I want to ditch afternoon lessons and do some project like cleaning, or washing windows, or sorting out a file cabinet.   I don't want to do lessons....but I really want to finish the SL week that we have been trying to finish for ages.  It will feel so good to get that done.

I am having trouble being interested in our history lessons lately.  I don't know if it is just me, or the time of year when I feel uninspired about school, but I'm about ready to shelve history until Fall.  But then the other part of me wants to get through what we're doing now into a time that I am more interested in.

Morning lessons have gone really well this week.  Boo has started Vocabulary lessons formally (he had been following along with us), and he is doing them mostly independently.  He also started a new handwriting book---in the middle--as that seems to be where he is at with his fine motor skills.  He is nearly ready to try cursive Italic.

Belle is excited about her new math level.  The kids even did two pages of math one day this week.  Her reading is coming along very well too.

I have been working on my own attitude lately.  I am not there yet, by any means, but I've been learning that I must give the control over our schedule and days to the Lord, and not to stress about what doesn't get done.  It is a constant fight when the house is messy but I don't have time to clean because I'm doing school. (Cleaning is a Saturday job around here.)  Or when I would much rather do something else than cook.  I need to have a more thankful heart--first that I am able to do it, and secondly that I have a family to do it for!  And complaining about it is not setting a good example for my daughter, who is rapidly growing up.

I have just a few minutes before I leave for a walk.  Not looking forward to going out in the cold, when I seem to have had a hard time getting warm today, but I am looking forward to spending time with a good friend!

I think I may be fighting a bit of a cold.  I woke up sneezing in the night, and I don't usually do that with just allergies.  Funny thing is that my nose hasn't run that much, and my throat isn't sore at all.  The only symptoms I'm having is trouble keeping warm, and a bit of the achy joint thing.

Still managed to do school and hit the important things--or at least most of the major ones.  I am thinking that maybe my schedule is a bit too full of daily things and I need to switch around some subjects--maybe alternating days.  On good days we do get everything done, but not without my feeling a lot of pressure to keep going.  The main things we seem to miss are vocabulary and Boo's handwriting, and sometimes science (which we love, but we're trying to do more of the activities--so need more than 15-20 minutes on some days).  So this week, I plan to see how things go.  We missed a few things today, and I hope to drop another thing tomorrow, and get the things we missed today in--that is unless we manage to start early and so have time to do everything.  That is an unlikely prospect.

Well, time to bring in the coat and get it warmed up while I put on my walking shoes.  Hope it isn't too icy out there.

Aaggh, where does one start?  With last night or this morning, or this afternoon?

I started to write this over an hour ago.  When I started to write, my son was taking a nap on the couch.  This is a boy who never sleeps during the day.  Since he had a hard time falling asleep last night, I just chalked it up to unusual tiredness.  Since I didn't want him awake all night I went to wake him up--and found him burning up with a fever.  Got the thermometer and found his temp between 103-104.  He woke up cheerfully, but it was soon obvious that he is not feeling well, and says his throat is sore.  So anti-fever medication and a box of apple juice later, he is sitting on the floor playing.  I don't know how long that will last.

Putting two and two together, I had woken him up this morning, and he had a fever then too.  Just figured he had gotten warm sleeping, as it dropped soon after he was awake.  So now we push the Vitamin C on everyone, hoping no one else catches whatever is going on.

With hindsight that is twenty-twenty, this is probably the reason that lessons did not progress smoothly this morning.  We got the work done, but everyone was sluggish, and we didn't have the excitement of yesterday at all.

On another note, we have come to the conclusion that the spelling program I was using for Belle is not a good fit for her.  When she is crying on day two, and I am at a complete loss about what to do about it, it is time to consider something else.  This is not a new thing.  We struggled last year, and I tweaked the program to try to make it work for us, but this year it doesn't seem to fit us at all.  I ended up having her alphabetize a list of words, which she did with no trouble, but she struggled to read them without context to help her.  After class, I reached back in my memory bank for the name of a resource I had looked at in the past, and finally remembered that it is the one that Sonlight currently recommends.  Developed by someone with Dyslexia, it uses patterns in words to teach spelling.  So my order is in, and we will find things to do with words until it comes in.

Needless to say, the afternoon lessons were canceled today, and I spent an hour with a very hot boy snuggling close.

Yesterday we received our Sonlight Core 3 box!  It came in 3 business days!  I was amazed!  I have checked off all the books on the list, and put the IG inside the binder.  I haven't divided the weeks up yet though, as we still have twelve weeks left in our current core.

