fourth quarter

Our "fourth quarter" of school took FOREVER - the beginning of August until the end of November. (And we still didn't hit 180 days total - we got to 165.) We had our last day of school today, because boy howdy, Mom is done and needs a fresh start.

August was a battle every step of the way with Sunny not wanting to do anything. It was also a battle because I was in the first trimester of another pregnancy, and I just didn't have it in me to fight her. It was exactly why AC was hesitant to homeschool in the first place - I couldn't keep it up with managing babies and another pregnancy. But even with that ... Sunny is lightyears ahead on her reading - upper elementary or even middle school level already, and she's only 6. Posy wasn't quite 5 (her birthday was in October so she's not even eligible for kindergarten for another year) and she already knows how to read. They're at grade level with math - preK to 1st - and a little behind with their handwriting ... They're fine. And they're still very young. Any major deficiencies still have plenty of time to be fixed and made up. I wasn't worried about it.

September, we got things going a little bit with some incentives of new books for Sunny but even that didn't last very long. It was still better than August. We took most of October off - getting ready for a vacation (for my birthday, and because Mom and Dad needed it after an extremely long and difficult year of non-homeschool related things), a birthday week for Posy and Magnolia (3 days apart), and then going on our vacation to Disney World.

When we got home from Florida, November actually went pretty well. Sunny decided she wanted to work in her math book instead of the online program, which she has jumped back and forth on. She hadn't used the book since last spring, but it's the same stuff as online - working on addition, telling time, measuring, and the beginnings of learning about money. We actually had school every day this month (except Thanksgiving, of course), and even did double work a couple of times a week for makeup days! And we had our field trip days in Oklahoma - very fun!

The secret to November, oddly enough, seemed to be a daily incentive, rather than every week or 10 days. What did Sunny get? Her Halloween candy. One piece of candy when she completed her full day's work - math, language, reading, and either science or art. I hate using food, and especially candy, as a reward, but sheesh. It worked. And it wasn't anything that I had to buy and I would have let her have most of it anyway.