Well I survived….barely! hehe 
Today was our first day of school for the fall of 2010. I think this year will be a good, but very challenging year. Carlos is in the third grade, Jeremiah and Natalie are in Kindergarten and Ben is in pre-preschool (if there is such a thing……mostly he’s in stay out of trouble please school). I was not sure if Natalie was really ready for Kindergarten, because she’s only 3! But she did really great today. I have a “scaled” down version of Kindergarten for her, but I was amazed at how well she did!!
Carlos – School is hard for Carlos….it always has been. Third grade is going to be tough, but I think he can do it! His reading skills have improved dramatically from last year, yay……and I’m working toward greater independence in learning with Carlos and that’s where our new “Work Box” system has been great (more on that in a later post). It’s also helped him with knowing what comes next…..a huge plus for me because I don’t like repeating myself and so I can refer him back to the daily folder and as they say in French, wah, la!
Jeremiah – Academically he is ready for Kindergarten. Attitude, well……needs work! Ahhmmm, I’m sure you could guess by his picture……..But that’s Jeremiah……he has a ‘tude!! He did great with his letters and numbers……he placed numbers 1-25 in order without help except for #20….that’s always a hard one for some reason. His math sheet was WAY easy….but that’s a good starting place. And he LOVED wearing his new shoes…..in fact that was his favorite part of the school day!!
Natalie – I was super surprised at how well Natalie did in school today! Made me glad I decided to let her do basically the same work as Jeremiah. I gave her number cards 1-5 and she placed them in order. Actually she first placed them in order by the pictures on the back! Then she placed them in order by the numbers on the front. She did great finding all the “A” in her bowl and coloring her picture…..it’s always interesting to see the difference between Natalie and Jeremiah……not better one or the other, but just different.
Ben – Well, he’s going to be my most challenging one! Ha, what a shock, right! The kid who falls out of windows, paints on the carpet with fabric paint and drinks out of the toilet…..oh, no he didn’t do that one…..whew! Anyway, keeping him busy is going to be hard. He did enjoy his preschool work, but does NOT sit still very well!! I’m going to have to re-think some of his activities.
Our new school room worked pretty good…..a tiny bit small….not enough table space……I think I need to work out ways to use the floor more. Anyway, three little bodies are busy bodies! But it’s good to work with what you got! And I like having a “school room” verses just using the living room or dining room.
I hope to post soon about our work box system……I’m loving it!
House of Smooches 