Monday

Reading to her friends.

Anna wanted to sit with Henry on the couch and I really have no idea what Sarah was doing here (she wouldn't explain herself).

Today was our first day of school at home for this semester. OIS and Playschool don't start again until next week but I thought it would be best to just get going here to start and set some new routines. I started daily (Monday through Thursday) reading lessons with Anna last week and am adding daily math this week. We will also do a science experiment this week. Next week I might add something else or we might just keep it at those three things for now. I'm also reading chapter books to Anna at night (we're reading Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary now) and some longer fairy tales to the girls during the day. The girls are always coloring or drawing and Anna is always writing notes or stories.

The big thing is that I felt like I never saw Anna when she was going to OIS because she was gone five days per week from 8:30-2:45 and she is only four years old. She has learned a lot in Miss Susan's class and that made the decision difficult. What made it easier was that she still got super upset at drop-off and came home tired and grumpy after being at school all day. She also has not made a whole lot of social progress (she does not talk at school to her teacher or her friends) and I wonder if taking a semester off will allow her to forget that she had previously decided that she "doesn't talk at school." If we end up in Texas for the 2010-2011 school year I may also consider continuing homeschooling since that is also a full day for Kindergartners (this is billed as a positive thing).

I've dropped Sarah's enrollment at Playschool down to two days per week but will probably drop it down to one day or none at all. I think it will be hard to convince her to go when Anna is at home but I'd like them each to have something away from home for a few hours per week (Anna started ballet again today so she's going to that twice per week for one hour each time).

So far we've done our schoolwork when Henry goes down for his morning nap and it only takes ten or twenty minutes. Sarah listens in and colors or plays nearby during this time and sometimes I have a little something for her to do and sometimes not (one day this week I had her match pictures of the insides of fruits to the outsides of fruits while I worked with Anna on something else). I think it will be wonderful to spend more time with Anna at this age and to let her have more time to be a kid.