Our official first day of school is July 9th. Of course, JR and I have been schooling together since April while Biggest and Sparkles were in public school. He loved our little private school time and even Littlest enjoyed the reading time. Just the three of us was nice and easy. The very idea of diving into school with three students and one really busy toddler left me a little scared and unsure. So I decided to gradually begin homeschooling one subject at a time.

We have been doing this for three weeks now and I am glad the idea came to me. One week we did our first chapter of history. They love it! Then we added math drills. It took two weeks to get Sparkles to do her math facts without counting on her fingers. Next week we will add the Math U See curriculum into the schedule for everyone. This week they all started their penmanship, language arts, and reading work. The third grade material has been challenging for Biggest. The entire Light Unit (three weeks of lessons) he is working on is a review of second grade material. A lot of this material was not covered in public school. He worked hard and after taking his first quizzes (today) he got an A in reading and a B in English. I think he will do just fine and I can tell he feels a bit more confident in himself and in being homeschooled. He is still adjusting to being homeschooled and I am constantly telling him that he doesn’t have to rush through his work or raise his hand.

By the time our “official” first day of school arrives we will have all subjects going and it won’t be too much of a shock for them (or me!).