Well, we made it. We survived week one of Jones Family Academy! I never really thought I would be here, and I am not sure I really have the words to express all of my emotions. We had a fun week, and I think the kids really enjoyed it. Their favorite discovery is how quickly we could actually get done what we needed to get done. We had time for work and for play. My favorite thing was teaching my children. I always knew I would be a teacher, I just thought it would be to a classroom full of children. Then, I had children and I could not leave them. I have not "taught" in almost 11 years. Getting back to it filled a place in me that has been missing for a while.
I had the most fun with Silas. He is the biggest sponge right now. On Monday when I told him it was time for "Language Arts" he asked me "OHHHH... what language are we learning". When I responded with "Ummmm... English". He fist pumped and said "Yes, I have always wanted to know English." It was GREAT! Then later when we were working and I got to see his light bulb switch on when we were working with long vowel words. When he would read with confidence and self correct before he finished the word. That alone will make this entire year worth it. Just one week and I already see a change in his confidence in reading and desire.
Then there is Callan. I was afraid... and then when the crying started on Monday with Math... I was terrified. He had 100 problems to complete as a daily review that were only simple addition, but the thought of 100 looming problems made it difficult to even make it through the first 10. It took a battle before I realized that it is my choice and we changed our theory. Now instead of having to complete all the problems we set the timer for 5 minutes to see how many we can get done... and we try to beat our record each day. He is most excited about learning new things and has been thrilled with our Native American study and the "art" he is getting to do. He drew a totem pole and then described how each character on the totem pole had meaning for our family "clan". He also impressed me with reading a book on a 5th grade level and scoring 100% on the comprehension of it.
I knew from the beginning that Bay would be easy, he just may be too easy. He seemed to coast by a little this week. He works a lot independently and even though it is easy for me to check up on him I also know what I tell his teachers at the beginning of each year, "If you let him coast and be lazy, he will, you have to really raise the bar for him." His math is awesome and is a computer based program. I know the beginning is easy and will only get harder... it is 7th grade level (and he is 5th). He is a black and white kind of person which makes Math style stuff easy for him, but he does not like deep thinking kind of stuff so giving him free choice on topics blows his mind to the point of shut down. Asking him to create without giving him specific directions leads to him just sitting there staring off into space. So we have something to work on there, and my goal is to make him a writer. His favorite thing he has done all week is his Bible study... which is reading comprehension too. It is a great resource for kids his age to help answer the big questions on why he believes what he believes. He has loved it.
We have had some challenges in that it is the first week of school and we have to come down from playing video games and lazing around a lot. They did forget a lot that school time does not include TV or video games, but by the end of the week seemed to get the hang of it. It is going to take some time to get back into the swing of it all. I also learned that next week, I need to be a little more prepared with activities for Eliza (who is dying to do school work) and Cruz who is not enjoying me being busy with anyone but him.
I think it is going to be a GREAT year, a GREAT experience, and a GREAT adventure for our family. I could not be more proud of how our week went or of what all we accomplished.
