Back To School

Most of our friends went back to school this week and it occurred to me this morning as I was reading all the "Back To School" blogs that homeschooling provides very little hooplah (is that a real word??) with the start. Partly because there's never really an end - and therefore no 'new' beginnings. Its been nice not to have to do the beginning of the year run-around for school clothes and supplies, but we definitely have our fair share of busyness to contend with!

We have started our first grade year for Jordan and Jake ... and Jadyn is convinced she's in Kindergarten! At the ripe ol' age of 2. I'm all for moving kids along if they're ready early (Jake is case-in-point), but 2 is just a wee bit early for Kindergarten!

Anyway, we are in our second full week of school and things are going really well. We had a bit of excitement with the school district last week. Since Jordan has an IEP from school, we have to get approval from the AEA special ed director to homeschool. He assured me that he didn't want to 'get in the way' but also told me we'd have to have an IEP meeting in order to gain his approval. Say what?? Fortunately, I was able to call the Home School Legal Defense Association and get some great legal advice and even some scripting for how to handle the situation. Needless to say, we're not having an IEP meeting and all of our paperwork is turned in. Now we wait for the approval - and he has 30 days to decide.

I'm enjoying our curriculum. We're using My Father's World first grade. I love that it begins each day with a Bible activity and memory verse work and throughout the year, the kids will be reading from a Bible storybook and doing Scripture copywork. I don't know if Jordan's handwriting will reach the skill stage of good copywork this year, but we'll see. We're using Handwriting Without Tears for both of them to help in that area. In addition, Jake is doing Math-U-See & Jordan is doing a lot of hands-on math activities with pattern blocks, etc. We're also using Drawing With Children for art as well as our NACD program activities for oral motor, processing, & other academics, etc. We'll also be doing some unit studies on topics the kids choose. Jordan has already chosen ballet as one - go figure!

Jordan will be doing ballet again - she starts in a couple weeks. Jake starts fall soccer next Tuesday. He'll have practice twice a week and games on Saturday. This should cover us for PE. After soccer, we may do a homeschool PE class at SportsPlex West. We'll see how it all plays out. We'll be doing our weekly library visits and are hoping to make some homeschool park days with other homeschool kids. Of course, we'll go on field trips as well!!

Its shaping up to be a FUN year!