Homeschool Happenings

Howdy!

After a long break for all things Christmas, etc., we are starting back in with homeschool happenings. Today it felt great to take down the tree, vacuum up the MASSES of pine needles carpeting the floor, and put away the nativity scene on the mantel. Sometimes, getting back into a routine is such a relief after the holidays. Especially when it is beautifully warm outside (in the 50s both today and yesterday) and there are new things to sink teeth into.

Today Theo attended his first ever co-op classes from 11 am - 2 pm at CHESSIE (Christian Home Educators Science and Sports Institute). It meets in Charlottesville every Thursday. He was a bit nervous anticipating it (and had a field day leading up to it, making fun of the acronym "CHESSIE", which he thinks sounds hilariously weird), but he started chatting right away with the other kids, one of whom he has played with a few times before. They are finishing up their unit about rocks.

After Science, they have lunch, and then play games and have PE time. After I picked him up he told me they had done a four-legged race and that he really enjoyed it.

Willem and I were able to come home while Theo was at CHESSIE and take the dog for a long walk around the neighborhood. Willem rode his scooter and we had a nice time. It is peaceful to hang out with one kid when everyone is used to being together all the time! Tomorrow Willem starts back into preschool after the holidays and I am looking forward to getting into a routine with Theo on those mornings.

My main goals are to focus on handwriting, reading and math; I have purchased simple used curriculum for each. We will start out doing about ten minutes of each and then build up to spending more time.

He will do science each Thursday at CHESSIE of course, and I will wait till next fall to add in music, art and nature study. We already do a sort of nature study on our hikes, simply by stopping and observing what we see and talking about it. Maybe I will occasionally play him a classical piece and talk about it, and do the same with pictures of works of art. But for now I feel we need to adjust to getting used to working on the core disciplines together (handwriting, reading and math). The other stuff will fall into place later.

In addition to those basic disciplines, we will be doing our Sonlight curriculum a few times a week. It covers World Cultures, History and Bible. If this seems to be adding too much into our weekly schedule for now, I will wait until the fall, as the Sonlight curriculum is meant for ages 5 - 7; it would not hurt to give it a bit more time and wait till he is adjusted to working on the other stuff before we add it.

I am thinking of trying to do the reading curriculum (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons) on Tuesdays with both boys, in addition to doing it with Theo Monday, Wednesday and Friday while Willem is in school. There would be no pressure on Willem to fully engage in the lesson, but he likes that kind of thing and it might help keep up the momentum with Theo if Willem does it too. I will let you know how that goes!

Before Christmas break, our routine had been (at least for a week or so) to go for a hike at Mint Springs, and then to a coffee shop to do some schoolwork. I think that now that we have the dog in tow, we will just go home after our hike. This will also save money on all those hot chocolates we would have been buying at the coffee shop! And then the coffee shop hot chocolates will be more rare and therefore more precious. :)

Here is the tentative schedule we will be working with this semester:

M                           T               W                    Th                     F
hike/walk         hike/walk     Sonlight           hike/walk       hike/walk
handwriting       reading       handwriting     CHESSIE       handwriting
reading                                  reading                                   reading
math                                      math                                       math
                                                                                             Sonlight

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