Well, my blog entries are few and far between, but I thought I would post about how our first day back at school after our Christmas break went.  Feel free to share how yours went also.  Ours was long!  The kids weren't all that cooperative and everything just seemed to take loooooonger than usual.  I found that even though we just took 3 weeks off, we need to take some time to review this week before we can start back with some of our subjects. 
We are also trying to get used to the new routines of following the chore charts again, and they are doing pretty good (with lots of help).
Here is what we finally managed to get in by 3 p.m. (to be fair, we did spend a good bit of time outdoors too).
Bible - We have started instituting a morning quiet time for everyone.  We get up and have ours before the kids.  When their alarm clock wakes them up, they get dressed (in the clothes we hopefully picked out the night before) and come join us.  Elizabeth has a devotional Bible and she reads her day's entry.  Katie has a begin to read storybook Bible and she reads it aloud.  I help her with the words she doesn't know.  Then we have a Baby Bible with very short stories and actions that we do with Michael.  As part of my "word" this year, my focus is on priorities.  I want us all to learn to put God first.  We also need to work on our prayer life and teach our children to do more than just pray before meals.  We hope to start and end our day with prayer, but it's hard to remember sometimes.
Here is what else we did for Bible today:
Memory verse (with song) from The Memory Bible -  "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless." (2 Samuel 22:31) 
By the way, I really want to set up this Scripture memory system.  It is on my long list of things to do, so who knows when I will actually get it done.  :eyes:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/
Studying God's Word, Book B (catechisms) "Sin Breaks God's Law" (brief discussion)
31 day devotional (also brief) - topic this month (or however long it takes us to actually finish) is self-esteem
Five in a Row unit study on "The Bee Tree"
Today we discussed Michigan and the Great Lakes.  We went over some worksheets from Enchanted Learning with maps and flags and a few questions about the Great Lakes (all done orally).  Talked about the mnemonic HOMES to remember the names of the Great Lakes (Huran, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior).  DH brought up that the art was similar to the art from "Mrs. Katz & Tush" which brought us to mention that it was the same author/artist and to review a bit of the culture we had previously studied.  We also went back through the book and discussed signs from the pictures that showed the time setting of the book.  We also talked briefly about what traditions are, and about hospitality.  We mentioned how we are going to be trying this year to be more hospitable & invite people over to visit more often.  (That is one goal I have for this year, to be more social and reach out to others more.)
Handwriting - using various manipulatives from Handwriting Without Tears, we reviewed the proper formation (and neatness) of our capital letters.  What I did is I would show them the capital letter card (the one that you use the wood pieces for, as the parts are numbered in the proper order).  The girls would write the letter on their chalkboards, then erase with the tiny sponge (the "wet dry try" method, sort of, modified since it was only review).  While they were doing that, I would help Michael make his letter with the wood pieces on the blue mat, then I would use the magnetic stamp & see screen to make the letter & he would trace it.  We went through all the capital letters, and tomorrow we plan to have the girls write them out on the gray block paper.  Then Wednesday we plan to review the lowercase letters, and Thursday/Friday to do a bit of copywork from a sentence from The Bee Tree.
Math - Even though our intent was to switch from Math U See to Horizons, both girls (Katie especially) expressed an interest in continuing and doing both math programs.   Today Katie did a page of lesson 12, adding doubles.  We skipped Horizons for the day and did a bit of review work with the Flashmaster instead.  We didn't have Katie do so much review as we feel she's pretty advanced in math for a kindergartner anyway.  For Elizabeth, she did one page of Horizons math, but when it came to the second page (a bunch of addition) we were met with tears.  We decided to work on reviewing her basic facts for the rest of the week using Flashmaster.  We sat with her and did the inputting of her answers, so we could see where her strengths & weaknesses were (i.e., which problems she needs more review of).  We had her begin with 60 second "timed tests" at level 2, level 3 and level 4.  We were watching for speed as well as accuracy.  I found she needs more review of 3's & 4's, so I had her review those in "table no order" format.  Then I had her do level 4 again, but with timed practice instead of timed test (the difference being that with practice, it incorporates review of missed problems).  For 180 seconds, she did 31/33, with 94% accuracy.  We felt this was enough math for the day and stopped here.  Tomorrow we plan to re-do the 180 second timed practice at level 4.  I'd like her to get to a better speed of at least 45 problems in 180 seconds at 100% accuracy, before moving on to the next level. 
In some ways, I can't help but feel like she is "behind" but I feel it is so important to get this basic facts down cold, so that is what we are working toward for now and will put aside the workbooks until we utilize the flashmaster to the fullest extent with addition and subtraction.  I guess that is the nice thing about homeschooling is that your child can work at his/her own pace and even be on different levels in different subjects, depending on their own strengths & weaknesses.  Even though she struggles a bit with math, Elizabeth does excellent work in all her other areas, especially reading.
And Katie seems to be the opposite.  She loves & excels in math, and for her reading almost seems a drudgery that she knows she has to do, but she doesn't particularly like it all that much.  She loves books, but just doesn't care so much for the "work" of learning to read them.  She is only in K though, and I am confident this will come in time.
I guess that brings me to our next subject area for the day, which is reading/phonics.  Katie did 3 pages of Explode the Code book 2.  Elizabeth worked ahead before Christmas, so she didn't have to do ETC today.  Elizabeth did read one segment out of Christian Liberty Press's Nature Reader Book 3, and we discussed it.  We began Lesson 85 of Reading Made Easy with Katie, but she was struggling with words she had already learned (sight words), so I decided to do review instead.  We went over to the computer and I brought up a notepad document and changed the font to the largest size.  We started the review with lesson one and (working through the table of contents) I typed up one word at a time (for each new "sound" she's learned from each lesson) as well as the sight words in the order she learned them, and had her read them to me from the screen (in the big font).  I was trying to make the review a bit interesting.  It held her attention for the most part, and hopefully with this review behind us, we can pick back up with our regular lesson again tomorrow.  Also, Katie has a short little reader (similar to Bob books) and read one short story from that.
During our recess we practiced with the kids throwing a ball and hitting it with the bat (sort of our P.E. for the day, I guess).
Overall, other than the slowness of it all, I guess it was a pretty good day as far as getting through the lessons is concerned.  It would have been better if we would all have been a little more cheerful, loving, kind and obedient though.  We are all works in progress though, and I am thankful that God gives us a new day and a chance for a fresh start every single day.