First Day of School (Last Week)/Kotikoulu alkoi

Tuesday last week was a beautiful day. A part of me wanted to put off starting school, but no, it was time to start. We were ready.



Little Miss and I enjoyed her Sonlight Core B school day with Math-U-See (we are finishing Alpha, and starting Beta next week) and Handwriting Without Tears. While I read to her, she was either drawing or building with clay.

On Friday we finished our first week, and both were still liking her curriculum very much. Most days we were done by lunch time, and that even included short breaks here and there.

(We had some tears, also. One of her books is a book of missionary stories, and while we read the introduction, mama already was teary eyed.)

Our teens had a good day, too. While our Sonlight Core 100 binder looks a bit intimating, it actually is set up very nicely. We have tabs for every week, and a schedule that shows what we should be doing every day - with additional reading and assignments.



I sneaked around the house and tried to catch them in schoolwork. I think I was caught too, a couple of times ;-)

Mr T was on his computer writing a Sonlight assignment. Mr A was working on one of his electives (sorry - more on that later), Mr D is checking his assignments, and Missy was reading one of the Sonlight books.



We also started our High School Biology (with labs!) on Tuesday. We are using Apologia Biology with Catie Frates online classes. These classes are prerecorded, so we can decide which day of the week to do it. This first class we all watched it together, but since my students are sharing one textbook, today and in the future they'll be watching it two students at a time.

I'll be writing more about our Biology classes this year, but I just need to share how relieved I am to have Catie Frates do the teaching. My students could read the material on their own, and we could be doing the labs in our kitchen (or Mothership kitchen??), but this is so much better.

Same with High School Math. Math is hard. We survived (and ended with great grades) last year's Algebra I (we ended up using three different curricula, as we have different learning styles), but this year doing live Geometry classes should be less frustrating for mom and students... We love homeschooling, and want to thrive in all subjects - even the ones that are hard - or harder to teach. There are so many resources out there, and mom does not need to teach everything.

As I type this I hear our teacher talking in the background. Missy and Mr A are attending their first Geometry class at this moment! I will be sharing more about our math curriculum, but in case anyone is still looking - check out Mr. D Math (and no, this is not our Mr D teaching:). We are so excited about it.



The first homeschool day ended with PE! Our first day and week were a success, and we are looking forward to a fantastic new school year!

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Meillä oli viime viikolla tiistaina ensimmäinen kotikoulupäivä, ja onneksi se meni loistavasti. Meillä on ihan uudet kotikoulumatskut, eli pikkaisen jännitti ainakin äitiä, että kuinka lähtee uusi kouluvuosi rullaamaan. Lukiolaisten matikan aloitimme vasta tänään, mutta sekin näyttää oikein hyvältä.

Niin matematiikan kuin biologiankin tunnit ovat netissä, eli minun tehtäväni on vain tukea rinnalla. Molemmissa on opettajat sähköpostin tai puhelimensoiton päässä, eli jos on ongelmaa ymmärtää, niin avun saa.

Niin teinien kuin Pikkuneidin muu koulumateriaali on kirjoja, paljon kirjoja luettavaksi tänä vuonna. Mikä on vain mahtava juttu meille lukutoukille! Teinit työskentelevät itsenäisesti, Pikkuneiti tarvitsee vielä äidin vierelleen.

Kokonainen viikko on nyt takana, ja vaikka töitä on hurjasti, kivasti on sujunut, ja olemme pysyneet aikataulussa mukana.