Monday, August 20, 2007

We Survived

We survived the first day of home school. Maybe I should say "I survived". Actually we all had a wonderful time. We talked and expressed ourselves, gave ideas and ask questions, we drew and we added, we talked about fractions, we talked about fish and water. We spent the first hour in class without any of us realizing that an hour had went by. For our first break we played Frisbee. I even showed the boys that their mom had a few moves when it came to Frisbee. I still got it! LOL
Once we returned to the classroom the next 2 hours went by extremely fast too. We went over our LifePac books and a few of our lessons. The last 30 minutes the boys reviewed their books quietly while I did a few things. They worked independently and quietly. Can you belief it?! Neither can I. LOL

I was certainly surprised that the boys did so well on their first day. Very little back talk - almost no back talk. A huge improvement from our (now) 12 year old (JD). He was very, very helpful in class. We completed class today at 12 noon and off ran the boys to play or to eat lunch. I ran to the bedroom for a little nap. I ask the boys to wake me up at 1:30 and we would head to the springs.

At the springs we worked on our diving, back flips, taking turns and snorkeling. I think we snorkeled more than anything else. We saw Gar Fish, Bream and Snapping Turtles. They all suggested that we learn more about the fish and the turtles. What a great idea!

When we finished swimming and headed home the boys were all talking about how cool home school is. They talked amongst themselves and I heard each one of them say that they never wanted to go back to public school. I hope they keep that attitude once we get involved in the books more. We won't go swimming every day that is for sure, but there is no reason that we can't end on a positive note. I kinda look at it compared to the time I was horse training and take a few training lessons. Always end on a positive note.

2 comments:

karisma said...

Sounds like you all had a ball. Just remember to keep the fun happening as well. Otherwise they will burn out quick like we did. In regular school a lot of learning is through play and otherwise not books as we learned at school. I have learned a lot of lessons through home schooling as well. Now we try to do a lot of hands on learning as well as the regular bookwork. Its great to have an education, but even greater to have a happy child. Good Luck. I hope you all succeed in making your home school a happy learning environment.

Alta said...

Thank you Karisma for the wise advise. I will have to remember to keep it fun. I think fun is very important. Maybe a gentle reminder from you would help me a lot.