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We had a great start! Tamara liked that I actually wrote out a schedule for her, and agreed that it made sense to tackle math first (after Bible) and save her favorites for last. It worked beautifully! She even did her "independent" boxes all on her own, without any prompting or help. This is a big step forward. One other adjustment I made was to have her do an easy math facts warm up sheet before her Singapore. Then I had her do today's math, which was a textbook review page, on the whiteboard, and I selected which ones for her to do and stopped after 30 minutes. She got every problem correct! Here is our order of classes:
Bible
Math
Poetry
Language Arts
Science
Reading About History
Research/Vocabulary/Geography/Timeline
History Project (3 days a week)
Independent History
Storytime
If not for a long phone call with Keri's online school to finalize enrollment, we would have been done by noon, with an 8 AM start! We finished at 1 PM This is great progress since what is was like when we first started Preparing at the beginning of 2010.
As for Keri, she got her log-in for school and watched her student orientation. By tomorrow her courses will be ready to access. And Ariel did all her work for today in about 5 hours, all on her own. We even had time for chores, and now I can take a break and relax before starting dinner.

That's awesome, Lourdes!! So glad for you!!

I just had to add, that we went through real struggles at first when we started in January, and all the way through July. After the summer break, it's like a breath of fresh air! Tamara and I even had time to play a game of Mancala, and the girls sat down with me and Dan for dinner at the table, instead of taking their plates to the sofa and snapping the tv on-I tell you, it's like night and day, I feel God's hand in it all

Lourdes - Praise the Lord! I have been praying for you each day. I am so happy your first day went well, and I know many more will likely follow. The Lord is working through you here, as your focus on what is good, pure, right, and lovely at a time when it is not easy to focus on these things is a true testimony to what it means to strive to be Christ-like. May the Lord continue to bless your homeschooling!

Love in Christ,
Julie

Lourdes,

It looks like you have a great plan in place and are reaping the benefits of your daughter in Preparing Hearts being a bit more independent, which is a true blessing! It sounds like your other girls are settling in as well. Praise the Lord! It can feel good to get back into more of a routine, as I know both my kiddos and I sincerely need it for the long days of fall and winter that are coming all too soon!

Blessings,
Carrie