Ben and I decided to start school yesterday with the rest of our Pulaski and Chicago Public friends and family.  We did a little bit last week with the girls…some journal writing, some math and some sight words and reading with Maddy.  But yesterday we made a good effort at sitting down and having proper school.  Now of course today we’re back on the water so it’s a half baked effort of me doing it in between them taking “brain breaks” playing.  But back to yesterday!  We were all gung ho to do school first thing in the morning.  But then it was going to be 95 and by 9 AM was already sweltering in lovely Alton, IL and the girls were desperate to ride their bikes.  So, we put off Math and Reading and went for a bike ride.  Who says you can’t start with PE?  We both believe they will stay on track, if not ahead, and part of the purpose of this year is that when life gets in the way of school so be it.  They will be fine!

It was hot!  It was very very hot!  But also great for us to get out since we left today and likely won’t be at a marina until Saturday night or possibly Sunday.  My feelings and fears about that could be an entire other blog post.  But back to school….

We took our bike ride.  We stopped along the waterfront path and took turns reading the history of the Mississippi and flooding plaques that were posted to work in a little Social Studies.  Came back for water and a snack and started school.  It will take awhile to get a rhythm down and figure out a schedule that works and I think we’ll be fairly flexible but yesterday we had them start with a writing prompt and then Ben did Reading and I did Math with each.  We asked them to write two things they were excited about and one they were nervous about.  Molly got right to work.  As most of you already saw on Facebook, Maddy was her typical difficult self about writing.  But eventually she did it.  We wouldn’t help her spell or sound stuff out.  We told her to just write and not worry about it.  She did get her name on the white board with 2 checks. We told her if she got to five no swimming pool.  And also told her if she didn’t get working she was going to finish the assignment while one of us took Molly to the pool.  Always a challenge with her!

Onto Math and Reading.  Ben took Maddy and did sight words (painful), then did a read aloud and then had her read (also painful – we’ll get there!  She’s just SO STUBBORN!).  I did Math with Molly.  Fourth grade math is a doozy.  I know there are so many common core critics out there.  I’m the first to say what I hate about it but I have to admit even though it’s been a challenging two days to get through, I totally get and understand the concept behind why it’s being taught this way and am kind of curious to see how this unit progresses.  I admit I only look a day or so ahead at a time.  By the time we were halfway through the problem set for the second lesson Molly was fried.  So, beauty of home schooling…time to stop!  Put it away and move on.  Back at it today and we had some rough patches but much better after a break.

We swapped and I did Math with Maddy.  I like first grade math.  It’s good stuff.  And thankfully super easy for Maddy too.  Molly is jealous.  Ben and Molly started reading Huck Finn together.  I read the first chapter as well so that we can both trade off with reading.  Ben found comprehension questions online so they just did one chapter and talked through those.

Haven’t figured out Word Study or anything else yet.  All in good time.  Time to hit the pool for the rest of the day!  Fun afternoon swimming, got picked up in a golf cart for dinner in town.  And you know what?  When we were riding in the golf cart back past where we had biked that morning Maddy leaned over to me and said “is there really a buried island out in there in the river?”.  She listened!  And remembered!  We read about a sunken island where tons of bodies were buried after a smallpox epidemic.

Both claimed to have a good first day!

Today has gone like this…get off the boat and run around b/c we may not be able to for three days.  Hey, PE again!  Yay!  Get back on the boat…go play because we have two locks to get through.  Ooh, St. Louis, the Arch, neat bridges, come look at all that.  Now it’s lunchtime so we may as well do that first.  Ok, math!  I’m solo today b/c Ben is driving the boat.  Got through Math with both girls.  Maddy is working on a little FrontrowEd right now while Molly works on her homework.  Still have to tackle reading and that’s likely it for today.  On long travel days we will do what we can and catch up on other days.  Molly did sight words with Maddy!  Win!  And Maddy says she wants to do that every day.  Bigger win!

