Weekly Wrap Up (week 1): A Slow Start

It is time for a confession please don't turn me into the homeschool police...traditionally, I have the majority of the year organized when we start school. However, this year I have been soooo tired that I was not able to complete all the planning I like to have done before the year starts. My field trips are not planned, daily & weekly schedule un written, Units are half done, I have not completed lesson planning in Homeschool Tracker.

But wait it gets better after all of my books arrived I realized the trusty list I make each year had failed me! Because I did not order things such as my first graders Language Arts Book and my Teacher's guide. Also, I discovered that for our math program we need to use 2 sets of flash cards (Christian Light has the BEST flash cards for keeping the teacher organized and teaching children to memorize facts,!)

Then Sunday night before I could print out the student assignment sheet and my teacher check off sheet Dad & the kids broke the printer. Normally, I would have already printed our the assignment sheets but like I said I really tired! Regardless, of all these little bumps in the road we had our first day of school!
Introducing the students of Roosterhill Academy

Our nursery class Bubba & Shoo the screaming, scampering 1 year olds! I have already begun to wonder what homeschooling twins will be like.?!.?!

playing at art class

1st grade Sugar pie who likes to spend as much time upside down as possible!

3rd grade is Bullet who loves to read & write.

6th grade is Sweetie our ever steady worker.

I think for me the highlight of the week has been the Institute in Excellence in Writing program or IEW. This is an expensive program that we have been considering for years and finally decided to go ahead and purchase it now that Bullet is in 3rd grade. So this year Sweetie & Bullet will be participating in the writing intensive.  This week the girls wrote their first paper. I was easily able to correct it using the IEW rubric. I love rubrics they makes grading objective instead of subjective! The children knew exactly what they were expected to do and how they would be graded. They have already written the rough draft for their 2nd paper and will finish it on Monday.  Having writing as a regular part of our homeschool has been one of my goals for years and I hope we have found the way to do it!

Another little something fun we did was label stuff as common or proper nouns to help the 2nd grader get a better grasp on the concept. Warning: Do not label your piano teacher unless she is also a former homeschooler who excepts such craziness! We love you Ms. Bethany!!!!

Common Noun: Piano Teacher .....Proper Noun: Bethany

To see what other homeschoolers are up to around the country you can head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's weekly wrap up.