One semester down.

We survived our first semester homeschooling. It went well other than the every day shock that we were going to do school each day. While some people loosen up when that kind of pressure is on, we did not because having something for them to do each day was better than them having nothing for days.

The nice thing about being in El Paso has been the weather. We have had small boughts of cold weather making it so the kids can't go outside, but for the most part many afternoons are just spent outside playing.

I like having the kids at home and other than a few small complaints I think the children like it better as well. Zachary would like more friends, which has been a struggle between me being sick from being pregnant and co-op being during nap time so that we skipped out on it. He does have the one little neighbor boy that he plays with when he's not grounded (usually for attitude) so he could play more if he kept his attitude in check.

Zayden has proven to be the most difficult, but he was the one I didn't want to homeschool the most. But at the same time feared which course of the path he would follow if continuing in a public school. He's easily persuaded to make bad choices, bully others, and be that trouble maker. He is however learning and we're working through it. He survived the semester as did I so we're getting somewhere. Hopefully he'll catch on about how easy homeschooling will/can be as we continue on. Then he should be able to have more independent studies like Zachary, however I do know he's sneaky so he will have to be more monitored.

Zavier other than being Zavier and in la la land a lot does wonderful at school. If I can devote my mornings about an hour he's usually done and can  more on to other activities for the day. He still usually won't help clean up and is good about slipping out of responsibility, but maybe as he ages that will change a bit.