Belle was overwhelmed by all the books, but the nice thing was that she actually sat and looked at a few of them.  Last year she was not at all interested.  We have come a long way.  Today I told her how many books were readers compared to all the books that would be read-alouds.  I think that helped.  I, of course, am excited.  I love books, and I am looking forward to reading these with her.

We have been a bit bogged down in our current reader.  Belle doesn't like the story.  She would much rather have a "people" book.  She is struggling much more with the reading than she usually does, and I think it is because she is not interested.  Today I discussed the problem with my husband, and together we decided to set that one aside for now.  The goal for this year is to improve the reading skills, and to discover a love for reading.  If we are fighting over a book that she doesn't like, it isn't going to help to reach those goals.  So tomorrow she will start a book in a series that she has liked, and we will see if the reading goes better.

I seem to be in wind down mode.  Even though we are planning to do some lessons throughout the summer, I am hoping that we will have time to do other things--gardening, organizing in the house, decluttering and whatnot.

Getting off on a side-track for a minute:  I am having a problem with the word "school".  While we have a more structured curriculum and schedule than some, I am trying not to re-create school at home--at least not school in the traditional sense.  In many ways, I think I tutor my children rather than teach as you would a class.  We are not a school.  I am not an unschooler either, at least not in the way that I let my children direct their studies.  I direct their studies at this point, and I plan to at least until high school.  I am happier with the idea of home-education rather than home-schooling.  Perhaps it is just semantics, but I wish there were a better word to describe homeschoolers.  Does anyone else feel the same way?

Back to the summer study idea.  Belle is at week 23 in her Sonlight Core, and at week 14 in the readers.  Our read alouds are keeping up with the core.  What I am thinking of doing is stopping the core when we finish our current read-aloud, and keeping on with the readers over the summer.  That way she will have a chance to get caught up to her core week (maybe not quite, but that is all right), and then we will be able to finish the core and readers sometime in the Fall.  Hopefully by then, I will be able to afford the next core.  The added benefit is that with continued reading practice, hopefully it will become easier for her to read.

In math, she is working through Math U See Alpha.  A lot of that is review for her, and I think we will just plan to continue math right through the summer.  Twenty or so minutes a day should not be too much.

I haven't decided how long to continue science.  We are enjoying the Astronomy book very much, but I will probably take a few weeks break from science.

I will plan to break from everything when the children are in swimming lessons.  That will be a two week period sometime in July.

My difficulty is with Boo.  He is so quick, and he loves school.  He is already almost 30 lessons into his grade one curriculum, and he doesn't want to stop.  Saxon is pretty me-intensive, both in preparation and teaching.  I'm not really looking forward to doing that all summer, but I don't know what else to do.  It takes only about an hour to do both math and phonics with him, but it can take up to 30 minutes to prep at night.

It looks like if I continue with both math and phonics with Boo, and reading--which takes him very little time--and with math and reading with Belle, I will be looking at about 1 1/2 hours of school (my time) a day--an hour each for the kids.  I think I could cope with that--if we get an early enough start in the morning, so that I still have most of the day to do summer jobs--those things I never have time to do during the year.

If I don't manage to do a reasonable amount during the summer, it will really be tough to keep up during the year.  We have our vacation planned for October--a trip home to Scotland.

This is a really long and probably boring post--really just getting my thoughts down so I can plan.  On a completely different subject, I re-arranged my kitchen counter today.  I like it now.  I have more room to prep food and bake, and I don't think the counter looks as cluttered.

Part of me wonders if I should take a break from the blogosphere.  I just don't seem to have the time to keep up with everyone.  On the other hand, my blogging friends are currently my homeschooling support group, and I don't know if I could keep away.  At the moment, I am still reading everyone's (on my list) blogs, but if I am not commenting, please don't think I haven't been there, or that I am not thinking about you.

School has gone well so far this week.  Boo has been testing the limits occasionally with an apparent reluctance to do his work.  He still excels in just about all his subjects though, and I am attempting not to give him busywork.  If he gets the concept and we review it occasionally with no lapse in memory for him, I am content to leave things be and not belabor the point.  When he gets bored (because he knows it) his usual comment goes something like this "I already know this stuff..." and often I think "Duh!  So you do!  Let's move on."

