School

Jasmine is doing so well in school. She's finished the first grade readers. We're pausing before going on with the second grade readers because Mom can't find book one in her house, and the library is missing the same book. (out of 6 books in two locations, what are the chances that they'd both be missing the same ONE???) So we're doing the Eclectic Reader Book I for now. It's got good lessons...not hard for her, though there are new words ("ox" is such a foreign term to her, she keeps trying to make it "yox").

We're loving math. We decided to try a completely different system from the way schools here teach math. You should see the list of things they'll be comfortable doing by the end of this year! It's so cool! It's fun, it's hands-on, and it works. So math is a favorite part of our day.

Bekah is tagging along and keeping up, too. She's still stuck in the early 60s of the reading book we used for Jasmine. I don't push her. when she's 4 1/2 or 5 we might make it mandatory, but at this point we just do a lesson if she asks for it. She's 3 1/2. If she wants to be a little kid I'm going to let her!
But she loves doing all the other stuff. She's learning how to write her letters, all the math, drawing and coloring, cutting and pasting...all that great kindergarten stuff. And she retains almost as well as her sponge-sister!

We have them signed up for ballet classes. They start Saturday! I can't wait, and they're super excited about it, too. We got them slippers and long-sleeve leotards (they own short-sleeved ones too) and tights. They want me to put their hair up in "bear ears" like ballerinas.
So that's their gym class!

We also have a music class scheduled! Yes, I, the one who went to school to teach music, is having someone else teach my kids.
When I taught in Istanbul, the first year I had one second grader and 3 (I think) first graders. So we put the classes together. Because you can't make a circle with one child!

A group of fellow homeschoolers in the area have organized a "kindergarten" music class, which will be meeting at our house, once a month. (yay for big living rooms and not having to drive anywhere!) They'll really enjoy that, I'm very sure.

And art class is all set up, too. I found out about a DVD series made for children 6+. The girls are both enjoying it. Bekah's attention span for anything related to holding a pencil is still short, but she started out strong:
And Jasmine's:

They kept going for awhile, but I didn't get any later shots. I need to get them a notebook for it, but I loved watching them do it for the first time!

Oh, and if anyone is interested, our main curriculum for kindergarten is My Father's World. We like it, but I've heard that kindergarten is the weakest of their curriculum series. I haven't completely decided if we'll stick with it for next year and beyond, or go to another one (I'm looking at Weaver). Both are unit study style (so all subjects are on the same topic, which you study for awhile and completely saturate yourself in the topic), and both are great for families, where all the kids learn the same theme but at different levels, depending on their age/grade.

All in all, we're off to a pretty good start. It's hard on Hudson that he can't be a part of things and that I'm just too mean...he thinks the scissors should be his personal toy, or that I should be holding/nursing him the whole time we're doing school. But the girls love it, and I love being there, watching them "get it!" I wouldn't miss this for the world.