In January, we moved my desk in to the office with Ryan’s. We also set up a desk for Paul. This was nice because we were all together. But now Caroline is too big for a bouncer. And let’s face it: when Ryan’s working from home, it would be nicer to have more space for everyone! Ryan wanted to go downstairs into the unfinished portion of the basement. I think he loves it so far because he can play his music and all that. Anyway, it seems to be working for us too.

Here’s the school room now.

Mom and Paul do school every morning, starting right after breakfast. First we read two paragraphs in the Gospel Principles manual on my nook and talk about the concepts. Paul loves this. I let him click on the scriptures and we follow footnotes and scripture trails until he gets tired. We do this for about 20-30 minutes most mornings.

Then we go upstairs and do a math page. Sometimes we do a page in Miquon math, which is a mix of conceptually taught math concepts. We learn the concepts behind the operations using manipulatives like C-rods. So far, he’s already been introduced to addition, subtraction, and multiplication. He likes it, but we break it up with Singapore Math, which seems a little easier (he’s at the beginning of the book instead of halfway through it!). We’ll do a little of each each week.

Then we do a few spelling words, where Paul uses a magnetic board and tiles (with the phonograms on them, not just letters) to spell a fw words. We usually do five words. Then, if we have time, Paul gives me a spelling lesson and I do the same with tiles.

Paul and I also are going to learn about American history this year. Last week, it was basic U.S. geographical features (We read about Paul Bunyan and labeled his “formations” on the map) and this week we learned about different Native American houses in different parts of the country. I plan on taking this very easy and just covering what he’s interested in each week, within reason. Next week it’s about the Vikings.

We read The Magic School Bus, we watch science and history videos on Discovery Education every now and then (Thanks, Grandma!), we watch Sid the Science Kid, and we follow Paul’s lead at to what he’s interested in learning (this week he wanted to read about the seasons). He has a lined journal I ask him to write something (anything) in each week, and I plan on having him copy one sentence in to a History journal about American history so he’ll have a record of everything we learned. (For example, this week’s sentence is “Many people lived in America before 1492.”) We’ll see how that goes.

Paul loves to learn. So far, with school being finished by 9 or 9:30 every morning, he’s enjoyed it. There was one day in the seven we’ve had so far when he had a melt-down at 4+4 and he tends to react strongly against practicing his handwriting, but in general I think this year will be an enjoyable time at home! He also has a co-op three Fridays a month (he loved the first day last week!), storytime one day a week, and maybe another group play day on Wednesdays too. We’ll see if that is too much.

Hooray for homeschooling!