Trial Run with the younger set

I affectionately call my younger two "the littles" and my older two "the bigs".  Poor Ian is the middle child and can be lumped into either category given the event.  This school year he will be part of "the littles".  This in no way indicates he is doing "little" work.  He will be doing grade level work if not above.  This year I have the littles using My Father's World 1850-Modern times (portions of it).  We took a break from Sonlight as a whole and are trying something new, not because Sonlight wasn't working for us but because I was burnt out on Core 3 and juggling more than one core.  With MFW I can instruct all three in the area of history.  I am using a different Bible curriculum than MFW but again all three will be using it.  Apologia Who Is GOd?  is what we will be using.  I did a review on it for TOS last year and liked it enough to pull into our school year.  I ordered the notebooking journals as well.  I am also using Apologia Exploring Creation with Anatomy for science.

Today I am doing a trial run of the first day.  My bigs are away at church bootcamp so I have my littles undistracted.  I gave them the option of which subject to start with and they chose math.  We started with our Classical Conversation math facts.  This is how it went down
Avery skip counted by 2's to 24 and skip counted by 3's to 36
Neil did the 3's times tables
Ian did the 4's times tables.
They all listened in while the others recited, gotta love the one room school house set up.
I then set the timer for 30 minutes and had Avery work in some old workbooks I found while cleaning out the school room.  Mostly addition and other simple stuff to keep her brain working.  Neil corrected and rewrote some tests from the end of last year that I couldn't read :/  Ian wrote out the times tables 1-4.  The timer rang and they voted for History next.
I printed out 3 US maps and gave them a pretest.
Avery got 5/50
Neil got 12/50
Ian got 28/50

Being a pretest I was glad to see lots of room for improvement.  It means they won't be bored as we learn some states this year.  So with those results in hand we move on in our history lesson to the Northern States Song and some history review.  A little later we will hit the store for some colonial cooking supplies and eat something from the past.

This post is mostly for me to look back on as we tackle this new journey with a new curriculum and some piecing together of some other subjects all while doing Classical Conversations.

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Dear Family and Friends,

I was curious to know if you have finally decided to homeschool your children?  I mean after all are you not worried about them being over socialized?  Are you not concerned that they could excel academically beyond their peers in one class but be held back from learning because no one else excels?  Are you not concerned that they may be excellent readers but be held to reading at their grade level?  Are you not concerned that they are perhaps struggling in math yet are barely keeping their head above water because the other 29 students must be taught at the pace set by the standardized tests?  Afraid that they are only being taught the test in order for the school district to get its money?  Does it not concern you that they don't have time to hop down bunny trails when something strikes their fancy?
I do not ask you these questions when I speak with you so please do not ask myself or my children if they are going "back" to school.  They are back to school although they never left.... we just switched schools.  My children enjoy homeschooling most days.  I'm sure if you asked your kids or yourself  if you would not respond that traditional school was enjoyable or tolerable most days as well.  If you are concerned about my kids socialization don't be.  They have friends, they know how to talk to others, play nice etc.  We ask each year if they would like to go to traditional school.  Each year the answer is no.  Lest you forget two of our children have been to private school and know what each side is like.  Our family functions just fine with them all at home.  Is every day roses and sunshine?  NO but I bet it isn't at your house either or at school for that matter.  Am I cheating my children?  From what I ask?  Am I the best teacher in every subject?  Nope, but we were paying for our kids to have worse teachers.  I have flaws, yes but I am human as are you.
So please don't ask my children if they are going back to school in the fall or ever.  If they decide to go to traditional school you all would be the first to know.
Sincerely,
Traci