First week of the Year!

Hannah had her first basketball game this past week. She shot the ball twice and made both baskets! Her team is going to have the biggest challenge winning this season. They have some disadvantages regarding the ages and experience levels of their team members, but they held their own and played hard. No one keeps score at this age so I don't know exactly how well they did. Hannah loved it. She was so nervous before the game started, but on the way home she said that she had a great time and couldn't wait for the next game. Brynne has her first two games this week. Fun stuff!

One of my big projects this week was decluttering the play/school room. When a room serves duel functions it can get a little crazy. And when it gets too crazy the kids stop playing in there.
I threw away 2 boxes worth of junk (papers, garbage, broken toys), have one HUGE box to donate to Goodwill, and another box of toys that I'm going to put into deep storage (for my grandchildren??). Because really, kids don't need a lot of toys. I'd rather my kids played outside in the fresh air - the toys are a back-up plan for those cold, rainy days when being outside is just not fun. So that was a big job..

Brynne came home with the news that her whole class is moving up a level in reading (the school is divided up by ability). This is something that rarely happens. Occasionally a kid will test up or down, but they can't really be doing a big student shuffle every 8 weeks, so it works better if the entire class can move up together. Based on her test scores, Brynne has been ready to move up for several months...and now they can. The benefit of this is that she will, hopefully, finally get challenged in her spelling! I actually think they mis-placed her with the original test. Mostly because this reading test was the first ever "real" test that Brynne ever took and I don't think it accurately reflected her abilities. Some of us just never test well, period. But she has done top-of-the-line work the entire year and I'd like to have her learn something, too!

Hannah's new math program came this week. She jumped right into it (on Saturday) and did the first 4 lessons.  Brynne is looking longingly at it with the promise that she can do it once she's done with Public School. THIS is one reason why I homeschool. I want my children to love to learn (and I want to be able to enjoy watching them love learning).

Logan decided to do a science experiment this week. He is sprouting bean seeds in a jar. He "planted" them (in a most paper towel) on Friday. I had been soaking beans the night before to cook in my bean soup, so they did have a bit of an advantage. Today they have 1-inch sprouts dangling from them. We're making a little book to record his observations. Great handwriting practice for him!

Lots of stuff going on around the Richardson household!