Incautiously Optimistic, Euphoric Even

Our first week of "official" homeschooling has drawn to a close and I think it's been a rousing success. I had so many apprehensions: would we get along? Would I be able to handle "it" (whatever it is)? Would we still like one another? Could I teach math? Yes (especially with Math U See)!

Ironically, it is Language Arts, my first love, that is causing the most trouble. We are struggling with memory work and handwriting; any tips would be appreciated. It's so funny; math was the subject that nearly kept me from homeschooling. I never dreamed we would be tussling over handwriting. I've slowed the handwriting pace tremendously; instead of working through the Zaner Bloser book, we are doing one letter per handwriting lesson and I've only scheduled two handwriting lessons per week. I'm going to find some sneaky ways of practicing handwriting. Right now, DD is composing and writing her own thank you notes. She discovered me writing them and was very disappointed. I've now let her take over, as I should have done in the first place. It was a laziness issue with me; I just didn't want to spend hours spelling out thank you, Tinkerbell, Hello Kitty, jewelry, etc. Usually I'm all about teachable moments, but the thought of spelling aloud so many thank you notes daunted me.

I've also noticed that I'm more tired in the evenings. I think I just haven't become accustomed to adding school into the mix. We'll see how next week goes. I can't wait!