A New School Year

 

 I can't call this post "The First Day of School" because technically, we've already done about two weeks of school, but then we took a big break so we could spend time with our visitors. We are starting again this week, but we'll take off the last couple days for another camping trip and we'll take another break at the end of September for our trip to Quebec/New Brunswick. I started school pretty early because I knew we would be taking all this time off. One of the many beautiful things about homeschooling is that we can tailor our schedule however we want! This year has been a little rocky getting going, but we are getting into the swing of things. Asher is starting 5th grade which is considered the beginning of "the middle grades" in the classical education approach that I follow, so the way we do things is changing and I'm still trying to adjust to it. Leif is kind of stuck in the middle because I've already got him doing 4th grade even though in the U.S. he'd be considered 3rd grade by his birthday. In Canada, his birthday puts him in 4th grade, and he's always been ready to do similar work to Asher, so regardless of the country we're in, I've had him in the grade right after Asher. I'm not sure yet if he's quite ready to move on to doing the new work Asher is, but he's definitely past just working in the "elementary grades" where Heidi is, so I'm trying to find the best way to give him work that will challenge him, but not overwhelm him. I may end up just having him do the same stuff Asher is doing, but for now, we're just trying it out. History is really the only subject where this is an issue since he does his own math and grammar, I have no problem putting him on the same level of writing as Asher this year, and he's always been the same in science, literature, Latin, and other subjects. 

Heidi is excited to be really starting school this year with 1st grade, since I'm pretty low key with Kindergarten and only really push reading, reading, reading! She was more than eager to do her writing last year and loved when I did little math lessons with her, but this year she has her own books for math, grammar, writing, and spelling. Trevor is in Kindergarten this year, so we are focusing on reading, but he also does some writing and does science and history along with Heidi as he is up for it. Having four kids in school and trying to figure out the best work for everyone has had me scrambling a little this year, but  I'm sure we'll figure it all out soon. 

And our little Natalie is just working on her ABCD's (as she calls the letters) and loves to count, have mom read to her, and pretend that she is reading books. She also loves to get into everything in the school room, color, and sit up at the table to do little activities like matching colors or pictures or playing with blocks or beads. Her board is a bit hard to read because she didn't understand not to erase it, but I tried to fix it and it should be legible in at least one picture.

We are excited for the learning of another school year. All the kids are coming along quite nicely and most days we love homeschooling :)