Starting a School Year

So it has been forever since I have posted anything on this blog.. I guess most people gave up on me.  Lets see how long I last this time before the demands of real life take over and pull me away again. The biggest event right now in our kingdom is the start of a new school year.. This year all three kids have started school - Alyssa starting 8th grade and the two little ones have began Kindergarten. While Alyssa continues to attend the public middle school, I have taken upon myself the task of teaching the babies myself. This was a decision that had already started demanding alot of thought and prayer but ultimately the decision was made for me. The fact that Garrett would not be able to fit into a regular classroom meant that he would have to attend special ed. Unfortunately, the school doesn't offer it and he would have had to have been bussed to a "nearby" school nearly 45 minutes away. Instead, I decided I would teach him myself and so as of Monday both Garrett and Ashleigh started Kindergarten.... Figuring out a curriculum that would serve both to educate the kids to my satisfaction as well as meet the core standards for the state of California that didn't bankrupt me proved to me a challenge. We decided on doing both Readingeggs.com's phonics curriculum and Sonlight's curriculum for english, Saxton for Math, and Apologia Science's Astronomy and Zoology 1 (Flying animals) for Science. I'll also fill in the gaps for Social studies and Science on my own with units regarding different cultures and well as health. Part of me thinks I have bit of a much bigger bite then I can handle, especially with Garrett, but then I think that if anyone understands my son it's me... If anyone can find the key to unlocking him, its going to be me.. We started this journey on Monday.. Getting Garrett to do anything has been a real challenge.. He asks for crayons yet he won't color anything I supply.. instead he would rather scribble on a cardboard box.. I supply simple math and number handouts, he refuses to do them without a fight.. He won't answer when a number is pointed out (basic numbers like 1 or 2).. I really REALLY questioned if I had made a HUGE mistake... Until he started playing with coke cans... Being in California, we recycle the cans.. and so there's almost always cans on the counter waiting to be crushed and put in the bag.. Garrett has a fascination with crushing them.. So, we turned it into a game.. before I knew it, we were counting cans and doing simple math.. and he was getting it.. Today was a bit hard.. he would not concentrate on anything at all.. wouldn't color, wouldn't do computer work.. This weekend, I am going to sit down and actually structure something for him - if he refuses to do worksheets and coloring, we will play counting games instead..