What happened to September?

Maddie finally just started to spell September correctly on her papers at school, just in time for October :) Where did the month go?

It's been a whilrlwind in the Nuehring household this month! We are trying to get in a groove with our schedule, but it's taking longer than expected.

Maddie's schedule at school is absolutely perfect. Her 2nd-grade teacher is wonderful. She had taught Maddie so many strategies for reading comprehension and we have seen so much growth already this year. She is also working hard to get Maddie to express her comprehension in a written form. She uses the PQPA technique with the students when they answer questions on paper. (part question, part answer). Maddie also takes the spelling tests with her 2nd-grade class as well and is improving each week. Last week was the first week that she was allowed to study the "challenge" words. She was so proud of herself, especially when she got 4 out of 5 of them correct on the test. Maddie spends a couple hours in the afternoon with her 1st-grade classroom. Her first-grade teacher is so loving and has a very warm personality. Maddie loves being in her class as well. They have been studying different cultures in 1st-grade, which ties in perfectly with the Native American Class that Haley and Maddie take on Tuesdays. I pick Maddie up a little early from school most days to do her math at home. She is taking her course online through the MOVIP program. The program is awesome!! We received two huge boxes filled with materials that she may need for the course including manipulatives, headphones, workbooks, text, etc. Whenever we have a question, she can email her teacher. She had an assignment she was required to do last week for an assessment. She had to solve a problem using a picture and an equation. Trying to get her to draw a frog that looked similar to a frog was the biggest challenge :) LOL She finally got one that looked okay, so we made copies of it and shrank it down. She was pretty proud of the final project when she was completed.

Haley is loving school as well. She has a fabulous 4th-grade teacher this year. They have studied magnetism and electricity in science. Right now, they are working on making a circuit board at school. I pick her up right after lunch W-F and we do math at home. She has quite a bit more homework for Algebra II than I had anticipated. However, it's getting a little easier to complete each week. She was getting really upset the first couple of weeks when she'd get problems wrong. So, I have learned that I need to sit with her and make sure she's on the right track for every single problem. Her teacher encourages them to check their work and fix it before turning in their assignments, so Haley is getting an "A" in Algebra II!! She was so proud to find that out this week :) We aren't doing a lot of reading right now because she has so much on her plate. In addition to Native American History and Algebra II, she is also taking Intermediate Spanish. She LOVES her classes at the Learning Center!

One of the challenges we are dealing with in Haley is her perfectionism. She thinks her answers have to be correct the first time. We are trying to teach her that making mistakes is part of the learning process, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in yet. On Mondays each week, she tries to solve a problem of the week. She usually attempts the elementary problem as well as the middle school problem. If she answers correctly the first time, her name is posted on the website. This past Monday, she missed the elementary problem. She burst into tears. She was mostly upset because she knew how to solve the problem, but had made a careless error. She did solve the middle school problem correctly, so I explained to her that she has super math skills. Nothing I said seemed to matter :(

Hunter is now working with me a little each day. He reads his sight words, reads a few books, practices piano, and does some math. Math is by far his favorite. Usually he completes 3 or 4 assignments of math each day!! We have the option to do 1/2 or full-day kindergarten next year. I think he needs to go to school until he matures a little (for my sake)!! I think the 1/2 day option sounds perfect though, so I can work with him at home still.

We are in the planning stages for a problem solving day with the Carpenters at the end of the month. The kids don't have school on the 30th, so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity! I think they'll have a lot of fun solving problems together. Now, Rachel and I need a MNO to plan :) We are also going to do our "Bubblegum" day in November! Brian is also taking the 29th off so we can visit the Cahokia mounds near St. Louis. Haley and Maddie's history teacher recommended the field trip, so we thought we would take advantage of one of their days off. The girls are super excited.

It's been a crazy start to the school year, but all three kids are LOVING the learning that they are doing. I'd say that's a mission accomplished!