First day of C.H.E.S.S.

Today was Katie's first day going to C.H.E.S.S. (which is a once a week Christian based program for homeschooled students where they go from 9-2 and take Chemistry, Art, Music and Soccer.) To say she loved it would be a major understatement! I dropped her off this morning and came after lunch to drive her to the soccer field and she was practically jumping up and down with excitement telling me all the things she had got to do. I took her to the soccer field and brought a blanket and sat with a couple of the other moms and their little ones. It was so much fun, we all sat and talked (mostly about homeschooling, breastfeeding and when the first snow might be...some think as soon as next week!) while the babies played and our older kids were on the field. It was so cool to talk with other moms who I have so much in common with and the kids had such a great time. This is such a cool program and it's really nice for Katie to get out and spend time with other home schooled kids. It's also nice for me to get a day "off" from teaching, but know that she is still learning in a really safe, great environment. :)

I know I'm probably beginning to sound like a broken record but I am just falling more and more in love with the everything about homeschooling. It is so much fun teaching Katie and watching her learn and seeing things "click" in her mind. I love how if she is having trouble with a certain subject, we can just stop and focus on it for as long as we need to. For instance, she was having trouble with fractions on her math worksheet so we put the school work away and went upstairs and got out the measuring cup and some water and worked with it until she really understood the concept. We did the same thing with counting money earlier in the week. I can see her really grasping things and understanding them and it's just so cool. My initial reasons for homeschooling were all about *her*... giving her the best one-on-one education, helping to shape her morals and confidence, etc. ...I never expected that *I* would love it so much! I was talking with one of the moms today at C.H.E.S.S. and she said that her older daughter spent a whole year doing nothing but reading all the classics in literature...how freakin cool is that? I would have LOVED to have been able to do that in high school. So after talking to her I got inspired and decided to do our own mini-version of that and let Katie pick one subject that we will study in depth for a week each month. She decided she wants to study volcanoes (my mom went to see Mt. Saint Helens before she came to visit and brought some books and videos about it and Katie has been totally fascinated) So we are going to the library and checking out everything we can find on volcanoes and are also going to build a model volcano that really erupts! I don't know who is more excited...Katie or me! LOL! So that is what we will be working on next week. :)

Well Katie has cheerleading in an hour so I better run, it's a long drive!