Homeschool Week 2 and 3 Wrap Up

The last 2 weeks have raced by!  We have been able to do at least a small amount of school each week day, except Labor Day.  Getting back into the swing of things after 3 days off was tough for Reef, but the rest of this week went well.  We are looking forward to Lachlan and Jonas being in preschool twice a week because we were able to accomplish SO much on Thursday. 

Reef has made some great progress with reading and phonics in the last 2 weeks.  I can feel that we are just about to round a corner in his confidence; I just need to not push too hard.  During week 2, I focused on reading aloud to him (all of them really) and letting him play starfall.  We borrowed some Bob books, and he raced through those on his own.  I think that helped him realize that he CAN read.  He also picks out words he knows on the page when I'm reading to him (and on the signs at Sonic).  Other fun stuff we've done is make words with stamps and magnetic letters.

He still really likes math, especially when we do stuff that's not in the work book.  Reef also really likes the Bible story time.  This week, we added in the intro to geography.  I don't think it was quite as exciting as he thought, but I really think he will like it when we study each country.  We (well, me, since it was too messy for them) did do a paper mache globe and are going to paint it tomorrow.

Reef's most favorite activity from the last 2 weeks: Free art on the dry erase board.  I started with me drawing circles on the board and asking him what he could make with those.  He added his own circles and asks to do that activity daily.  Here are his masterpieces from the first day:

We are both really enjoying our homeschooling time.  I think I may like it more than he does, though.  I like that it gives me an "excuse" to ignore the household chores if necessary and focus on Reef (and Jonas too since he likes to participate).  I like that I get to spend a good chunk of my day reading to all 4 of them; that's something that I've really slacked on since adding Lachlan and Poppy to the bunch.  Can't wait to see what we learn next week!