Weekly Wrap Up–Return of the Routine

Our support group had our annual back to school picnic this past weekend.   I have to say it was the most fun event we’ve ever had.   The weather was perfect, the group was lively and varied and the activities kept everyone engaged.  There were also some pretty friendly butterflies in attendance.

Sadly, our local public schools have not had a stellar week.  There was a school bus wreck that sent 20 students to the hospital, and the driver had to be airlifted to a major hospital.  One of the local high schools had a fire.   Most frightening was the lockdown of all schools in the county and city as police searched for the WDBJ7 shooter.  It’s definitely been a “glad we homeschool” kind of week.

Academics are going really well, and getting into a normal routine is wonderful for this slight control freak, ahem.

Latin has become a favorite subject, and Lindsey is doing very well with it.   You may recall we tried Latin a couple of years back and had to quit mid-year because it was turning this smiling child into a crying mess.   Taking a couple years off and then getting a different curriculum has made a world of difference!  Olivia is doing well with Latin too, but it was never a struggle for her like it was for Lindsey.

Pre-Algebra came out of the gates full speed, but thankfully Olivia has been able to hold her own so far.  The first test is coming up soon, and I’m hoping the word TEST doesn’t blow her out of the water like it did last year.   The 5th grader is finally past the “review” portion of her math program and is heading into new territory…so far, so good.

Language Arts has been moving smoothly.  Lindsey has finished her first literature selection already.  Olivia is doing well, and is about to start her first book study of the year.  Spelling is also going pretty good, even if the 5th grade words are crazy hard.

Science had to be tweaked a bit.  I’d bought Lindsey a workbook to go with her text book, and it’s DULL.  I decided to do away with the workbook and instead turn to notebooking and it’s been a much more engaging subject.     Olivia is working independently in science, and upon reviewing her work I find that “I can’t think of any” is the go to response when writing original answers in sentence form is required.   The aforementioned child now sees the error of her thinking and I expect a LOT more effort in the future, ahem.

Geography is going slowly.  We’re working our way through the United States a little at a time (again).  Child #2 can not for the life of her remember what country she lives in (I kid you not). 

Olivia is enjoying her typing class.  I thought she was putting in lots of long hours practicing…come to find out she’s found the font color and size buttons.  The majority of her typing time has been spent prettying up the rows of …sss fff jjj    Sigh.

Extra Curricular:

Ballet takes up most of our free time.  Both girls attend lessons 4 days a week.   Nutcracker role announcements and costume fittings begin this weekend.

Guitar is going.   Not necessarily good or bad, but going.  We’ve managed to break one guitar string, and I have yet to be able to figure out how to replace it (it’s an electric).  Piano is still steady on course for both girls.

Overall I’m pleased with our first two weeks of school.  I’m reworking my house keeping schedule to better suite.   How has your week been?

Linking up with the Weekly Wrap Up and Collage Friday.