Back to School!

We have officially begun our 2010-2011 homeschool year!

This year David joins our table for Kindergarten. He actually had bragged all summer to anyone who inquired about school that he didn't go there, so he was a little surprised and anxious to discover he was starting grade K yesterday. He was really cute and asked if his teacher was a girl or not and if she was going to be nice. Once the other students could contain their giggles, David was informed that yes, his teacher was a girl, and yes, she was nice. Once that was out of the way, he learned Mom was his teacher, said "I'm so glad you're my teacher, mom! I didn't want to have to leave home." and he relaxed instantly. For the record, I'm so glad I'm his teacher and that he can learn in the comfort of home!

Grace begins 2nd grade this year, and is gradually building her sight word list. For those who haven't heard yet, we learned last year that Grace has been gifted with Dyslexia, so she can see a word or symbol from all angles at once and not even know she is seeing it that way. This explains why she ROCKS at puzzles, art, basketball and virtually ANY game with a ball. She is also progressing nicely in her piano studies, and can read Greek. Go figure. The only 'down' side of her gift is figuring out how to read one word at a time without pulling letters from the same page to confuse the comprehension of the words in a particular sentence. We will continue to build her library, and she is super excited to start her new art class next Friday!

Natalie is starting the 4th grade, and has come to terms with the fact that her workload has increased quite a bit. (This was hard to grasp when we had to break for lunch and continue our studies after, as last year she was done with school BY lunch time!) In addition to her core studies, she has Greek, piano, and violin, where she has already progressed to her 3rd song in Suzuki book 2. Beginning next Wednesday, she will be adding choir and handbells to her schedule, and once we find an instructor accepting new students, (a task we've been attempting since after her recital at the beginning of summer), flute. Did I mention she LOVES music???

Ella is in her 7th and 8th grade year. For her Math and Sciences, she is at the 7th grade level, and is at the 8th grade level for her other studies. The hope is that she will be able to complete both the 7th and 8th grade years in Math & Science so that next year she will be at 9th grade level in ALL subjects. She has completed her Confirmation study this summer, and will be Confirmed October 31st! Her extra-curricular studies include the Encore Youth Chorus (an audition homeschool choir built from students all around San Antonio), piano and Greek, and she will be participating in handbells with Natalie at church. One of her goals this year is to complete the Am.Red Cross Babysitting Course to become a Certified Babysitter and put her years of kiddo expertise to work earning money!

We are SO excited to begin our 'official' school year! The highlight of the first day had to be writing in 'code', aka Greek, to each other. I personally was wowed at how readily the kids had the symbols & pronunciations for the note writing, and how quickly notes were deciphered by each other :-) . Claire also impressed me by occupying herself most of the time, coloring and engaged in imaginative play for a majority of the school hours.

Truly, we are blessed!