First Week of School

Just wanted to give a quick update about our Catholic Homeschooling. We have all been getting up very early this week so that we could have our chores out of the way, along with breakfast and getting dressed, by 8:00am. By 8:10am we are in session. My grand daughter, Trisha, did not want to attend the public schools here anymore and has joined us for class this year. She is also very involved in dance as a student and student teacher of dance. She is serious about her dance and is on a competition dance team who travel. She needs some flexibility with her academics. But, Trisha has found that she must work even harder in home-school so she can get her work out of the way quickly to allow her time to practice dance. Trisha spends 4 to 5 hours each evening dancing and every Saturday...all day!!! Many times her dance team meets to practice on Sunday afternoons as well. So when I said dedicated, I mean, she wants a dance career and works hard for it. But, she goes to a wonderful school (The Dance Academy) where her mother danced as a child!!! So, I guess you could say both my girls (Kisty and Trisha) have grown up with Ms. Jeffie at the Dance Academy. Anyway.......Now, my job is to assist Trisha through her core classes, and ready to dance by mid-afternoon. I have to commend her for the hard work she puts into her dance since the age of 3 years old and for being an excellent student for me. All the kids are doing very well with this curriculum. It is not an easy one either. There is much challenge with it and requires four full class days (8:00am-3:30pm) each week to meet the requirements. I do love it more and more as I use it. Guess we will see as the school year moves on. So, now we are getting up very early, and our previous days of sleeping until late, has come to an end. I seem to have great energy until between 3:00pm and 5:00pm. Then, after the dinner and the bath routine, I seem to find a second wind and want to watch some of my TV shows. But, the kids have been a little crabby with the changes in bedtime and rising early in the morning for chores and dressing. So, I end up getting one child or another to sleep and see half a show here and there;-). The children have been enjoying the Olympics this week and have learned many new things about China. I also chose China for their Social Studies and Geography. It is working in nicely with the games. They seem especially interested in what types of foods the Chinese eat and how they educate their children with so much structure and self discipline. I am hoping it will make an impression on my kids. I do have to brag that they are all eager to learn and very little complaining has occurred over the new schedule and the greater challenge in the curriculum. Katie is doing amazingly well and is even helping the younger kids with learning numbers, colors, and shapes. Her English is awesome!!! Katie and I seldom have communication difficulties any more;-). She is extremely smart in her scholastic abilities and it is transferring from Russian into English very very quickly. I'll post pictures on Monday!!! Many Blessings!!!