First Day, First Week

Monday was our first day of "official" school. So far it's all gone quite smoothly and happily, so here's a few things I've learned about my Students:

1) Allie tends to go to bed right after her story time (which is Book 3 of the Belgariad right now), so she has  no formal bedtime, but she gets in at about the same time each night. Neal, on the other hand, has no bedtime but he does have an arising time. As long as he can get up when he's supposed to and be relatively cheerful about it, I won't impose bedtime.


2) It's very nice to have Allie up for an hour or so before Neal gets up. That allows us to get through most of her academics without competition or interruption.


3) Neal believes that he is unschooling. While I'm sure that his definition wouldn't gel with some purists, he did pick out his subjects and books, and he studies mostly on his own, with a bit of encouragement. Sounds pretty close to unschooling to me.


4) I send emails to the kids most mornings with computer-based activities listed for the day. It may be a website to check out, or a workpage for their writing club, the The LOLcats and Phun Gnomes Society  (Club Oath: We will not kick gnomes, and we will respect LOLcats. Excellent free lesson plans for a  writing club)


5) Writing is much more fun on a laptop, even if it's Dad's. Having fun writing is more important than perfecting handwriting.
6)  Subjects that have Girl Scout badges to go along with them are great!