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