A New Year, A New Path

Our first day of coop, 8-29-08, one of the last few posts we did. And now here we are 2y4m later and starting our first day of coop, spring semester, 1-28-11. No longer even typing an 0 for the year. So much has happened during this time...therapy appointments, school engagements, coop semesters. We've lived them, we just haven't blogged them.

Adam has continued on, picking up where we left off. I think we've got it going now and have figured out the path we need to follow, only now we have a new twist...John and I are going to school also! We're are taking courses at ACC for the occupational therapy assistant program and in 2 years (provided we get accepted into the program in May) we should be done.

Jani is working on reading and loosing teeth. And the little boys are just trying to figure out their letters. Such chaos here.

Getting Started and an Apple

The real truth is that sometimes it's just hard to get your groove going for school. You take off the summer and then you find yourself struggling to get going again. Of course it doesn't help when you adopt because that just something else you need to find your groove in. Can you tell we're struggling for our groove?
Yesterday Adam got to go on a very cool field trip. One of our homeschool groups went to an Apple store. It wasn't the kind of field trip where you just look and learn about things. This was hands on. Each child needed to bring in a disc with pictures or a video that they were trying to edit. We took pictures of our Build A Bear trip in June when we took the boys so they could make their own friend. So Adam was able to have a guy help him and he turned the pictures into a movie. And got a really great Apple tshirt too. Of course now our only problem is that he wants a $2700 Apple computer!

First Day of Co-op

Today the piglets (maybe I should call them bugs?) had their first day of coop with one of the local homeschool groups. I was not sure how the boys would do at all. Jovi was a little clingy. Jace frowned a lot and didn't participate much. I had to make him do the hand actions during his book time. I'm supposed to be lead teacher 1st hour but just don't have it in me right now. 2nd hour I go to the nursery as a helper where Jovi is. 3rd hour is my off hour but today I was helping a bit in nursery then got a break.
Sometimes I dread when coop is going to start. I think it's because I have a steady appointment to keep each week. It's almost a 1 hour drive each way too. But once we get there we love it!

(As I listed the kids just now in the labels, it hit me all over again....WOW I have 4 children!)

Jovi is in nursery the whole time. He'll stay here until next fall when he'll be almost 3 and hopefully ready to move up to the preK class. They play and have snack for 3 hours. Basically just hanging out.

Jace is in preK. I chose to go ahead and move him up so that he can start catching up on some skills he's behind in. Like learning to sit still and also to participate in class things. It's a good spot for him to be in. 1st hour they spend learning something, 2nd hour is craft, and 3rd is a movement class that is new. Or sometimes playing outside.

Jani is in preK for the 2nd year (it's for age 3-5). She really enjoyed it last year and enjoyed making some friends. Her schedule is the same as Jace's. I think she enjoyed the new format of circle time during 1st hour. She really got into the hand motions that Ms. Isabella had them doing. And when I mentioned a line from the book later on she said 'hey, that's from my cwass!'

Adam is taking World War II during 1st hour. He really likes Ms. S as his teacher. He took history with her last semester too. And since learning more about his heritage this summer he was really interested in taking her class. 2nd hour he has calendar but I think it was changed to photography. We're a bit unclear about it still. 3rd hour is PE. 2nd and 3rd hour weren't things he would normally take but the choices were a bit limited this semester. It's making me think about doing a class next semester that would give the 11yo boys more options.

After coop we met John at Sonic for a picnic lunch with some Sonic sweet tea. Mmmm.
It was the first day of coop, no matter what, that's always a bit chaotic!
(PS: during our lunch with John, Jovi got the first of many nosebleeds that led to the kids having surgery later on. They just randomly start and stop for no reason which is very frustrating for sure.)