Belle is continually improving.  This year has been the best we have had with her by a long shot.  She enjoys school much more now, and even though reading does not come easily for her at all, she seems to enjoy the books she is reading.  We are seeing an improvement in her writing too--slightly better spelling, and less hesitation in actually getting the words on paper.  Areas I still need to work on with her (as well as the above) include her speech.  She talks very fast at times and can be difficult to understand when she tries to explain something.  At the beginning of the year we were working on memorization and recitation but we sort of got away from that in the schedule.  I'd like to add it in again, but I just don't know where to put it. In other things, she is a very helpful child, and sensitive to others' feelings and needs.  She is a joy to be around.

I used my kindergarten teacher's manuals for the last time today.  Boo did one lesson in math and two in phonics, and he is finished!  I am so proud of him!

The teacher's manuals will be making their way to Oregon in a couple of weeks--back to my friend's homeschool supply shop where she sells used as well as new books.  If I let her sell them for me, I get the money in future orders.  Works for me!  And I don't have to try to sell them myself.  If you're wondering 'Why Oregon?' it is because we used to live there, and that is where I got my start in home educating.

Boo has asked not to start his grade 1 material until after we go on our mini-vacation, so he will have a couple of weeks break.  I am planning an easier week for Belle next week also, so perhaps I will be able to get some organizing done around the house--maybe we can get our taxes ready, or I can do a bit of sewing.

Teacher Person has taken me up on my challenge (see my previous post), and she estimates she will need fewer hours to write her book than I will need to finish my project.  I will need to keep busy--especially if she has regular time set for writing--since I only stitch when I am not too tired, or don't have other things to do.

Right now I have some other things to do, so I am away to do them.
 

We have a tiny dusting of white outside, and the air is COLD!   It would be nice, if it is going to be cold, to have a bit more of the white stuff.

It has been a nice week so far.  Even though our holiday events are minimal, we had a nice meal on Monday, and I got to spend most of the afternoon and evening doing cross-stitch.  That is my idea of a wonderful day.

Yesterday we did a full day of school.  I am not planning much time off during these holiday weeks because we are planning a few days off in January when my parents come up for a visit to celebrate all the birthdays that month.  We will probably take close to a week off then.

The highlight of yesterday was when Belle remarked again about how fun school is this year with the Sonlight core we are doing.  I am so pleased!  I have also come to a decision not to push her on in Saxon math next year.  I plan to take a year off and do something else that hopefully will build her confidence with numbers and math facts.  The plan (subject to change, of course) is to continue with Saxon the following year.  Now I have some research to do to find an alternative.  I don't want to repeat Saxon 3 because she does understand lots of it, and I don't want to be bored either.  Time to try a different approach.

Time to get breakfast and start our day.

I got up today with what I thought was a really bad case of allergies.  I've recently switched to a new allergy med, and thought it wasn't working.  By lunchtime, the left side of my nose felt swollen inside and I was still sneezing and blowing.  By about 3:00 this afternoon, it hit me.  This is not allergies.  I have a pain in my nose and I feel basically crummy!  I have a cold!

We had gotten school done all the way to halfway through history.  All I had to finish was that and the read-alouds.  But I quit.  I just didn't have the energy anymore.

Belle wanted (wow!) to watch a Math Tutor DVD, so I let her. She really enjoys them.  I count it for math time for her, and whatever she picks up from it is bonus!   Boo climbed up beside her and watched too.  He was counting by tens to one hundred this evening.  That boy never ceases to amaze me.  He enjoys his K Saxon math,  but it is a piece of cake for him.  I waver between thinking it is great that he has easy fun subjects and thinking that math isn't challenging enough for him.  Then I remember that he is still only four.  Time enough for a challenge later.

I knit a couple of rows--I'm still just learning-- and then worked on trying to develop my own copywork.  I had set up something on my computer (the laptop) and then sent it to DH to print.  I found a lovely font that is very close to italic handwriting on my Open Office program, but when it went over to his computer, his Open Office didn't have that font.  Neither did his Microsoft stuff.  Aaagh!  My hope is to be able to print stuff in Italic so she can do copywork in the handwriting she is learning.  Our next possible plan is to maybe hook my computer up to the printer so I can print directly.  I don't know how hard that will be.  I am pretty computer-challenged, and some of this stuff is beyond me.  But I am learning a few things.  If anyone else has suggestions I would be willing to try them.

I have a Dr. appointment tomorrow.  A followup on all the stuff I have been dealing with.  I expect it to go pretty smoothly, as I am doing much better.

I wasn't planning a full day tomorrow anyway.  Now if I am feeling up to it, I will do Sonlight.  I hope the children don't catch my cold.

