The first week!

Well it is week 2 in our home school and we have accomplished soooo much!  The co-op that we joined is doing just what I wanted it to do...encourage us to get moving every morning and give us the gentle push to get things accomplished! The tutors in our co-op keep telling us, "We are just guides in this, you are the teachers."  Which basically means, we don't have to do what they say or accomplish what they have set before us...but it is a great guide for us!  John went with us this past week because he wanted to see what CC was all about...it is kind of hard to explain the method if you don't see it for yourself.  He went to John Daniel's class with him and I went with Emily....they learn the same things but at different levels.  I peaked in the window at one point and John was jumping around the room, with the teacher book in his hand, pointing at kids doing a game for their memory work....I said to myself, "well I guess he is ready to teach!"  :)  John took some time off this past week to get us started...I think he has had 13 days off.  (He was going to lose the days if he didn't take them so why not)  So he has been around for the majority of our schooling thus far!  The way our co-op woks is that each week the kids get exposed to a new set of ideas, and facts...thus building on what they learned the week before.  They started learning about the integumentary system and then this week added the skeletal system.  They started by learning 5 states and their capitals and then added 5 new states and capitals.  They learned latin preposistions and this week latin conjunctions and when they finish they will have learned all the words in latin to John 1: 1-7.  No John Daniel has no clue what a latin preposistion is...but he understands that A LOT of our english words are rooted in Latin...we discussed MANY of them..

Science experiment on the integumentary system

Mumifying an apple

Emily had to present orally her favorite Bible Story...she did a lovely job of discussing Esther.  Her tutor told her that dressing the part added a wonderful dimension to the presentation!

I came home from work on Monday and this is what my dining room table looked like after John and the kids had done school!

One of my favorite things that John has come up with....after making ALL the kids' latin flashcards and grammar flashcards he decided all by himself that we needed a place to hang all the flashcard type decks we have...math, states and capitols, etc  He went out in the garage and made the above :)  I'm in love :)

You may wonder what it says above the hooks...is says Magister Memoriae which is Memory Master in Latin....he came up with this on his own!

And today when I came home from work, he had cleaned off the window shelf and made it a daily work space!  He is certainly in a groove and I'm soooo thankful that he is so on the ball and so involved!  It has been a dream week except for Emily's meltdown about Math yesterday but even that was resolved fairly quickly with Daddy's help and patience. 

I feel organized and our house is staying fairly neat and clean with my new chore system..John took the big kids to the bank today to start their own savings account and we have accomplished A LOT this week!  John Daniel even knows where 10 states are on the map and for the most part can name their capitals.  I like the way we have started...now just to continue strong and fight the temptation of perfectionism and the negativity when expectations are unmet!  Each day is a new day and a gift from above...I need to do as one of my friends strives to do each day....give our homeschool to God each and every day!