Still on my list to figure out…a lesson all about the Arch and the Gateway to the West (materials obtained at the Arch Sunday), Word Study (sigh) and more organized writing curriculum.  Apologies if this is long and you made it this far.  So many have asked me about school so wanted to share what our first and second day looked like.  It’s not much but it’s a start! Thanks for reading…back to helping with Math homework questions….

Laura

This is Laura.  My posts will be less technical and detail oriented than Ben’s and will likely pertain more to what the kids and I do all day!  Dishes.  And food preparation.  A lot of dishes.  And a lot of food preparation!  Ok, so I do those things but am trying to strike a balance with the girls between taking in some of the nature around us and occupying the hours.  We’ve played a little Yahtzee, done some math, done some journaling, done some reading, cleaned some toilets (glamorous and yet the thing in this list they were most excited about), played with dolls and Legos (the girls, not me) and watched some TV.

I told Madelyn before bed last night that she’d be allowed to watch a movie or two today.  Anyone who knows her well will be amazed that since we left last Monday this is the first movie she’s watched!  Definitely watched some TV but hadn’t yet fallen back on movies.  Today we are doing a very long 138 miles down to Alton, IL.  Depending on our speed it will take between 10 and 12 hours most likely.  Molly woke up when we started the engines about 6:25 AM. Maddy, by some miracle, slept til 8:30! Right now we’re getting very good fuel economy but I suspect at some point us being stir crazy will make fuel economy go out the window and Ben will pick up speed and just get there.  We end our journey on the Illinois River today and at Grafton, IL we get onto the Mississippi River!

Yesterday both girls got out their binoculars and took in some of the river.  Ben has better luck with the binoculars – he spotted a bald eagle, deer drinking at the river’s edge, jumping fish, etc.  But girls enjoyed trying to find things none the less.

We ended up in Havana, IL last night.  Very sleepy little town.  We got attacked by mosquitoes and I slept  maybe 2.5 hours last night because I was up til well after 3 AM killing them.  We enjoyed dinner with friends we’ve been traveling with the past few days.

We’ve been so lucky to have had such a wonderful first week.  So many thanks and so much gratitude to everyone who came to see us.  Fred, Sophie and Zoe who joined us our first day and Nikki who came to fetch them and brought dinner Monday night.  Andrea and Joe who came to see us Tuesday night in Joliet. Gary, Lana, Marshall, Price, Tara and Aubrey who met us in Ottawa Wednesday night and then Gary who found us in the Starved Rock lock Thursday morning!  My mom, Libby, Grace, Hannah, Caroline and my mom’s friends Pam and Jeff who came to Peoria Thursday night.  It’s been a whirlwind week and we feel so loved!  Bonus visit from my other sister Emily tonight.  She’s driving from Kansas City and meeting us in Alton, IL to spend tonight and tomorrow night.  We really are so thankful!  It’ll be a month or so after this until we see family or friends so we are grateful for this wonderful week.

More random thoughts…everyone is asking about school.  CPS doesn’t start until next week so I told myself I wouldn’t start in earnest until then or after.  Molly has started math.  Both have been writing…Molly more than Madelyn (shocking I know) and we’re working on reading with Madelyn but need to pick up the pace on that.  Once we are done having so much amazing company we’ll sit down in the evenings and get ourselves organized!  Every person we see or talk to tells us how much the girls will learn this year just being in this setting.  We agree but the teacher in me says they have to read, write and do their arithmetic as well!

Thanks for reading my random, catch all, catch up blog post!

Laura

Ben’s working on a longer post about our first day but I just want to say a huge thank you to so many people who have helped us get here.  Our families….all the love and support (despite not wanting us to go), countless hours and days of taking the kids so we could work on the boat, a fabulous send off, the list goes on.  Our dear dear friends who we will miss like family…again countless hours of helping with the kids, crying and laughing and planning with us and being supportive.  Everyone that helped Ben get the boat ready.  Our Burnham E dock family.  The list goes on.

We will miss you and hope to see many of you along the way.  We love you all!

Laura, Ben, Molly and Madelyn