First Week Finished!

We finished our first official week on Friday!!  It went well, although we will tweak a few things.  The main thing I will tweak is to have the girls' summaries and compositions due on the Monday following the week they read their required reading and history assignments so that they can use Friday to read, but don't have to write about it until the following week.  I have to buy a thermometer today so that we can do our science experiments and I have to teach piano lessons.  Science and piano seem to be the 2 things that are the hardest to stay on top of.  Traveling an hour away to our new ward and to our new co-op is taking a lot of time and gas money.  That just won't subside until we move- probably in December.  I need to get my mp3 player working so we can listen to audio books.

The girls started Latin and their dad is their teacher and he was very pleased with their knowledge of declensions, parts of speech, number, gender, conjugations, and word modifying rules.  They will have to move through the Henle Latin book rather quickly and it looks like they will be able to do so and be ready for the National Latin Exam in March.  This is a huge relief to see that the path we've laid out for their education is working!!

The boys got right into their program.  #3 want a wii game and wondered how he could earn it, so we went ahead and bought it and told him that when he finishes his math book and passes the test, he can have it, so he worked really hard and finished the last 30 page of his math book.  We'll do the corrections today and he'll probably take the test tomorrow.  I'm very proud of him.  #4 worked on his times tables and learned the  6s pretty well.  #5 loves his workbooks and sits for a long time working on them.  So this was a good first week.

The twins like being able to sit on my lap a lot while I read to the older kids.  They've enjoyed singing in group time and all the attention they get since I'm not trying to clean constantly.

Also I'm reading a great parenting book that focuses on being positive and encouraging to the kids.  I really needed the reminder because I think I was using their wii privilege too much as a punishment and not encouraging them to do things for the sake of being kind and good and benevolent.  They really respond better when I tell them what a good worker, strong boy, kind person and acknowledge them when they are kind and loving and hard working and diligent.

So off to a new week!