School started today

This weekend the kids and I were talking about starting school a little early. We were getting a little tired of "sitting around". That's so funny, I need to take a minute to laugh. Anyway, we decided we would start a little early. So we started today. It's only a week, but that could mean a lot in the grand scheme of things.

It means that we finish our weather book the last week before our Christmas break. I like that. Before, we weren't going to finish it until we got back from our break. I like the fact that we can start our geology and aren't left hanging for two weeks.

The boy also finishes his first spelling book before we go. Once again he would have had 2 weeks of lessons before he started the second half of his curriculum.Not that it matters much with his spelling. Not as much as the science.

The big girl will still have a couple of weeks to finish her vocabulary curriculum. But that is like the spelling. It's independent of the other lessons in the book and doesn't matter if it gets finished by a certain time. Well, except the end of our school year. It will be done before we end our year.

We had a good day today. We did our bible lesson first. The big girl and the boy had their paper, while the baby colored the picture that came with the lesson. It was so nice to have them all at the table together. It was also a little strange. Last year, the baby only had to sit with us if she wanted to.

We did our history and science today as well. That went fairly well. We have a lot of podcasts and online articles to read with both of those subjects. I like that though, because it gives us a little break from book work. And the kids think it's cool we get to use the podcasts.

We sat down with the baby and started our reading book. I had her write the first two letters that they go over in her book. She already knew them. She also already knew how to write them. She does a pretty good S, if you ask me. But, once again, I'm biased. We actually got through our first two lessons. She did so good.

The math curriculum for the boy comes as four books. Two are student workbooks, and two are teacher's guides. I bought a 2"binder and when I make copies for the boy to use, I put the originals in the binder. It was a little expensive, the books not the binder, so I don't want him to write on it. The pages are tear out, so I just tore the pages out of the teacher's guide, punched holes in it, and put that in the binder as well. I found these great erasable subject dividers and used those to seperate the books it the binder. It took awhile, but that's ok.

We've been listening to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on CD. Today we finished it by listening to the last three. We've already seen the movie. We own it. But as we listen, we try to find the differences between the book and the movie. It's been fun, and it has given us something new to talk about at the dinner table. We are going to work our way through the series, since we own all the movies that have come out so far. Except "Order of the Phoenix". But I DVR'd it.

I like the recorded books. I don't have to find the time to actually read them aloud. Those days are few and far between. We listen to them in the van, while we clean our rooms, or while we're eating lunch. The kids have enjoyed it and so have I. Sometimes we just hang out together while we listen. I get on the library website and reserve them. I need to do "Chamber of Secrets" now that we've finished this one.

All I have left to do today is our list of books. By state law, you have to have a list of all books used for teaching. You also have to list all books read during the school year. That's cool. I signed the kids up for the Pizza Hut Book it program. that should be interesting for us. But their science and history also has a list of books that go with the curriculum. I've already told them they have to read at least one history and one science book for the week of study. Then the rest are all books that they get to choose. That means a weekly trip to the library, but I love requesting books on line.

Tomorrow the big girl wants to go to the mall and spend some of her bday money. It's burning a hole in her pocket. I told her ok, but she doesn't get to spend all of it. She wants girlie stuff. Duh! She is such a girlie girl. We went to get our ink cartridges refilled at Walgreen's today and while we waited, she wanted to look at makeup. I wonder where she got that (her mother ha, ha)?

And the best part of all- we finally named our school. I called my dad to get some info from him. Then we voted for the name we liked the best. The name we decided on is Kula a Hale Na'auao Akamai. That means The School of Wisdom. The kids are excited about telling all their friends. I am too actually. Thanks, Dad!

We had a good day and I loved it. Hubby is working a ton of overtime right now because of Fay. But that's good by me. It means I work a ton of overtime with the kids. I can do it. Now it's time to go make dinner. Hamburgers tonight. I'm making mine with shrooms and Swiss. Yum!

Have a great day!