First day of school

Monday was our "first day" of school. 

It seems a little silly to have a "first" day when we school year round, but we are just starting back after several weeks off AND we are starting some of our new curriculum, so it was a first day in some ways. 

 I think I've probably been overly optimistic about how much we can get done this year (I always seem to do that!) but for now we are doing: Saxon Math, R is halfway through #2 (math is her most difficult subject) and M is halfway through 5/4. M loves math, and the way his lessons are structured. R hates math (any math!) and so getting her through her math lessons is often an exercise in patience for me! (And lately I've been failing that lesson terribly!) I need to remember my knitting when R's doing math, it helps a lot to have something to do to keep my mind off the fact that we just keep taking two steps forward and one and a half steps back again!) 

 We'll start Learning Language Arts Through Literature (R, 3rd M, 4th) in a few weeks. Before we start though, are doing a little unit study on Shakespeare using the classic series of books by Edcon, supplemented with other books about "the bard". My goal is just for the kids to be familiar with who Shakespeare was, and have some exposure to his works. Teaching kids with cognitive delays can be so tricky sometimes. I know that much of what I'm teaching will not be retained (without constantly reteaching... which is saved for the basic subjects like math and reading) but I do want them to have some frame of reference for important people and events in our world. So I teach about things like Shakespeare hoping that, even if they don't remember the specifics, they will retain enough of what they've learned for their next exposure to the subject to have some meaning... 

 Ok, moving on.... I bought Building Spelling Skills for each of the kids again this year. We used it last year and it worked out beautifully, I was so excited to have finally found a spelling curriculum that "fit". Unfortunately, the jump in difficulty from last year's book to this year's has been too much and they are both stressed and struggling. I might have to dump this curriculum completely and start the search all over again... 

 We are still working on Story of the World 1 for history, and (wonder of wonders!) when we sat down on Monday to review I found that both kids remembered quite a bit of what they'd learned before our little break. We're learning about Ancient Egypt right now, and I was a little apprehensive about it because R has a lot of anxiety about mummies. She's handling it well though... so well that I'm considering doing the "chicken mummy" project in the book. Has anybody out there done it already? (Does it really work??) 

 Just for fun we are also going to try to learn a little Spanish this year. I've wanted to at least introduce a foreign language for awhile now, but haven't been sure how to do it. Some other members of our homeschool group are using Speedy Spanish and like it, so I thought I'd give it a try. 
We're not going to even try grammar or writing, just understanding and speaking some basic words and phrases... Since the Speedy Spanish seems a little dry, I'm supplementing with a Spanish workbook I picked up years ago at Sam's and put away for "someday"... Developmentally it (the workbook) is pretty appropriate for them, and they enjoy the activities on each page. (Not to mention the review being good for them!)  
We are participating in our homeschool group's co-op, and are looking forward to all the cool classes coming up this fall. 

The kids should also start back with Special Olympics next month... I think they'll be swimming and possibly bowling. 

 I've been trying to think of ways to keep our school time fresh and interesting (for all of us!). After homeschooling for so long (8 years) and with so little movement developmentally (at least with M) it's easy for things to start to feel pretty stale. I've been playing around with the idea of offering the kids "electives" every few months. Letting them pick a "class" or activity to try for just a limited amount of time. M wants to learn to sew for example, or maybe we could take classes down at the pottery shop in town, or go on weekly hikes, or go geocaching. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it work ( without making myself crazy), but I think the idea has possibilities. 

 So that's our school day (at least for now). Summer is nice, but it's good to be back into our regular routine again