Baptism by Fire...

I've spent the last two months barely thinking of anything else. Tons of reading, research, planning and prayer finally put into action. I finished my daily schedule on New Years Eve (exciting life, I know!). Today was our first day homeschooling.

We stayed pretty much on schedule. I had planned to start at 10am with Dad in charge til 11am when I'm usually done with work. But with Tony home on vacation, I've given him my working hours, freeing me up in the morning. But thanks to a late night watching Dirty Jobs, I didn't get going til 10am anyway.

We began with a half hour of "Calendar" time, consisting of today's date and then important people or events of this date (or in today's instance, yesterday's date), such as Austrailia becoming a Commonwealth, the opening of Ellis Island (both providing a bit of map time), and the birthday's of Paul Revere and Betsy Ross.

This was followed by a half hour of math. Erin was bored. She went through her first two 1st Grade lessons and a wad of worksheets. But she still wasn't happy....she want's "pluses & minuses". So, I may have to push her through faster. Alana, on the other hand, took much more time than I had figured. I had thought her first few lessons of 2nd Grade math would be very easy for her, but she only made it through one lesson and half of a worksheet. I'm not sure if this is due to the lesson being too difficult, or Alana being slow and methodical. I'll have to watch that.

We then spent an hour talking about the Vikings and how their childhoods differed from ours for History. It was a little boring, I admit, since I had to use material printed from the internet as my library books haven't come in yet.

Then lunch break. We next tackled Language Arts for Alana, Phonics for Erin, and handwriting for both. Erin was bored again. She claims she already knows what we're talking about, but I really don't want to take any chances....I'm trying to teach her to read, for Heaven's sake! We read a book, had some free play before Daddy left for work, and then wrote stories.

Overall, probably a success. Both miss their friends. Erin was a bit dissillusioned and bored. I realize I need to change things for her. She wants tougher math and more artsy-crafty stuff. And more "mom time". I admit, I had pictured more cuddling on the couch with a book...and we had barely none of that. And Alana just wants more art. So, we have a few kinks to work out, but that's expected, I guess. No worries....I'm not giving up yet! At least the day flew by for me!

After dinner I'll reassess my plans for tomorrow. I need to anyway, as we're going to visit the Kindergarten tomorrow at 2... for a project and much-needed social time. Hopefully, Erin won't refuse to come home!