Lots of people have been asking how we're doing with homeschooling Thomas. We're doing fine. It's hard, but it's going well so far. We're all getting used to the new routines. And I'm now teaching all three - as the first day we really 'did school' with Thomas, he finished and Monkey plopped into his seat and informed me that it was his turn now. He really loves to learn.
You know what's a good thing on a Tuesday afternoon? UPS delivering a big box of school stuff I ordered. And then digging through it.
One of the things I ordered was special two-lined Handwriting without tears writing paper (I've used the HWOT program for Princess, too). The two lines are far less confusing than the three (and the FOUR-liners that Thomas would come home with from kindergarten - FOUR!). This is really the first time that he even got the concept of staying in the lines. He wrote lots of Star Wars words yesterday, can you see them?
More often than not, you'll find Princess doing her work in front of the heater vent under the window. That's homeschool in January for you!
We've found a few things that are working well for us. One is Playroom Library Time. We spread one of Nana's quilts in front of the bookshelves in the playroom, and pretend to check out books. I would love to have a regular morning to take them all to the library, but I can't handle the two boys there by myself... yet.
Also we're working hard to re-instate Quiet Time - which never really went away, but we're doing much better at it lately.
We've been reading chapter books aloud after lunch. Right now it's The BFG. I'm going to keep a list of the ones we read on the sidebar.
The best thing ever? Grandma School. Seriously. When we go down to my mom's house (we try for about once a week), Thomas will have nothing to do with me. He grabs my mom and demands to do Grandma school. He works SO well for her, and she'll come up with other fun things to do with the boys. Meanwhile, I get to go work one-on-one with Princess, which is hard to find time for now! I love Grandma School.
And on Friday I have a meeting at the school to get Thomas back into speech there. So we're doing well, thanks for asking!