As opposed to a day off.  I didn't walk this morning, and maybe that was part of it.  I had trouble getting to sleep last night too.  It was close to 1:00 before I really slept.  Maybe the very small piece of chocolate I had last night was the culprit.  Belle was up at midnight saying she had a headache.  She complained again of it this morning before breakfast, but didn't afterwards, and it didn't seem to disrupt her play.

It must have caused her trouble though, because school this morning was difficult--at best.  She had a bad attitude, which got her in trouble, but she also had more difficulty actually doing the work.  Case in point is subtracting all her math facts instead of adding because she went the wrong way on the number line.   I'm beginning to think that directional sense is a big part of the problem.  I finally gave in at 11:00 and told her to go and take a nap.  She came down thirty minutes later, but I don't think she slept.  She did say the headache was better.

She had another reduction in her seizure medication dose on Sunday.  That is a big positive.

I hope the afternoon will go better.  I am looking forward to it, in a way.  I just haven't got my laundry going yet, and I am wavering about what to have for dinner.  So the afternoon will go quickly--probably too quickly.

It seems like I hardly have enough time to blog these days--let alone keep up with the blogs of my friends.

Since I started walking in the mornings, my computer time then has been reduced to checking email, and maybe reading my Bloglines.  My after-lunch time has been catching up on email, and doing online research on things like dyslexia and scotopic sensitivity.  Tonight it is almost nine, and I have just finished getting school ready for tomorrow.  Pretty soon it will be time to shower and go to bed--if I want to get up in time to walk in the morning.

After speaking with a woman who does testing for Dyslexia, we have pretty much concluded that Belle has dyslexia.  The lady's conclusion was that after three years of phonics, she would be reading well if she could.  She didn't push for us to test.  I am not sure why--unless it is because she thinks I am doing everything she would do in remediation work anyway.  She kept saying that I am on the right track, and that it just takes more time.  I think she is right--as we seem to have made small gains in the past couple of weeks--a few more words are coming easier.

The other thing she mentioned in our conversation was the possibility that she is light-sensitive.  (Scotopic sensitivity)  She suggested copying some of her worksheets onto colored paper to see if that helps.  Belle often shields her work from the light, and that is one of the symptoms.  One thing that she has always done (although I have never seen this in the reading I have been doing) is to sneeze every time she is in bright sunlight.  Wonder if that has anything to do with it.  The other thing I am to do is to experiment with colored overlays for her reading.  The problem for me is where to find them--and at what price?!

School has been happening this week.  That is a major accomplishment when you look at the past month.  I have been really encouraged about that.  The house gets dirty, and I am still having major difficulties with planning and cooking meals, but we are doing school!  I could do school all the time if someone would cook for me. 

My energy level and mood have both been much improved.  Thanks to all my friends who have been praying.

Don't get me wrong.  I am still tired, and I still have a cold and sore throat, and I still don't have a lot of energy.  But the difference is that I am coping, and I am certain it is because folks are praying.

We haven't heard anything back from the doctor.  Up here that can mean anything from normal results to "it hasn't connected with the chart", or the doctor hasn't seen it yet, or it has been filed without a review.  I don't take anything for granted anymore.  After years of experience in clinical offices, I know how things can slip through the cracks.  Add in the medical system up here, and even though I haven't worked in it myself, I have already seen slip-ups in reporting to my own family something that needs to be done.  I have an appointment this week.  I will call tomorrow to check to make sure the results are back before I go in.

My pep talk to myself for the last two days has included "just do one thing at a time" among other things.

School is going well this week.  DD is getting most of her work done in a timely manner with a minimum of complaints.  After her 21 correct in math yesterday, she got 14 correct today on a completely different worksheet.  In reading today, she refused the index cards, preferring to read with just my finger under the line, and she read better than she did all last week.

She likes Ginger Pye better than Red Sails to Capri, but maybe that is because we are reading it now.  She always wants me to read more, and I think we are going to end up with another marathon read when we get closer to the end of the book.  I am so pleased that Sonlight is working out for us.  I thoroughly enjoy our afternoons of sitting on the couch reading--and I am learning a lot too!

Tomorrow will be our day off this week--unless we get home early enough in the afternoon to do Sonlight.  Thursday morning will be disrupted with an appointment too.  I am not sure what I am going to manage that day.

I am really working on trying to do a load of laundry every day this week--to decrease the stress at the end of the week.  I hope it works.

Time for this tired woman to go to bed.

