Back to School 2012-2013

I thought I'd start the first post of the new school year with a smattering of pictures from our insanely fun and zanily action-packed summer of love!  I was surrounded by kids most of the summer.  We had the little babies we watched, my niece Ali, my god daughter Holly, and our exchange student Anja hanging out with us at various times during the summer.  We went all over town and the state to see interesting things.  We took a little trip to Niagara Falls, and Anja and I had a fabulous girls' weekend in Chicago.  I think one of our favorite events, though, was my old friend Lee bringing a chunk of dry ice and the fun we had experimenting with it. Things have settled down now.  All the extra kids are back at school and back in their own countries.  We have even stopped babysitting the babies for various reasons.  Yesterday was our last day with baby girl.  We will miss everyone!

After all this excitement, I knew it was going to be a challenge to get them back to the nitty-gritty of school work.

We had our first day on September 4.

I tried desperately to get them to pose nicely for a First Day of 4th Grade picture, but this was the best I could do.  We decided Andrew could skip 3rd grade and call himself a 4th grader since he's doing all the same work as his brother, anyway.  Michael did try to talk me into registering them both for kindergarten at the public school way back when.  He wanted me to fake the birth certificates so that they could be "twins".  Whatever, dear.

I did eventually get them to buckle down:

Here is reading time.

Here is cursive writing practice.

Who knows what in the heck this is all about.

We've sort of eased into the work.  Luckily for us, Math U See starts you off very gently, because I wasn't as maniacal about the math practice over the summer as I have been in previous summers.

See how easy, peasy this is?  Remind of this day when we start doing long division.

Here is a link to my Pinterest board which shows the materials we are using for school this year.  

I'm not going to break down each subject tonight, because my mother and I stayed up very late last night watching Harry Potter movies and now I'm almost brain dead from exhaustion.  So, here are some  examples of the work they've done over the past 2 weeks.  Most of it is pretty simple and straightforward to get them back into the groove.

They started taking theatre at the Solon Center for the Arts again.  They are a little disappointed because Mr. Dusten isn't teaching the class this year.  But, it's a big group of kids and they seem to have enjoyed the first two classes so far.

The big activity for this year is an all day Arts Class at the Willoughby Fine Arts Center.  They spend all day on Mondays at the center and take classes in theatre, visual arts, music and dance.  Music and theatre were their favorite classes after the first session.  Andrew is in a group of kids ages 4-8.  Eddie is in a group of kids ages 9-14.  I'm glad they are separated for a little while.  It makes them appreciate each other more at the end of the day.

Here's what they brought home:

This was a rendition of a dog from the story the art teacher read to them.  

This is General Grievous, which Ed apparently drew after he drew what he was supposed to draw.  I guess he left the assigned picture there.

Well, that's all I have the energy to report for today.  Maybe the next installment will be more exciting.

Oh, yeah!  I almost forgot.  Eddie has decided that he wants a letter grade on every single assignment I give him this year.  So, of course, Andrew does, too.  This should be interesting!