Back in the Swing of Things

We've begun another year of homeschooling.

We've joined Classical Conversations this year. Every Thursday we meet with other homeschoolers and embark on learning in the classical method.
Everyone is happy--except Connor, but I'm giving him time, I think he'll come to like it more too
It's quite a challenge keeping up with the work load but we're having a good time learning new things and making new friends.
Ryan's in the Challenge A program. His first few weeks were, well, challenging for him. After a few weeks into the program he told me that he enjoyed doing homework......what!?.....and he mentioned that he really enjoyed his new classmates. He's learning latin, (and liking it), Algebra2, rhetoric, research, writing, and geography, (by the end of the year, if he studies well, he'll be able to draw and label by memory the world with major cities, countries and geographical features. Quite and undertaking if you ask me).
Connor, Cailin and Delaney are in Foundations. Here they "train the brain to retain"--create pegs upon which to build knowledge by memorizing a great deal of grammar from many subjects--science, math, history, english, geography and latin. They all amaze me at how well they remember the the memory work for the week. The CC program has a 'Master Memory' Challenge. This is where they are to recite to the director at the end of the year every bit of memory work they have been learning at one time. I believe Connor will take on this quest. I know he can do it, that's for sure.
In the afternoon, Connor and Cailin move on to Essentials. While Delaney gets the opportunity to play with her new found friends, her siblings are studying hard learning english and writing skills--yet they're having fun because Mrs. Jacobs makes it quite fun indeed.
At the end of this class they spend time playing math games. Connor claims that these last 20-30 minutes are the only worth while thing he's done during the whole day. Whatever!


Here at home we are delving into the past; we're learning about ancient history this year.
Our first project was creating cave wall paintings. I'll post their stories later, suffice it to say they are into explosions right now.

We spent an afternoon at a local park getting together with some old friends and making some new ones. Here's Cailin with a new friend, Johnni.

We've met some new friends and I'm quite excited that some of these families have kids the same age as Ryan.