Today is Thursday so I went to the school to volunteer. As I was sitting in Mrs. Whaylen's class (Caylee's teacher) I was thinking to myself that this seemed like the perfect school situation for my girls for right now. Especially for Caylee. First of all I do not worry about secular influences penetrating into her thoughts too much because I have gotten a strong feeling that she and I are on the same page as our beliefs. We have not had a formal conversation about it because there is always so many other things to discuss. But I have picked up little things here and there. One instance I saw a bag of candy in the back of the class today and asked her if we were going to have a haloween party and she said yes but it won't be celebrating halloween. I like that she puts a stong emphasis on Thanksgiving just like Christian Heratige Academy does. We are planning to put together a play coming up pretty soon.

Caylee is learning so much and Mrs. Whaylen is filling in gaps that she had. Caylee reads great but needs extra work in math. Also when she first started she was probably the slowest person in the class. Their were a few that were close contenders but I think she would have earned that title. In homeschool she was used to going at her own pace and didn't have any incentive to go faster other than Mommy nagging not to mention it made it more difficult to get alot done. Even the timer did not work too well. But now if she does not go fast then she has to work while others are reading books and she has extra homework. It took about 3 or 4 weeks but nowI am proud to say that she can keep up with the class quite well. Part of the reason that she was slow was because I was a bit of a stickler on handwriting (due to my training at CHA). I have noticed that it is not quite as important at Sheppard as I would like it to be, but I can't have everything the way I would like it.

Another reason that I like Caylee's class is that there is more socialization. Some homeschoolers will deny it fiercly to the end. But homeschooling families, unless they live in a neighborhood with a lot of children, tend to get isolated because they are busy doing school at home. Do they still get enough? I would say usually yes. I am not saying that homeschoolers don't get enough, I am jsut saying there is more in a public school setting usually. The reason I am bringing this up is because Caylee spends alot of time with the children in her class. Of course when any group of people spend alot of time together, what happens? Conflict. It is usually the girls. Caylee had one of her friends say they were not friends because Caylee did not obey this girl's orders. She mentioned it too me at home and we had a talk about how girls say things like that to manipulate each other and they don't really mean it. Well, the next day everything was smooth again and Caylee learned a good lesson. Caylee never seemed to have conflict with her other friends in Oklahoma so I think she is having some valuable experiences.

Natalie is doing very well. She knows how to sign all the letters of the alphabet. Her teacher uses it adds is in when they are working on spelling and she uses it as a quiet game whenever needed. Natalie is great at math. We got her report card yesterday and she recieved all A's and one B in reading but I know that will improve with practice.