School Days, School Days!

We found a kitten last night. After getting her more used to us I gave her a bath. She still does not want anyone touching her tail so I haven't been able to verify if she is, indeed a girl cat. We are looking for her owners but would gladly keep her if we can't find who she belongs to.

Today was the first day of our sixth semester of Commonwealth Leadership Academy of Clarksville. It is a new commonwealth school that I started with the help of some friends and a great mentor.
And we are growing! Twelve families with 42 kids total this semester.

Being in charge of something like this is more than I ever thought I would do. It is a stretch for me to be in a leadership position and I have learned so much through it all. Unfortunately, I am still having to learn time management and delegation.

But overall, things went really well.

The good: everyone was early today and everyone we expected showed up! It was so exciting to see the other families committed, as we have had issues with that in the past. All of the classes gave a good report and we are all learning and growing together.

The bad: The last week of each month we follow a different schedule. Since it is the first day of class, I forgot that it is also the last week of the month. I forgot about the training I was supposed to offer at the end and had to be reminded (by one of our new families, nonetheless). Training went fine but we were off schedule. Actually, I was off schedule all day. Time was flying by and my responsibilities weren't fitting in with the schedule. My goal for CLAC is to do better at keeping to the schedule.

And the UGLY: I was so busy I didn't even tend to my own toileting needs from 9-5, which means I definitely forgot about the twins needs. Luckily they wear diapers when we leave the house. But it is no help to learning to use the toilet when you are stuck in a diaper all day. Poor Corey was in a dirty diaper for a couple hours because we didn't even remember to bring spares. Luckily, as soon as we were home they got right back to using the toilet. We'll keep working on improving in that too.

Oh and the best part of today: I got to take back to school pictures with a cute sign my friend gave me when she moved. Enjoy! 

School wore him out! Corey fell asleep in the car later too.

Alexis is in Practice Scholar class this year. They are doing Shakespeare Conquest. She gets to be a queen if she reads, watches or listens to 17 plays. She wants to be an empress by doing 34. In May she will be in a Shakespeare play. For now they are studying Hamlet. She is thrilled!

Emi is in the girls' book club. They are reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. She is also in my class for unit study. This year we are doing a fun class I made up. We call it "show and tell" and they get to share what they love and we will dig deeper into answering their questions. Emi isn't sure yet what she wants to share for her turn at show and tell.

Johnny is new to the Love of Learning classes. He is in the boys' book club. They voted for us to read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I am teaching that class and there are NINE boys in it. I am still thinking of ways to keep them quiet while we read. I have a couple ideas to try out. He also gets to do the Show and Tell unit study. He recently began reading and is excited to finish some series. He really wants the kitten we found to be his and since he is in Love of Learning phase now he is old enough for a pet.

William has a hard time being in my class at school, so we made sure he had a different mentor. She is going to be GREAT for him. He is one of the oldest in his class now and I think that will be good too. In class today his teacher taught him that there are two ways to read; reading the words and "reading" the pictures. He is excited to learn about reading words because he can already read pictures. Each week when we go over what we want to learn that week William always wants to give four of five ideas (I ask for three). He is definitely falling in love with learning.

Joseph moved up to the Older Core class this year. He gets to be in class with William and is now also very excited to learn about reading. He is my kid that always asks how things are made or how they work. He still loves telling jokes and making people happy. He worked hard to write his name on the board. Usually he writes JOJO, but he wanted to be official here with his full name.

Corey talks so quietly it is hard for me to hear and understand him. I think that was the problem today. I asked what he wanted to learn about and thought he said aminals, but then he broke down in major tears declaring that he did NOT want animals. He loves going to friends' houses and I could hear clearly that he wants to keep going to the Montagues. (We go there each week after school for the school leaders to meet and discuss school things). Corey loves to try new things and talk his brother into misbehaving.

Sammy was so excited to fill out his board. He wrote his name and was naming letters as he wrote. If I remember right his name is spelled, "that, that, w, s, d, x" He loves to try and get his own food and drinks even though he is supposed to have help. He is doing a great job learning to use the toilet and now HATES being called a baby. "We not baby we big boys." Anytime he asks for something and is told no he says, "but its my faybit!" (favorite). He loves having his picture taken and then running to the camera to see himself.

 And now for a few bloopers pictures: