Our School Year: Week 1

 We got off to a pretty decent start during our first week back to school. The first week or so is always about tweaking what I thought would work when prepping for the school year with what actually worked. 

It is also about getting my girls back into the mindset of doing school and all that that entails. 

Because I am getting no help from the school system this year with Sarah I put in more prep time and creative juices in to how to help her to learn than I have in a long time. This has been both incredibly good for me while also being incredibly exhausting. I have an inkling that trying to think outside the box constantly to help her learn is going to be my biggest challenge this year. I know that it can be done though and plan on making sure that she has the best learning experience possible with the tools and resources we have available to us. 

Subject wise Elizabeth's favorite subject after one week of schooling is the astronomy class she is taking. Sarah's favorite subjects right now are advanced biology and algebra, but she said that Latin and science and geography are close seconds. Sarah isn't a fan of grammar or reading to me. Elizabeth isn't a huge fan of geography. 

There were a couple of subjects we did not get to last week because I was either waiting for the curriculum to arrive in the mail or because we ran out of time. We will be working on those for the first time this upcoming week. 

The girls had their first choir practice last week as well. Elizabeth really liked it and Sarah is on the fence about it. The irony of their feelings is that Elizabeth fought me all summer about not wanting to pursue this opportunity insisting that she would hate it; Sarah was much more open to the idea, but found the choir's lack of being ready for her disappointing especially given the fact that they knew weeks and weeks in advance that she was blind.  She is excited at the prospect of getting to know 40 other kiddos her age and is willing to see choir through despite its initial disappointments because of the thought of branching out and finding a friend group.

Elizabeth also began soccer practice with other like minded girls. Some of them are homeschooled, some public schooled, and some attend private school. What makes these girls alike is that none of them play high school soccer or competitive soccer so there is none of that competitiveness that you find so often in high school level sports. Elizabeth likes to play soccer purely for fun and this is the perfect league for her to do so in. 

 Sarah working through her spelling words using these magnetic letters. I am having her use as many textile options as I can in order for her to learn easier. 

Sarah also uses a dry erase board to write her spelling words. It is important to both of us that she does not forget how to write in the event that she one day can see again.