Week 5

Things are coming along. Hub and I were quite exhausted by the end of the first few weeks; we have tweeked our schedule to accommodate us and now it's working out quite nicely - I think. We work on school Saturday through Wednesday, because it's so much nicer for Hub and I to have Thursday and Friday off.

I am beginning to back off from working too closely with the kids on their work as I want them to be a bit more independent from us. We do require that they allow us to look over there assessments before submitting them.

Wolfie has four or five portfolios and one or two lab projects he's working on. That's a lot! I have to keep reminding myself that he works at his own pace for the most part. I don't want to stress him with too much pressure to turn in work on the date its first scheduled, but I also don't want him to get too far behind.

Drew has two lab projects. The first was to monitor 4 flower plants. (1. Water & Sunlight; 2. No Water & Sunlight; 3. Water & No Sunlight; and 4. No Water & No Sunlight) She aches for the two plants that are dying, and is determined to "bring them back to life" when this lab is over.

Wolfie and I have been working on his math together. After the first week, he's got it! Yesterday he told me, "I love math! It's so much fun!" Helps to understand it. He has been working on adding/subtracting integers and multiplying/dividing integers. Hint: It's all about the "Order of Operations". I actually surprised myself when I understood it too (it's been so long).

Initially Language Arts was Drew's toughest subject, simply because there was so much to it. The work just seemed to go on and on and on. Now though, she is looking forward to it. Again, it helps to understand it and she has positioned herself to work on this subject with less supervision. I love it.

The kids grades are really reflecting their understanding, and the hardest part now has become that they have to do schoolwork at all. Obviously, they would prefer to play their games and watch their favorite movies, etc.

We did have our teachers re-arranged a little due to the over-enrollment issues and some of the children being transfered to National CA, but nothing too dramatic. Administration was so professional and communicative! They could not have handled it better. (Wolfie wasn't transfered.)

For physical education the kids are becoming quite skilled in their yoga positions. Very entertaining to watch them and while I'm trying to get some good pictures of that to share with you, they keep catching me and aren't too keen on the idea of my posting those shots. (Will keep trying though.) I'd really like to purchase a couple of yoga mats too. Right now they are simply on the carpet which works, but, I think, the yoga mats add to the fun atmosphere of doing the yoga in the first place.