And I plan to manage this afternoon too.  I know it was not on my own strength, because I don't have very much, and I went to bed for twenty minutes before lunch, and slept, despite the fact that I went to sleep at 10:00 last night.  Thank you for all your prayers, friends.  I still haven't heard anything from the doctor's office, and don't really expect to until Thursday when I go in for another appointment.  I am still very tired.  And I am either dealing with a bad case of allergies, or another cold this morning.

DD got 21 correct out of 25 in her math drill today--with me reading the problems for her.  She did it in a minute--not the 45 seconds recommended by Saxon.  For us it is a huge step--last year I gave her five minutes and she still struggled.

On the reading issue--I KNOW there are some problems now.  It is just a matter of finding out what they are, and how to help.  Her comprehension is good, even when she struggles to read something herself.  But watching DS this morning reading four-letter words with blends, I realized that DD doesn't, or can't, scan a word in her mind and come out with it at the end.  DS does fine.  Sometimes he blends out loud, sometimes almost silently, but he nearly always has the correct word at the end.  With DD it is not automatic at all.  I really hurt for her.

We've decreased her medication to 12 ml/day instead of the 15 total she was getting. We're to do that dose for a month before decreasing again.

I need to get on to school again.  We have an invitation out to dinner tonight.  It will be wonderful not to have to cook!

Today was a struggle from the time we got up--actually from around 4:00 a.m. when DS threw up.  Uh-Oh, I thought!  We don't need the flu around here just now.  Fortunately for all of us, it only happened once.  He was fine when he got up, and fine all day.  But it was another night without much sleep for me.

DD did not want to do school today at all.  She was reluctant from the beginning.  It is depressing how draining a day can be when you have to push to get things done.  She did all right in most of her subjects, but it was just hard to get her going.  The real struggle of the day was a bad day in reading.  I had to excuse myself to my bedroom to have a good cry after that one.  I feel like I have tried nearly everything to help her read--a great phonics course, readers that she enjoyed (at the beginning), now real books.  The only thing I haven't done is to get her tested, and some days I honestly don't know if that would help either.  It is so depressing.  I love to read, and I think it would open up worlds of enjoyment for her if she could read too.

I hope that some day I will be able to look back on this, and know without a doubt that persevering paid off, because right now it is really hard.  I know that there are things I need to learn from this--I hope I can learn quickly.

In contrast, DS is so easy to teach.  He is eager, motivated, and right now is just cruising through his stuff.  He has the advantage of a younger child--lots of exposure to the information he is getting.

On a bright note--for my Flylady friends--my sink is clean (although my floor is dirty), and my counters need some clearing off.  Oh dear, I think I can think of more things undone than done.  Tomorrow will be a partial cleaning day, to be finished up by Thursday morning.  A close friend of our family's, a man who lost his wife to cancer in December,  is coming for the weekend plus a couple of days.  The children love him and are looking forward to his visit.  It will be a good time.

This is on Gena's Blog.

Blog Contest Today and Tomorrow - HURRY

Another day of school is done.  We got everything done this morning, on time and in good order.  This afternoon was much less organized.  DD took a nap, and slept through our Recitation/Memorization time (I think I am going to move that anyway, and combine it with something else.),and through part of reading time.  Then the phone ran twice, and those calls combined to wipe out science time.  We did history, but not the read-aloud time.

Then I discovered to my dismay that dinner was supposed to be a crock-pot meal.  I had failed to note that when I looked over the menu.  At 1 1/2 hours before dinner, you can't really put anything in the crock-pot.  We did manage, with the help of DH to change the recipe a bit, and do it on the stove.  In the process, almost every one of my pots was used.  More dishes to do.  I really am going to have to see about putting my pots in the dishwasher..I want to, but I hate the spots that appear on them.  We have really really hard water here, so that is a problem.  Lovely stainless steel pots!  I want them to stay shiny.  They've done really well for ten years of marriage.

I did wash the kid's sheets today, and a load of towels, but other than that I got nothing else done.  It took 30-40 minutes tonight to write up the lessons for tomorrow.

Having time to sew seems a distant memory, and I'm only a week into school!  I am realizing though that the children are getting old enough to help a little--folding towels and washcloths, helping to set table and unload the dishwasher.  It does help.  And DD helps snap beans, and pick them too.  That is when it gets fun--working together.

I think I'm just going to have to get used to the idea that not everything gets done, or done well, when we are doing school.  I tend to be extremely focused when I do school, and I forget about anything else that needs doing.  Sometimes it is even hard to change gears when school is done for the day.

