Beginnings are hard!

So this is the third day of the first week and oh my goodness...

It is almost 4pm and the girls are still working on their school.  They got a two hour break for lunch and reading time and they take 10 minutes between each subject, but HOLY COW!  It is not supposed to be like this. 

I know that the days will get shorter because they always do.  The kids get used to their new work load and new curriculum and pick up the pace eventually.  But until then... we trudge along... teaching and learning new skills and such.

Speaking of skills, Charlotte and Savannah have different strengths and weaknesses, and it is becoming more obvious.  I need to work on their individual weaknesses this year.

Charlotte needs abundant practice summarizing and narrating short passages.  I think she often zones out when I read aloud or when she reads, unless it really captures her attention.  She doesn't listen carefully and/or doesn't comprehend well.  I plan on helping her by having her summarize every read aloud I read to her in the evening.  Her strengths are that she rocks at math!  And she has very beautiful handwriting.  She is careful, deliberate, and slooooooww... but it is pretty!

Savannah is careless in her work in math, handwriting and reading. This makes math time go much longer because I require her to correct every single wrong answer.  Today she had to re-do half of her math from yesterday because of careless adding, carrying, and borrowing.  Easy problems. I'm not sure how to help her other than what I'm already doing.  I make her re-do her math, re-write sloppy writing, and re-read sloppy reading.  Her strengths are that she rocks at comprehension and summarizing and anything language arts.  She is leaps beyond her grade level.

Madelynn does not put in much effort into what I ask her to do.  I probably need to make school time a little more fun for her.  She usually responds to my attitude, actually.  If I'm being impatient, she becomes reluctant.  If I'm positive and patient, she becomes more willing to try.  It has been fun getting to know her personality more.  She really enjoys her math book.
I am teaching her cursive first through New American Cursive, but it is really difficult for her and I don't really like the workbook at all.  I am thinking of switching her to Handwriting Without Tears- manuscript, like I did with Savannah and Charlotte.
I regret waiting so long to teach her how to form her letters.  This is holding us back.  In order to take off in reading she needs to know her phonograms.  In order to more easily learn her phonograms, she needs to be able to write them as she learns them.  But she can't write :(  boo.

I am starting to see the wisdom of teaching how to spell before teaching how to read.  Maddy is doing great going through the Bob Books, but it requires so much mental work and attention.  It is a physical and mental struggle, as it was for Savannah and Charlotte.  It seems that it would be better to learn how to write and spell easy words that would translate into being able to pick up a book and read it with ease eventually.  This, of course, would cause her to take longer to read than she would be capable of, but an easier path.  It also would have helped if I had started her handwriting about a year ago.  Lesson learned.  I think I'll start Zach on pre-writing exercises now.

All in all, I have enjoyed being on a rigorous daily schedule and teaching the kids this week.  I love interacting with them.  I am really pleased with our curriculum choices so far as well.  Homeschooling is hard.  I have to practice having a lot of patience and I often fail there, but it is also wonderful too.  The enjoyment far outweighs the difficult.