Circle School

Naomi had a wonderful first day at Circle Christian School. She came home with a princess cap decorated with "twenty jewels", a map of the world (complete with compass), a mosaic cross, and lots of fun stories. They helped the kids dress up to go on the play ground and imagine that they were knights and princesses with the swings as their horses and the slide as their castle. She met some friends that she wants to have over to play and bought her own lunch of pizza, chips, and water (the "only choice for a drink!") Mary, Charlotte, and I had a little girls playdate at the the park and did some dusting at home which is Mary's favorite chore.

Scott finished his second day of teaching and a almost a full week of duties as Dean of Students. We are celebrating the pleasing, sweet gifts the Lord has given our family.

Here is the report from Naomi's teacher:

We had a WONDERFUL day in K-1 Foundations! I pray that you’ve heard many stories of new friends made and fun projects created, but most of all I pray that each child felt “at home” and loved. It was a joy to spend the day with each and every one, and I know that I speak for everyone when I say THANK YOU for letting us partner with you this year. We count it a privilege!

Today we:

1. Exercised to demonstrate the 7 continents; pointed out where we live and the continents of Europe and Asia where the events we will study this year took place.

We identified north, south, east and west, and demonstrated longitude and latitude on a map (and on a child!).

2. Began our History lap book/timeline with Justinian The GGRRREEEAAAT (!). We learned that he was a very important ruler of the Byzantine Empire, that he was a Christian and wanted others in his kingdom to be Christian also, and that he had a beautiful church called the Haggai Sophia built. KiKi’s mom even made and brought in an EDIBLE model!

3. Created our own K-1 Laws, just like Justinian created his code of law.

4. Designed the most beautiful medieval hats in drama.

5. Discussed mosaics and glued many, many square pieces of paper to make a mosaic cross.

6. Used our bodies to sing the scale, and began learning hand motions (solfege) to represent each of the seven notes. They enjoyed watching a portion of The Sound of Music where Maria is teaching the children “Do, A Deer….”.

The children gobbled up our medieval snack of soft cheese, hard melba toasts, and apples during snack time. Some of them thought it would have been pretty cool to live back then because in one of the books we read it said that people back then didn’t eat many veggies!

Thank you again for sharing your children with us. We look forward to spending this year with you!

Math Creations

Our math curriculum came with a box of things to learn to count, tell time, and also to make really fun pictures with.

1st Day of School

(Mary took this picture)

We started home school today. It is going to be a really fun year. Except for a few glitches (i.e. counting noodles EVERYWHERE in the house and jello jiggler letters spelling out SCHOOL for our snack looked more like Hebrew) we had a successful day.

We had a great start with a Psalm devotion and guitar singing with Scott before he left for work. We then plugged right in.

Here is our schedule Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday(subject to change):

8:00 Devotion

8:30 Breakfast, get dressed , make bed

9:00 Math

9:30 Phonics

10:00 Copy Work

10:30 Snack

In between we had swinging time on the porch and Catechism memorization (thanks to our friend Bruce's cd he recorded singing each question). We are also going to do some Hebrew, plant a garden in the fall, and do some unit studies on cities Naomi wants to visit (NY, Paris, etc.).

Tuesday is our library day and Thursday is the day Naomi is at Circle Christian School from 9-3. She will be studying Science and Social Studies concentrating on the Middle Ages-Renaissance periods all year. We have signed up for their field trips which include a medieval lunch and jousting tournament as well as some social outings such as putt putt (the one we went to Mom!) and ceramic making.

We have lots of supplies. The best thing I got were individual magnetic white boards for each girl. I can write the numbers or letters I am talking about and teach each child to their level. Naomi's even has the lines for kindergarten writing to practise getting the letters to the top of the line, middle dotted line, and bottom red line (remember that paper?) We also have the old fashioned paper and pencils for copy work. As I predicted when I was preparing today's lesson, Naomi would rather do her copy work slowly and perfectly one time rather than practise over and over for several lines.

After each subject (see our schedule below) each girl got a smelling sticker to put in their assignment notebook (found the assignment book in the dollar bin at Target!). They really liked seeing the sticker in their book as they completed each thing. The Saxon math manipulative kit was a hit as well. It has lots of little things to count and measure.

I love the family dynamic that it has already created. Naomi offered to help Mary learn her letters while "I took a break."

Here are the books I am using for each daughter:

Naomi:

Saxon Math One (meeting book and workbook)

How to Teach Your Child to Read in One Hundred Easy Lessons

Exploded the Code (to supplement the reading book)

my own copy work that I pick from Bible, poems, favorite books

Mary

First Book of Cutting (Kumon)

magnetic letters

Get Ready, Get Set for the Code

Porch Swings

A Saturday well spent installing two porch swings.

Soccer and Tennis

We went to Target today to get ready for Fall sports. Mary is playing soccer and Naomi is playing tennis. They came home right away and got their outfits on. For some reason Mary thought that a polo under a halter dress would go well with her shin guards and socks. Thankfully she gets a uniform tomorrow (and trophy at the end of the season!). More pics to come after the first games.

A very friend-filled visit

We had old friends from Bethesda visit us today. The kids played all day and came up with fun pretend play (Mary and Peter were usually the little bugs, Hannah was the mommy bug, and Naomi and Will were a deer and lion fighting with swords.) We tried to play outside, but couldn't survive unless we were eating popcicles.

We have missed them.