School Days

Just a quick, belated, post to highlight an accomplishment recently celebrated at our house.  Jeffery finished the Kindergarten portion of his online program.  This happened at the end of January and he is still VERY proud of himself.  (and rightly so)  

We have been MUCH better at having a more structured schedule for school since the beginning of  fall.....except for the days where I have just been so nauseous that I can barely function.  

- Start at 10am

*Do 3-4 Bible stories

*He reads 1-2 books to me (he is reading at a 1st grade level)

* I read a longer story to him.  We just finished the 3 books of My Father's Dragon, read an excerpt from Peter Pan" and this week, just started Winnie-the-Pooh.  

* He then does 3-4 full lessons on ABCMouse (his online program).  

* He then works on writing his letters and numbers.  (This has been the slowest of all areas....but he's getting better....slowly.)

* We then do 4-5 pages in his Workbook which is full of mazes and crafts and coloring exercises.

* At this point, we talk/learn about a specific thing for that day.  Topics can range from: dinosaurs, underwater creatures, becoming familiar with places on a map (both U.S. and global maps), the solar system, a specific artist, or listening to a specific classical piece.  

* And lately, because of the insanely nice (very unlike February) weather, he ends his time by going outside to play with Jakob for an hour or so.  And then lunch and down for naps/quiet time.  

Throw in the occasional concert at UR that Dave takes him to, the trips to the Art Museum here in town, religious ed that he gets at church, and soccer for exercise (which starts back up here soon) and he's just thriving!!!!!  And the beautiful thing is that for the majority of the above, Jakob is involved so he's benefiting too.  

We celebrated him finishing Kindergarten by 1) giving him, as a present, 2 National Geographic Kids' Almanacs.  We had checked one out from the library and he absolutely loved it!  Now he has his very own....make that two of his very own (different years)....and he is SO thrilled!  2) having the family take a day trip down to Colonial Williamsburg and then lunch at our favorite French spot down there (where both boys got to practice their nice restaurant manners).  Lunch at the Blue Talon was my reward for wiping his frustrated tears, celebrating his triumphs and joys, and working with him through the past year of his Kindergarten program.  :)

So, now he's on to the First Grade level and he is so pleased!!!!  Dave and I (mostly me) are now researching other learning program options (not all online....we'd prefer them not to be online, in fact) as he moves forward.  It is rather overwhelming given the sheer number of programs out there.  We thought we had found exactly what we were looking for and we were SO excited....only to dig a little deeper and find the anti-Catholic sentiment that was prevalent throughout the program.  Oops!  :)  Back to the drawing board.  :)  But whatever we pick, we're going to keep supplementing with ABCMouse....for as long as we can....as we've been very pleased with the program.

And Jakob?!  Jakob is VERY excited to tell everyone that he will be starting the preschool portion of ABCMouse in March!  I wish I could convey here in words just how excited he is.  It's really sweet to see.

This is not what Dave or myself grew up doing.  In fact, to my knowledge, we didn't know anyone growing up who went this route for education.  And while we are keeping our options open and never chiseling into stone that this is the only way we'll do things.....this is working right now for our family.....and especially for Jeffery.

So, congrats Jeffery!  On to First Grade with you!  :)  And Jakob....here comes preschool!!!!  :)