a little (big) change

Recently our family made a big decision to do things a little different around here. It's been an interesting year of school for our oldest and after much prayer, conversation, more prayer, some more conversations, and even more prayer and following my gut instinct...we decided to do what is called dual enrollment with Jaxon starting 2nd semester. Dual enrollment is a great program our district offers (actually one our state has available) and it simply means that Jaxon goes to the elementary school for part of his schooling and the other part he does "home school" with me. He goes every day to school in the mornings until 12:35 and then I bring him home for the afternoon when we do our part here. I have many reason why we ended up with this choice, but to save you a lengthy post, you can just check out some pictures from our first few weeks and if you want to hear more about my heart on this matter... jump on over to my "In the Trenches" link in a day or two once I am done with that post.

 First day at home school! He was pretty excited....I was nervous, scared, and excited all at once!

First week of home school completed. To celebrate... Scratch Cupcakery of course!

One of the benefits of this new life-style...flexibility. When the sun is shining and baby is awake, we use the warm winter afternoons to get outside some days and do our school work when the temps go down and baby is asleep.

Austin has enjoyed doing some school work with Jaxon. Here they are working on read alouds and story time.

I would lie if I said I didn't like the teacher in me getting a chance to create fun learning experiences! Our first social studies unit was about community helpers...our friend, Firefighter Darwin, was more than happy to let the boys come down for a lesson in what he does for our community. Plus, the fire-truck exploring was an extra bonus!

I've been doing some researching and experimenting with "boys and learning". This energetic boy seems to focus better while sitting on a bouncy ball to let him release some energy while he works away on book work. Pretty sure I am learning just as much in different areas as we do this together.

I set up a little "classroom" area and both boys work well together in their new space. I've been letting Austin skip nap 2 days a week for preschool. He thinks this is the coolest thing ever and Jaxon actually works best on these days.

 

I have daycare kids 1 afternoon a week when Jax is home. He is a good helper most those days and leads story time before naps.

I love seeing my boys work together and getting a chance to teach them right now in this season. We are learning lots as our family adjusts to this new routine!