The Start of School

We started school this week. Day three and we are all still in one piece. We have also had swim lessons all week which thankfully will end on Friday. I love the daily trips to the pool and am working on my tan, but it does get trying with the almost 3 hour break to our school day.

The girls are loving swim lessons and all three have progressed well. R has learned a number of new strokes and is even working on getting her diving under control. E and G have learned to swim under water and are working on the freestyle strokes. I have also enjoyed my hour chatting with my best bud and with with no children hanging on either of us (as hers are also in swim). It will be a good two weeks of concentrated physical education as all three get a good work out.

Gymnastics starts the new school year this week and E will be moving up to the homeschool group and G will be resuming classes after a summer break. The girls continue to improve in their gymnastic skills and have made a number of homeschool friends (as have I).

Back to actually schooling. I am glad we switched language arts as I find the format for Voyages in English much more to my liking (I'm not sure why I left them after 1st grade-but am glad I went back). R thinks it is too much work but I like the way they really push writing.

We have also been enjoying the American Girl Series and learning about Kirsten during our drives to/from swim. We will be reading Felicity's story from books during the year and the girls want to start Molly once we complete Kirsten. I have found I do enjoy the books on tape for the car ride - it is more soothing than music at times and the children interrupt my thoughts less when they are involved in the stories.

The start of adding in Montessori has worked well though we are still learning the best ways to do things. G also started her formal preschool program and I fear it is too easy. Most of the activities she did this week have been easy and hopefully she won't grow bored as we find a happy medium.

It has definitely been a challenge to work with all three and I will need to find a happy medium with getting work assigned, directions provided and one-on-one work with all three. Today it seemed that everyone completed each assignment too quickly and I had a constant "line" for my directions. We will find a way - hopefully next week when we don't have the swim lessons break and do more activities on the computers.