At first I thought maybe it was a honeymoon period. But it’s lasted through three week (and a day), so I’m thinking this will just keep up. Homeschooling is going so amazingly smoothly. The things we are using are working great. The kids are cooperating beautifully. We’re loving it!

Ani works on her own (except most of chemistry). She’s enjoying going through the lesson plans she made. I am most impressed by how well (and easily) she is teaching herself ASL. Psychology is a bit overwhelming to her, but she is determined to make sense of it. Life of Fred Geometry ended up being a bit confusing so I ordered her Art of Problem Solving Geometry. Much better. Except she needs a compass and we don’t have one.

Cameron and Fritz are both so easy. They get right to work and keep at it, working steadily, until they are finished. Adrian is a different story, but I figure he’s only 6 and in some countries that means he wouldn’t even be in formal school yet. He reads better than he lets on and he’s memorized one poem and the definition of a noun. Nothing I’ve given him in math has even remotely challenged him yet. Who knows what he is getting out of stuff they do together. Sometimes he’s really into it, sometimes not at all.

I am loving the Peace Hill Press stuff we are using. Adrian is doing First Language Lessons 1. I remember some of the lessons and poems when I did them with Ani back when there was only one volume of FLL. Fritz is doing First Language Lessons 3 (day after tomorrow he starts learning diagramming!) and Writing With Ease 2. Both are perfect for him. Cameron is doing Writing With Style 1. I really went back and forth on that one because of his orthographic processing disorder, but I’m so glad I decided to go with it. He hates it (because it’s reading and writing), but he’s learning from it and it is working well for him.

I absolutely love Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra and Beast Academy 3. Once we figured out Pre-Algebra was not going to be self-teaching, but instead I needed to use it to teach the information to Cameron, it’s been pretty smooth sailing. I love the try-teach/learn-practice method. Beast Academy has been fun for Fritz so far. He does Beast Academy Monday through Thursday and a Life of Fred chapter on Fridays.

History Odyssey (Early Modern 1) is working well for all three boys. People told me it would be too easy and boring for Cameron, but it hasn’t really turned out to be that way. I do give him an extra assignment once a week and don’t make him do coloring pages. Fritz has almost memorized the rulers of England from Elizabeth I to Charles II. He’s just having trouble remembering Richard Cromwell’s first name (he remembers that it’s Oliver Cromwell’s son).

REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry is going well, too. It’s too easy for Ani, of course. She is doing Life of Fred Chemistry as well. And Ani and Cameron have a huge chemistry kit they use once a week. After doing it with me one day, we decided it would be best if Jamie did it with them. He understands chemistry much better than I do and so he can explain things better than “it worked because it just does.”

We like our other stuff, too. We’re using Discover the Latter-day Prophets and Hands-on Church History from Discover the Scripture for religion. Art and Music are from Confessions of a Homeschooler. We really did a great job picking curricula this year.

Now, if the next 33 weeks goes as well as the last three, I do think we’ll have had the best year of homeschooling ever!