I try to keep on schedule with the local school district so that the kids can play with their neighborhood friends, but school started super early here and we weren't quite ready last week. We waited to start this week when some other local districts are starting. Starting each new school year is always exciting, but also stressful for me as I try to get all our supplies, figure out our schedule, and figure out how to get everything done in the day. Each year seems to get a little more complex as the kids get older and have more difficult material and as we add the younger kids into our schooling. Asher and Leif are starting to get pretty independent at a lot of stuff though, so once I teach them how to do something, they are good to do it alone. Except that sometimes, they get irritated with me teaching them because they think they can just figure everything out on their own. Or sometimes they get distracted and need a lot of help staying on task. But in general, the days tend to go pretty smoothly once we get into our routine and the kids have quite a bit of free time to play or help around the house or with each other.
Our first day of school was only a half day because we got invited to a cousin's afternoon birthday party, so the kids enjoyed some fun with cousins after starting into school. We also cut school down a bit so we would have time for first day of school pictures.
Natalie was very excited about her sign. We just stared formal reading lessons a few weeks ago with Natalie. I've never started a kid this young and she definitely has a short attention span, but she is so advanced verbally and really likes learning to read. So far we are just working on the letters and we'll slowly ease in to real learning. Otherwise, she just plays with puzzles or toys, colors and "writes" in her notebooks, listens when I read to the other kids, or occasionally joins in (or not) when we are doing lessons.
Trevor is officially starting Kindergarten . . . Again. He did kindergarten this year, and I considered having him start first grade this year (by Canada's cut-off date he would be in first grade, but by the US cut-off date he would be in kindergarten). He definitely is there academically, but he is such an active (and headstrong) fellow, that I decided it would be better to give him one more year of light schooling and more play-based learning. He is becoming quite a good little reader and enjoys most of the school work he does, but he also has times when he just doesn't want to participate and I'd rather not have the struggle with him when there is no reason to rush him through school.
Heidi is quite the little student and loves to do most of her work. She is especially gifted with verbally based subjects. She put science as her favorite subject (just like her brothers) because I think they all believe that science is just a bunch of fun experiments and is less academic than the other subjects.
Asher can never resist making silly faces when the camera comes out. Asher is a great student as long as he can stay focused. He's the one that tends to get distracted most often unless I'm right there with him reminding him to keep working. He has no problem understanding any of the material, he just would rather be doing something else- especially if its active or related to constructing something.
In the afternoon at the birthday party, the kids had a ton of fun playing with their cousins and their cousins' cousins, especially out on the lake. They were also thrilled about going into the mountains (we haven't been great about getting out this summer with all of the house stuff to do and have mostly stayed close to home when we did go out) and were excited to see some deer just as we were leaving the property.
