my second year, and it has been great seeing how my relationship changed with ds(9) this last year.

 

Best of luck!

[Food4Thought]

We started today, despite getting a new kitten and getting almost no sleep last night! I was surprised at how well both kids did. The 5-yr old could only handle a page of handwriting before she was off to play LEGOs, but the 7-yr old worked right through everything with no complaints. He thinks he came up with the idea to do notebooking pages (bwa ha ha), and he drew a decent picture and gave a nice little narration about mosaics in Byzantine art. I was impressed.