Serioque says 'Hi'

We've had another busy week.  Liza has showed a lack of enthusiasm about Oak Meadow this week--she's learning about the Ancient Israelites.  This includes readings from the Bible and she is less than interested.  I told her that it's important to be familiar with the Bible--for cultural literacy's sake if for no other reason--which seemed to appease her but she's still ready to be finished with this section.

Misha turned seven years old.  We all went to a Chuck E. Cheese type restaurant for dinner on his birthday and he had so much fun.  

I'm still struggling to balance my homeschooling mother life with my full courseload life.  My initial thinking was that I would study while the kids studied--this worked well when I was doing my less complicated prerequisites.  Now that I've moved on to the more intense math and sciences it is more of a struggle.  For the first time I'm academically challenged and this in itself takes some getting used to.  It's not just about churning out a paper or memorizing information--I have to learn this material and be able to apply it.  How that fits into teaching 6th grade math has been a process.  

I do have to say that Oak Meadow has been wonderful, however.  The levels that Alyosha and Liza are doing (5th and 6th grade, respectively) are very much self-teaching.  I plug their week into Homeschool Tracker each week, print it out, put it in our homeschool binder, and for the most part they are able to complete their own work.  Misha's work (first grade) is still obviously reliant on me to facilitate but it is so gentle, which is perfect for both of us.  I do add to it somewhat--I have him do copywork every day to help with his occupational therapy, I add Russian for all three (they will begin their lessons with Larisa again today after a month off, plus they have Russian classes on Saturdays with several children), and I assign a lot of free reading.

Last month the older two kids took part in a paleontology class through the homeschool group, which they loved.  We visited the apple orchard, had a couple of family gatherings at the park, and played outside for hours.  Ballet started again for Liza after a few weeks' break and all three older kids have been a part of a character-building group a neighbor has put together for the kids on our block.  She and her family are of Baha'i faith and the class focuses on topics like cooperation, inclusiveness, and friendship.  It's funny--I thought that Misha would get bored (he's a flighty sort and it can be difficult to keep him on topic but he enjoys the class most of all.