School and Home

It’s that time of year again when everything starts anew. Or at least educationally.

We started on Monday; we are using the All About Reading curriculum this year, Cassia (who is so so so excited to be doing school) is doing the pre-reading level and Spencer is doing Level 1. So far I have to say things are going pretty well. Cassia would do several lessons a day if I had the time and energy, I think. Spencer is pretty happy just doing one lesson per day.

I’ve also sacrificed food for 3 weeks and went ahead and purchased Math-U-See for Spencer this year’s school. We will be starting it once I read the instructions and do some learning myself. Hopefully it will be worth 3 weeks of groceries and be a great experience for him and for the other two when they get to use it. *nervous smile*

Kiwi Crate had a sale on a few days ago for their science boxes, so I purchased one each for Spencer and Cassia; I haven’t told them cause they are sure to talk about it non-stop until the boxes arrive in the mail and ask every hour whether they are here yet and if they could please just check the mail one more time and could we just email them to ask whether they’re here yet cause they’re just soooo excited for their boxes. I wish that was an exaggeration, but it’s not. Hence why I’m not telling them. Yet. Spencer absolutely love, love, loved his kiwi crate we got in January and still enjoys playing with the claw he made (think arcade game claw to grab a stuffy). These will be a part of our sciences for school.

Other very awesome things: Spencer is enrolled in martial arts as part of a homeschool group, and he’s quite excited! I couldn’t get him into swim lessons – his level, at least, seems to fill up exceptionally quick and they never seem to add classes. But our community association is offering rhythmic gymnastics, so I’m considering that.

I’m also organising to have one of the Tornado Hunters do a presentation on … tornado hunting! I’m so excited about this, as I follow them on social media and love both the pictures they share and the warnings they give, usually before any other news is talking about it. This will fit in perfectly with our sciences this year, where we will be covering the natural world, specifically going through natural disasters. We will be finishing this science year up with an awesome trip to Yellowstone (yay volcano?) and to watch the solar eclipse. Very much looking forward to this year!

Cassia is doing swim lessons and is looking forward to them, and both she and Spencer will be taking part in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, which I am running at my parish this year.

In other news

Cassia determined she would be a gymnast while we watched Olympics and set up obstacle courses (essentially) and ran over or through them. But the kicker is, whenever she gets ready to do a serious run, she now spits in her hands and rubs them together. Like, whaaaa? I asked social media and someone suggested maybe the vault? Do gymnasts do that with vault? I dunno, but it’s ridiculous.

Felicity showed great interest in pursuing synchronized swimming.

We are looking forward to a very full school year with many adventures! Oh, and I decided today that Fridays are to be school-free days, barring not getting lessons done during the week. We will have more stress and need more dedicated time as Spencer gets into the older grades later, so we are enjoying Fridays for what they are – awesome days of fun and creativity, especially while we have the free time.

And in our most recent news (read: today) Cassia managed to both step on a nail (it was a bleeder) and stick her finger in the big fan. All within 3 hours of each other. Yay. Hopefully it’s not a prediction of how our long weekend will be! (She’s fine, if you’re wondering)