Day One Home Schooling!

Well, here we go! We started school today! It was a hectic day all around, so we didn't even try to get all of the assignments done! But the beautiful thing about the k12 system and Nevada Virtual Academy is that they don't really care if you get all of the scheduled items done for that day, just that you get 10 hours in per week, and any particular assignments that are due, turned in. And the system will automatically move the lessons ahead to the next day if they aren't completed on that first day it was scheduled.

Personally, I am making a goal to make it as fun and productive as I can with the time that we have. Of course, there are things that must get done... but I am NOT going to make this stressful, unpleasant, or crazy obsessive. No way... we have enough on our plate without any more stress, thank you very much.

But, we figured out that we can do a maximum of about 50 minutes and then we need to take a 10-15 minute break.

I am still working on how to entertain Collin while we are working. For the most part, as I expected, he want to be in the middle of it all. Unfortunately,. the workspace that I have doesn't really allow for that to happen and not impede Nick while he is working. SO... I am brainstorming... I go the super big coloring pages for Collin to color while we are having school time. That didn't work. He colored for about 5 minutes, then started tearing the paper off of the crayons and breaking them. Crap. I am thinking a) movie in the laptop with headphones and/or b) iPod.

Another thing that I am thinking of is making a reward chart of some kind for Nick when he does really well in his attitude and attention during school time, and Collin when he is good while we work on school.

But I am somewhat afflicted about it... I am taking this time to educate Nick, why can't I do some educational type things for Collin. The biggest deterrent factor to this, however, is his distructive nature. Yeah... big time. And the second biggest deterrent to this is the fact that it would demand more of my "teacher" time. Not that I am unwilling to teach another son, I just do not want it to decrease the value that I am giving Nick in his first year at school.

Suggestions are very very very welcome!

Anyhow, I have posted his Math Unit 1 Lesson 1 assessment below! He did a great job! 100%!

I am such a proud Mommy/teacher!