Yes, it really was the first week of school and it really WAS a week! A four-day week, but a WEEK nonetheless.

We started school on Tuesday, and I think it went relatively well. I am trying to instill some new habits in my kids and myself as well. These are things like having the boys make their beds as soon as they get out of them, and dressing before they eat breakfast. It just seems like if they have to go BACK in there, they don’t come out… f o r e v e r. (See A Day in Our Life, if you want to know HOW that happens!) If they can get it all done before breakfast, we’re that much more ahead of the game.

Another habit is one we began last year: taking a brisk walk at 8:00am. The time is a goal, not necessarily the rule. Thursday the walk got ditched all together because they didn’t do new habit #1 and we didn’t get out the door until 9:30. As soon as I realized the time we turned right back around and started school. They weren’t happy about it, but hopefully it made an impression about time management. The other habit, one which I am terrible about also, is remembering to take my vitamins! The boys take a multi- and a fish oil capsule in the morning, and another fish oil in the evening. These are key to helping D1 stay on task. I am working on being diligent about this. It’s for our health, so I should remember it!

We started science, history, our poetry reading, handwriting, and math. We added the new Quarter Mile Math drill software subscription that I blogged about the other day, which is fantastic. The boys LOVE it! I will post separately our whole book list and schedule, because I know many of you OFE’ers out there are tweaking it to suit your family, as I am doing. I rearranged some of the readings, dropped a few books, added a couple of books, and really I’m doing it my way. I meshed several different resources outside of the OFE program, to fit our history scheme. It IS my school, after all.

We ditched our beautiful copybooks. As much as I want to use them, my boys NEED to continue Handwriting Without Tears. Oh, how I wish that Westvon would publish these books in the HWT font!!! I would buy them all over again. I will keep the copybooks, and hopefully they will have a little more hand control later on.

Some things I noticed, right away this week:

1. Starting the day with prayer is still the first thing we must do when we homeschool. Without it, the day can get lost. We forgot on Thursday and the day went just awful until D2 mentioned we hadn’t prayed. We stopped right then and prayed the Lord to bring peace, wisdom, and patience to all three of us. After that, our day went smoothly. We had not, because we asked not.

2. D1, while his developmental delays are an ongoing struggle for both of us, is also becoming exceedingly disobedient. He is in need of a bit more rigidity from Momma. :-\ Acting as if he didn’t hear me when asked to do something, causing me to ask several more times (raising my voice and getting frustrated in the process), now earns him a five minutes sitting alone on the stairs. He knows what he’s doing, and now so do I. Little stinker.

3. D2, like D1, has an incredible memory! These boys never fail to surprise me with things they remember. Neither one does very well with their narrations after I read something, but ask them the next day what we had read the day before, and the entire story just tumbles out, details included. How do they do that?! It’s like pulling teeth to get the initial narration from them.

4. Momma needs to be on schedule. She must be up and dressed before the boys get up. She needs to have a good attitude. And she needs Jesus first thing in the morning, no matter what! Oh, and tea. Gotta have my tea too.

This week:
+Pictures were knocked off the living room wall 4 times, victims of Nerf swords and Nerf darts.
+2 Toads were caught and returned from whence they came.
+1 Grasshopper was caught and kept in a jar overnight, until I forced them to let him go, too.
+32 Tomatoes (mostly grape) were picked, and half were eaten on the spot.
+1 fingernail was torn.
+2 Boys had the time of their lives at our church’s annual community Street Fair, consuming mass quantities of free hotdogs, cotton candy, and snow cones.
+1 Momma decided, once again, that homeschool is best, from the very bottom of her heart.

This post submitted to Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.