First Day of School

The first day of school was somewhat anti-climatic - after spending so much of the last year discussing whether or not we should homeschool the boys and then months looking at and thinking about curriculum in addition to all the other steps that it took to get to this point, it seemed like there should be more fanfare. We did take a picture of all the kids to document the event but that's about all.

Mr. 8 had a harder time getting started but then got really into it and Mr. 6 started with enthusiasm but ran out of steam early which is pretty typical of both boys. We learned last year that including protein in breakfast makes a big difference so we tried to discourage the boys from carbo-loading which they had gotten used to over the summer (cereal, pancakes, waffles are all favorites when available) and steer them towards peanut butter toast, eggs, and kitty muffins (zucchini muffins which are Mr. 2's favorite breakfast right now).

We're trying to start school around 8:30am with breakfast done and the table cleaned off (except for Mr. 2 who needs time to wake up and savor breakfast - he's our child most likely to be a don't-talk-to-me-until-I've-had-my-coffee kind of person). After our summer trial I told the boys that there were no toys before school. Our boys love to pretend and once they escape into their own world bringing them back to concentrate on school is really difficult. So I told them books and drawing were fine but no toys. Of course it's hard to enforce when you're bleary-eyed from being up all night with a baby and often having to stop and feed a baby making you somewhat immobile. But we'll work on that.

So we started with "morning meeting" at their recommendation (it's how they've always started school so of course that's just how you start). We have a calendar (really it's for Mr. 2 - again at the boys insistence) and sing the days of the week song. We discuss the weather and memorize our verse. Eventually I thought it would be fun to do a little morning exercise (stretches, yoga, something like that) but right now I'm often still feeding Mr. 2 and Mr. 0 breakfast so we sit at the table.

The plan was for math, spelling, writing then a break and then history, piano, reading before lunch. We basically following this as Mr. 2 was occupied with Daddy and Mr. 0 was cooperative (today was much harder as I was on my own with everyone). Our biggest problem is that the boys talk non-stop and prefer to have an audience to their monologues. They talk their math through out loud, stopping to ask me if the answer is right for every other problem. They talk as they write. They yell at each other for distracting them by talking. They talk loudly over each other. Today I tried to send Mr. 8 to the office to finish his math as he was making no progress and I thought he would concentrate better out there and he asked me why he was being punished. So that is definitely something we need to work on. After the whole summer together they need to learn to work quietly and independently or I will go crazy. I was already using my overly patient voice (you know the one you use to prevent yourself from just yelling at everyone) by the end of math. Mr. 6 does not like to write and complains loudly if he has to write more than a few sentences but happily does pages of math problems. Mr. 8 loves to look things up and asks great questions but will stare off into space for 10 minutes if he's not particularly interested in what you've asked him to do (even if he gets to do what he really wants as soon as he has finished).

Our biggest challenge is that I really need the boys to keep working whether I'm there or not as with Mr. 2 and Mr. 0 often needing my attention I just can't always be there to keep them on task. They will finish the current task and then wander away rather than checking the list that I wrote out for them and doing the next job.

Our successes - Mr. 8 loves latin and wants to do it every day. Mr. 6 read all of Fantastic Mr. Fox between yesterday and today and was so excited to tell me about it. They actually know who Clovis and Justinian are and Mr. 8 made a mosaic today (of Abanya but it's a really nice mosaic). Both wrote letters this afternoon and are reading good books.

Now if only I could feel like I accomplish something during the day - for now I'll have to try to be content with this.