First "real" schooling day of the 2018-2019 year

I am SO excited. We are homeschooling this year in a very different fashion. We are going to our co-op on Mondays. On Tuesdays we have a lot of activities. On Wednesday and Friday we are homeschooling with my cousin's family at our house. Here is our gang: 

From back left: Genevieve (pre-K), Hannah Joy (pre-K), Eoin "Owen" (K), Ana (6), Abigail (1), Kari (4), Isac (4), Gabe (7), Sidge (4)

Below I am including just random photos that Hannah Grace (my cousin's wife) or myself took during our first big homeschooling day. We are schooling from 9-5. We have it incredibly well-organized with a detailed schedule of where kids are moving when. I'll tell the rest of the story with some pictures (in no particular order). These pictures are exciting to me because not only are we schooling but our house, while not completely finished, is basically done and quite usable!

We started off the morning with our history: Drive-Thru History. All nine kids started off watching but our three "kinders" soon broke off to do their own thing.  

We are working to be incredibly organized during these "days of nine children" to keep things easier for us. For example, this is where you keep your water bottles. Everyone has their own and keeps them there to keep getting drinks (and cup usage) simple. 

We are doing snacks in "groups." For example: hungry between 9-11? Your choice is apples. No other choices. Eat it or leave it. :) (P.S. We don't have all of our living room furniture in the house yet so the couch and table won't be in those spots eventually.)

Hannah Grace is in charge of the three littles. Genevieve will be five in December. Hannah Joy just turned five yesterday. And Eoin has just turned six. We are doing the same thing with all three (basically kindergarten curriculum) but pushing Eoin slightly harder than Hannah Joy and Hannah Joy slightly harder than Genevieve. 

I must say that God orchestrated our families connecting so perfectly. Hannah Grace has a GIFT for the little kids. And while I love them, my patience in gifting (thus the fact that I was a high school English/Journalism teacher) is definitely high school. Basically Hannah Grace "dealt with" the three younger all day while I managed the six older. Both of us was SOOOO glad we didn't have the other job.

We have created quite a few "nooks" for kids to find a quiet place to do their assignments. 

We have two desktop computers, one laptop, and one iPad to rotate among the kids. We have headphones available for times that they feel the room is just too loud to focus. 

Here's a view of two different kids working at the same time. Sidge is on the computer while Kari is curled up doing some reading on the window seat.

Ana and I are going to be working together on her creative writing this year. Here she is working on a story for me that I will help her edit, rewrite, type, and go through multiple rough drafts until she gets the final paper done.

We did lunch in three groups. This allowed some kids to get on a computer while another set were eating lunch. We have three very clear delineations: the younger kids, the girls, and then the boys. It is really split very well despite some differences in age.

Our younger group is going to be doing a letter of the week. This week, being the first week, the letter was A. 

The Letter A courtesy of Hannah Joy.

Genevieve's A!

We are doing a scripture of the week that starts with the letter "A". The younger kids are learning a simplified version of the full verse. 

Today was a special day because we celebrated Hannah Joy's birthday with Grama's famous ice cream cake with the family. We actually had fourteen people there (kids and grown-ups) and I feel we could have put fourteen more before it got crowded. My dream space came true!

Nine kiddos around the table. This table is not our final table but it seats ten easily.

JB did a science unit with the kids on fungi. He will be doing some science when his off day correlates with home school while Uncle Eddie will be teaching some Latin. 

Working on their experiment.

Studying the water level.

The group of bigs (and Abigail who is right in the middle of the two groups but would never want to be with the little kids.) 

We also worked on art as a whole group studying Georgia O'Keefe.

Art time!

Check out Eoin's "A" crown. See, these are the things Hannah Grace does that I would not want to do. And yes, of course the U.S. Open was on anytime the computer was free!

I am actually in a photo! Here I am working with our three fourth graders with a group discussion project. You can see Eoin in the background doing activity on his own. 

Trying it without me. And check it out, two different kids working in the background. Lots of rotations going on.

Gabe doing some reading and comprehension work. 

"Hey! What are you doing there? Can I copy your work?"

What a cutie!

Hannah Grace did such a good job moving these guys between activities. Boy oh boy was my Hannah EXHAUSTED by days' end. The days are big, but we really love the way this worked today. It truly went like a dream with absolutely nothing that we felt we needed to change. I know everyday may not go quite as good, but man oh man was this fun. Truly the funnest homeschool day I have ever had outside of our co-op. 

I LOVE COMMUNITY!!!!!!!