Homeschool check in!

[adi&co.]

Hey homeschooling ladies! Have you started the school year yet? What grade are your kids in? How's it going so far??

[MamaBee]

We have started... kiddo is in 3rd, this year... going well, we still haven't started all the extra lessons and stuff, yet... and that will change my daily schedule... *sigh* I used to have a few days where we didn't have to go anywhere... now Friday is my only day that is free from appointments.

How is it going for you? Weren't you planning on your boys going to the school across the street for a few hours? How is that working? Do they like it?

[YepBrook]

We are on! We did 2 weeks, then I was out of town so we took that week off and did school last week... even though labor day threw us off a bit. We are back to all the subjects. Thankfully I only forgot to order one book. We are doing My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures. I'm loving the geography, exploring maps, and learning about world cultures. I got a bunch of books about kids in other countries, sticker atlases, books about weather and biomes. Sigh. So fun.

Talk to me in 4 more weeks and I will not be as perky about school, I'm sure.

[Jennifer]

We've started! We're only a week in, so it's going pretty well so far. I have a 6th grader and a 3/4 grader. I use a mess of curriculum, so I won't bore you, but I'm looking forward to a good year!

[adi&co.]

My boys are in 2nd and 1st this year. And yes, we started the boys going for some extra classes over at the school across the street. It's actually only half an hour a day. They have a *really* weird schedule and call them "specialist" kids. They go to 3 classes (music, PE, and technology), but do only one class for an entire week, then the next for an entire week, then the next for an entire week and start over. This week they did PE for half an hour every day of the week and it was crazy!

We live literally right across the street, so it's not *that* big of a deal, but it has thrown our entire schedule off. I have to get Jamesen over to the school by 8:45 and then pick him up at 9:15, then Marcus goes in at 9:45 and I pick him up at 10:15. They're attached to classes of kids in their grade, so there's no changing the schedule. It's really wonky!

However, with all my complaining about it, they LOVE it and it's just enough time for them to feel like they're not being left out (because I think that's where their begging to go to public school was stemming from), yet not have them there long enough to be left behind by the pace/get overwhelmed/whatever.

They had to have some huge evaluations last week to "make sure they were actually in the grade I said they were" and I had to seriously bite my tongue whenever the people doing the evaluations said something like, "Oh wow, they're doing so amazing!" like I sit around and do nothing with them all day, ha!

Going over there has opened the door for more therapy though. Marcus needs every second of speech therapy (and PT for his feet, and OT for his fine motor issues) he can get, so that's a wonderful thing. The school psychologist has also confirmed what I've been fearing... both boys have dyslexia. They are going to be having them go a few times a month to a little therapy session that will help them work through that, so that's also a wonderful thing.

Overall, having them go part time at the public school has been crazy, yet opened a lot of doors to good things. I keep them home for the academic side where they *need* the one on one teacher ratio (though technically it's one on three haha) and they get extra therapy and a bit of extra socializing and a change of scenery/pace over at the school. It's the best of both worlds!