Week 2 Down...

     Yesterday we finished our second week of school.  Overall, it went pretty well.  The past couple of days were a little stressful.  Jacob seems to be struggling with two-digit multiplication.  I was kind of feeling like maybe I wasn't teaching him well enough so I started to get discouraged.  Then I realized that we could spend extra time on it until he gets it, unlike in regular school.  So the last 2 days this week, we did math for an hour and a half.  I thought for sure it would set us behind in our schedule with our other subjects, but we still finished everything by 3.  I guess I am still of the mindset that we need to be done at a certain time.  I think that will take some time for me to realize that it's okay if we "go over" the time I think we should be done.
     Evelyn had a fuller schedule this week and loved it!  She is very excited to start her reading book next week as well.  I am so glad we made the decision to homeschool.  I am loving having the kids at home and I really enjoy watching them learn.  I pray I (and they) will continue to feel this way.
   This week in preschool we introduced the letter A.  We didn't really do too much with it because Aiden doesn't like to sit for too long and it has to be his idea to want to do school.  He & Claire did color alligators that were shaped like the letter A.  I guess my only real expectation for this year with Aiden is to be able to recognize all the letters.  He is only 3.  We had "A" themed snacks all week: Alphabits, applesauce and animal crackers.  I did get Aiden to sing the ABC's with me a few times yesterday and we read a couple "A" books this week as well.  Yesterday I made this thing to help the little ones work on fine motor skills.  You just cut little holes in a lid of a plastic container and they push little balls through the holes.  I wasn't sure how they would like it, but they LOVED it!  Had to make another one so they could each have their own.  They played with these things for about an hour.

     Today we're enjoying the day off of school.  I thought it would be nice to have a long holiday weekend.  Jacob and Matt are having an "unofficial" geography lesson though by playing Risk.  Jacob is having a lot of fun and I am hoping that will help him remember his continents/oceans for his test next week.