First Day of Classical Conversations

The boys and I attended our first Classical Conversations classes today.  Each of them are in a different class. I'm actually excited about that since they will all have an opportunity to have their own time away from their brothers.

I stayed in Nathan's class to help the tutor today.  What a fun morning! It was so much fun to watch them soak up information like little sponges! Mid-class, one of the boys started talking about how Neil Armstrong had just died.  These boys (1st & 2nd graders) start having an intelligent conversation about Neil Armstrong!  I was just so impressed!

After morning classes were over, the consensus was unanimous: They all had a BLAST!

On the way home, I hear from the back seat (sung to the tune of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious")

Kingdom, Phylum, Class and Order, Family, Genus, Species  :)

Witt Wants to Read

So on the very first day of school, Witt is up at his normal 6:15am.  As Jeff and I are eating breakfast before he leaves for work, Witt announces that he wants to learn to read.  As far as I know he has never even put together 3-letter words, so I get out the Fishy Phonics card game.

Basically, the card game is set up to where you are supposed to ask if the other player has a word that starts with a letter. However, he wanted to READ... not just pick a letter. So I asked him what the first sound was... then the second...and then the third. He put them all together and was so pleased with himself!!

He read the WHOLE DECK while Jeff and I finished breakfast!

"Mama, can I read now?"

"Yes, Baby. You sure can!!!"

As his brothers woke up, he proudly shared that he could now read! :) What an exciting morning for him!


Oh, and later in the week we began using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and he completed 17 lessons within two days!

First week of Kindergarten was a SUCCESS! :)

Back to School

Well, we've started our third year of homeschooling! This year I (formally) have THREE students! Witt is in Kindergarten, Nathan in 1st, and William is a 4th grader! 

I must admit the past week has been a bit of a challenge.  They each learn so differently.  Will is more independent and driven by the clock and break-time; Nathan is pretty laid-back but will say he only likes math, and Witt is surprisingly quite the perfectionist (he gets upset when he doesn't do it as well as he wants to).

We are beginning our first year of Classical Conversations. I think this is going to suite each of the boys very well, but in different ways as well.  Will loves facts and CC is a fact-memorizing giant! :)  Nathan is extremely mechanical and hands-on, but he also extremely silly! He is really going to enjoy the hand-motion portion of the memorizing and I think he's going to be smitten with the science labs.  Witt is my little social man... and my singer.  He's going to love the songs and all the conversations! 

Beyond CC, not too much has changed in our daily line-up of curriculum choices; however, we have had quite a successful addition this year: a personal journal! All three of them are loving it!! 

Will writes about his day (facts & tangibles), and of course, he draws trains.

Nathan's journal is filled with "I wish" statements (my little dreamer!).

Witt, although he loves it, has trouble each day deciding what to draw because he wants to get it just right...note all the eraser marks! (Bless his sweet, little heart!)

I love these boys! Even though they sure can try my patience, I adore them. I am so blessed to have the opportunity of teaching them for another year.