week 1 for Jojo

This week we started easing into our school routines with the kids.  The older girls have to get on the bus at 6:30am, so we have been adjusting wake-up time to 5:30 so they can get dressed and eat before they get on the bus.  This has gone pretty well, and yesterday we nailed the wake-up time perfectly and got them all fed and dressed like I need to in time.

Jojo, on the other hand, is having a harder time adjusting to school.  We have another week still before I have to start logging attendance, so I have time to get her into it better.  Now remember, she is a young K'er with her birthday being just a few weeks before the cutoff date in Ohio.  She is still 4, and VERY much a 4 year old.  I keep lessons short and sweet with her, breaking up the bigger stuff into little bits and adding in hands-on craft stuff to keep her going.  She's working at a developmentally appropriate level for her age with the tweaking I'm doing, and I have no issues with it.  This challenge we are working through right now is precisely WHY she isn't going to the charter school with her sisters.  She really does need the extra time working with me before she's ready to head off to school too.

This week has been really interesting as far as trying to get a routine started with Jojo and her schoolwork.  Having her sisters home all week (and half of the upcoming week as well) has made it a bit difficult to get into a routine with her; she keeps wanting to do her lessons and then getting distracted by their presence.  So I'm just calling it good that we get anything at all done before they head off on Thursday to school.

Really, though, she has done a lot.  We have completed the first unit in math (about 3 weeks of lessons, it was all review for her) and the first 2 units in phonics (again, review for her) on top of half the handwriting for the year (it was the same book we did with her last school year so she just sat down and did it all over the course of a few days for fun) and a few lessons in language arts and social studies.  It has been a very productive week for her, even with the distraction of her sisters being here still all day.

I anticipate that next week when they head to school, it will be a completely different story for how Jojo does in her schoolwork.  But, we have a picnic on Thursday and PJ has his 6 month checkup on Friday, so we'll see how much we get done those first two days of school.