Back and Relaxed

Ahhhh, nothing like a few days alone with the man you love to put life back in perspective. The kids are still crazy, but I sure did miss them in those three days away from them. Of course, the time also went way too quickly - I could've stayed a week or two! The best of both worlds, I suppose. If you've been wondering, Greyson did just fine. We hung out with Grandma for a few days before DH and I took off so Grey was very comfortable with her and didn't give her an especially hard time. At least not harder than he gives me. Apparently Cameron and Cassia didn't fight with each other at all until MIL left to pick us up at the dock. Then they spent the rest of the night and the whole next day fighting to make up for it, lol. At least they were good for Grandma. I have no pictures because they are on DH's laptop. Maybe I can convince him to upload them to a computer here so I can share.

Today was the first day of our Fall Quarter and it went smashingly. We started with Spelling and although Cameron balked a bit at the thought of it, he did beautifully. I have the feeling that his reading just wasn't up to par when we were doing it before and now he is much more confident and capable at it. He was actually doing quite a bit of voluntary reading while we were on vacation. He even read a telling time book to Cassia but kept getting frustrated because she had already memorized the book and kept telling him the words before he had a chance to try and read them, lol.

But back to today, we followed Spelling with another new subject: Grammar. They were both excited to see what this grammar thing was all about and hunkered down on the couch to listen to the first page of First Language Lessons. They were both surprised and somewhat disappointed when the lesson ended in less than 5 minutes, lol. Hopefully that will let it be a fun new thing to learn about rather than another dragging subject. We'll see. Today's lesson included the definition of a noun, focusing on the person aspect, and then the definition of a common noun. I was planning on doing grammar two or three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday if we have time before the park) but I just noticed that there are 100 lessons for first grade! Two lessons a week definitely won't cut it. Even year-round, that won't cut it so I'm going to try really hard to make it happen at least three times a week.

Next was math and Cameron impressed me by remembering how to carry in double-digit addition. I was taking it slow and trying to really focus on the mental steps and how to write it down with the little carried one on top and he just pipes up with the answer before I ever got done explaining it. But then he declined in silly mode when it came time to do the workbook. Two problems into it, I had to crack down on the silliness and thankfully he responded pretty well.

While Cameron did his math, Cassia did the first lesson in her Explode the Code Primer, book C. Coincidentally, it was on the letter C. It's working pretty well to work with her on something while Cameron does his math. I may get the hang of this multiple kid thing yet! I was also surprised that she was so interested in grammar. I may be able to just fold her in the whole way which will be really convenient if we ever start the Classical Writing series. She was also really interested in Cameron's math and phonics. Unfortunately, she showed her interest by guessing random answers to his work, lol.

Next was History. First off I had Cameron draw me an Egypt picture and do a narration on the subject. I told him to tell me everything he knew about Egypt and he told me some things about pyramids and mummies and then said that that was all he knew. Then Cassia pipes up with, "I know something else about Egypt!" We asked her what, expecting something silly but she said, "Egypt is on the River Nile." Cameron, looking embarrassed said, "Oh yeah, I know that too but I forgot." LOL, gotta love a little sibling rivalry. So that sparked another paragraph in the narration. I was going to move on to chapter 5 in SOTW after that but then I realized that we still had a bunch of library books on Egypt that we hadn't gotten to yet (which are seriously overdue and must go back soon). I asked Cameron if he wanted to move on or read book on Egypt and he chose Egypt. The sweet boy lay his head on my lap while we sat on the couch to read. Can't get that kind of love in a public school lesson! He complained when I pushed past his one chapter limit, lol, but we ended up reading half of Cat Mummies, which is a 60 page book, and flipped through two others about mummies, gods, and pyramids.

Now I need to test-make the craft for the 4-H project that I am leading tomorrow. I hope it works, lol.