Weekly Wrap Up: Week One

I am joining in with the Weekly Wrap Up over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

This post sort of rambles, so I apologize in advance!!! I'll do better next week, promise!

We had a short week for our first week. 3 whole days and one 1/2 day.

My work schedule has changed, so school doesn't happen the same time every day.

Mondays we have school in the afternoon at home.

Tuesday Emme comes to work with me and we have "work school". I plan on burning CDs of audio books starting next week as we have a 30+ minute drive to and from work.

Wednesday is school at home in the morning.

Thursday is school at grandma's house.

Friday is school at home in the morning or a field trip or nature walk with a shortened school day in the afternoon.

Homeschooling while working is difficult, but it can be done! Especially now that she is older and can work independently for longer periods.

Tuesday - Sept 7th: First official day of school, 1/2-day. We did a review in math, started learning about maps in history/social studies, read some poetry in language arts, learned about plant cells in science, and began reading "The Wind in the Door". In our Bible study we learned about why it's important to trust Jesus and not rely on ourselves. We read the study and the corresponding verses.

Wednesday - Worked on estimation to the billionth place in math, compared animal cells to plant cells and learned about fungi in science, read more of "The Wind in the Door", more about maps in history, and read a Japanese fairy tale with narration in reading, reviewed declarative and interrogative sentences in grammar. We read about how Jesus was baptized and talked more about the importance of baptism.

Thursday - Had "home ec" with grandma. This wasn't planned, but just sort of happened naturally, as my mother likes to teach my girls about cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc. Emme wants to learn how to make doll clothes next week. In the evening we started reading "The Witches" by R. Dahl, did more science, grammar, reading, math, and history. We read how Jesus was tempted.

Friday - Lots of science today. We reviewed all we learned about cells, different types of plants, and learned about algae and other protists. Em started reading "Poppy" and another book I can't remember the name of, but was recommended for 5th grade.

Now, for the life of me I can't remember the blog - but it was a homeschooling blog - but they mentioned "selective mutism". I read up on it at Wikipedia, and I am pretty positive both Emme and Jake are afflicted with this. I had to pull Jake out of preschool after a month because he wouldn't talk to a soul. It took him nearly as long to talk in kindergarten, and about 2 weeks every year since. At our family reunion he stood stiff as a board apart from everyone else for several hours and would not utter a word to anyone. Emme is much the same. In social situations they seem to freeze up and are unable to talk to anyone. We've just said they are shy and sometimes they come off as rude and I am really apologetic. But after reading this - it just FITS! They are so talkative and personable at home and at their grandparents and with friends. Jake has been seeing the same pediatrician for his whole life and he has never said one word to her. We took him to get a hair cut the other day and he wouldn't even respond to the stylists questions. He's not mean, he's not rude, he just freezes.

Ok, 'nuff about that. The reason I mentioned it is because I am working with Emme on that. Since she is homeschooled, she is not in as many social situations as Jacob is. Today she responded with a "hi" to one of the people I work with and I praised her for it. Yesterday I said that maybe we could go inside of a McDonalds and she could tell the employee which drink she'd like. She said "no! I can't!" and then she became logical and said "Isn't it strange that I am afraid to say what drink I want?" So she is aware of her behavior and finds it odd, yet continues to do it. We'll keep working on it!

So that's our weekly wrap up. I am really happy about how well she's taken to our new curriculum and