School Today

So, today was our first day back to school after Spring Break. I had planned to ease our way back into our normal routine and it's a good thing I did. Today was anything but normal. First of all, the weather was crazy--stormy and rainy--and the weather radio was going off every few minutes. Grace had spent the night at a friend's house (normally a no-no on weeknights but I caved) and didn't get home until after 10. So, we got a very late start but we did start. We did our reading time--read the Bible, Book of Virtues, Young Person's Guide to Knowing God, and started a biography of Walt Disney. Then the kids did chores. We are trying something new. Joe is in charge of all living areas, Hannah is in charge of the kitchen and dining area, and Grace is in charge of bathrooms, foyer, and laundry. So far, so good. The laundry was piled up so Grace got to practice using the washer and dryer and folding a lot today. After chores we started school--this was interesting because I have all these new ideas and philosophies that I'm eager to test out but yet unsure how I want our school time to look still. This is most definitely a work in progress and I am assuming that every day will be different and I will bore you with seemingly endless blog posts because not only do I write for your enjoyment (ha!) but this is my journal as well. Hannah had an easy first half of the day because much of what she needed to do was on the computer and we had everything unplugged to protect it against all the lightning. She wrote an article for the Bunk Room, read for half an hour (she is reading Homesick by Jean Fritz), and did Wordly Wise. Later she did Math and attempted her virtual school Spanish. I finally convinced her to just quit that class today. I'm not crazy about the style of teaching and she wasn't retaining much. She had an assignment and a big test and she had hit a wall and just didn't think she could do either and I couldn't help her. I think part of her problem is that I helped her too much during the first semester. Because of that I've been completely hands off for this second segment and consequently cannot help her. Anyway, I have a great Spanish workbook and that will suffice for now. Grace did Math, Wordly Wise, read for half an hour, and wrote an article for The Bunk Room. Joe did Math, helped me make a cake, finished up a project for his Caldecott Winners pocket book, and read for a while. I had hoped to do a couple of the experiments in his science kit that he got for his birthday but he wasn't into it so I didn't push it (one of my new ideas). It was a good start for the first day back after almost two weeks off. I'm hoping with each new day I'll have a better idea for how I want to do things and what that looks like day to day. I keep reminding myself that these last couple of months of school are one big experiment. Surely by next fall I'll know what I'm doing, at least until I change things again. :0)