Amo, Amas, Amat

           School began in our house this past Monday; and if you couldn't tell by the title of this post, our new coursework includes...Latin! I'm so excited to learn this along with my two oldest. I got a small dose of Latin when I studied medical terminology in college and I really loved learning it. I feel so smart understanding large medical words like hysteroslapingo-oophorectomy. Now we are learning fun phrases to use in everyday conversations like "Que me amat, amet et canem meum." (This means "Love me, love my dog"... we'll try this on our new neighbors.)
          I have two years of homeschooling under my belt, but we are adding a few new things into the mix for this year. First off, this is my first year teaching kindergarten.  I love my five year old's enthusiasm (and that color by number is educational for her...my older two enjoy calc-u-color) She runs to get up and make her bed in the morning. She has been waiting so long for school.This is also my first year repeating any material.  (It's a bit comforting to know what's coming up in third grade math).
              We are also planning on moving which makes a big impact on the rules concerning homeschooling. Although my hubby's job is in Kansas, it's located close enough to the border that we are actually looking at living in Missouri. Missouri's laws include a mandatory number of hours, and that you maintain documentation of it. You must complete 600 hours in the core subjects (400 must be at your primary residence), with a whopping 1,000 hours total. In Illinios, you are required to teach your children the equivalent of what they'd learn in public school, but they don't tell you how to do it. The new rules for our new state have left me with some questions: Since my kindergartener isn't seven yet (and school isn't compulsory till seven years of age in Missouri), do I need to do a thousand hours of school with her or just ensure that she learns everything a kindergartener should know?  Does anyone know if Latin counts toward language arts? How do foreign languages work? Do I have to stop my clock when we have recess and lunch? If you know these answers, I'd love your help!
            I've decided that these hour stipulations are going to give me more excuses to be creative in how I conduct school. We are doing more projects and other enrichment activities for history. Today the girls played a game of "Steal the Spanish Treasure" (think scaled-down game of risk meets checkers) after reading about the Spanish conquistadors and their mining of gold from South America. I'm also counting the time I read out loud "Little House in the Big Woods" to everyone,  and "A Princess of Mars" to the older two (some of Edward Rice Burroughs word send me to the dictionary).  I can't wait to try out some awesome field trips in our new location as well.
          My girls gave a little groan when they realized we were starting school a little earlier this year, but after the first day they all had grins on their faces. Even my nature loving girl decided her "Easy Grammar" was actually easy. It's going to be a great year not to merely scrape by, but to dig in, find new adventures, learn Latin, et cetera. (I've already learned that Latin has no soft "c" sound...so go try that last Latin word again.)

      If you have any advice about my questions, please fire away in the comments below.