The wonderful thing about the weekend, is that by the end of it, I am excited about school again.  It was so good to have a Day of Rest, and as I posted last week, it really is one for us.  I am ready to get back on the schedule tomorrow, and am excited about tomorrow's lessons.  I hope DD and DS enjoy them too.

I am also ready to try our new four-day schedule.  DH has given me the go-ahead to try it, and we'll re-evaluate as we go.  I am still trying to figure out when to do art, but maybe we'll work it in on an alternate-week schedule.

The trick is going to be getting to bed early enough to wake up fresh in the morning.  Hmmm...maybe I'd better head thay way soon.

We have been doing a five day school schedule in the past, and somehow I have muddled through all the other stuff, and we have managed to finish by the time public schools end.  We also start earlier than they do, and this year we would have finished earlier than they, but we had four weeks off to go to Scotland in the spring.

We took the day off today, partly because we have guests coming tonight, and partly because I just felt overwhelmed, and need a day off.  I was thinking about the fact that we did four days of school this week, and the rest of the time I drove myself frantic trying to keep up with housework and meals, and by Thursday afternoon, I was exhausted, and my house is dirty!  And my laundry is NOT done!  I went to bed at 10:00 last night, fully expecting to do school today, and somehow get the house clean, the laundry done, and salads made by 6:00 this evening.  By this morning, I had reduced school to a half day and was still wondering how to get everything done.  After breakfast I had an overwhelming urge to just go back to bed for a while.  I am so tired.

So on my mind right now (if any of you have managed to read this far) is the thought of just moving to a four-day school week.  That would give me a day to do errands, appointments, laundry, and deeper cleaning than I can ordinarily do during the year.  It may also give me some time to sew!  The way our schedule has run in the past is that we have just taken a half day or a day off to do whatever we needed to do.  We don't have long schedule breaks unless we are going away.  We don't follow the Holiday breaks that most folks do, so that doesn't matter to me  I think we might have to go a bit longer in the summer, but I am not sure.  I haven't done the math.

I have two main concerns.  The first is just the fact that we live in a small town, and if the children are out when others are in school, that may invite questions.  We don't make a practice of letting them run around, but we could be out at odd hours.  The second is about school itself.  If you are running a four-day week, when do you have time to do electives, like art or music?  If any of you have any advice or comments, I would appreciate it very much.

I have nothing to talk about these days, except for school?  Maybe it is because I haven't done anything else.

This morning was a bit rough.  DD struggled with a negative attitude about everything until almost the end of the morning.  By the end of spelling and the time for copywork, her attitude changed.  After lunch, she took a short nap during her quiet time, and this afternoon went much more smoothly.

DS carries on happily for the most part.  He has been a little more prone to tears lately and looks tired.  He is still getting over his cold, and that may be part of it.  I think he is also having to get used to the idea of not having a playmate for a good part of the day.  He loves his schoolwork though.  He is just starting to read words with a blend at the beginning and is finding it a little more difficult getting his tongue around all the sounds.

My TOS magazine came today.  I can hardly wait for a bit of quiet time to dig into it.  Maybe this evening after all else is done.

We have visitors coming over tomorrow for a grilled supper.  I plan to make a big potato salad and maybe a pasta salad as well.  I need to cook a load of potatoes and boil some eggs today, and I also have to cook dinner--which is all planned--just has to be done after I clean up the kitchen.  Guess I should get to it now.

Sonlight seems to be working very well for us.  I save all the reading out loud for the afternoons, and it is fun to finish the day cosied up together on the couch.  DD really seems to be enjoying it.  I did think it was wierd the first day when the Intro to CHOW was assigned.  That was BORING for me, let alone for the children.  I skimmed and skipped most of it.

We're ready for day 3.  I am surprised that we have pretty much been able to keep up with the SL schedule so far, although we are still fighting to end at my target time--3:30.  I have a feeling that we will end up doing some moving around with the read-alouds so we can make that time.  My family likes to eat dinner around 5, so ending much later than that doesn't leave me much time to prepare or get anything else done.  The morning schedule is working well, and both days we have finished early.  DD likes most of her subjects so far, and we've only had a few hiccups with not wanting to do what has been assigned.

Yesterday I seemed to have more energy after school was finished.  I don't know how much more I accomplished--most of what I did was in the morning, although I did do a bit of cleaning after school.  We picked a load of beans in the morning.  I'll have another batch to freeze one day soon.

Off to start a new day.