Our first day of home schooling

Yesterday was my first full day attempt at home schooling. August is quickly learning to read, but has trouble working on something for more than ½ hour at a time. It’s a challenge to maintain his interest and concentration. I’m assuming this is one of the beauties of home schooling; my entire focus is on August’s learning and progress, and when I notice he gets tired of doing something, we can simply switch. It was difficult however, to work all day – he’s just not used to it – but I’m convinced we had a good start. William did very well; he doesn’t do the exact work but he listens to everything I say, and then scribbles or colors. In the evening, the downstairs kids came by, and Lyric taught him how to draw a tree.

Courtney & I had arranged a baby sitter so that we could go to the gym across the street, but realizing that our equipment is in our shipment, which has yet to arrive, we took a taxi over to Road 9 instead for a bit of shopping and sightseeing.

This morning I took the boys to a preschool, Small World, nearby, for their first time. I’ve enrolled them for a couple of mornings every week, just to give them a chance to play in a proper playground with other kids. It’s an English language Montessori style preschool run by an Egyptian women married to an American, and our downstairs neighbor, the boys’ newfound friend Cyrus, goes there as well. In addition to the boys learning Arabic and spending some time in a different environment, it will give me a chance to work.