We finally received our shipment of homeschool books, minus the "Mommy, It's a Renoir" teacher guide which is on backorder. I was hoping to officially start school yesterday (Tues) as the rest of the week holds lots of morning activities, so it looks like we will be continuing our here-and-there approach to homeschooling this week. I'm excited to get started on the math program (Singapore) and the handwriting (Handwriting Without Tears) and hope we can find some special moments to sit down and work this week!
We're still getting ready for the First Friday class...I've been on the hunt for some particular Wal-Mart 3-ring binders and have so far been to 4 different Wal-Marts trying to procure enough for our class! I'm typing up attendance charts, nametags, and songsheets and tomorrow will have some friends over to help finalize the first lesson plan. I know it sounds like a lot for a little once-a-month preschool class, but since we're coming up with it all on our own, and last year I was a "tad" disorganized (ie planning the night before, no lesson plans, children climbing on windowsills and chasing each other around the room), I'm hoping that all the preparations of the past couple weeks will pay off and make for a smooth year!
Mary Clare had her 2nd dance class today. It's really hard to see through the lace curtain, but she's on the left, with a black tank leotard next to the little girl in pink:
I am really impressed by this dance school. I grew up taking dance at a handful of studios, one of which used the "RAD" (Royal Academy of Dance) syllabus. This means that any level all over the world would be learning the same dance steps and techniques, and to go on to the next level we would have exams at the end of the year, with a professional "examiner" from England. I think it really helped me later on to have this good ballet background.
The studio where Mary Clare takes uses the Sonshine Christian Ballet syllabus, which I like even more because it is a Christian syllabus, at a Christian studio, but based on the RAD program. I can already tell that they are working on the most basics of ballet skills (demi plies, pointing and flexing, controlling knees and arms, runs and gallops, rhythm and miming) which makes for a class that appears very structured and uniform. We'll see how long she is actually interested in dance, but I'm glad to at least give her a good foundation if she chooses to continue.
Tonight we celebrated Steven's birthday with my family. Here we are attempting to take a family picture in front of the restaurant. You can't really tell, but Ellie has on real shoes...we'll see how long it lasts!
Better get back to bed.
~Signed, sleepless at 4am...
3 comments:
We're still in here-and-there mode, too, after a month of school. I think it's probably just what works for us best.
YEAH!! Nothing more exciting than to get UPS boxes full of school material!! I think I get more excited than the kids! LOL!
Happy Homeschooling Days!
Thanks...well we actually did get some work done this morning and evening. But I'm going to have to put those workbooks up high or she's going to finish them in a few weeks. She went wild with handwriting tonight while I was cooking...yikes!
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