week one, finished.

so i'm not sure how i got myself into this mess, but apparently there are a few people in my life who feel that i've taken too much on my plate.  the main segment of them the very ones who are extremely anti-homeschool for reasons that haven't fully been made clear.  it's almost as if they hate it, but even they don't know why.

so i've been walking around for the past two weeks, glancing nervously over my shoulder, preparing to be ambushed at any moment, hog-tied, and forced to watch as they ship my children off on yellow buses to the nearest public school.  any public school, apparently.

and while my logical mind knows that this is impossible, that no one can make the decision regarding my children's education except for hubby (who's only concern is that they are "keeping up" with the kids in public school) and myself, it's STRESSING ME OUT, PEOPLE.

so i am decidedly relieved that week one is OVER.  and i have lovely documentation of all the work we did, a copy of my lesson plan from last week on my hard drive and also printed out (to be placed in a manila envelope and filed away neatly (along with all the paperwork we did and possibly copies of the pictures of crafts we've done), and an actual gradebook with actual GRADES (which i HATE HATE HATE).

all of this is MEGA new to me, as i would, if left to my own devices, NEVER touch ANY of this stuff.  but the nay-sayers are really starting to get to me, and in the end, having a bit more structure isn't so bad.  i'm not going to go so far as to say that it's GOOD, especially since my hand has been forced with all of this, but it's all right.

it helps hubby sleep at night.  and if i were ever educationally audited by the anti-homeschoolers in my life, i could simply pull out a file and a report card and rub their noses in it show them exactly what we've been doing.

/end rant.

today we finished up our nature detective science study and started on part two of the seven wonders of the ancient world unit.  i also tweaked our weekly school schedule a bit, since last week was basically a test-run of the new schedule and i pretty much knew it wouldn't be permanent anyway.  it looks and feels a lot better and more laid-back now.

mondays we do hardcore school.  history and science, condensing two days of lessons into one, since we're basically home all day.  even though we cover a lot of material, it still only takes about two hours.  copywork and then we're done.

tuesdays, mommy has school from 8-2 and beau has football from 6-8pm.  so, accounting for travel time, we are home for about two hours in the middle.  BAM handwriting worksheets and copywork.  and then i had the bright idea of sending a worksheet or two along to mimi's and whoosh!  even yesser.

wednesdays, mommy has an hour-long class from 9-10.  before nine, you can forget about getting my angels to concentrate on anything that isn't lego star wars or cereal.  after school, we might go to the store OR the park.  when we get home, we're all completely wiped and all we want to do is relax for some reason.  so we do some handwriting worksheets and copywork, no pressure.

thursdays look EXACTLY like tuesdays.

fridays are library days.  in the afternoon, if that ever comes, we MAY do a few worksheets.  MAYBE.

saturdays are another hardcore school day.  finish up history and science from earlier in the week.  we try to review on the days in between so we don't forget.  there's also a sheet of copywork in there somewhere.

in other news, I GET TO ORDER MATH-U-SEE THIS WEEK!!! 

i am far too excited about that, as you can see.  i have been looking forward to this practically all summer.  although it's going to throw a bit of a wrench in our schedule, we'll adjust and i will feel SO much better knowing that math is being learned in this house from someone who isn't dora the explorer.  i'm actually considering starting them all off on the primer, even little bella, all at the same time.  we shall see when it gets here, though.

that's it for today!  the best i can promise is weekly updates, if that!