First Classroom

In June Brighteyes went to her first official "class". I've been homeschooling her for two years now, but this year she's 5 and eligable to take a week-long summer program with the nuns at Catholic Charities. They offered a range of morning classes, we chose two: an art and music class in June and a biology class in July. She loves both subjects, and she needs some exposure to group schooling settings. In addition, it would give me more time to work on Sunshine's reading.

She did beautiful work in her art class, and according to the nuns she was no trouble at all. The problem was getting her up every day for a 9:00 class. Monday she bounded out of bed, Tuesday and Wednesday she dragged, Thursday she came home and slept until Friday morning. Friday we shoved her out the door half asleep for her recital. When we arrived for the show an hour later, she was still asleep on her feet. She didn't really wake up until she was on the stage and saw me wave to her from the audience. While she will be old enough to begin first grade this fall, she clearly isn't ready for months of early rising. I wonder how any child manages that.

All in all she enjoyed the experience, but I don't think we'll do many more. She was disapointed with how strictly her time was controlled in the class. The students were set out one to a table, and didn't have a chance to interact with the other children until lunch. She wanted to spend more time with the other girls and boys.

I did enjoy having a week alone with Sunshine, and she made great strides in her reading. I must remember not to let Brighteyes hog all the attention.

The following week it took Brighteyes two days to recover the homeschool routine. She was very tired and somewhat irritable because the class hadn't been what she had expected.

Sunday night we got a call from one of the nuns. Since Brighteyes had enjoyed herself so much, would she like to come to next week's class? They hadn't had enough children sign up for it and would put her in for free. We declined because she was still too tired. Also, the class was "Introduction to School" for kindergarten and first-graders. I wonder how many other parents decided they didn't need that class besides us? ;)