Our first week of school

Just thought I would talk a little about our first week of school. Overall it has gone pretty well. We have accomplished more this week than any other week of school so far. We have done it all in less time than it took us last year to finish a day. I have used time limits, written out the assignments so they know what is coming, and have started grading their work. I grade based on correct answers but also on how much they finish based on their time limits. Hopefully a bad grade received because they fool around and don't complete an assignment will help them be more focused and diligent. They usually do all math problems and stuff like that right when they actually get around to it. So accuracy is not usually the problem, it's procrastination and not focusing. We have done Science this week which is new to us as we never seem to get to it and we even did an experiment. We blew up diet soda with Mentos to introduce chemistry this year. Fun!!

Overall, I am pretty pleased with this week. WE still need to pray for focus for my littlest on Math, but he did have one good day. Today is not that day. We will gradually build up our schedule to include more stuff. I didn't want to overwhelm them the first week back. I am also thinking of implementing a ticket system for asking for help. I get called for "emergency help" when it is really not needed. They get instruction and clarification at the beginning of their work but I can't hold their hand through it all. The tickets would be given at the beginning of an assignment and once the receive instruction and I walk away, any time they ask for help they will need to give me a ticket. Of course they won't have that many tickets, so they will need to learn to problem solve on their own and not ask so much.

Just thought I would share.

Oh, and you need to check out Christian Paper Crafts website and check out their work and join the group. It's a great ministry.