One down...

and I don't know how many to go. We got through our first week and nobody broke a bone. I whooped a couple of butts, but other than that nobody got hurt. It has really been interesting so far. With three of them this time, I have to really stay on my toes.

We sit down and do our "together" stuff first. That's our bible study, history, and science. The kids have been very receptive to the curriculum so far, and I like that. Even the baby will sit with us until we're done.

When we're done with that stuff, it's time for the baby to sit down and do her reading lesson. We are using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" . I have heard really good things about the program from some other moms. My sister had used it for her kids, and her kids have done great with it. I tried it with my two oldest, but at that time I didn't really have a vested interest. I knew my kids were going to school and somebody else was going to teach them to read. This time is very different.

With the baby, we sit down and do two lessons a day. She has been very receptive to this process. She has had some speech issues, but she hasn't really been challenged to correct them. This has really brought the issue to the forefront with us. But I can honestly say it has started to show progress with her already. She is supposed to repeat sounds back to me of the various letters, and I can see her making an effort. If she doesn't get it right, she seems to get a little discouraged. But I just tell her what a great job she is doing. That has been getting her back on track. I am really proud of how smart she is. Here is a snippet of our conversation from the other day:

"Will you write some small e's for me?"

"Sure, Mama." Writing two small e's occurs. "How many do you want me to draw?"

"How about five?"

"I have three left." Then Mama freaks out a little because this was spontaneous. No counting of fingers, no thinking for a minute, just the words.

"Will you write m's for me?"

"Big m or little m?"

"Which ever one you want to do." I am not concerned about the capital or lower case at this point. Let's learn to read first ok. "That is a good m. Will you do four for me?"

"I have three left." Again, Mama freaks a little. There was no hesitation, just straight to knowing how many she had left to write.

And that is what I love about homeschooling. The spontaneity of the moment, the learning that has occurred without knowing it was learning. How fantastic is it that a four year old is doing math in her head? Not on her fingers, not with the funny screwing up of the face as she thinks about it, just math. And quickly. I am so amazed at the intelligence of children when they are allowed to learn in an open environment.

The boy had a couple of issues with his reading comprehension yesterday. There are certain things I am very flexible about. And I will help my children with almost all of their work. But I will not help them with reading comprehension when they have not tried to answer the questions first. And that is what the boy wants. That is the bane of his existence. And it's not that he doesn't want to read. He loves to read. He just doesn't like to answer the questions after he's read. Yesterday was one day too many for him to push me. He did it, and he did well, he just doesn't like it.

The big girl is always so good. She had a reading comp with her vocabulary. It was about Maya Angelou, and it was a little long. Some of the questions used her vocab words. And if it didn't, the words was supposed to be in the answer. She didn't read that part of the instructions. So she had to redo some of her answers. Unhappy would describe the big girl. But she did it and didn't complain.

And today was park day. We all agree that park day is more about the moms than the kids. Sometimes the kids will complain a little, but the response from the moms when were talking about it was always the same. "I don't care if you want to go. I'm going. And if I'm going, you're going." We need the down time and the camaraderie and the support. We were there until almost 4 today. I had tired, filthy babies. But they loved it as much as I did.

So take heart, family and friends. The babies are doing well being home schooled. Dance starts next week, and our church after school program the week after that. We are back to being busy, busy, busy.

Have a great day!