Tomorrow is the official end of Christmas vacation. I had all the grand ideas of having the kids do some extra school work during the break. A day of science, or language arts. Gavin could do some phonics catch up. Plus, I didn’t want to fall out of the routine of school. Yeah, that didn’t happen. It was great in theory, then reality set in and we took time off for the holidays. It has been super busy the last couple weeks, much more than normal for the holidays. Lots of family events, because their uncle is going to be leaving this coming week to serve a mission in South Korea. (I’m hoping to spend some time with the kids learning together about Korea. We did that when their other uncle went to Argentina on his mission.) Then, we had the boys’ birthday party, the week after Christmas. It’s not over yet, either. Logan is getting baptized this week, and there’s big doings for that, too. It’s all been great, though! So, even though we didn’t do school work over the break, and it’s probably going to be hard to get them back to things tomorrow, I’m grateful for what we did do. It was a break well spent!
Christmas Vacation? December 23, 2008
So, we officially began Christmas vacation on Saturday! We spent the day getting the kids’ rooms in tip top shape, which surprisingly, they are excited to try to keep up. We’ll see how long that excitement lasts. We’ve got all kinds of activities planned for the next couple of weeks, and I just hope I have the necessary energy.
We don’t have to do any school work over the break, or log any attendance. However, I’m a bit leery of letting school fall by the wayside, even for two weeks. Once you get out of the routine, it’s so hard to get back. I think we’ll just do a little bit everyday, but nothing too stressful. This will be a good time to catch up on some subjects that we’re behind in.
Now, for an update on school:
An amazing thing has happened! I’m SO excited!! Gavin is asking me to do phonics! I don’t remember if I mentioned before, but he just despised doing phonics. It was all sounds, but they weren’t associated with any letters. Just the very beginning of the phonics ladder. It really was very boring, and I didn’t much care for it myself. But, it was necessary. We’ll we’ve climbed the ladder up to putting the sounds with letters and making words! This was highly exciting! Gavin was so happy when he read his first word: am. Now he’s got a whole list of words he can read. He asked me this morning if he could do phonics. He’s anxious to read like his brother. I’m so happy I don’t have to fight with him to do his phonics stuff now! Gavin is also continuing to speed ahead in math. He’s almost done with the kindergarten math stuff, and then he can start with the first grade stuff. He really seems to enjoy math.
Logan is doing really well, too. He’s slower with his math, but has made incredible progress! He’ll be starting double digit addition and subtraction shortly, and I think he’ll like that. When he went through the section on calendars, he didn’t need an ounce of instruction or help. He had it down! He’s really enjoying art, and has a great talent for it, too. Seems like he’s constantly drawing something, and usually includes a lot of detal. I enjoy watching his eyes light up as he learns about different artists and methods. He’s also doing great in history! I’m loving that, of course! I love that this history curriculum seems to be conservative. They actually praised the founding fathers, and drew comparisons from Ancient Rome to today. I’ve enjoyed teaching his history stuff too, because it’s helping me remember those things that I learned way back, and I’ve actually learned some things I never knew.
So, we’re making progress, getting into a routine, and I’m discovering tricks to help the kids learn and focus better.
