With school officially back in session here at our house, I've started adding my 5 year old to the process. He will be ready for Kindergarten next year and I need to decide if he will be homeschooled too, if I will continue to h/s Niles, etc etc. We have the big magnet and charter schools lottery coming up shortly. So I need to decide, do I put in for a shot at any of those.

It is going well and I am enjoying it for the most part. There are difficult times, but not DIFFICULT times. So it's seems fairly manageable. I find getting work for Niles to be easier than for Luca, since I wonder where to start with him. His preschool doesn't focus so much on academics as so many of them do. Instead they work on the socialization and emotional aspects of the kids. They do a lot of work helping the kids recognize what emotions their friends are feeling, how to make friends, conflict resolution [don't just take the toy, ask if you can have it when they're done type stuff]. Spending a day in the classroom is very informative, as you can see how some of the kids are getting it and using their words vs. the kids who are still learning it. Having had to pay for a social skills class for my eldest, I know just how valuable these skills are. And Luca, while not as shy as Niles, is certainly not as outgoing as Nate.

Anyhow, because of the way Kindergarten is structured, this means that Luca will start at a disadvantage to the kids who have spent the past one or two years reviewing letters, working on counting, etc. All the things that used to get taught in Kindergarten. So I decided since Niles was still working in the afternoon when he gets home from preschool, I'd start doing a few things w/Luca. We're using the Five in a Row program for daily reading and some activities and I've been doing some coloring pages with letters and a Kindergarten Singapore math book too. Mostly, it's covering same/different type stuff.

Speaking of which I need to run and grab him from preschool now, so I guess I'll have to write more later. At least I feel like we're making progress and moving along.