Happy Halloween!

Whew. October is a busy month for us! I just realized that I have not been posting much about our actual homeschooling, so I thought I would catch up a bit.

We celebrated Reezle's birthday recently, and she is now 8 years old! I can't quite wrap my head around that yet, but I'm trying. My husband and I also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary earlier this month. And we are also preparing to celebrate Halloween, a favorite holiday in our family. Pumpkins are out, candy is bought, and costumes are ready! Reezle is going to be a beautiful witch, and Little G is going to be an awesome superhero. Even I have some PJs with skulls!

I've also been trying to make the most of these last few nice days before winter takes a firm hold of our area. Its seemingly relentless grip can last well into spring, with temperatures well below zero, epic snowfalls, and ice storms. Last winter, our final snow of the season occurred on April 18th.

But there has also been lots of learning happening here at home. My little Kindergartner is progressing quickly in his first grade Math, Phonics, and Language Arts. He is on par to finish with first graders in Phonics, and he is just a handful of days away from being caught up with the first graders in Math and LA. Considering he started 5 weeks behind the children an academic year ahead of him and will likely surpass them before the holidays, I am thoroughly impressed. He loves school, and the first thing out of his mouth each morning is, "Can I do school today?" Yes, even on weekends.

Reezle is similarly enthusiastic. Though we have had a couple of difficult days, mostly in the beginning, I never have to ask them to do their school work because they always wake up ready to get started and eager to learn.

Having completed the first 9 weeks of the school year, I am more confident than ever that this was absolutely the right choice for our family. We are happy, we are together, the children are learning (and retaining) so much. Because my husband and I are always aware of exactly what the content of the curriculum is, we can randomly ask questions and discuss topics in greater depth. Right now, R is studying Roman history and G is learning bits and pieces as well. Both my husband and I feel pleased with their levels of comprehension and retention of the material, some of which we had forgotten ourselves since our gradeschool years.

Our PE classes are lots of fun; we've been learning hoopdance! The kids are really picking up on it quickly, and it provides such great proprioceptive input for G. Public school gym class was 30 minutes once weekly. We do our PE classes almost daily, and almost always for longer than 30 minutes. None of us want to put down the hoop! I'm trying to figure out how to share video of the kids hooping without compromising their privacy.

I have much more to share, once I have the chance to organize and post it. That won't be happening today. Today, we are preparing for our little Halloween celebration tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!