Jonathan is my sweet 6 year old. He is the 5th of 6 boys in our home. He is officially a full-time student in our home school. Last year, we began phonics, but we just worked about 3 days a week and spent about 15 minutes on those days. This year, he is participating in our co-op and is doing 4 subjects in school.
As most of you know, the beginning of any school year is exciting. Six year olds especially like school. It is no different for my Jonathan. He has been asking for weeks when we were going to start. He couldn’t wait.
Monday, we had co-op. This co-op is designed after Charlotte Mason’s style of teaching. We study (or I should say, “the kids study”) Latin, Shakespeare, Art, Nature and this we have added a Great Books class and a speech class. Jonathan is joining in with the older kids for art and nature. They are learning Watercolor in art. He absolutely loved it. I know he will love nature once the class gets underway, but Monday our teacher was sick so we didn’t get to do nature. During the Latin class at co-op, I got to spend some one on one time with Jonathan. We did his phonics and started our first day with Five In A Row.
Tuesday, we had our first official day here at home. Jonathan was still excited about the whole thing but not as much as he was on Monday. We did his Phonics and Math first thing in the morning. He was so excited to start a real math book. Everything was going great until I told him that he was making his 4s backwards. He said, “I don’t care.” Well, that didn’t make me too happy. I let him know that was totally unacceptable. Later in the morning he listened in on my 11 year olds science and his little brother got to listen in on his Five In A Row. It was a long day and he was tired.
Today is Wednesday and we proceeded to begin our day just like we did yesterday. It was a little harder to get him out of bed. He wasn’t quite as excited to do any of his work, but he didn’t say that he didn’t care when I told him his 7s and 9s were backwards. We finished a little earlier (because his older brothers didn’t take quite so long) and I let him get snack during the morning studies. I think all that helped him to have a better school day, even if the excitement was waning.
So, tomorrow will be day #3 of our “real” home schooling. I’ve noticed that throughout life the 3rd of anything is always the hardest. It is always the hardest day after a surgery, it is always the hardest day of a diet (or any new routine) and it is always the hardest day of the beginning of school. I think I’ll get to bed early so I can be ready for whatever happens.
Here’s a picture Jonathan drew of his big brother’s wedding this summer. Sarah is the bride, Matthew is in the middle and Jonathan and Matthew’s dad (my husband) is on the right (he performed the ceremony).
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My 5yo daughter is being added on "near fulltime" this year to our little homeschool – now there are 4! This is big for me, and I'm still stressing a little at the organization of who gets TeacherMom when. It's so good to hear personal stories from Moms who have been there and done that – and are still doing it! Thanks for sharing. :)
I laughed out loud about the "I don't care" remark. Ahh, the rude awakening of the real world of Mom's standards! I told Kristi today that KaLyne had really good first two days of school (her first also), but that I KNEW this was the honeymoon when all was bliss, and that pretty soon it would wear off, and we'd be into the routine, when it won't be nearly as much fun to come to "Nana's" for reading class.
Please tell Jonathan that I really liked his picture of the wedding, and I would have recognized his dad instantly from his drawing of him!