first week of school

We just finished our first week of school.  We're adjusting to a different schedule this year.  Since Joe works from noon until 8:00pm, we take the mornings off to be with him.  We start school at around 11:30, take a lunch break after a couple of subjects, put Mercy down for a nap, and get the rest of our school day done while she's asleep (which makes it easier).  It's a different schedule to get used to, as before we always enjoyed being done by lunch time.  But it is nice to have the mornings off, and we've just started a running program.  So a couple of days this week we've put Judah and Mercy in the bike trailer/stroller and Joe and I run/walk while Brooklyn and Zeke ride bikes, scooter or skateboard alongside us.  During the school part of our day, Judah sleeps for a while, then hangs out with us.  He's pretty mellow and content.  Yesterday he was sitting with Brooklyn while she worked on her math drill.

Brooklyn has been so excited for weeks because she asked if she could teach Mercy preschool this year.  She even went shopping with me the week before school started to a teacher supply store and bought some things with her own money that she could use for teaching Mercy.  Mercy loves the one on one time, and I use the time to do Language Arts with Zeke. 

When Zeke and I finish, he plays with Mercy while I work with Brooklyn individually.  It works out great.

We're enjoying our studies on Exploring Countries and Cultures.  This week and next we're studying about maps and globes, and getting ready for our trip around the world through books and food.  I'm really excited to try new recipes for each area we learn about.  My sister is going to Russia in a few weeks on a missions trip (and I get her kids while she's gone.. Yay!!!).  It will be fun to be learning about and praying for Russia while she's there.  This week we drew the continents on an orange and then tried (unsuccessfully, unfortunately) to peel it in a way that we could flatten it out, to show how map makers have to distort things a little to put a round world on flat paper.  The kids also filled out passport applications and we took pictures for them, so they'll have passports to stamp for each country we visit.  They also learned about scale and made maps of their rooms, measuring everything and transferring it from feet to inches for the map.  They love the activities that we're doing.  It definitely makes learning fun.

Here are a couple of pictures of our school room.  We each have a table for individual work, and lots of floor space for reading together, activities, etc.