school days

the big news for our school year is that this little munchkin has started kindergarten!

there were several circumstances, both at the "big school" and at the preschool which led to this difficult decision.  the short story is that mrs. jackson is teaching, and a moment in mrs. jackson's classroom is worth more than gold and rubies and diamonds.  

we know because big sister has been blessed to have mrs. j twice!

 and here she is.  now in 5th grade.

the handsome mess pictured below is in 3rd grade!

gulp.  i'm teaching three grades at once.  if i were truly homeschooling this would be a little less daunting because there are several areas where a teacher can overlap subjects (older students working with younger ones.)  not so in our situation.  the classroom teacher dictates what we do on our home days.

my free time is a bit puny at present.  i'm still working to find it.  i'm sure it's buried around here somewhere...i'm just not used to having quite so many piles.  pray for my sanity.

pray specifically for wednesdays.  there simply aren't enough hours in wednesday.  it's sandwiched by classroom days where classroom teachers require prompt submission of assignments.  imagine that.

our wednesday routine is especially unique this year.  we have been doing school with another family that also has a third grader and a kindergartner.  one mom focuses on the littles and the other primarily works with the third graders.  the fifth grader works almost independently (we are working toward this.)  this solution has worked surprisingly well.  the kids are motivated by play at the end of work, and they are willing to work much longer because they are sitting by a buddy who is having to work hard as well.

the adjustment has been a slow one, but we are finding ways to balance the seemingly infinite workload with the finite hours in our week.

i'm off to learn about porpoises.  yes, it's saturday.  but, hopefully we saved something fun for our weekend learning.